My Techie Family and I

During my four-day stay with my family back in the province, I would always find my nine year-old nephew Amiel spending time with"Harvest Moon" and "Call of Duty"in his PSP while my 10-year old niece Klaudine would be doing research online, face-booking, or playing dress-up games in her own personal computer.

Talking with them, I would find myself  missing my footing.  Their lingos are different.  The virtual worlds they move in and out of are so foreign to me. Haha-- I have my personal experience of feeling alienated among kids I helped nurse and put their diapers on.  These are my blood kins but quite foreign to me because of their digital nativeness!

Well, I thought let me test how good they are with my recently acquired savviness in technology!  I showed them prezi and what it can do.  They became animated! They were glued on the screen for some time.  Each went silent for minutes and they started exploring...learning...and having fun!  Then, there was dropbox where I shared some movies with them and they thought they'd love to have one for themselves!  To my surprise, Evernote is not new to them.  Their dad has been using it when they do research online for their school work.

Poor me! For the stretch I thought, i really am lagging behind!  My brothers, my sister and my niece and nephew are so into this world of technology like it's a pen, or a pair of scissors or a sheet of paper!  Technology to them is a handy tool that facilitates easy-work, convenient and fast running of things!  It does not threaten or scare them off.  It does not stress them out either.  For them, it's the other way around.

Anyhow, I can relate better with them.  I have my stock knowledge of techie lingos and I have my books to boot in any case I will get lost.  Tough life, but I'm getting the feel of  this world.  Soon.  Soon.  I will have the hang of it!

airam (girlie) libutaque
30 June 2012

Using FB in the classroom

Besides leaving comments and "like-ing" photos and witty statuses my friends in FB post, I am yet to figure out how to get the best out of Facebook. It is replete with features both helpful and odd, sometimes even bordering to ludicrous. One can find so many areas for research on anthropology and human psychology simply by studying the applications that get added to it almost regularly.

It's too distracting a medium I find it hard to imagine FB being useful in teaching my students, much less teaching them something meaningful and useful in life. Often times, we stretch the limit of what we can do with technology too much we forget to see that its apparent limitlessness actually sets the limits of what it can do and achieve.

As a medium for social networking, its primary purpose is to connect people, as in a coffee shop where people sit for a couple of hours, sip coffee leisurely, and establish that very human connection with another human being. It is built for a specific purpose.

I do not agree that technology has demolished the idea behind the law of comparative advantage. As in countries, economies, persons, one needs to figure out what he's good at and work hard to be so good at this something he becomes the best at it.

Facebook, as a social networking site, should focus on what it is good at. Teaching, however, is hardly its forte. It is impossible to learn directly from it if one gets distracted every ten seconds by a friend's chat notification, by a "like" from friend's friend, or by a tagged photo of him.

It takes a little creativity, they say, to make use of social networking sites in teaching students. I also think it takes a little humility and a lot of sense to accept the fact that some sites are made for a specific purpose, and doing tasks it is not made for is, for me, outright arrogance.

John (061412)

Technology in Acrostic

 I initially thought social media is beyond me
      That it is something beyond the realms of my teaching-- for others yes, but not me!
             I guess, it was because I was afraid to venture, try and explore until I tire
                     Guess what?  This is how I learned:  exhaust one's time, give one's all

                        This is going beyond the blackboard.
                        This is social media at work
                                         in the system of learning
                                         doing and being of the teachers: the digital migrants
                                         in a classroom filled with  geeks, digital natives themselves!
                               
                                                      However, there are those who have abused
                                                             the use of social-networking.  This is quite sad, but
                                                                     one that "teachers"have to address especially in
                                                                              the exercise of responsibility  and  freedom.
                                                                 

T - Trial and error it was for me
            for there's no other way
                to learn but do
                        and go for it
     
E - Evernote and dropbox
         were the firsts of my pals
                 files and  links...
                        shares movies
                               and pix
    
C -Cheers I'd go
            boosting myself
                   for I've hurdled a baptism
                        I dare repeat

H- Humbling an experience
            strengthening the spirit
                   to prod on, continue
                       'til the sun is up or down

N- Now, braced with the skill
          still unsure of the prompts
                takes awhile to master
                    practice is the key

O - Over and over the practice trick is
           post, upload, tag...edit
              check like, comment and take
                   quick tests of the skill

L- Log on and sit down
            sign up, pass--word
                 blog, prezi-techie
                        learning is fun!

         
G- Great is the experience
              useful and  practical  for class
                  beyond the blackboard, erasing its chalks
                        turning on the screen, surfing, linking, teaching!

         
Y - Years and years it'll be
             with echoes of our voices, shadows of our doodles
                   still going beyond what we can, hurdling barriers
                         enjoying, exploring, learning...using technology as the key

                           Together with TEaCHers humanizing the world!


Airam (Girlie) Libutaque
13 June 2012

That letter F

Do grades matter? No and yes.

