Recommended Movies for High School Students This Summer

Affected by the pandemic, many students right now spend time studying at the comfort or with the noise of their homes. The current facets of the struggles and challenges are very different but they don’t go away.

Here is to share selected films about extraordinary students who found their natural gifts while coping with difficulties in their environment.

Akeelah and the Bee (2006)

The story is about a girl Akeelah who discovers she has a talent for spelling. But there were discouragements that surrounded her situation– studying in a public school and objections from her mother to spend extra time to prepare for the spelling bee. 

The story also exhibited the importance of having a mentor to meet her potential and the support from her school, family and community.

Stand and Deliver (1988)

The story is based on a true story of a Mathematics teacher named Jaime Escalante. He taught in a school with Latino students, most of them performed below average academically and encountered social problems. Despite the hurdles, Jaime Escalante exerted efforts to realize the potentials of his students, motivated them, and trained them academically, setting a goal to take AP Calculus by their senior year. He pushed and taught the students even during the summer to prepare for the exams. 

As aimed, all his students passed. But the education testing center in their district questioned the results to the distress of the students. Once more, he offered his students to retake the exams. 

Finding Forrester (2000) 

The plot revolves around Jamal Wallace, a bright black teenager who has a gift in writing apart from his basketball skills. He accidentally encountered a reclusive writer, William Forrester, who became his friend and teacher in writing.

Jamal was invited to a private high school because of his sports talent. Along the way, his writing has improved with the guidance of William. Complication occurred when one of Jamal’s professors suspected him of plagiarism. 

Laskar Pelangi (2008)

From the island of Sumatra, ten students stricken of poverty,  did not lose hope of achieving, dreaming and enjoying school. Saddled with many hardships they found friendship, an innate desire to persevere in learning and dreaming of their future.

Spare Parts (2015)

Based on a true story, this inspiring narrative is about four Hispanic high school students and a club coach who dared to join a robotics competition with car spare parts, little budget, and no experience.

I originally made this article from another website I created, the https://itsnotridiculous.com/

Rescuing the Grade 7 Science classes, a case of Covid19 lockdown

by Maria Pineda

The news broke out the second Thursday of March this year that the Congress declared a lockdown and starting March 15 there will be a Community Quarantine in the whole of Luzon island.

We were busy in the office preparing a trip to Marawi City in Mindanao for that weekend. Our team was supposed to deploy a computer laboratory in a school in Marawi City, Lanao del Sur and I was scheduled to deliver a training for the teachers coming from Marawi and Maguindanao. But all of those activities were cancelled.

Most schools in Metro Manila were caught off guard. Many teachers even failed to bring home their books, lesson plan,  the exams to be checked and other daily teaching materials. How will they finish the school year? For the non-graduating students, they still have three weeks including the final exam. 

I reached out and called the public school teachers I know to check on their situation. It  was not that easy. This was a sensitive time, the knowledge that the Covid19 is a very deadly virus had just started to sink in. It was also a clear crunch time, that even though the students do not have access to technology, the teachers had to find ways to send the remaining tasks and the students had to submit their work  to complete the academic activities. 

One of the teachers I asked openly admitted she needed a platform to be able to distribute the assignments of the students. She was a Science teacher, handling 4 Grade 7 classes. She had been broadcasting announcements and communicating with her students via FB group. She also had limited training on Moodle.

I assisted her to have access to a cloud-based Moodle. We arranged for the following:

1. A set of procedures was prepared for her students to be able to do self-registration in the Grade 7 Science class in Moodle via web and via the smartphone.
2. The set of procedures was to be announced in their Facebook group.
3. Two of my colleagues and myself became part of the Facebook group so we could answer student inquiries and concerns.
4. She posted her assignments and references on the Science class site with clear deadlines. 
5. A period for self-enrollment was enabled and was later extended to accommodate as many of her students.

Grade 7 students in the Philippines are early teens and are not acquainted with many details of instructions. But given the perseverance and creativity of their teacher, the students were able to accomplish the remaining tasks, perceive a sense of gratification and appreciation of the additional learning they had for the Science course.

 

The teacher was admirably very patient, always available and keen on giving the initial instructions to her students. We discussed concerns through phone calls and messaging. In terms of teaching techniques, she managed to put together a set of requirements eliciting research, analytical exercises and reflection on the pandemic that had disrupted their undertakings. She also solicited proof of validation of their work by asking the students to have photos with their parents.

