MMMiii!

I attended the Bloggers Kapihan event at MonSay yesterday and I must say, it was very informative. It was called Bloggers Kapihan 2.0: Blog Ed 101. Before it started, I went to Cubao and met with Mama and I got myself a new wristwatch! And then I went to MonSay and climbed a mountain. With a not-yet-fully-healed sprain, it was really a high mountain to climb. I chatted with Mr. Lalon dela Rosa about the CEP, school stuff, future plans, what’s wrong with the Philippines and the Filipinos and a lot of other stuff. That was for about an HOUR (The event started late).  And then I asked questions… voiced my opinions… and stuff… The pancake donut thing of Mr Donuts is gewd!

I registered as “Mi” again. Maybe I should write Miii instead? Lalon asked me, “Why Mi?” maybe I should make up something prophetic… nanchatte :D (darnit! I still can’t figure out how to make wordpress accept japanese characters again T_T)

Oh. Ok. the forum.

The first speaker was Prof Danny Arao of UP Diliman and Bulatlat.com. He said that blogging IS a form of web authoring as well, and that different studies can be integrated here, like internet studies, online journalism, publication design and layout, and writing for popular audiences. So… not just the tech side. What use is tech if content is crap, right?

To highlight the many things he said, the one thing that struck me most that even my Supervising Teacher tells me all the time is to check books too, and not just the internet. Although Mr. Arao meant here the radio and TV and the newspaper, I as an educator know the value of books. There are just some things that can’t be found online. When I was panicking a couple of days ago because I couldn’t find a map to use for the 2nd Periodic Exam, I went to the library, got a book, and voila! A map.

Sooo…. Don’t dismiss Old Media. There should be a complementation of the old and new media, not just in journalism, but also in education itself. Or anything for that matter.

The next speaker was Sir Martin Perez, a teacher of Social Studies at Philippine Science.

He mentioned that blogging is time-consuming. I very much agree with that. I find myself spending hours sometimes just writing one blog post, be it an advertisement (sometimes I can do that in 2 minutes >_> especially when I’m after a deadline. I do edit it afterwards, just as long as I’ve submitted a link before the due.) or an ordinary blog post. Serious blogging, like writing reviews, require a lot more time.

He shared some things he does in school with his students, and he said that kids don’t believe the one who is authoritarian, rather the one who is credible. In school, like in Ed Psych, we are taught that we need to establish authority and credibility. I know I lack in classroom management skills, but many times I’ve shown my authority to my kids. It’s hard sometimes though. If authority is hard to gain, much more so with credibility. Knowing things is not enough to be “credible.” If you tell a student you’re going to throw them out the ledge, you have to carry out your threats. If you say you know things, show that you know them. Aa~ah, so many aspects on that.

When you, as an educator, allow your blog to be a public part of you, it doesn’t just become an extension of the classroom for interaction, but also of you as a teacher.

I’m already trying to figure out how to use my blog if ever I’m going to “use” it for teaching. Our most recent lesson was on modifiers–adjectives, adjective clauses, participial phrases, prepositional phrases, adverbs, and adverb clauses–and of course, English history from the 1500’s to the 1600’s. Living in the present times, I could write this way, wherein they could see for themselves how the grammar concepts are being used.

If I did, that would be a really conscious effort, and would probably require me time three times longer than what I currently work with.

In the blogging world, gaining credibility is also like raising your pagerank and page views. >_< I’m also making a conscious effort to go around and make myself known…   Well, not really. Not yet anyway. I DO! Occasionally… But I’m busy at the moment. I DID go to the BK event, didn’t I?

The last speaker was Mr. Tonchi Tinio, the chairperson of the Alliance of Concerned Teachers (ACT) and he discussed the Cyber Education Program.

Basically, there’s nothing “basic” about the Cyber Education Program (CEP), but just to summarize, the CEP would enable “multimedia systems” installed in the marginalized schools all over the country and by batches, students will watch a broadcast lecture on TV — or — “a satellite-basted national network that will provide 12 video channels, wireless, wide-area networking, local area networking, and wireless internet all in one package.”

Just from that statement, it was already a future failure through and through. Although most of Mr. Tinio’s discussion was on the technical, economic, and political side, from an educator’s point of view, there were already flaws from the .. umm… statement? definition? of the CEP thing. To be honest, I only heard about the CEP in the forum, and I call myself an educator? (Before a teacher, I am also a student… I need to pass my subjects first T_T so I’ve been half disconnected with the world) Anyway, from the definition alone, the plan was totally … wrong.

