Twitter as an ally in learning

Parents, teachers, and school administrators are wary of student use of social networking sites, particularly Twitter, a micro-blogging platform that enables users to post messages (or Tweets) up to 140 characters. It sits well with the students since they need not compose a long article, which admittedly most of them find it hard to sustain.

Our students spend so much time with it, losing their precious little time to studying. We are afraid that, if unchecked, this will have a detrimental effect on our students’ academic performance.

A recent study, however, shows just the opposite. The study, “The effect of Twitter on college student engagement and grades,” is led by the team of Reynol Junco, a leading scholar who explores the nexus between social media and education.

125 college students participated in the study. One group of 70 students was required to use Twitter for educational purposes. Another group of 55 students was required to communicate through a traditional learning system.

The findings belie the claim by many that social networking sites, particularly Twitter, are detrimental to the academic performance of students. Junco et. al. found out the following:

• The Twitter group’s score in engagement—defined as “the amount of physical and psychological energy that the student devotes to the academic experience”—was almost twice as much as the group who used traditional communication methods.


• At the end of the semester the Twitter group’s average GPA was .51 higher than the control group.


• Students were also surprisingly comfortable with candid expressions of their feelings and their short-comings.


• Student use of Twitter generated more and different types of questions than would have been generated in typical class discussions on the same topic.


• Using Twitter in educationally relevant ways had a positive effect on student engagement.

Social media is not just a fad, only popular to this generation, and will soon wither into oblivion. It is, as Eric Qualman argues, a fundamental shift in the way we communicate.

As teachers, we must understand the dynamics of our students. We must meet them where they are, Reynol Junco said. And nearly all of them are in social media. We must seize the opportunity this digital era presents to us and take full advantage of the social media, particularly Twitter, if only to help our students learn.

The valedictory speech I never gave

(Graduation is drawing near. When I was about to graduate from college, I dreamed of delivering a valedictory speech, but that dream would remain just that: a dream. If I were to deliver the valedictory speech, however, I would've given this speech.)


I wish I could talk about how our government manages the public money, so that the accountancy and commerce students could relate to me. I wish I could talk about our criminal justice system, so that the criminology student could relate to me. I wish I could talk about our health care system and child abuse, so that the social work students could relate to me. I wish I could talk about the use of psychology in preventing crime, so that the psychology students could relate to me.

I wish I could talk on those different fields, so that everyone present here could relate to me. But I could not because I don't know any better. And if I do talk about the things I know better, I'm afraid you could not relate to me. If I would talk about Multiple Intelligences or Learning Styles or Teaching Strategies, nobody but the education students would listen to me.

I'm not even sure if they would listen, and listen like their grades depend on it. They've heard enough of them in the classroom. Surely they don't want to recall their harrowing experience in the classroom, not even now that they are wearing toga whose origin they barely know.

So I will talk about my own experience in college. After all, we human beings are by nature chismoso. We always wanted to know something about other human beings.

Yet I won't try to please everybody because I'm afraid that if I try to please everybody, I just might end up pleasing nobody.

Thank you for listening to the introduction. If you have one more minute to spare, do spare it.

In search of peace: SMAD celebrates the Mindanao Week of Peace

There were about ten people who stood in the center ground. Each was holding a white balloon. "Those balloons symbolize the prayers, hopes, and aspirations of all Marisians," said Mr. Oliver Calledo, the moderator of the Samahang Araling Panlipunan. "At the count of three, they will release the balloons." Then the balloons were released.

Is Talk 'N Text stealing from its cash-strapped subscriber?

Is Talk 'N Text, "a wholly owned subsidiary of SMART," stealing from a cash-strapped subscriber?

This morning I loaded Gaantxt 10 onto my cellphone, a load equivalent to 55 texts to Talk ‘N Text/Smart + 5 texts to all networks! But when I replied to a very urgent text message, what appeared was not "Message Sent." It was "Check Operator Services." This happened before. Maybe my phone is so dumb that it needs a little time to absorb the fact that I have just loaded onto it. So I waited for about five minutes. Then I resent the message. Still, it was "Check Operator Services."