She was a hero on a rescue mission while she continued to be steadfast and assuring to her students. It is a rare talent to be inventive at teaching and resilient in the face of pandemic challenges.

 

Shopping for a Learning Management System (LMS)

by Maria Pineda

Primary and secondary schools in the Philippines were disrupted by the Covid19 pandemic and no formal closures of the school calendar happened this 2020. Colleges and universities were caught off guard and were not ready for this situation. Most of this schools and education institutions resorted to using the email, Facebook and meeting tools.

Many questions thrive among the schools, both private and public– can we continue delivery of instruction through online? Are we ready or can we be ready on time for the next school opening? Will online learning work? How do we address the needs of the teachers, the students and the parents? Can we sustain this? How about the infrastructure needed? What equipment can we provide our school members? And what online learning delivery platform should we use? These are just a few of the questions. 

For decision-makers in schools, colleges, universities or even training centers, you need to review the anatomy of your educational delivery and your school culture. Understanding the type of institution you are allows you to look for the features that will fit your requirements.  Here are some questions (not complete)  you need to ask your team:

Teachers

Are your teachers inclined to prepare their own lessons and activities? Are they given autonomy to design various cognitive tasks among their classes? Or on the other hand, do your teachers prefer to have ready-made lessons to be delivered? Does the school prefer to invest on advanced learning materials particularly on STEM and languages? Are your teachers prepared to go through retooling to become effective in teaching online? Are your teachers ready to change hats even at home to cope to the demands of teaching from home?

Students

Do you envision your students becoming self-regulated and independent in managing their own learning?

Are you inclined to having many collaborative activities among your students or learners? Do you pair them? Do you group them? Is teamwork part of the overall development?

Do you like having venues of communication skills development for the student?

For the Parents

Do you regularly involve the parents in the policies and decisions in the school? Are the parents informed of the status of their children’s performance?

Principals

Do you prefer to have regular reports on the student and teacher’s performance? Are you a hands-on leader who prefers to sit inside the classroom to observe? Do you like to hand-hold the parents on what is happening in your campus?

If your answer is yes in any of those questions, you have to ensure that the LMS you will choose has the capability to address your priority service task. So here is a quick guide of what some of the LMSs like Schoology, Canvas, Edmodo, Google Classroom and Moodle has to offer. 

LMS Comparison ver May2020 – LMS Features (1)

Look into your skill set and task requirements over the pricing.

*more articles and discussions to come as I aim to assist school leaders during this pandemic time.

Going back to blogging

The “new abnormal” situation of community quarantine because of the Covid19 pandemic forced everyone to use and learn web conferencing tools, work-from-home and cook meals, sign up in free webinars, make sure the headset or the earphones are attached to the mobile phones for quick calls, and say hello to everyone using a variety of messaging systems.

It’s been a while that I took a leave from writing and sharing teaching insights. With the new normal or abnormal situation, I hope to post some of the experiences I gained from the past two years.

October Throwback: The International Conference on Science and Technology 2016 organized by Turkey

A year ago, on October 2016, the International Conference on Science and Technology 2016 was organized by the New Turkey Strategic Research Center, sponsored by Turkish Airlines and supported by the government of Turkey. My participation was as a speaker and presenter in the field of ICT.

Leading scientists, engineers, academics from all the regions of the world were there, either as a delegate or a presenter. It was an amazing and unforgettable opportunity for me to encounter Turkish hospitality and kindness, to interface with scientists, engineers, academics and technology specialists from parts of the world I only hear about– Czech Republic, Kosovo, Afghanistan, Kazakhstan, Brazil, Nigeria, Zambia, Russia, Azerbaijan, Algeria and others. Experts of Turkish descent from developed countries working on areas of S&T also came to bring forth fresh knowledge and experiences in the symposium.

I look forward to hearing more about the advancing success of  Turkey in science and technology.

Notes:

a. The International Conference in Science and Technology 2016 was held from Oct. 3-6, 2016 @ Sheraton Hotel, Antalya, Turkey.

b. Here is the link of the presentation I delivered–

Developing an Agile ICT Training Model for 21st Century Requirements in the ASEAN Region

The bonus part was the Tour to Cappadocia in Central Anatolia.

