Tablets Or Learning Schools? Yours Is Old School, And It Has To Go!

 

Shared on Facebook in the above images, Pinas Forward PH makes a plea to celebrate “National Indigenous Peoples Day” on 21 June – late, but I just saw it today – and urge Filipinos to support and help these people especially in these pandemic times.I am a teacher; I am also digital, if self-taught; and that is why I took notice. One child is making an issue of a PC tablet for herself while the other child is dreaming only of a school for her tribe! Both are legitimate dreams.

In these times, I am not interested in a 4-walled room you can call a classroom, only a free WiFi space where at least 20 different youths can study using digital tools like laptops, tablets, and/or notebooks. Granting that they have a proper curriculum where the wonders of the digital world are maximized, at least optimized.

Note: “Where the wonders of the digital world are maximized, at least optimized.” Graduated as a high school teacher from the University of the Philippines Los Baños in 1965, I taught myself my digital skills in dealing with texts and images, especially in blogging. I was already 45 years old when I began to learn digital – word processing, WordStar 1– age is not a reason for not being able to learn.

Today, I’m interested in teaching the Theory of Multiple Intelligences, MI, by Harvard professor Howard Gardner; there are 9 MI in his list:

Bodily kinesthetic intelligence – “body smart”

Existential intelligence – “world smart”

Interpersonal intelligence – “people smart”

Intrapersonal intelligence – “self-smart”

Linguistic intelligence – “word smart”

Logical-mathematical intelligence – “number/reasoning smart”

Musical intelligence – “music smart”

Naturalist intelligence – “nature smart”

Spatial intelligence – “picture smart”

In the lower grades and in high school, Lumad learners or not, we should now change the way we teach so that we teach the learner how to be intelligent in his/her innate smartness.

If you are body smart, there is an athlete waiting to be trained and developed; you may also be a dancer, mechanic, surgeon.

If you are world smart, you will thrive in philosophy.

If you are people smart, you will make a good leader. Or a sales person.

If you are self-smart, you may become a counselor or psychologist.

If you are word-smart, you may make a good teacher, speaker, author.

If you are number smart, you may make a good planner, accountant, statistician, computer analyst.

If you are music smart, you may make a good composer or singer.

If you are nature smart, you may prove to be a botanist, biologist, or a good philosopher that the world needs.

If you are picture smart, you may become an excellent pilot, surgeon, graphic artist. Interior decorator.

In these digital times, it is no longer degrees that employers demand from applicants but prowess with computer applications, such as for writing, editing, layouting, and desktop publishing. At 80, I am a digital WFH.

So, how do you teach multiple intelligences? Go digital! Classrooms confine; the digital world liberates!@517

When It Comes To Agriculture, Batac City Is Bold And Careful

Boldly, “Batac City Earmarks P100-M For Agri Development[1]” (Reynaldo Andres, 20 August 2020, PNA). That is only for the rest of the year 2020. Priority areas are rice, corn and other high-value crops.

I have yet to read another PH City doing that for her farmers. “Mayor Albert Chua said the city government is optimistic that the amount will help subsidize production cost of local farmers.” Batac must love her farmers that much. Actually, it is also a show of support to PhilRice in its obligation to increase rice production this pandemic times.

Mayor Chua says, aside from providing mechanized water pumps, Batac is at the same time supporting the zanjeras. The zanjeras, from the Spanish word zanja, meaning ditch or canal, are communal irrigation systems[2] (Carlos D Isles, “The ‘Zanjeras’ Of Ilocos Norte,” 04 November 2015, Inquirer.net). Mr Isles says of them:

The zanjeras… are a rich source of lessons in social organization, equitable water distribution, voluntarism, and strict implementation of rules and regulations.

We don’t have something like zanjeras in my hometown of Asingan, Pangasinan, so to each his own water watch day and/or night. We Ilocanos in Pangasinan have to learn from the Ilocanos in Ilocos Norte.

Batac is lucky because it is “currently enjoying the support of MMSU and PhilRice to meet the city’s production target(s) not only in rice but also on corn, tobacco, and garlic.”

