The launch of the BSJ eCenter!

Yesterday, October 30th 2011, was the launch of the Brgy. San Juan(Taytay, Rizal) eLearning Center Project. It was also the 'Katipunan ng Kabataan' event of the barangay. The event was led by the Sangguniang Kabataan(SK) and Council which is led by Janine De Leon Yango. There were lots of games, singing and dancing and for sure a lot of young people enjoyed their time. Before 12 noon, Brgy. Captain Joseph Z. Valera introduced us to the big crowd of almost five hundred young people. Us means me, Jon Mannion and Tom McLane from the International School of Manila, where we got all the computers that we are going to use in the project. It's long way to go for the project and I have high hopes that, given the warm support of the barangay and all it's officials to the lowest ranks, as well as other project partners like Constructing Learning Through Technologies (CLT), this project is going places!

A great day for Brgy. San Juan!

Yesterday, October 24th, was a great day for Bgry. San Juan, Taytay, Rizal. It was a day of meeting with me and Jon Mannion of Constructing Learning Through Technology (CLT) with the barangay oficials of Brgy. San Juan, Taytay, Rizal led by their very supportive Brgy. Captain Joseph Z. Valera, Ted Reblando, the Brgy. Executive Secretary and Mr. Carlos Arellano Arce, Bgry. San Juan's Chief IT Officer. The meeting was all about the elearning programs for the Bgry. San Juan eLearning Center Project and preparations for the 'Araw ng Kabataan' which will be held in Brgy. San Juan on October 30, 2011. On the day of this event, the Sangguniang Kabataan, led by Janine Ira Yango will formally launch the Bgry. San Juan eLearning Center Project! Thanks a lot to Brgy. Captain Joseph Z. Valera and all the very supportive brgy. officials of Bgry. San Juan for making the Bgry. San Juan eLearning Center Project happen!

           View SLR Mini-Library & Brgy Hall of Brgy San Juan in a larger map                                                 

Lets Volt In!

  by  ~C4Chaos 

I must make a revelation.  Today I changed the name of this blog because of what you can see below.  Its a PDF of VOLT-IN 2011 by the Center for Social Action of De La Salle-College of Saint Benilde.  It all started with me going to Google and typing 'volt in college of st benilde'.  I was informed by Jon Mannion to go to College of St. Benilde-DLSU for an event called 'Volt In' but I didn't know what the event was about.  'Volt In' reminded me of that famous anime show about a super robot, Voltes V, which was first shown in Philippine TV  in 1977.  In that anime, they always say 'Let's volt in' to form the robot, Voltes V.  At first, I thought 'Volt In' was a robotics event in the College of St. Benilde-DLSU.  But when Googled it, I found out to my surprise that 'Volt In' was actually VOLT-IN 2011, a volunteering event by the Center for Social Action of De La Salle-College of Saint Benilde.  From then on, it became more than a learning experience for me because after reading the PDF, it struck me that I can make a better name for my volunteering blog.  So from 'A Blog for V'(ablog4v) which sounds absurd, I changed my blog title to 'A Blog for my Volunteering Experience' or ablog4myvoltex.  Thanks to VOLT-IN 2011, now I have a better name for my volunteering blog!  Cheers!

8 Big Ideas bout learning

Today, I'm still reflecting on the 8 Big Ideas by Seymour Papert. Check out my notes about the 8 Big Ideas at evernote.com.  

8 big Ideas about learning

View more presentations from OLPC Center for Laptops and Learning

  by  telecentresubmissions 

The creative spiral design process!

   "By looking at the way children learn in Kindergarten we developed what I call the "creative learning spiral." In many of the best creative thinking experiences you start with imagination, you come up with an idea, you create something based on your idea, you play and experiment with that idea, you share it with others, you talk about it with them, they try it out, and they give you feedback. Based on that experience, you reflect upon your idea, you think about what happened, and that gives you new ideas. Then you're right back again at the beginning with imagining; at which point, you keep on spiraling out with new ideas based on this concept of "imagine, create, play, share, reflect, and imagine." – Mitch Resnick, creator of Scratch

This day after I again saw the creative spiral design process in the Constructing Learning Through Technology (CLT) website, I went back and visited the Computer Clubhouse website.  Now I find myself pondering again on the creative spiral design process by Mitchel Resnick.  I later found out that this is also called by Mitchel Resnick as the kindergarten model of learning. You can see his article - All I Really Need to Know (About Creative Thinking)I Learned (By Studying How Children Learn) in Kindergarten -  below but first watch a video about the learning model in the  Intel Computer Clubhouse Network.  I am pondering on this because this the learning  model that we wish  follow in the CLT learning centers.