Thank you Turkey for this wonderful and unforgettable experience.

Are you a teacher with Edtech skills?

Educational technology or edtech skills is an essential characteristic of any teacher in this era. Whether a teacher is teaching in the pre-school level, a mentor at the high school level, an instructor or lecturer in the tertiary level or even a PhD professor in the graduate school– a teacher is not complete without any form of edtech skills.

Individuals who are not teaching would possess certain degrees of digital skills. So what about digital skills for teaching? So this is where edtech skills come in. Edtech skills would refer to the baseline know-how of technology, tools and applications blended and delivered to synchronize with the teacher’s teaching strategy.

For teachers aspiring to acquire edtech skills, what are the minimum know-how skills they need to achieve in the 21st century:

5. The teacher has familiarity of the fundamental Google applications — Gmail, Drive, Doc/Slides, Hangouts, Keep and Maps.

Knowledge and use of the Google applications provide the teacher agency to organize and manage her files. Moving and navigating around these Google applications also orient her to the push-pull and linking nature of the web. This makes her adaptive to collaborating in the other activities.

4. The teacher has knowledge of ready-to-use sites and online references for practice. This means she should know very well her subject matter. If she knows her subject matter, she should build a list of online useful sites for her teaching.

3. The teacher is able to independently design and create digitized, reusable, instructional materials. She understands her context and must continually improve her teaching craft through development of learning materials in digital format. It could be creation of slides (maybe animated or interactive), web/google sites, activities/exercises in shareable google docs, infographics, interactive activities and assessments etc. These materials become part of the teacher’s portfolio.

2. The teacher uses web applications to effectively deliver the context of her teaching  and able to communicate as well. Apart from using programs for developing and organizing learning resources, the teacher delivers in the context of technology. If she is teaching Literature, she can use and introduce Toondoo or StripGenerator for storytelling. If she is teaching statistics, Gapminder is a platform that generates insightful figures for discussing world issues.

There are overlaps in no. 3 and no. 2. But it is recommended that the teacher finds the suitable applications and programs that would augment her subject area.

In addition, the teacher is able to communicate to her students using a channel beyond the classroom walls.

1. The teacher knows how to use a Learning Management System: register, plan a course, distribute the materials in a timely manner, deliver and interact with the students or learners and perform evaluation and reporting.

All millennials, post-millennials and Google generation learners have one way or the other, interfaced with a LMS. So without any inhibition, a teacher, amateur or senior, must be able to organize and manage a course whether in a blended or fully online course using a LMS.

The list I made maybe perceived as very demanding. But as we look at the digital now which we often call as the 21st century, a situation that merges learning, technology and communication, edtech skills are evolving. It is not a matter of counting the tools the teacher is familiar with or pushing away one and espousing another set of applications. The baseline bubbles of tools and applications go hand in hand. The teacher needs to unravel how these would enhance her teaching profession and be effective at the same time.

Who are the Millennials – Part 1

by Maria Pineda 21 March 2017

I remember a decade ago when I started doing my own research to profile a generation of university students in Manila that had been accustomed to the push-pull modality of getting information. It seemed premature then of what is the right label for them. I encountered then the researches of Edward Dieterle (and Chris Dede and Karen Schrier) that I decided to adopt the term “millennials”. My Swede friend and colleague at some point was in a similar study and was caught between the labels “digital natives” and “digital migrants”. So after doing related studies on this cohort of individuals, I can comfortably talk about them.

Many teachers are still in confusion when we talk of the millennials even here in Vietnam or in the region. So I am making this post to shed more insight on this topic.

Millennials are the individuals born after 1980 up to 1999. These persons had very early exposure to different media even at age 0. While in the wombs of their mothers, they had heard music or sound from the stereo or the television. Most of them at the age of 8 would have exposure to mobile technologies such as Nintendo, Gameboy, a music player like the Sony Walkman or Sony Discman. Most of them would have used a Nokia or Motorola mobile phone too.

They grew up with the privilege of having access to a desktop computer and later their computers hooked up to the internet. This meant growing up exposed to a variety of conversation formats such as the email, the yahoo messenger, the e-groups, Friendster or Myspace, early versions of Blackboard and Moodle. These circumstances also gave rise to the word “friending“.