I refer the matter to my sister, who said maybe I just need to reload it. So I loaded it again with P30 ECONOMY Pack. Still, I was told to "Check Operator Services."

Now, I started to get irritated. No, naglagot na ko. Kita pa nga gatipid, kita pay kuwaan ug load.

I inquired 15001. Then I received a text message informing me that as of 29April 09:03 I have a "Load Bal: P30 Free Txt to Smart/TNT:100 Free Txt to all networks:5.

If so, why can't I text? And every time I do, why am I always told to "Check Operator Services?" Is Talk 'N Text suffering from a Dr.Jekyll-and-Mr.Hyde syndrome? It says that I still have a load, but in truth I don't.

Did Talk 'N Text, "a wholly owned subsidiary of SMART," just steal from me, a cash-strapped subscriber?

I'm afraid it did. The bad news is that I'm one of the many victims of this "cellphone load robbery," as Senator Juan Ponce Enrile put it. The good news is that I'm one of the many victims of this "cellphone load robbery."

I recall that no less than Senator Juan Ponce Enrile also fell prey to this "cellphone load robbery."

Now I begin to wonder: if Senator Enrile fell prey to this, how much more if the subscriber is a lowly one like me, a cash-strapped subscriber?

Update: Talk 'N Text is now back to normal. Which is to say, I can now send messages. But I won't delete this post. Let this be a reminder that once upon a time, Talk 'N Text went awry.

Where have I been these past three days?

DAY ONE: April 25 (Sunday) - Compostela, Comval Province

[caption id="attachment_1701" align="aligncenter" width="640" caption="L-R: Melay, Arvin, Elisa, Gracey, Lloyd, Wengkai, Etong, Chane, GR"][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_1702" align="aligncenter" width="640" caption="Lechon: The most delicious pig in the world, according to Time magazine. "][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_1703" align="aligncenter" width="640" caption="What the eyes can't see, the mouth can taste. Brownout ani nga panahon. Pero wala mi magpapugong."][/caption]

DAY TWO: April 26 (Monday) - Bamboo Mountain Resort, New Bataan, Comval Province







DAY THREE: April 27 (Tuesday) - Sitio Panas, Brgy. Carcor, New Corella

[caption id="attachment_1710" align="aligncenter" width="640" caption="Panas Waterfalls"][/caption]

Why I will vote for Noynoy...

Because he is good, among others, for education.

I have a special interest for education. First, I'm an education student, which means that I'll be a future teacher. True, I'll be taking up law soon after I graduate from college. But that doesn't mean I've lost my special interest for education. Who knows, I just might be a professor of law?

Second, I'll be having my own children. Later na. And I don't want them to be victims of our less than impressive educational system.

That is why I want to see our educational system improved. And I think and believe that it will happen if Noynoy Aquino were to be elected President of the Philippines.

As Isagani Cruz argued, "He is the only presidential candidate that has thought through the problems of education in our country. Even if all the candidates say that they regard the deterioration of public education as the most important and pressing issue to be faced by the new government, none of the others have put forward any kind of education reform program that makes sense."

Here is Noynoy's ten-point agenda on education:

1. “I will expand basic education in this country from a short 10-year cycle to a globally-comparable 12 years before the end of the next administration (2016).”


2. “All public school children (and all public schools) will have a full year of pre-schooling as their introduction to formal schooling by 2016.”


3. “I want a full basic education for ALL Muslim Filipino children anywhere in the country.”


4. “I will re-introduce technical-vocational education in our public high schools to better link schooling to local industry needs and employment.”


5. “By the end of the next administration, every child must be a reader by Grade 1.”


6. “I will rebuild the science and math infrastructure in schools so that we can produce more scientists, engineers, technicians, technologists and teachers in our universities so that this country can be more globally competitive in industry and manufacturing.”


7. “I will expand the Government Assistance to Students and Teachers in Private Education Program (GASTPE) to a target of 1 million private HS students every year through education service contracting (ESC) while doing away with the wasteful education voucher system (EVS) of this administration.”


8. “My view on the medium of instruction is larger than just the classroom. We should become tri-lingual as a country: Learn English well and connect to the world. Learn Filipino well and connect to our country. Retain your dialect and connect to your heritage.”


