DepEd finally joins Google world

In a bid to streamline internal and other communications, the Department of Education (DepEd) announced over the weekend it was finally joining more than 29 million Filipinos in the online world.

The DepEd said its more than 600,000 teachers, staff and administrators throughout the country would soon be using Google Apps for Education, an integrated online program that would allow them to communicate  via e-mail or chat in real time.

“The DepEd is an incredibly large and complex organization. With 200 divisions and 45,000 schools on more than 7,000 islands, we were looking for a way to streamline communications in order to draw the organization closer together,” said DepEd Assistant Secretary Reynaldo Laguda.

Aside from facilitating the exchange of verbal and written communications, the program would allow education stakeholders to share teaching materials, as well as provide a venue for editing reports.

It would also provide a calendar system via Gmail, Google Talk and Google Calendar, and other cloud collaboration tools such as Google Docs, Google Sites and Google Groups.

According to Laguda, the DepEd’s collaboration with the Internet giant would address “many communication challenges.”

“We will (also) significantly reduce our (information technology) costs,” he said.

Samuel Cheung, Google Apps Supporting Program Regional Manager for Southeast Asia, said it would be “exciting” to see what happens in the Philippines with the national project soon in place. Kristine Felisse Mangunay