Senators split on teaching via TikTok
This picture taken on October 5, 2020, shows the logo of social media TikTok on a tablet screen in Toulouse, southwestern France. (Photo by Lionel BONAVENTURE / AFP)
MANILA, Philippines — Senators are divided over the Department of Education’s (DepEd) plan to use Tiktok for teaching as one lawmaker warned of the danger of “excessive TikToking.”
For Senator Pia Cayetano, teaching and learning could become more exciting and fun with the help of the video-sharing application.
“I thought that’s interesting,” Cayetano said during Monday’s Senate plenary deliberations on DepEd’s proposed budget for 2022, citing the seminar recently conducted for public teachers on the use of TikTok.
“Obviously that’s not the main means of learning but you know if they can learn something through TikTok and make it more exciting…This is a gamification theory which is proven to be very effective so I think that’s an interesting avenue to explore.”
“Again, it’s just one other way of sharing, increasing the access and making it more fun to learn,” she stressed.
READ: Teachers think out of the box, embrace TikTok
According to Cayetano, DepEd can also utilize TikTok to promote and make the teaching profession more attractive.
“You can also have teachers who are enjoying their careers as teachers, fulfilling their goals. Maybe they wanted to change the world and they are assigned to a beautiful beach or a beautiful mountain and they could be on TikTok saying this is the best job in the world,” she said.
But Senator Francis Tolentino, who also teaches the law, said he could not imagine himself doing TikTok before his students.
Cayetano explained that TikTok is not exclusive to singing and dancing as it could be used as a medium to share educational content.
Senator Sherwin Gatchalian, meanwhile, cautioned DepEd on too much use of the social media app.
“We also have to be careful with TikTok,” Gatchalian, chairman of the Senate committee on education, said.
“I recalled reading a DepEd teacher who got into trouble because of excessive TikToking,” he added.
