Fast Forward
By: Dir. Buenaventura C. Go-Soco, Jr.

Fellow students and users of information technology, good afternoon. 

When we were drafting the program for this seminar, I asked the staff if I can deliver the closing remarks before giving away certificates of participation. I wanted to be sure there

will be an audience when I speak and close this seminar.

The staff told me they would simply close the doors to make sure you are still in this room. 

I am glad, they didn’t have to close the door. (But you can use the windows, though). Since the doors are closed, I can talk for one hour.

We are doubly glad we attained what I’d call a significant degree of success today. What are the measures of such success?

There are many. All SUCs are represented. All our presentors were able to deliver their presentation very well. The food was good enough. Coffee was always hot….what else?

I can go on and on. But in this part of the program I firmly believe we can all congratulate ourselves and say, today was a day well spent. Maybe even historic, memorable, and a once-in-a-lifetime experience.

We enjoyed setting this up. It was fun.

There are certain realities that may have become clear to us today. 

First, I’d say it is good to be working in the same direction and to be helping each other. The direction is certainly towards making our state universities and colleges provide quality education that produces quality graduates. 

Video learning is not, of course, the only type of learning we can provide. 

But it gives us the opportunity for our students to learn more and to know more. The more our students learn the better it is for them. 

Now we should look forward and assess what we can do next. Since these technologies are all relevant to our schools – we need to know exactly how to use them in our schools and then proceed to use them. 

We need to go beyond, much beyond operating internet cafes as if they are privately-owned internet cafes that operate primarily for profit. We must try new applications and therefore better use of this technology in education. 

We need to work fast, because many other schools are way ahead of us. Thus we need to do a “fast forward”. That’s it – we need to work fast and forward. 

Fast Forward is the message I have for this closing remarks. 

Thank you for being here. We hope we can see each other in the not too distant future. If we move fast forward, the future will not be distant.