Teachers
can simply add their own texts and images on virtual classroom slides
The
COVID-19 pandemic has changed the way we operate across the globe,
which is especially evident in the educational sector. Pre-COVID-19,
most of the schools in the Philippines followed a traditional
face-to-face classroom arrangement, however, nowadays, educators
around the country have had to find opportunities and urgent
solutions to teach their students remotely. With the new school year,
classes have commenced digitally, and Filipino educators have worked
double time to upskill and equip themselves with the digital tools
needed to offer their students a seamless and innovative learning
environment. Despite the limited time and resources, many are still
110% committed to their vocation and are excited to prepare the next
generation for the future, through good education.
Canva
for Education
is a free product offering for educational institutions catering to
K-12. It offers thousands of templates and a library of “premium”
royalty-free images, as well as features intended to facilitate
simultaneous collaboration between students and teachers in the
classroom or remotely.
Yani
Hornilla-Donato, Canva Philippines’ Country Manager, explained
empowering Filipino educators was core to the organization’s goal
for 2020.
“Our
mission is to bring Canva for Education to every K-12 teacher and
student in the country, becoming their creativity and productivity
partner of choice during this unprecedented time. We will continue to
reach out to schools and teachers across the country as we roll out
Canva for Education, providing as much support as we possibly can to
make their experience easy,” said Hornilla-Donato.
Canva
Philippines partnered with the Office of the Vice President (OVP) as
it rolled out Bayanihan
e-Skwela, an
online educational platform empowering teachers and parents as
children shifted to distance learning. Canva curated templates for
some episodes, created posters, and provided the OVP access to the
Canva library. In its effort to expand its reach, Canva Philippines
also partnered with the Knowledge Channel Foundation and trained
teachers in selected schools across the South Cotabato region on how
to best use the platform for all their virtual classroom needs.
With
its intuitive user-friendly features and a wide variety of classroom
templates relevant to specific learning goals, Canva for Education
serves as every teacher’s ‘one-stop-shop’ for creating learning
materials for their classes and collaborating in the classroom.
Sarah
Mae Columnas, a teacher from Mansasa National High School in Bohol
explained even though the current environment still provides a level
of uncertainty, Canva for Education supports, enables and empowers
teachers to be more creative and innovative, whether they’re in the
classroom, or teaching remotely.
“Being
equipped with the right tools to teach 21st century learners is the
responsibility of every teacher across the country, as this is our
sworn obligation to uphold our nation’s goals and create a better
future for our next generations.
“I
encouraged one of my colleagues to use Canva for Education as well
and walked her through the process. We have come to realize that it
is truly a gift to Filipino teachers,” furthered Ms Columnas.
One
of the biggest changes educators face today is the need to migrate
everything they use in their classroom to a digital setting. In
addition to that, teachers also acknowledge the challenge of adding
variety to their teaching repertoire and curriculum, to ensure their
lessons remain just as engaging as a physical setting.
Michelle
Brabante, School Director of Minido Preschool in Marinduque said she
uses Canva for Education to create video lessons for her students, by
using the platform’s talking presentations feature.
“The
students really respond well to our talking presentations; it makes
them happy, they feel more connected to us as educators and they’re
certainly more engaged with the content we go through,” said Ms
Brabante.
In
an effort to further empower teachers with the resources needed to
heighten engagement with students in a virtual world, Canva for
Education has developed a range of Classroom Kits, inspired by
real-life physical classroom set-ups. These themed kits come with
templates,
illustrations,
and photos collection that
will inspire Filipino teachers to bring more life and energy to their
learning materials as classes resume remotely.
Canva
for Education
also includes an all-new collaboration space, a review workflow,
access to content from Google Drive, Dropbox, Folders, version
history and SSO with Clever and Google.
“Canva
for Education has helped our team enormously in terms of
collaboration. We like working together, and we love that Canva for
Education allows us to do our tasks as a team,” added Brabante.
Canva
for Education also includes add-ons such as education-specific
content, the ability to create captivating videos, plus every
ingredient to bring designs to life with Giphys, over 2 million
images, 800k icons and illustrations, 700+ fonts, YouTube
integrations and QR codes.
Ryan
Alvin Torrejos, teacher from German European School Manila explained
how Canva for Education has helped him now and will continue to be an
invaluable tool for the future.
“I
know I will still be using Canva for Education for many years to
come, even when students are allowed back into their physical
classrooms.“I cannot rate Canva for Education highly enough, and am
always recommending it to all my co-teachers, and all the other
teachers I know,” said Mr Torrejos.
Recognizing
the dedication of the educators in the Philippines, Canva
Philippines in partnership with the Department of Education (DepEd),
has also held webinars for Filipino teachers to share with them the
gift of Canva
for Education.
The webinars were so well received, Canva launched a Facebook
Community for Filipino Teachers
that serves as a space for professional support and training for
teachers to learn and adapt to the modalities of virtual teaching.
With the request and feedback of Filipino teachers in the group,
Canva for Education also released localized illustrations, assets,
templates, and photos in August in line with the celebration of Buwan
ng Wika.
If
you are a K-12 teacher in the Philippines, you may visit
https://www.canva.com/education/
to sign-up for your free Canva for Education account.
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