9. “I will not tolerate poor textbook quality in our schools. Textbooks will be judged by three criteria: quality, better quality, and more quality.”


10. “I will build more schools in areas where there are no public or private schools in a covenant with LGUs so that we can realize genuine education for all.”

***

P.S. Didn't I write before that I would vote for Richard Gordon? Of course, I did. Look it up here. But I changed my mind. And I think I'm allowed to do so. Changing one's mind is, of course, not an insult to one's person. It was I think Jose Diokno who said that a man praises himself when he changed his mind. For it only means that he is wiser today than he was yesterday.

Like truth, books shall set us free

[caption id="attachment_1436" align="aligncenter" width="399" caption="Photo by blog.mariyamakiling.com"][/caption]

(The essay below was adjudged as third in the Essay Writing Contest sponsored by the Learning Resource Center of our school, HCDC. Which means this essay's only worth a hundred pesos.)

Books have many purposes. There are books that entertain. There are books that teach us how to cook and plant. But books as weapons for independence? Probably a far-fetched idea. But once upon a time, in the Philippines, books were not just ornaments that adorned the library. Books, which are carriers of ideas, were once used as weapons for independence.

According to the historian Ambeth Ocampo, during the Spanish regime, the Philippines was sealed against liberal ideas. The Filipinos, who were then called indios, were not allowed to read. The Spaniards were so afraid that Filipinos might be enlightened they established a Comision de Censura. Its task was to censor all the books coming in the Philippines. This kept the Filipinos in the dark for well over three centuries.

Fortunately, we have such audacious heroes as Jose Rizal, Andres Bonifacio, and Apolinario Mabini. All were voracious readers. All acquired liberal ideas, which later spurred them to fight for independence from the Spaniards.

"B" is for Busy

What keeps me busy these past weeks---aside from trying to figure out how to stop our neighbor from making so much noise when he's inebriated---is the making of professional readings. These are reviews of articles, publications, studies, books, etc. related to the education in general and teaching profession in particular.

Our practicum supervisor asked us to make ten. To us, it's considered many, considering that it's not the only thing that we have to do. Teachers do so many things that they could be the computers turned flesh.

I cannot say I've enjoyed doing them. I have not, although the upside of it is that I was able to learn new things that I've never known before. It sounds trite. Of course, I should learn new things. Otherwise, what does it profit me if I don't learn something out of my professional readings?

But I'm glad I'm already through with my professional readings. Here's a list:

1.Rewards for students under a microscope
2. More schools, not troops
3. The children won't sit still, and that's O.K.
4. Cool school: United nations of education
5. Maintaining order and discipline in the classroom
6. Sorry I'm late
7. Element's of a learner's preferences
8. Web-age librarian's look beyond books
9. Is too much self-esteem not good for kids?
10. Behavior coaching for teens with special needs

Books shall set us free

This week is the National Book Week. This year's celebration has a theme "Kaaya-ayang Magbasa sa Kalikasang kay Ganda."

All the libraries of the Holy Cross of Davao College---Grade School Lib., High School Lib, Learning Resource Center (College Lib. e-Lib, IMC)---have prepared several activities for this week: essay writing contest, poster making contest, etc.

***



Today, I'll be joining an essay writing contest. The essay, the mechanics said, must be 150-300 words. It should revolve around the theme: "I need. I value. I love my library." An excerpt:

Books shall set us free

Books have many purposes. There are books that entertain. There are books that teach us how to cook and plant. But books as weapons for independence? Probably a far-fetched idea. But once upon a time, in the Philippines, books were not just ornaments that adorned the library. Books, which are carriers of ideas, were once used as weapons for independence.

The necessity of backing off

To stoop when a bullet passes by is not cowardice. It is worse to defy it, only to fall and never to rise again. ---Pilosopo Tasio.

If you don't know Pilosopo Tasio, go read one of Rizal's novels, Noli Me Tangere.

The law of success according to Blas Ople

The nearest thing to a law of success is that if you are committed, you will succeed. The strength of commitment can even be quantified---in terms of the time and effort you allocate to your goals, not in sporadic burst, but in a steady state. ---Blas Ople, The Work Ethic and the Law of Success

How to instill values among the students?

