DevCom faculty is panel discussant in EduTech Asia Confab in Singapore

Dr. Ulderico B. Alviola, the Head of the University Integrated Media Center (UIMC) and a faculty member of the VSU Department of Development Communication (DDC), served as one of the panel discussants in Asia’s biggest and the largest gathering of academics and technology providers for the education sector.

Dubbed as EduTech Asia 2023, this event is a three-day conference and exhibition that was attended by roughly 8,000 participants with more than 200 exhibitors from all over the world held at the famous Marina Bay Sands Expo in the island state of Singapore from November 5-7, 2023.

But more than keynote speeches and usual research paper presentations, EduTech Asia is more about dialogue and cooperation as it primarily seeks to forge connections and partnerships that will drive meaningful change in education. This prestigious gathering is more about sharing insights and experiences that will inspire and empower all educators to be the change-makers that the sector needs.

In this conference, Dr. Alviola particularly discussed the digital transformation journey of the Visayas State University that allowed the institution to navigate through the challenges during and after the pandemic. He was part of a distinguished panel that talked about successful implementation of digital strategies and change management.

Joining the UIMC Head in the panel was Mr. Juan Kanggrawan, the Head of Product and Tribe/Operation for GovTech Edu of the Ministry of Education and Culture of the Republic of Indonesia. 

This Indonesian young technocrat is also the Head for Data Analytics and Digital Products for Jakarta Smart City—the first Regional Public Service Agency in Indonesia that aims to address the significant economic and social challenges of rapid urbanization leveraging digital, data, and technology to develop citizen-centered solutions for fundamental urban challenges.

Moderating their session was Mr. Annan L., the Head of Operations, Infrastructure and Services of the Manipal International University Malaysia who has over 20 years of senior management experience in directing a full spectrum of business management and operations governance, towards delivering sustainable business growth for shareholders.

Together, the panelists and the moderator deliberated for one hour and thirty minutes the key components of successful digital strategies that encouraged greater stakeholder adaptation including how different educational institutions and other organizations can keep up with the rapidly evolving technological trends to ensure that technology-enabled change management will remain relevant.

They ended their discussion by highlighting best practices in digital transformation that were applied in both Indonesia and the Philippines.

Dr. Alviola was accompanied in Singapore by two young but vibrant staff of UIMC and the Information and Communication Technology Management Center (ICTMC) namely, Mr. Norman O. Villas and Mr. Kim Kenneth P. Roca.

Mr. Villas and Mr. Roca participated in the exhibitions and selected keynote presentations that allowed them to benchmark our information technology infrastructure and other media production needs.

They were also able to network with the educational technology providers in Asia that enabled them to see and test some innovative online resources and digital learning tools that can soon be adopted by the university.

For Mr. Villas, he explained that while we are a bit more adaptive to technology as compared to other state universities in the Visayas region, he noted that more efforts have to be pursued to ensure that VSU’s digital investments don’t go to waste.

“I was quite overwhelmed by how many academic institutions in Asia are taking advantage of technology nowadays, especially in the area of artificial intelligence (AI). There are many things that are yet to be done to adopt to these technologies and I’m personally thankful to VSU because this trip allowed me to see firsthand best practices in digital transformation that we can possibly replicate and localize in VSU so that we too can harness the power of technology to improve our basic operations,” Mr. Villas added.

Upon their return to VSU, Dr. Alviola and his accompanying team in Singapore will draft future proposals for digital transformation and the addition of online learning tools that can be institutionally subscribed by the university.

Dr. Alviola is hoping that VSU will continuously adapt new technologies that will help improve the basic services for both faculty and students especially with the emergence of AI.

“What I learned recently is that AI is both a plus and a concern for universities and colleges. That’s why we need to look into it carefully so that we can still uphold our core values while also taking advantage of what it can do for us to improve our operations and other basic services in VSU. We cannot just dismiss it and have a negative perspective about AI when this technology offers a fresh way of doing things to make life more convenient and streamlined for all of us. Yes, ethical policies are needed for us to safeguard academic integrity,” the DevCom faculty shared.

The UIMC Head is currently part of an ongoing research project called #FactsFirstPH that is supported by Google News Initiative and mainly implemented by the Journalism for Nation Building Foundation (JNBF) to look into the possible impacts of AI to the education sector and the current information ecosystem.

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