Mr. Tinio mentioned that the CEP thing would be 15-20-minute live classes by “excellent national master teachers” to ensure accuracy of content by reducing or avoiding teacher misconception and textbook error.

So… What are they planning to do? Have this “Excellent national master teacher” speak in front of a camera and “lecture?” Broadcast education is different from classroom teaching, and from the budget, I didn’t notice any teacher training for this form of delivery system. A teacher may be great in the classroom, may know everything from A to Z, but if they plan to just have them “lecture” in front of a camera for the sake of the marginalized students, then they are utterly stupid. This is a different delivery system we’re talking about. Although some teachers may actually be able to pull it off, most of the time they don’t. Maybe if they said that the “lectures” would go through consultation of these teachers, then that would be one less flaw in their plan.

TV-based instruction != classroom instruction

Next, if it would be synchronized … and everything has to be on time because of this shifting thing, did they forget that some schools had different shifts in a day? Like morning shifts and afternoon shifts? Some marginalized schools, I’ve heard, I don’t know if it’s still true, had 4 shifts in one day! How are they going to make that work? And how, HOW, are they going to stuff 50<x<100 * 7<y<20 number of students in one “multimedia room”? And how are they going to ensure that they WILL learn? There’s no room for playback, interaction, digestion (pun intended)?

As for language, we have 100+ languages in the country. What language are they planning to use for “instruction”? Tagalog? Filipino? English? fuzaken na yo! There is already no mastery of Filipino, much else other languages? What “nationwide” thing are they talking about?

Lastly, the needs. What DOES each area need? Is it technologizing? Cyberfication (I just made that up)? What they need are teachers! Classrooms! (accurate)BOOKS! Like what Mr. Tinio mentioned, what use are these tech stuff if the god-forsaken place doesn’t even have electricity?

Every area has different needs. Every area is different, especially in a country like ours where we are separated with bodies of water, mountains and politics, satellite dishes aren’t what the kids need. More than that, they need food. They need to LEARN how to READ first!

What the hell are these people thinking? It’s a big … big big big piece of .. umm… yeah. :D that.

It’s not that I don’t care about the technical and financial side, but that’s already been discussed over and over elsewhere. I just want to stress the misconceptions in ALS or Alternative Learning System in the Philippines. Heck, even DepED misunderstands the true meaning and function of ALS… With an alternative learning system comes an alternative delivery system as well.

I’m becoming agitated.

The student reactor was Mr Lalon dela Rosa but that guy beside me *looks for the calling card*, Mr. Raymond V. Palatino, started talking to me so I wasn’t able to listen. :D

:D

So, over-all, the BK2 event was good for me. I was informed and I was able to discuss with some people as well. I also brought up a forum for information and resource exchange and judging from the brush-off, it didn’t give me an impression that it will work.

Although, thinking about it on my way home… Mr. Arao’s and Mr. Tinio’s argument, kind of, was that a lot of teachers don’t even know how to use computers, much less access the internet.

but they forgot one detail … the youth of today DO. The new generation of teachers DO know how to use the internet. In fact, they probably look up information and stuff online.
But… meh… I don’t know. I’m going to tell bratyfly i won’t push through with the webhosting. I can see it failing already. =_=

Oh yeah, the BK event. I’m eagerly waiting for the 3rd event! The first one, I hardly didn’t talk at all, the second one I talked a LOT because there weren’t many people, I wonder how will the third one go? :D

AS A final summary:

• Do not dismiss old media. Complement the old with the new.
• Use blogging as a tool for learning and interaction. It is not just an extension of the classroom, but also of the teacher.
• SCRAP THE CEP. Don’t just suspend it–Trash it. burn it. recycle the paper. sell it. buy a book for a kid.
• What, when, and where would be the next BK event?
• I need to promote myself more!
• I need to stop rambling.
• Oh GAWD Blogging really takes up a LOT of time.

That’s all.

Blog Ed 101 is sponsored by Digitalfilipino.com Club, Philippine Genre Stories, Pinoy Web Hosting Solutions, Phil-hosting.net, New Beginning, Ladygadfly, JaypeeOnline, The ANiTOKiD.

If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!