Day 48: Community Quarantine

WEBINAR II- I was listening to a webinar on digital self paced learning and as the speaker was spewing out technical data and jargons, my head was trying to wrap itself on the "now" reality that the educational system has come out of the classroom and into the electronic, wireless, and virtual arena. 

   There were mentions of AI, VR, AR and a host of other acronyms and technical jargons that I find difficult to assimilate, how much more memorize and digest.  

    The migration from a traditional, structured and standardized delivery and assessment of learning to a personalized, self paced learning and targetted assessment (from managed learning to experiential learning) is happening now albeit too early and the department is poorly prepared at the magnitude of it. The pandemic is the catalyst that hastened the process.

   The lockdown forced the Deped into implementing limited distance e-learning (forced prematurely, may I say) with only a very small population of the learners participating primarily due to lack of access to hardwares and internet services .

    I thought that it would take the Philippines a decade or so to adapt to the changes being seen in the more advanced countries where learning are already a hybridof traditional and internet based. 

     But it is the start of the retooling of the educational system to adapt to the paradigm shifts dictated by covid 19. There is no returning to the old traditional ways. 

   It is urgent to speed up the transition.

 My thinking was that it would come after my retirement, but it was not to be.

   As a teacher, I am thinking what will happen to the teacher-learner relationship. Will it stop being interpersonal and relational and go into a virtual and detached service and client relationship?

    What does it  mean to me, how can I adapt? I am a non digital native and learning all the technical stuffs from acronyms to apps to hardwares is overloading my brain. 

    It's a brave new world, though a little old compared with to rest of the world.

  ( Btw,  I don't know what I'm talking about here. Just thinking out loud )

       ZOMBIE- I am not able to get a good night sleep. My body clock is going haywire. The circadian rhythm is slowly being thrown off time by afternoon naps, dormancy,  and the general lack of scheduled and directed activities.

     I wake up at around 6, used to be that at four in the morning I am already up and alert. Go outside to buy food. Stared at the teenaged vegetable vendor for a couple of minutes.

   Feeling conscious at my stare, she asks what it is I need. I reply, "wait,  thinking".

   After getting food, I walk around the street aimlessly looking around at the facemasked people thinking or trying not to think that this will be the new normal.

   This is the start of the new 15 day extension.