The occasion was actually the launching of “3^rdRice Paddy Art” held at the campus of Mariano Marcos State University, MMSU, on Tuesday, 18 August 2020. I might say I am a fan of paddy art, but this is the first time I read that it happened in MMSU – the original paddy art was exhibited in the ricefields of PhilRice 4 years ago, when PhilRice featured President Rodrigo Duterte and Vice President Leni Robredo in a paddy art[3] (superimposed image) using different varieties of rice “to define the facial features” of the two highest PH officials (superimposed image, The Bohol Chronicle).

So, the City of Batac is actually cultivating 2 different things: rice and paddy art. Rice is to feed the body; paddy art is to feed the eyes. We all need cereal and beauty.

Mayor Chua says that in rice alone, Batac is targeting to spend P40 million for this second cropping season. By November, 700 units of mechanized water pumps will be unloaded to rice-producing barangays. Batac will also unload P30 million worth of postharvest facilities by that time.

He also notes that Ilocos Norte’s arable areas “are fast depleting,” and that is why he is “hoping the road networks in the barangays will be completed to give way to the development of sloping areas for food production.” Farm-to-market roads.

Now then. Sloping areas are irrigated only by rain – or water pump. The Batac farmers may have to additionally learn Sloping Agricultural Land Technology, SALT, a system pioneered by Baptist missionary Harold Watson in Davao del Sur in the 1970s[4]. SALT will further sweeten agriculture in Batac!@517

 

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[1]https://www.pna.gov.ph/articles/1112860?fbclid=IwAR32QsTbIdD7vj-yyRf-FMCnWIuj6U-6OOK-YF7t9fL67RqFJLiNpyvEIqs
[2]https://opinion.inquirer.net/90020/the-zanjeras-of-ilocos-norte
[3]https://www.boholchronicle.com.ph/2016/09/24/look-philrice-features-duterte-robredo-in-rice-art/
[4]http://www.agrowingculture.org/a-review-of-sloped-agricultural-land-technology-salt/

We Have To Push The Cooperative Development Authority First, To Push PH Farm Consolidation!

Should we go ahead with farm consolidation as Secretary of Agriculture William Dar wants? This policy of the Department of Agriculture, DA, appears to be in contradiction with the dictates of the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program, CARP, of the Department of Agrarian Reform, DAR. Nonetheless, expert Fermin D Adriano declares that CARP has been inutile, saying “Agrarian Reform Has Failed The Small Farmers” (20 August 2020, Manila Times):

Poverty incidence in the rural areas remains high at around 40 percent, twice higher than the average national poverty incidence. This means that despite distributing more than 5 million hectares of around 10 million hectares of cultivable lands in the country, agrarian reform failed to make a real dent on poverty and (promote) greater equality.

Quote: “Twice higher than the average national poverty incidence.” Agrarian reform in the Philippines has utterly failed!

So, “Agriculture Secretary William Dar has made farm consolidation or clustering a vital component of his industrialization and modernization agenda for Philippine agriculture.” Mr Dar clarifies that “farm consolidation does not mean consolidation of land ownership but only of production, processing, and marketing activities.” This should result in economies of scale and higher and more sustainable returns for everyone. (consolidation image from DA CAR[1])

Mr Adriano says, “The obvious vehicles for farm consolidation are the farmers’ cooperatives or associations.” Sir, they are not the same. I believe in farmer cooperatives, FCs, but not in farmer associations, FAs. I have seen how the FAs are dictated upon by their Presidents; in my province Pangasinan, one FA President keeps all the equipment in his residence! And yes, the FAs are “organized to access the unending stream of subsidies from government.”

With the FAs, government is cultivating the mendicant attitude of our farmers!

So, what do we do? Mr Adriano says, “The task is to impart an agribusiness perspective to these (groups).” I agree. I see that the initial problem is we have to teach the Cooperative Development Authority, CDA, which oversees cooperatives, to promote business-oriented thinking among the CDA leaders first, so that they can promote the same among the cooperatives.

That’s a tall order!

Mr Adriano says:

Indeed, the problems of agriculture are complex and interrelated. Undeniably, they cannot be solved solely by the Department of Agriculture. The agency has to collaborate with other government departments such as Trade and Industry (processing and marketing), Public Works and Highways (roads and bridges) and Transportation (transport/logistics), and CDA (cooperatives), among others, to uplift the welfare of small farmers. This is a huge challenge that many fail to understand, much less appreciate.

