Over 3,800 schools in Central Visayas are seen to benefit from the Digital Thumbprint Program

Globe Telecom has partnered with the Department of Education (DepEd) Regional Office of Central Visayas for the integration of Digital Thumbprint Program (DTP) in the curriculum of public schools in Region 7. The DTP comprises learning modules that promote digital citizenship and responsibility to students, teachers, and the general public.

“With a digital nation as our goal in all our efforts for education, Globe rolls out the Digital Thumbprint Program in more schools nationwide, latest of which are those in Region 7. With this, we will be able to train more Digital Thumbprint ambassadors that will help us create a ‘Globe of Good’,” said Yoly Crisanto, Chief Sustainability Officer and Senior Vice President for Corporate Communications of Globe.

Through a Train the Trainers’ (T3) workshop, Globe has empowered 20 education leaders from Region 7 as well as 140 participants of the Global Filipino Schools teacher training program, of which include principals and teachers from different schools nationwide.

In Region 7 alone, a total of 3,881 elementary and secondary schools are seen to benefit from the integration of DTP in the DepEd curricula, empowering 44,443 teachers and 1,655,753 students.

“As more and more of our public school teachers and students gain access to mobile devices and internet connectivity, there comes a growing need to educate and protect our community from online risk and abuse. That is why partnerships like these are vital to provide the needed online education and training,” said Dr. Juliet Jeruta, DepEd Regional Director for Region 7. “This initiative is not just to create digital resilience, but also to harness the power of mobile technology for 21st century learning that takes place in public schools within our region, and across the country.”

DTP includes four learning modules, which are conceptualized and designed to increase students’ knowledge of digital citizenship and cyber safety. The modules involve taking a careful look at the online behavior of kids and helping them develop insights on how the online world can influence them in making choices.

The four modules are: Digital Insight, which is mainly recommended for Grade 7 to 10 students and features activities to help students discern proper online behavior to secure their information better; Digital Impact, which is also tailored for Grade 7 to 10 students and tackles issues on technology’s impact on students’ social activities; Digital Ambition, which is created for Grade 11 to 12 students to equip them with skills on using technology to help achieve their life goals; as well as Digital Discernment, which teaches students how to spot false information online.

To date, there are 205 Global Filipino Schools that have integrated DTP in their curriculum.

Launched in 2016, DTP was inspired by Optus' Digital Thumbprint in-school program in Australia. The program is meant to educate the Filipino youth on the importance of responsible digital citizenship through a series of learning modules and workshops.

A recent Nielsen study asked 275 students from four Global Filipino Schools in Metro Manila to evaluate their understanding of three DTP modules, which are Digital Insight, Digital Impact, and Digital Ambition. The study showed that after learning the modules, students are more aware of the importance of reading the terms of service (TOR) for online services, being more careful on sharing personal information online, taking better steps in protecting their personal information, as well as having reduced online activities that may compromise online interactions.

Schools interested to partner with Globe for the rollout of Digital Thumbprint Program may e-mail [email protected].