Are you a Values Education teacher? Are you a Values Education teacher whose overarching concern is to instill values among the students? Are you a Values Education teacher whose overarching concern is to instill values among the students, but is hard put to do so?

If you're all of the above, don't worry. Take heart. There are many teaching strategies you can use that could aid you in accomplishing your task. Why not use film viewing? Not only will it save your time, it will also help your students absorb values without them knowing it.

The upside of it is that films, especially animated films, teach lessons so graphically, entertainingly, beautifully that they don't appear like lessons at all. Which is what students like because, in truth, they prefer watching entertaining films to listening to a nagging teacher. Which is also what teachers like because, in truth, teachers will go hammer and tongs to avoid making lesson plans and visual aids.

As for what kind of films you will use, pick among these tried and tested ones:

• The Lion King


• A Bug's Life


• Ice Age


• Spirit


• Mulan


• Prince of Egypt


• Joseph, King of Dreams

After showing each film, be sure to pose the following guide questions:

1. Which among the scenes has caught your attention? Why?


2. What particular dialogue you find most meaningful for you? Why?


3. Who among the characters you like most? Why?


4. What values/lessons can you gain from the story?

What a semester!

The semester is over, and I can say that this semester is by far the most productive semester that I've ever had. Not that I was slumbering the previous semesters or, as the Bisaya would put it, nagpadako ra ko'g itlog. It's just that this semester alone, I've done things I never did before:

Which is which

I am no poet. But I don’t hate poetry at all. Though I shun the way poets obscure their message, I still like the way they weave the words to produce so beautiful a sound like only a poem can.

I’m just a tepid fan of poetry. That perhaps explains my short list of favorite poems. One such favorite of mine is “The Road Not Taken” by Robert Frost—partly because it’s easy to read and decipher its meaning, but mainly because it resonates with me:

A night with Cathy

[caption id="attachment_1198" align="aligncenter" width="540" caption="Tionko Ave.---one of the places in Davao City where prostitution is thriving."][/caption]

“While nothing is easier than to denounce the evildoer, nothing is more difficult than to understand him.”— Fyodor Dostoevsky

“Why not child prostitution?” my research professor asked me and my two group mates, Adam and Mark.

There was a silence. I didn’t know what to say. Adam and Mark didn’t say a word either. They just looked at me, as though they were telling me not to accept our professor’s suggestion. I knew then what they meant, so I told our professor, “We’ll think about it, Sir.”

My group mates handed over me, being the leader of our group, the decision to choose a subject for our research. Early on we decided that we would be doing a research on street children. After all, they are easy to find. They are everywhere. But our professor told us that it’s very common. “Choose something that’s least studied,” he said, “a subject that’s novel.”

When we couldn’t think of a subject aside from what we proposed before, I asked our professor what he could suggest. He suggested child prostitution. “But Sir," I protested, "it would be very difficult for us to do it."

Child labor?

[caption id="attachment_893" align="aligncenter" width="435" caption="Photo by Jed I. Bete"][/caption]

Do the youth still need parental guidance?

In one of the courses I enrolled in college, I was once part of a group assigned to make a documentary film on pre-marital sex and its attendant problem, teenage pregnancy. I hated my teacher for that because filmmaking, or so I thought, is reserved only for MassComm students. What has an education student got to do with filmmaking? But the hate was supplanted by appreciation, for the exercise gave me an opportunity to take a glimpse of the life of a teenage mother.

If there’s anything I learned from the documentary we made, even though it’s amateurish by any acceptable standards, it is this: Sex is a make or break experience—make because it can give instant euphoria; break because it can wreak endless havoc especially to young people who are adventurous and in constant search for excitement.

Do most of the youth know it?

I'm beginning to love Jessica

Zafra, that is.

I've heard her name many times, and her proverbial biting wit is known to me. But it was very recently that I got keenly interested with her.   As if I were a stalker who madly pursues his subject just to know even the most inane detail of his subject (read: victim), I've frequented her blog (jessicarulestheuniverse.com), watched her in Youtube, read a couple of her articles, published here and abroad, and scanned a few pages of her Twisted books at NBS.

