The Agricultural Training Institute, ATI, claims it is also doing Extension. Let’s see!
In Extension, first you ask.
In Training, first you tell.
Extension is providing answers to questions when being asked; in contrast,
Training is providing answers to questions ahead of being asked!
In Extension, the Client’s learning requirements are matched with what is/are available or known.
In Training, the Client’s needs have to match any of the training modules available, or no learning at all!
In Extension, the Client is asked what s/he needs to know – the Client is always right.
In Training, the Client is told what s/he needs to know – the Trainor is always right!
There must be hundreds of thousands of people who need more Extension than straight Training.
Extension – you fit your knowledge with the person;
Training – the person has to fit with your knowledge.
Above is the best combined image I found to portray ATI today: All training. The captions on the frames say: Crops, Livestock & Poultry, Fisheries, Social Technology, Sustainable Agriculture. (Last frame says, “Click here to see a demo course now.”) (image from “e-learning for agriculture and fisheries[1],” e-extension.gov.ph)
Training:
Via its website, https://ati.da.gov.ph/ati-main/,I see the ATI has evolved into a digital powerhouse of a school with training courses, my congratulations! (training image[2] from Frontline Recruitment)
Extension:
On its website, the ATI says, “A&F Extension Policies,” where A is Agriculture and F is Fisheries. Yet, the almost 600-word entry does not contain any Policy on Extension, only a list of laws & related matters that have given ATI powers.
If you ask me, Extension begins with science & technology stored in a Knowledge Bank. And I am convinced that such storehouse should regurgitate sets of texts & images combined from which a user or learner can choose to fit his/her need/s, with instructions on how to apply such knowledge options.
I have just written about Digital Extension – see my essay, “Science Going Digital For PH Farmers At UP Los Baños? My Dream Lives On With PhilEASNet![3]” (02 October 2020, Brave New World PH). PhilEASNet is the Philippine Extension & Advisory Services Network based at UP Los Baños. Today, I am urging both PhilEASNet and the ATI to talk seriously about Extension, about how technologies & systems may be extended to would-be/farmers and fishers. I believe that a common program with an excellent budget is realizable under the leadership of Secretary of Agriculture William Dar. From my work from home, with the International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics, ICRISAT, when he was Director General from 2000 to 2014, I know Mr Dar knows the extreme value of Extension.
While still DG of ICRISAT, in 2003 he submitted a proposal via PhilRice to set up the Open Academy for Philippine Agriculture, OpAPA, a Knowledge Bank. I was then a PhilRice extension consultant. OpAPA should make a good starting point for a PhilEASNet-ATI collaboration. I am volunteering as an ambassador of goodwill with my e-book on how to intellectualize OpAPA.@517
No comments:
Post a Comment