                 

via computerclubhouse.org

via FlipSnack

Related articles

• Children Build, Learn, and Innovate with New Educational Toy (prweb.com)
• Hell with education! Let's play! (scienceyourself.org)
• Vs. All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten (makyamcbee.wordpress.com)

ALS A&E : October 2011

Here is DepEd Memo No. 123 s. of 2011 which is the official Guideline for the October 2011 Alternative Learning System (ALS) Accreditation and Equivalency (A&E) Test Registration and Test Administration.

via deped.gov.ph

Reflecting on unschooling ; is it for Filipino kids too?

Yesterday, I had great time talking about unschooling with Jon Mannion. I told him that only last week did I learn that there is an actual school in the United States which is the Sudbury Valley School in Framingham, Massachusetts. After learning about that, I became more interested in unschooling and  I was also able to watch a few videos about unschooling in YouTube. I became interested in unschooling because of the BSA E-Room and I wondered if we can  use the Sudbury model in the BSA E-Room or in the Philippines. I asked this to Jon and he said that it is quite unlikely that unschooling or the Sudbury model can be applicable as a learning model in the Philippines. He said one reason is culture and another is the socio-economic factor to which I gladly agreed to. Still wonder if someday there will be a school in this country which will be included in the list of Sudbury schools.

http://www.sudval.org/

via sudval.org

Related articles

• Unschoolers Learn on Their Own Terms (spottybanana.net)
• Children Educate Themselves IV: Lessons from Sudbury Valley (downes.ca)
• What Is Unschooling? Invitation to a Survey (psychologytoday.com)
• 'Unschooling' puts child in the teacher's chair (parentcentral.ca)
• Is Real Educational Reform Possible? If So, How? (psychologytoday.com)

Improving Reading Skills Through Personalizing Literacy Instruction

This article from EduTechDebate reminds me of Michael John, one of our learners from the BSA E-Room. Michael John is an 8-year old third grader who still has to learn how to read so right now he still can't complete his profile but he can use the keyboard to write his name in an MS Word file. I think this is the only thing he can type. This is a bit of challenge for me not just because of Michael John but also because one of my daughters who is the same age as Michael John, also has almost the same reading difficulty. My plan of action  is to search for an answer in the Internet. Yesterday I found a few good links about using computers for reading instruction and what I was really looking for was an open source software that will help a learner who has reading difficulty. I haven't found one yet but I will keep looking.  I also intend to ask my Twitter and Facebook educator-friends about this and I am hoping someone might lead me to a good answer. How I wish that in my next posts I can share what I will discover, if ever there will be any, in this part of my journey as a literacy educator!

One of the great struggles of education is providing all children the individualized instruction they need to understand the material taught and to be challenged at their level, especially when teaching children to read and improve their reading skills.
In an ideal environment, the teacher would be able to provide each student personal attention and help each student overcome struggles, master skills, and receive challenges where needed. But with so many demands on a teacher’s time, many children do not receive much personalized instruction.
One of the many educational benefits that information and communications technology (ICT) can deliver is an effective and scalable solution to this problem—the problem of personalizing literacy instruction for children.  Technology can adapt researched, effective teaching models, content, and assessment to individual students and extend them geographically to reach millions of children who might not otherwise have the opportunity to get high-quality instruction.
Because many factors contribute to a child’s learning opportunity upon entering school—e.g. his or her home environment, quality of instruction in the class, availability of effective materials, student to teacher ratios—individualized instruction with high-quality adaptive materials is important to a child’s progress and improvement in reading. Whereas one child may understand phonics and letter concepts, another child may struggle. The struggling child cannot move on until his or her obstacles have been addressed and overcome. But in a class size of 45-plus students, a teacher has little time to devote to individualized attention for each student.  Consequently, many children in developing countries do not advance from primary education.
Effective ICT software programs can provide the adaptive framework and sequencing to give children the individualized instruction they need while improving reading skills and enhancing the classroom experience. To be effective, personalized learning challenges and supports each child at his or her own level. The curriculum included in any program aimed at offering personalized learning must be

• Engaging for students to hold their interest and motivate them to continue
• Based on research to provide effective curriculum and instruction
• Broad and deep to provide the content needed for true individualization
• Carefully sequenced to provide the personalization each child needs