What I find fascinating about her is that she is oh so intelligent.  But you need not tell that of course. She's  aware of it herself.

And she also writes well that she can drive home a serious point in a funny way. Read her Twisted series books and you'll know what I mean.

Read: Getting Personal with Jessica Zafra

Nothing's changed

It has become an SOP (Standard Operating Procedure for the uninitiated) for teachers to require their students to write their New Year’s resolutions when they’re back to school. Even college students are not exempted. Putting another twist, my college teacher required us to write not a New Year’s resolution but our vision for the New Year. I grudgingly obliged. Now we are about to end 2008 and welcome yet another year, I re-read the piece I wrote. I was surprised to know that nothing’s really changed since then. Below is the full text of that piece I wrote as my vision for 2008:

After a long time of not sitting on a pew to receive the Holy Eucharist because partly of my prohibitive class schedule, it was a respite to sit again on one to listen, reflect, and pray. On New Year’s Day, I had had a taste of this respite when I attended the second mass scheduled for that day. It was also a more welcome respite to hear it from Fr. Dondon whose homily was as hefty as his weight. The attendance was relatively scarce, which made me wonder, considering that Catholics, in name and in fact, should be profusely thankful for that day, nay, everyday, for having survived and lived the bliss and the curse; the grace and disgrace of the previous year. Moreover, not only should that day be for devout Catholics to thank God, but also that day should be for Catholics—who profess to be one but seldom or never had practiced it—to contemplate. The attendance’s scarcity was due perhaps to the tired bones from the previous night’s celebration or the hangover from the previous night’s inebriation, or both.

Back to the mass, the priest’s homily was pregnant with insights on how to start the year right. To start the year right, said Fr. Dondon, is to start with a right disposition in life, like Mary, Mother of God who is full of grace, whose disposition in life is crystal clear. I agree with him because, drawing from my own experience, there was never a person who arrived to where he wanted to arrive without an exact destination of where he wanted to go. In the same vein, there was never a person who accomplished something without a sure knowledge of what he wanted to accomplish.

For the previous year, we had seen reforms of every kind, not because of, but despite the socio-politico-economic maladies that bedeviled. That is exactly what I want—an untrammeled search for reforms, for hope, despite the circumstances that might sometimes lead us to loose hope in hoping.

I don’t, however, mean that I want a repeat of 2007 where reforms found their way, not because of, but despite the socio-politico-economic maladies. Nor do I mean to try the same ways of seeking reforms when distressed with another maladies. For, as the timeworn cliché goes, we can’t step twice into the same river.

What I certainly mean is to search for reforms, not from without but from within; or as the Bishops put it, a "Cha-Cha"—Character Change. If in the previous year/s, we tried to push for amendments/revisions in our Constitution in order to solve our problems, maybe it’s time to put into practice the wisdom enshrined in it. Rather than change its basic principles so that they may suit our actions or correct our vices, maybe it’s time to change our actions and correct our vices so that they may be in accordance with the Constitution’s principles. There simply are things we can’t legislate nor impose. If we were disappointed in the previous year/s to find no alternatives because we were looking for reform from without, maybe it’s time to try looking for reform from within. We might be surprised to see how many alternatives we have from within. But when, in our lifetime, everything else fails and every step of the way is blocked, and neither reform from without nor reform from within is effective, have faith, be hopeful; faith is hope. And in hope we were saved. “SPE SALVI facti sumus.” (Mindanao Times, 12/21/08)

Financial or intellectual?

Crossroads, the official student publication of Holy Cross of Davao College (HCDC) is cash-strapped. That is why the paper’s staff is pushing for the increase of the publication fee. Among the student publications in Davao City, the Crossroads of HCDC collects the lowest publication fee, a measly P25.00.

But every time it releases its issue for the semester, I read the paper with displeasure. Its articles, especially its commentaries on specific issues that bedevil the school, reek of shallowness. Its writers’ complaints are platitudinous. Yes, its writers bring up issues, but seldom do they prove them. Add to that the paper’s penchant for dedicating a whole spreadsheet to photos alone.

While money is needed to finance the publication, I wonder if its single most problem is financial. Judging from the quality of the publication’s content, it could be that the Crossroads' biggest challenge is not money but brain.