Not to forget science, he says:

Science will be needed to systematically examine the problems involved per stage of the agricultural process (i.e., input and production, processing, transport and marketing) and offer realistic solutions to each of them. Only then can the agricultural sector progress.

Yes to all that. But we must begin right – with the CDA learning agribusiness and imparting the same to the FCs.

Then poor farmers can march to prosperity!@517

 

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[1]http://car.da.gov.ph/gawad-saka-guidelines/

Old Golds. Thanks For The Memories!

I see Bruce Tolentino’s “Alphabet Of The Obsolete” Facebook sharing as 26 intellectual reminders more than visual or archetypal, historical.

The list brings me back to 1975-1981:

1. Antenna.
2. Book, bookstore.
3. Cursive writing.
4. Dictionary.
5. Encyclopedia.
6. Film.
7. Grammar.
8. Hotel key.
9. Ink.
10. Jar Jar.
11. Knobs.
12. Landline.
13. Map.
14. Newspaper.
15. Optical disk.
16. Privacy.
17. Quality.
18. Rolodex.
19. Stereo.
20. Typewriter.
21. Underage.
22. VHS.
23. Watch.
24. Xerox.
25. Yellow paper.
26. Zip code.

My wife Ampy and I got married on 18 March 1967, the birthday of her father Gabriel – but we told no one. We have since then 13 children, the youngest in 1990. Jump to 2020: I am The BlogFather, the one with thousands of essays in the Internet. I have always been prolific!

From 1975 to 1981, I was Chief Information Officer of the Forest Research Institute, FORI; founded and was Editor In Chief of its 3 major publications: the monthly newsletter Canopy, quarterly technical journal Sylvatrop, and quarterly popular color magazine Habitat, which I patterned after the US National Geographic. I was a happy copycat.

In those years, we used books at the library, dictionary, encyclopedia, lots of films, letters, newspapers, typewriter, yellow paper.   

Ampy was Secretary to the Director of the Forest Products Research & Industries Development Commission, FORPRIDECOM. FORI and FORPRIDECOM were neighbors literally. FORI for forest production, FORPRIDECOM for forest products. Marriage made in heaven.

At home, the TV antenna has long gone. We are not thinking of a new TV set because we have the Internet (PLDT HomeFibr) and we have a laptop and a netbook to tap the endless digital wealth that it offers.

And we don’t go to the bookstore to buy books anymore.

Cursive writing is still with me – I keep about a dozen notes-book (and Uni pens) around the house for my random thoughts. Very useful. I don’t rely on memory.

Dictionary, yes, I use the American Heritage Dictionary all the time, the book copy at home but mostly the Internet.

Encyclopedia, I use Wikipediaand Britannica online. A writer cannot remember everything; also, there are great quotes to be had if you just look around.

Films gone. I now have a Lumix FZ100 digital camera with superzoom. I simply set to iA, intelligent Auto, and I simply shoot, shoot, shoot anytime.

Grammar, I still have to reread my essays many times over to catch any hidden error.

Newspaper, we have stopped buying. When you browse Facebook, you read all kinds of news – and non-news. It’s up for you to discern!

Quality is what you make it. I always revise my essays at least 7 times to raise the level of quality from Good to Best. If you don’t have patience, you cannot have quality.

My watch now is my cellphone, which gives me also the day and time.

Essentially, I have bid goodbye to the yellow paper and the zip code.

Almost 80, am I obsolete? I have never been so creative, thank God! @517

Engendering Sustainability Of Communities. Or Endangering It

If you are not constructing sustainable communities, what are you constructing?!

Continuing my journalism for inclusive developmentof my country the Philippines, I must continue to pursue sustainability.

Above: Environmental. Socio-cultural. Technological. Economic. Public Policy. According to the American think tank Joslyn Institute, these 5 domains must all be employed in concert building or rebuilding Sustainable Communities.  

