Empowered to Thrive: Igniting the Blended Learning Journey for the School
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Francis Jim B. Tuscano
He is an internationally recognized and multi-awarded Filipino educator, school leader, speaker, and trainer whose projects and innovations focus on empowering learners to drive their own learning and become agents of change. As an education technology coach and consultant, Jim is passionate about guiding educators, school leaders, and communities in designing transformative learning experiences and technology innovation programs. Jim founded the Kids Can Innovation Camp, a school-based learning program that integrates interdisciplinary learning, project-based learning, design thinking, STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, and Mathematics), and the UN SDGs (United Nations Sustainable Development Goals). This approach provides K to 12 learners the opportunity to become critical thinkers, creative problem-solvers, and active agents of change by challenging them to design and create solutions for real-life problems. The Kids Can Program has been adopted in various schools and organizations in the Philippines and other countries and has been translated into 11 international languages, including Mandarin Chinese, Hindi, Polish, and Spanish. From 2018 to 2020, HundrED, a nonprofit organization in Finland, recognized the Kids Can Program as one of the top education innovations in the world that highlight sustainability and creativity in education. Jim made history as the first Filipino teacher included in the 30 Under 30 global list of literacy leaders and change-makers of the International Literacy Association in 2019. In 2017, he was a Top 50 finalist in the Global Teacher Prize, again making him the first Filipino teacher to be elevated in the roster of top teachers in the world. A year before that, he was awarded Outstanding Junior Faculty of Xavier School. Recently, the USA-based International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE) honored Jim as one of the ISTE 20 to Watch Awardees for 2022, a distinction given to outstanding educators worldwide who have made their mark in education through innovations in technology for teaching and learning. Jim currently serves as the chairperson for the Grade School Religious and Values Education Department and as the EdTech Coordinator of Xavier School- Grade School in the Philippines. He is an Apple Professional Learning Specialist and an Apple Distinguished Educator. He is also a member of the National Basic Education Commission of the Catholic Educational Association of the Philippines and a consultant for several education projects of the Department of Education, as well as for some K to 12 schools in the country. He is a former member of the Academic Advisory Board of the School of Multidisciplinary Studies at De La Salle College of St. Benilde. Jim continues to share his ideas via the empowerED Podcast on Spotify and Apple Podcasts, and empowerED TV on Facebook and YouTube.
2025 Higher Education Learning Solutions for the Teacher Education Program 381
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