J Prospero De Vera III, Chair of the Commission on Higher Education (CHEd), is educating all of us, Children of the Lesser Digital God. This is the beginning of a new awakening in the consciousness of all would-be teachers who are now in a new world we hardly understand ourselves! Including educators of farmers.
The process of learning must change, so must the process of teaching. And it concerns all learners.
Pertinently, here is the latest official pronouncement on college education. On Friday, 21 May 2021, during a webinar (top image, Facebook sharing) entitled “Educating Our Children In The New Normal,” Mr De Vera said:
From now on, Flexible Learning will be the norm. There is no going back to the traditional, full-packed face-to-face classrooms.
That decision of CHEd is for outright implementation. Mr De Vera said Flexible Learning will “continue in school year 2021 and thereafter” for two reasons, that if we go back to the traditional face-to-face classroom:
(1) “We run the risk of exposing our stakeholders to the same risks if another pandemic comes in.”
(2) “We would have wasted all the investments in technology, in teacher training, in the retrofitting of our facilities.”
Mr De Vera said, “Old norms are gone and they (teachers) must adjust to new standards.” Not only that; teachers must now interact more often with students. This requires, he said, “openness to engage and spend time with students and (the) use of new technology that (makes) conversations better and deeper.”
If you think Flexible Learning is only for higher education, I teacher say you are mistaken. I am a UP Los Baños graduate, 1965, the year before obtaining a Civil Service Professionallicense. I have taught high school and college. I have been teaching myself and mastering digital skills: writing, editing, desktop publishing, blogging – and indeed, teaching via computer programs (referred to as “applications”). And yes, nowadays photography requires digital skills, and I have been studying and applying photography in the last 30 years.
All of that brings me to the education of farmers – including necessarily in the fields, physically. Now, I ask:
How do you bring 123 farmers to the field and teach them there for, say, 1 growing season of rice – within the span of only 7 days?! And not buy food for them? Via Virtual Cluster Learning (my term)!
Now look at the lower image, which shows 2 personal computer (PC) monitors; the upper monitor showing a field, the lower 5 concepts. Without actually going to that field, wherever it is, one lesson that can be taught here is that there are 5 different options (crops, say) given the actual field conditions – and those 5 options begin to be discussed from there.
No, the farmers in training need not appear in a room (or field) with the educator or extensionist; they can be in their own houses, and even the whole family can be watching and learning from the same PC!
Virtual Cluster Learning is farm education modified, modernized, multiplied & made money-moving without a classroom!@517
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