No because it is only a reflection of how we measure up against a standard (arbitrary most of the time) set by what some refer to as an institutional hegemony that determines who among us passes or fails. This standard does not provide space for those rebellious enough to situate themselves in gray areas found in between. The system of grading also makes distinction using ‘scientific’ comparison (for among those who passed)–who’s good, better, and best, but interestingly does not have hierarchy for failure. But our worth as individuals is far more complex and multi-faceted than a cold A+, 1.0, D, B+, 100, or 5.0.

Utilizing alphanumeric grading system as basis has a tendency to be myopic at best and false at worst.

I failed in all my Math subjects in college except for an appreciation course in math which I barely passed. This course covered Babylonian, Mayan, and Roman numerical system and a lot more (comprehension, including of those hard math subjects that I failed,  escaped me and their importance in my life I know not), but I graduated from university with high distinction (out of sheer luck or smart maneuvering on my part, probably).

But yes because any learning institution has to adhere to this standard (regardless of its arbitrariness). This is the closest that we can have of that sense of order, giving a semblance of predictability to our otherwise random world. We may allow for some interventions, for those that cannot be easily gauged and are beyond strict criteria. By doing these, we attempt to touch-base on our humanity and we ultimately become humane in the process. But this we can only do only to a certain extent.

A modern society functions smoothly because there are systemic apparatuses that do the difficult task of being partial for partiality’s own sake. And that includes student evaluation in the set-up of a university. Absolute impartiality is yet to be achieved, however.

Clicking the letter F next to the name of that student was a painful experience for me. But I know it’ll be more painful for my student. I positioned the cursor on the character, simply closed my eyes (figuratively), and clicked that imposing letter of the alphabet. What has to be done was done with finality the moment I clicked on ‘submit’. Then I saw, forever etched, a letter that will someday be used by other people to judge that student of mine.

John (060612)

Ironic Drafts

Everything begins with something rough. A draft.

Since I’ve been missing a lot in my blogging, this post, as is directly observable, is something unpolished, a kind of just-so-I-can-post-something post. This I wrote while I was doing nothing and figuring out what to write for my Technology class, drafting a paper I am submitting for my other class.

It’s interesting how in our less backward society, where computers proliferate like eczema, drafts have ceased to be a physical entity, and that on a computer monitor, a writer can have as many as 10 drafts without being aware that he has actually made those number of drafts.

A draft is only physically possible on a piece of paper but not on a computer. A monitor of a computer poses different challenge when it comes to writing a rough draft (a common redundancy) such as the number of copies made (virtual copies that got deleted should be included in the count) and the supposed apparent corrections but have gone invisible (virtual corrections are counted as corrections still).

Unless written in script on a piece of paper, I think it is too much a task to ask writers to come up with real drafts when they’ve already done several virtual drafts.

It’s redundant to say so, like the word "rough drafts."


John (060612)

Online Homework

Listening-Speaking  Exercises  By Airam

Topic:  Exercises on [l] and [r] sounds

Level:  Vita  (Advanced group)

They are mostly composed of Chinese, Vietnamese and Koreans who are having difficulty sounding off the initial, middle and final sounds.

Resource Type:  youtube  -      http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ipqDNqUDiMI&feature=related

Teacher’s Note: 

This homework is in two parts. 

The first part would like you to study the youtube link where you can practice your [l] and [r] sounds.  You can do this as many times as you can in the comforts of your own space at home.

Take your time.  Get hold of a mirror if you may and pay close attention as to how the mouth opens, where the tongue goes and what it does to form the sounds.

The second part would like you to fill the table down below with words that you can find in your kitchen, in your bedroom…within the confines of your house which have the sounds [l] and [r].  Group then as shown below:

Initial Sound Middle Sound Final Sound 1.       [l] live building travel

	Initial Sound	Middle Sound	Final Sound
1.       [r]	reason	garden	labor

In the next session, share in the class how your experience was?  Did you have fun?  Did you learn from the exercise?  What other sounds would you like to have more exercises on?

Homework: Sample Short-Term Online Assignment

Topic: Is college still worth the students' money and time?

Subject: Current event

Grade Level: Advanced to high advanced

Resource type: Online news article

Teacher’s Note: The internet is a great source of news articles and current events because they are up-to-date, in fact, as soon as an event unfolds, interesting, varied, and authentic. There are also many sources such as the online version of televisions, radios, newspapers, and blogs (such as nyt.com). If you plan to use online sources, make sure you use the simplified version or you consider the academic level of your students.

Instructions: Go to http://www.nytimes.com/2012/05/31/us/as-college-graduates-cluster-some-cities-are-left-behind.html?_r=1&hp

Fill in the table below with factual elements of the news story (refer to the previous class we had on identifying the different parts of a news story).

Who
When
Where
What	1. 2. 3.
Why
How

General Idea Questions:

1. What is the lead sentence of the news?

2. Is this a straight-forward news article or is it also editorialized to a certain degree? Support your answer.

3. What is the main idea of the story?

4. Do you agree that this “college gap” or the absence of it in the cities mentioned an important factor in the economy of the country? Consider first the question of the relevance of college (which we discussed three meetings ago).

Send your answers to: teacherjohn@gmail.com