Joslyn says, “Many business and governmental leaders have been skeptical about placing any domain on a par with Economics.” And I say that if you don’t, Economics will gobble up any energies or efforts at sustainable development – and that is the meaning of Gross Domestic Product, GDP – where if you have a high GDP value, you have high development – but not necessarily sustainable development.

In November last year, Agriculture Monthly republished my article “Appreciating Sustainable Development[1]” earlier published last March. I wrote:

So, when you read the term sustainable developmentanywhere, whether it is applied to science or technology, applied in economics or education, unless the author is using the term in a very limited context (which happens, and which is wrong), whether it is the Philippine government or the United Nations using the term, it must mean not just one or any combination but all of the following, that whatever is being considered is:

(1) Economically viable, and (2) Environmentally sound, and (3) Socially acceptable.

Whatever happened to “public policy”? It must be socially acceptable. Same with “socio-cultural.” What about “technological”? It must be economically viable, environmentally sound, and socially acceptable!

No technology, no matter how advanced, can lead to sustainable development of a region, for instance, if it is merely (1) technically feasible, or merely (2) environmentally sound, or merely (3) socially acceptable; it must be a combination of the three components.

Joslyn insists on its 5 domains of sustainability. It justifies those by saying:

These questions are relevant to every community on the globe… small, large, mega, or intermediate in size. We are leaving the era when the international argument has been over poverty, or rich versus poor. This language is from the industrial revolution, “economics above-all-else” thinking, which symbolizes only one measure among the five domains. The “rich” may have significant economic wealth, but may be poor in environmental resources, or socio-cultural attributes; the “poor” may have less economic stature, but may be wealthy in cultural history and basic quality of life.

Joslyn is wrong in saying “We are leaving the era when the international argument has been… rich versus poor.” The whole world is still rich versus poor. That is because the rich do not really want sustainable development except if it is in their favor!

Joslyn says, “The ‘rich’ may have significant economic wealth, but may be poor in environmental resources” – that is justifying the unjustifiable. We are all in this together!

Joslyn says, “The ‘poor’ may have less economic stature, but may be wealthy in cultural history and basic quality of life.” How can the poor be wealthy of the basic quality of life?! That is a contradiction.

Joslyn, about sustainable arguments, try again!@517

 

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[1]https://www.agriculture.com.ph/2019/11/08/appreciating-sustainable-development/

Digital Rethinking Teaching 2020 – What About Our Schools, Colleges & Universities Under CHEd?

Teaching 2020, we should be modern explorers of the low seas of indigenous knowledge and high seas of modern science!

When I think of PH Schools, Colleges & Universities, SCUs, which are under the Commission on Higher Education, CHEd, I think of their contributions to Agriculture, which must not only survive this pandemic lockdown but thrive. And yes, it may be that the Hope of the Farmerland lies with the youths coming out as products of SCUs, college graduates and/or youth entrepreneurs. All the more reason that teaching at the SCUs must be restructured with the powers of the digital universe.

The above image titled “Rethinking Teaching 2020” is by Torrey Trust shared by Ivan Marcelo A Duka on Facebook, but without a website to trace to. Thanks anyway, Ivan. I find that Miss Torrey is an Associate Professor of Learning Technology at the University of Massachusetts Amherst[1] (torreytrust.com). Nice thinking, lady!

I put in the image of a “Friendly WiFi[2]” because that’s what a WiFi should be: user-friendly. Actually, it means you have to make friends with it, be acquainted more with it, explore it some more. The lessons you learn as a teacher will be your own – and then those of your students.

Some 25 years ago, within the campus of UP Los Baños, we were one of the first families who recognized the informative & intellectual values of the Internet, as I am an instructor as well as a creative writer. The UP College of Agriculture, now UP Los Baños, taught me my BSA major in Ag Edu; I taught myself creative writing via the pocketbooks How To Write, Speak And Think More Effectively by Austrian-American readability expert Rudolf Flesch (about 1965), and wonderful creative thinking with Mechanism Of Mind by Maltese doctor & psychologist Edward de Bono (about 1975). With books like those, you get ideas how to generate more ideas; with the WiFi, you get the universe!

How did I learn to use our WiFi? The hard way. You have to learn to conduct searches using double quotes, for instance. But there is no other way!