In Waterford Institute’s Waterford Early Reading Program, all four requirements are met. The program is full of engaging activities, characters, music, and songs that provide research-based instruction that meet national requirements. Plus, the content is extensive and sequenced to adapt to each child’s individual needs.
In the program, each child experiences learning different as the program continually adjusts based on each child’s mastery of concepts and performance. In this way, each child experiences a personalized learning path, receiving instruction and challenges, remediation, and repetition as needed to understand a concept that will lead to mastering specific reading skills.
This means that he or she will be presented with specific learning activities tailored to his or her own learning needs. Where a child may be struggling with a concept, he or she will receive more instruction and practice. Where a child shows mastery of a skill, he or she will move on to more challenges.
An evaluation performed by Stephen Powers, PhD, and Connie Price-Johnson, M.A. at Creative Research Associates in Tucson, Arizona, in 2006 is just one of many third-party evaluations of the effectiveness of Early Reading Program. The study showed the effectiveness of the program’s instructional and individualized learning approach by comparing students in U.S. Title I elementary schools.  A “treatment” group of 15 schools used Early Reading Program, while a “control” group of 15 other schools did not. Matching techniques and statistical controls were used to evaluate each group.
Final assessment and analysis indicated that kindergarteners who used Early Reading Program outperformed the comparison group of kindergarteners in all outcome measures. And among English language learners in both groups, kindergarteners who used Early Learning Program substantially outperformed the comparison group of English language learners.
Many studies have demonstrated the effectiveness of ICT in providing personalized instruction, for both English native speakers and English language learners. Research results obtained by the Henrietta Szold Institute in Israel have indicated that Waterford Institute’s computer-based, adaptive instruction has been effective in accelerating English acquisition for children using the software.
The concluding point is that ICT provides real efficacy for reading instruction as it provides the adaptive and personalized instruction that each student needs. And it is scalable, offering a consistent, enhanced learning experience to large numbers of children in a wide variety of circumstances.
The Waterford Early Learning software in reading, math and science is available in multiple deployment models, including being completely being completely disconnected from the internet in a locally self-contained deployment.

via edutechdebate.org

10 Events at the BSA E-Room last Sunday, October 9th

  by  Patrick Hoesly 

1. At 2:30 PM, Jon Mannion and I(Dennis) went out in the neigborhood to disseminate information about the BSA E-Room ; we went to three buildings around the vicinity of the barangay hall of Brgy San Antonio, Pasig City, Metro Manila and gave away some brochures about the BSA E-Room.

2. At 3:00 PM, there was an inter-barangay program ; Kagawad Noli Medalla, our foremost supporter of the  BSA E-Room spoke about the  BSA E-Room and how it has helped learners learn new computer skills.

3. Three new kids came to the  BSA E-Room and made their own profiles. They were : Hanniel,  Maureen and Michael John. The latter was an 8 year old third grader who still cant read. Those posed a problem for me and made me think on how can help him read using a computer.

4. As planned Kat Pauso, one of the mentors and project manager of the BSA E-Room, read and showed her profile to the kids using a projector. After which three kids showed their learner profiles too. Most of the kids were shy and were just interested in playing games in the computer.

5. Kay suggested that next week, we should have a timer in the computer so that every learner will have an equal amount of time to use the computer.

6. I suggested to Kat that as one learner-activity, we can also ask the kids to translate an English text, for example about animals, into Filipino. The only problem is that we don't have an English-Tagalog dictionary in the E-Room.

7. Jon showed Armin and the other learners, some animation videos from the CBeebies website, about cooking. 

8. Jon also showed how to use Google SketchUp ; I suggested to Jon that we can also ask the kids to try Google SketchUp in the future.

9. Jon told me that he was able to install Moodle into the Constructing Learning Through Technology (CLT) website.

10. Lastly, I suggested to Jon that we can use the CD version of the Wikipedia in English in the BSA E-Room as a sort of reference material for the learners.


Here is a Google Map of the BSA E-Room.

View The BSA E-Room in a larger map

It all started with a desire!

@PinoyEduTreker
Dennis Bayeng
"Desire is the starting point of all achievement, not a hope, not a wish, but a keen pulsating... http://t.co/htpCiZAH
Oct 11 via twextra.comFavoriteRetweetReply

It all started with a desire. And that desire is the desire in my part to express myself but is also about the desire to help when there is something that needs to be done. I started thinking about volunteering when I was thinking of volunteering in a foreign country. You see a few years ago, a friend introduced me to VSO, an international volunteering organization based in the United Kingdom. And that started the desire for me to volunteer but that is in a foreign country not here in my country. On second thoughts, I realized that any good thing should start at home.  So when I saw the Constructing Learning Through Technology (CLT) page in Facebook, I quickly got attracted to their ideals and admired what Jon Mannion had been doing for a lot of learners in the CLT centers. On August 30, 2011, I first met Jon Mannion in his Outreach effort in Eastwood Mall, which ran from August 29th to the 31st. On that day too, I was able to meet, Ms Kat Pauso, the Project Manager in the Brgy. San Antonio eSkwela Center, in Pasig City.  I wanted to become a mentor in this center because it was close to my house in Taytay, Rizal. This is how it all started ; and this is my first journey into the world of being a mentor-volunteer!