So when Facebook, Youtube, Twitter and Skype were born between 2000-2010, assimilation to these social media was natural for the millennials. They don’t have a dysfunctional or confusing view of what is online and offline. Both of these modalities are true realities for them. Expressing themselves using different convo formats are the same.

It is very much unlike to individuals who were born from the 1960s to 1979. These individuals sometimes get confused on the virtual norm of communications. On many occasions, they perceive it as a separate or different world, more of a pseudo-reality. But along the way, for those who continued to be adept on technologies and continued to assimilate, they were able to adapt to this online reality.

Photo shows Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak with the millennial executives at the ASEAN CEO Summit in Kuala Lumpur, held last Feb. 2015.

Going back on the topic of millennials, these individuals who are very comfortable with using technologies, have developed skills such as “self-service learning“. Self-service learning is the term I have used back in 2009 when I uncovered how these individuals would push or pull information anytime, anywhere, just as they need it. The technological environment permitted it. The presence of the pioneer websites such as Howstuffworks.com or About.com or Youtube complemented the self-service learning styles of the millennials.

So inevitably, this self-service learning style evolved into a more empowered digitally influenced do-it-yourself (DIY) learning style. Apart from the ability to find the information they need, they are able to perform efficient and/or effective searching and studying or learning new things on their own. Along the way, in the process of getting their information or learning on their own or having an online convo, acquainting themselves or friending somebody is not difficult or extraordinary. It is again, natural for them.

There are many studies about the millennials even as they have reached their 20s. My interactions with them proved that– they need to be challenged or be exposed to new learning situations. Five years after their first job, they would have landed to two or three jobs. They are continuously involved in the technological developments. Their situation that provided many information and a great deal of knowledge at their disposal made them more cognitively analytical.

So I hope this article would help the teachers and academics in our region. As a teacher, you should be in the position to profile them and not to make judgment and assumptions based on your world-view.

Who are the Millennials – Part 2 Introducing the Google Generation

Who are the Millennials – Part 2

Introducing the Google Generation

by Maria Pineda 21 March 2017

Continuing the discussion on the Millennials, there is a need to look at the profile of the pre-Millennials and the post-Millennial.

Those who were born around World War II until 1959 are considered the Baby Boomers. The term baby boomer was used in America to refer to a stage of recovery after the war and most people were optimistic in their views of raising a family. It was a period when most individuals decide to marry earlier at the same that the economy was becoming stronger and stable.

So those who were born around 1940s-1959 are considered Baby Boomers. From 1960-1979, they are considered as the Generation X. Those who were born from 1980-1999 are the Millennials and some call it the Generation Y. But as I mention in my earlier article, I prefer to call them millennials.

 

IMO, the millennials and the post-millennials are very different from the earlier generations because they grew up having immensely influenced by computing and technologies in their day-to-day routine and communications, in their schooling, in their personal interests, in their jobs or profession. Technology is at every fabric of their lives, online or offline.

The decade of 2000 until 2010 may be considered as the tipping point of the internet.This was when Web 2.0 was introduced by Tim O’Reilly. Web 2.0 was intended to turn around the way of doing business on the internet. The turnaround went beyond commerce and made an impact to all types of industries. It was a rebirth for the internet or most comfortably labeled now as the web.

The decade also witnessed the birth of Google, Youtube, Twitter, Wikipedia, and Facebook.

Hence, post-Millennial generation, some call it Generation Z or Post-Millennials, I label them as the Google Generation or the G-generation, those individuals who were born from 2000 and beyond or maybe until 2019. They were born in the same decade when  Web 2.0 became a tipping point. 

Image source: Supreet Jossan Slideshare, https://www.slideshare.net/supreetjossan/strategic-management-google-case

So why not call them the “Web generation”? Can be.. but I prefer to call them the Google Generation or the G-Generation. It was in 2000 when Google became the world’s largest search engine and it is still continuously growing. Google links every web application and every piece of information available that Google has become the postmodern demigod and everyone depends on it.

As Google has become globally needed, let me profile the G-Generation.

These individuals grew up with the web at their fingertips. At the age of 3, they can operate the computer or the laptop by being accustomed to the icons of the applications. The icon-based interface works well with them.