If you’re afraid of using the Internet for teaching, just look at the list of Miss Torrey and try one:

“Instead of Long Lectures – Mini-Lessons with Active Learning.” You the would-be lecturer have to study your material first so that you can extract many mini-lessons. And you will enjoy it too!

“Instead of Feedback – Feedforward.” Instead of feedback – recitation, test, report – why not ask the class their individual opinions? Will make for exciting sessions – just watch out against negatives.

“Instead of high-stakes tests – Low-stakes.” Little surprise quizzes that encourage everyone to pay attention.

“Instead of one-size-fits-all.” Make learning fun, including yours! That’s what the Internet is for.

And don’t think of it as school – just another playground of the mind, yours and your students.

Instead of Control(critical thinking), better Explore(creative thinking). And you know what? When you encourage your students to explore, you and they will learn more!@517

 

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[1]https://torreytrust.com 
[2]https://www.friendlywifi.com/public-wifi

Introducing The Brave New WiFi-World, BNW2. Is The Internet The New Medium For Learning? Yes, When Using Your Head!

Today, I must say PH Vice President Leni Robredo has inspired me in the way she has been playing her officially diminished VP role with style and substance anyway. (Oh yes, I voted for her as VP in 2016.) Here she is in effect lecturing Secretary of Education Leonor Briones on how to be a good Secretary considering that the coronavirus pandemic lockdown has revised the terms of educating the Filipino youth – while Miss Leonor has not put together the pieces to complete the puzzle. With her meaning-well thoughts expressed, Miss Leni must have advisers with good minds thinking about teaching! Good teachers are hard to find.

Of Miss Leni, Bonz Magsambol says, “Ahead Of School Opening, Robredo Proposes Solutions To Readiness Issues, Teachers' Concerns[1]” (13 August 2020, Rappler.com); Miss Leni is a lawyer by profession, so she is careful with her words:

We are, ultimately, united in the goal of ensuring the continuity of learning and the welfare of our educators. We submit these insights and recommendations in the spirit of solidarity so that we may all, as one nation, build the better normal that our people deserve.

I note that: “Build the better normal.”

Miss Leni recommends:

Internet setups – “Setting up Internet hubs in schools and communities where they are needed.”

Teacher issues – “Effective communication would help solve issues such as concerns of teachers in terms of getting copies of the self-learning modules.”

Framework for communication – "A clear framework communicating why these programs are needed, and how to implement them."

Local governments – "Schools with proactive local governments can cope better.” Which means, the DepEd should also educate the LGUs.

Teachers’ health – In case of teachers getting infected with the coronavirus, Miss Leonor says, “No budget for treatment of teachers with coronavirus.” I say, what is she doing with the DepEd except not looking into the possibilities of accommodating those positive teachers?!

Miss Leni is talking much sense where Miss Leonor is not.

In any case, Brave New World is thinking beyond the mechanics and into the mechanisms of something like a new education paradigm for PH education –

Introducing: The Brave New (WiFi) World! The BNW².
(digital WiFi image from friendlywifi.com[2])

While the DepEd may continue with whatever resources it can gather between now and start of classes, I am thinking ahead and fleshing out my new brainchild, BNW². The simple and yet not-so-simple way to execute BNW² is to adopt/adapt Harvard professor Howard Gardner’s Theory of Multiple Intelligences, MI, with its 9 smarts:

body smart, world smart, people smart, self-smart, word smart, number/reasoning smart, music smart, nature smart, picture smart.

With WiFi running day and night. Thus, MI can easily fit in any classroom lesson or situation anywhere – learners understanding a lesson using one’s own intelligence. Walang bobo sa MI – there are no dull students with MI.

WiFi also means Wild Figurings, deliberately done to stimulate the mind to consider other possibilities.

BNW². That would be the greatest day of learning ever!@517

 

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[1]https://rappler.com/nation/robredo-pens-proposal-address-readiness-issues-teachers-concerns?fbclid=IwAR2NsL9AUN2pWTFcePN9-waipX0NZW2_GUaXWwby1CMJ42-0GS4vJ7v7iec

[2]https://www.friendlywifi.com