Bares platform for rich-media cyber-education portal, content management and digital signage

Gracing the 6th National Convention and Seminar-Workshop of Administrative Officers Association of the Department of Education (AOADE) held on September 13-15, 2007 at the Teachers Camp in Baguio City, a high tech software company proposed to the Department of Education (DepEd) a cost effective solution to implementing and administering cyber-education in public schools plus a host of other benefits.

Francis Dy, president of A5TRX Corp, discussed the reality of digital convergence in which TV Internet and consumer electronic devices have merged to offer more interactive and rich-media contents from both TV and the Internet. He also noted many key factors of the convergence phenomenon such as access to low-cost high-speed Internet; growing availability of digital contents; increasing capacity of hard-disk drives; declining costs of hardware and network peripherals and the growing policy-adoption of many governments that mandates the broadcast industry (TV, radio and Cable TV) to switch to digital format.

With this positive development and technological advancements, Dy explains that Department can leverage or embrace this digital convergence phenomenon to enhance learning in public schools and improve DepEd services.

A5TRX Corp, a research and development arm of A5TEK in Silicon Valley USA, is a provider of web-based rich-media convergence solutions for which it’s proprietary suite of ieHIP® software products have gained recognition for their range of applications to personal and home entertainment, enterprise, advertising, education and other industrial applications.

“We have always believed in the spirit and ingenuity of our Filipino IT professionals which can contribute a lot to realizing good government programs happen. For our part, what we envision for DepED is not just providing a platform for cyber education but a single platform for such other important applications that Department needs like administration of its services and enhancing communication among DepEd offices across the country.” Dy explained.

Also covered in his discussion is the company’s ieHIP® Media Platform software designed to help educators create a portal for learning as well as managing and administering an institution’s content and services.

According to Dy “The software’s content management feature does not only store educational content, it manages all types of digitized contents. DepEd administrators, principals and mentors can upload and retrieve digitized records to the same portal such as student grades, teaching and staff profiles, memoranda, and notices while enjoying the benefits of a full portal learning solution.” 

A major milestone of the said platform is its user-friendly Television User Interface (TUI) which emulates TV navigation. The company has recently acquired a patent for its code-based navigation technology, a component of the TUI, which allows users to navigate their stored contents, TV and Internet using number-based commands.  By having such capabilities “Education is richer, easier and more fun to pupils and teachers.” adds Dy.

Digital convergence also has its benefits on communication. By leveraging the Internet, a networked display communication system can be built by DepEd using the same engine used by ieHIP® Media Platform with the firm’s very own ieHIP® Digital Signage solution. The company reckons ieHIP® Digital Signage to be another solid benefit to DepEd from the point of view of cost reduction.

'' Our strategy has always been to reuse our ieHIP engine in many of our applications to provide end-users not only with the same familiar interface but to prove that technology need not be a cost issue.“ Dy clarified.

For the networked digital signage, the concept is to deploy several digital signage systems to DepEd’s headquarters, regional offices, and schools with Internet connection. Thus, each digital signage system can be centrally-managed from one control point.

The digital signage works by broadcasting any vital formation or messages from the central office to all displays regardless of location. A message can also be customized according to region or area using the narrowcasting feature of the software. For example, narrowcasting can be used for disaster-preparedness programs allowing the central DepEd office to alert real-time regional offices of an upcoming storm in their locality keeping students and DepEd personnel aware of calamities in their area.

Dy concluded that “with our innovation, we provide the best value and benefit to their many important programs of DepEd in just one stone.”