STARBOOKS Science Library “Better than Google”

Why go for an offline digital science and technology kiosk when there is Google available?

For Department of Science and Technology (DOST) Science and Technology Information Institute (STII) Executive Director Richard Burgos, that question is a no-brainer.

“Google can tell you everything, but not everything in Google is true,” said Director Burgos, who presided over the turn over of 59 digital science and technology library in a kiosk at the Reynas Garden and Havens in Tagbilaran City on November 15.

The digital science library forms the core of the DOST’s Science and Technology Academic Research-Based Openly Operated Kiosk Stations (STARBOOKS) that responds to the country’s public education’s need for reliable resource materials in the time when fake news and data is spread, said Burgos to the public school administrators and science and technology teachers attending the turnover rites.

Citing data from the Department of Education, the science and technology expert at DOST said only 1 percent of public libraries are functional libraries.

And with the dire need for resource materials in libraries, getting tapped to the internet could at least plug certain gaps, teachers have said.

In the Philippines however, only 24 percent of the country’s schools are connected to the information superhighway, Burgos said.

“Even if it has significantly increased in the couple of years, the situation of giving students the cutting edge technologies to hone their talents skills and abilities is again under-delivered,” said Burgos.

And as to students and the community picking up unvalidated, under-researched topics easily available and unrestricted to just anybody on the internet, the chances of somebody messing with the content is high.

“As to STARBOOKS, the information is beyond reproach as the DOST curates the Science and Technology digital contents and this is offered offline so not anybody can mess with the content,” Burgos explained.

For STARBOOKS, the government assures it is true, well-researched and is destined to help pupils and students understand science and technology concepts in an era of fake news, Burgos stressed.

An offline resource that can be accessed by students for free, STARBOOKS can be accessed by students without paying for it, he said.

STARBOOKS contains educational videos for science and mathematics students, documentary videos, supplemental materials related to science and technology supplemental readings, disaster and risk reduction processes, instructional videos, and several more resources that can help anyone learn.

According to Bongalos, the 59 kiosks which the DOST gave to Bohol public schools form a little over 5 percent of the total public schools in the province.

Bongalos shared an experience of a student computer programmer who would be representing Bohol to the next ICT Summit competitions.

She relayed that DepED has seen the results recently, and Bohol’s science and technology students are now excelling in their different fields of work.

Knowing that much could still be done to sustain on the victories of the public schools, Bongalos appealed for DOST to prioritize Bohol in its STARBOOKS saturation drives. (rahc/PIA-7/Bohol)