JEDDAH, 23 December 2003 — Given state-of-the-art equipment and proper training, computer whiz kids may soon emerge from IPSJ.
Charles Tabbu, vice president of OFW-IT Professional Club, made this assessment after giving a workshop on C Language to 3rd year and Visual Basic for 2nd year high school students of IPSJ.
The workshop was the first in IPSJ history involving IT professionals. Close to 200 students, advisers, and computer teachers attended the workshop held recently at the school’s social hall.
“This is actually the first computer literacy seminar held in IPSJ. Although there were already a series of seminars here in the school, for computer literacy this is the first time. This is to enhance the knowledge of 3rd Year students about C Language and the 2nd Year students about Visual Basic,” said high school coordinator Bae Tabao.
Many of the students welcomed the program with enthusiasm.
“At first I thought the seminar would be boring like the other seminars held before. I was mistaken. We enjoyed a lot. We also learned so many things like creating programs using C Language,” said 3rd year student Mizziel Andres.
Sophomore Albert Badiong said: “I think this seminar is really exciting, especially for students who are participating in it. The competition slide gives the feeling of intensity and skill. You have match up lots of letters and numbers so that there will be no error in the program.”
Such reactions were enough to give peace of mind to those who conducted the seminar, worried that the lack of a working laboratory in the school would make the exercise unexciting.
Tabbu said he was also concerned because he had to compress a six-month course to just 4 to 5 hours, not to mention the students’ grasp of mathematical concepts such as algebra and trigonometry.
After Tabbu presented some introductory slides about C Language, the students were taught to encode their first program.
And they loved it.
The level of excitement did not wane when it was time for the 2nd year students to learn Visual Basic, as well as on networking and the IT career path, the presentations of which were conducted by club president Mike Marquez, vice president for hardware Gallichrist Lozano, and member Leonard Lozano.
One topic the students particularly loved was “cashiering.” It involves solving pricing, totals, percentages, and discounts, and is already a first year computer science class problem.
Tabbu told the Arab News his excitement after the second students created, tested and run the program: “I thought I gave them an overkill because the problem involved complex components. But then they solved the problem, and I was impressed. They are good.”
IT professionals in Jeddah formed the OFW-IT club as a way of sharing their expertise with fellow Filipinos.
Mike Marquez, president of the club, said the club has numerous resources to offer from entrepreneurship, career development, and IT professional networking.
“Our vision is to be recognized as the best source of non-formal workshops and seminars such as this (seminar at IPSJ),” he said.
The seminar was organized with the support of IPSJ principal Ameerah Ali, third year class advisers Raisah Macabanding (Pasteur), Jun Tababo (Dalton), Glori Fe Abutanatin (Lewis), Carmelita Nalzaro (Mendeleeve), and 2nd year class advisers Rubelynn G. Alzate (Linnaeus), Ronalyn Ybardolaza (Mendel), Ariel de la Cruz (Lamarck), and assistant principal Fatima Natangcop (Darwin).
After the seminar, the club’s officers invited two of the students, Aevan Mar Caro (Dalton) and Yasmin Mangotara (Darwin) to train with them. According to Tabbu, these two students showed potentials of becoming computer whiz kids.