At the age of 4 or 5, even before they can read well, they can access online games. If “friending” was advanced by the millennials, “gaming” came forth to a web of progression and evolution. Every G-gen would have an affiliation to two or three games at a given stage of her or his life. This situation warranted to advance the computer gaming industry.

At the age of 8, they can search game cheat codes. This means their intelligent search capabilities are more advanced than the millennials.

At the same time, their exposure to all kinds of digital media and technologies and new facets of multimedia make them multi-sensory skilled. If the appropriate schooling methods are provided, they do not have issues dealing with multi-function tasks in the future.

The G-Gen does not require a learning phase to use online learning resources or a learning management system. They grew up with a web-connected environment wherein the resources are organized and prepared and they can talk ubiquitously to their peers, teachers or mentors.

This is a partial profiling and is based on my observations as an academic of being exposed to university students for many years.

2016 End of the Year ICT Trainer’s Notes

by Maria Victoria Pineda

As the year ends, I wish to impart practices that I embrace that may be insightful to other trainers as well. These are not arranged according to importance but they all have bearing when preparing, designing or delivering any ICT workshop-training.

1. Always have a separate Gmail account for applications testing.
2. Introduce the function of the incognito window to teachers learning new applications.
3. In planning a training, allot 20-25% of the time for application testing & selection.
4. In designing a training, allot another 20-25% of the time for engagement testing.
5. A very good use experience of an application include learner’s side and addressing troubles, not just the trainer’s side.
6. Place a reasonable amount of practice time for your trainees.
7. Introduce the practice of creating two email accounts for the trainees’ testing, one for the teacher/trainer user and one for the student user. This avoids messing up the work email of the trainee and leads to a smooth engagement testing.
8. Create a list of your DIY handyman tools & applications (e.g. the Google Drive) and introduce it to your trainees.
9. Make the training service requesting party understand that before a trainer decides on the content application, it goes through selection testing first. Requesting parties need to understand that a good amount of time is needed by a trainer in the selection of the application, testing of the application and inclusion to the training syllabus.
10. At the end of each training day, calibrate the knowledge and skills acquired by the trainees.Get feedback from them.
11. Typically, trainees get to reflect on their application usage inquiries and needs after day two of the training.
12. It pays to have your notes on the flow of the discussions. I call mine as “simulation notes”.

Why use Powtoon in the classroom?

by Maria Victoria Pineda

We have moved to a decade when all the information we need is just one Google line away– what about FIBA2016? who are the real parents of Jon Snow? or is a tarsier a monkey? At the same time almost all urban spaces have accessed to wifi connection. So if this is the case, then the classrooms, canteens and homes of the learners are no different from the urban space that will allow anybody to read her email, post a photo in FB or instagram or even tweet the coffee place where she is handing out.

So in the classrooms nowadays, teachers are not expected to be the all-know-person when it comes to the subject matter. Teachers are now the coaches that challenge the minds of the learners. Teachers are the experience designers that provide the suitable activities to enhance cognitive momentum among the students. Teachers are now free to ask a question she or he may not be certain about because most likely that the learners are informed or may be more informed if they have developed great desire on the topic.

So there is no point now to make Powerpoint presentations that have 30 or 50 slides. It is too much power for points you want to send across. As a teacher, you may want to develop the topics of your subject matter in other ways and enable intelligent questions or messages through a short, animated presentation like Powtoon. Powtoon is like a presentation movie in 2minutes or 3minutes.

Here is my Powtoon arguing why we have to make a short presentation.

 

 

Here is an example made by one of my trainees last June and he showcased about their province, Trà Vinh in South Viet Nam. Positive messages are sent across about Tra Vinh.

Created by Huynh Khoa of Trà Vinh University

Powtoon as a video explainer or a presentation movie provides a set of easy-to-follow functions on how to create animations. The use of the templates also make it very convenient for a beginner. What is important for any movie presentation is that the content or the message has been planned and thought well. And this should work for teachers who have arranged and prepared well-thought activities to generate the mental and creativity challenges among the students.

Powtoon products can be exported to Youtube or as a Powtoon web link, https://www.powtoon.com/online-presentation/gfJye1Qppx6/vietnam-is/?mode=movie#/ too.

So here is another channel of making a presentation.. short, straightforward, fresh and reflective..