The Construct

I’m getting sick and tired of the “excuse,” “Kaya nga ako nag-English” as an excuse not to know basic math concepts and technology concepts.

I’ve been involved in IT education as writer, editor, trainer and consultant largely because part of my personal advocacy is the importance of IT. I do think that technology education should be given as much weight as math, science, and English courses in basic GE. However, since that education policy is still non-existent, we must do something about our current generation of learners.

It is frustrating that in terms of research methodologies, we language scholars are still stuck to early 90s qualitative approaches. Especially in today where research tools for doing corpus-assisted research such as textual analysis software are now widely available. It’s not because the software is too expensive as freeware versions are already coming out. It’s because of students’ limited knowledge on computing.

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Our educational system needs a revamp and fixing it by adding another year to college education is not the way to go.

Writing as a person who has taught college freshman courses, I can readily tell that the problem is not with college education but with the 10 years of basic education that should have prepared students for the rigors and demands of college education.

For example, language skills are best developed during formative years. Most of the mistakes that we observe in college student’s writing could not be credited as mere lapses since most are recurring and that students are apparently unconscious about their non-standard use of the language. And, given that I teach a cross-disciplinary field, I am also aware about their lack of mastery of other areas such as history and natural sciences. While I can only write about my experiences, I’m sure that colleagues from other areas would be able to share similar experiences.

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…comes great chances of messing things up.

Never mind if I’m actually a rookie but I sat as a panel member for the defense of three undergraduate theses done by seniors. And I’d have to say it really feels different being on the other side of the room, making comments and providing criticism to what these “kids” are about to claim their academic magna opera.

But yes, it has been three years since I successfully defended my undergraduate thesis and it’ll be a year or so until I switch to being the one under the lights when I eventually defend my masters thesis. But for now, it’s all about being part of the process whether I would let these seniors get their diplomas or swat them back to the drawing board.

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I’ve been meaning to make a new blog for the new year and here it is. A product of an hour of nothing to do the past holidays, I’m launching Exploring English, a blog for learning the English language and literature for Filipino learners especially for college students.

The blog focuses on reading, writing, and business English – topics that I have taught previously. If time and resources permit, I might also be putting up a podcast to address speech.

I’ve already posted a few of my lecture notes from my teaching stint already and I’d like to expand the content in the coming months.

Anyway, the blog’s up and running so please drop by.

Thanks to Kyam for the snazzy theme.

Three days of DynEd training and I felt I lost three precious teaching days. Now know how the teachers in my teacher development seminars with my former company felt. Well, not necessarily the same, since I was a really good facilitator and we have catered lunches then. And at least I always had the upper hand in terms of IT knowledge compared to my trainees.

Well, the training was okay but the learning software was already intuitive and there was a teacher’s manual as guide to I don’t know why the heck it lasted three days. And compounded by the fact that there are no classes on Friday, officially, my schedule is f*cked up. F*cked up big time.

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