Newsletter - Nov 23

SU

VOLUME 1, ISSUE 4

ICT

CA M P

B UL L E T IN

CL

24 NOVEMBER 2008

A SUCCESS STORY, IN PROGRESS INSIDE THIS ISSUE:

A SUCCESS STORY, IN PROGRESS

1

IN OUR OWN WORDS—

2

JAKE LINDEN MORALES IN OUR OWN WORDS— VICTOR ROGER MANLUTAC

2

Sunday was a day of coming together for everybody at the first eSkwela ICT Camp, as November 23 began with entire team taking the stage for the first group photos of the event at 8:30 AM, and ended with all groups putting their final touches on their projects for Presentation Day on Monday, November 24. While the picturetaking went off without a hitch, pulling off completing their projects was a rather complicated proposition for some teams. For the Web Design track, team member Ivy Gamatero enthusiastically noted that her group finished early, and were perfectly ready to present. “We have secret weapons,” she said, gesturing to fellow team members Ian Joseph Omambac and Jan Rei Rodriguez. “We’ve started calling Ian ‘Webmaster’ because we Digital Storytelling track realized how good he was at coding on Kompozer. As it turned out, he’s webmaster of his own site, so we’re really lucky to have him. Same goes with Jan Rei, who is our resident content guy.

He’s a really good writer.” Ms. Gamatero notes, however, that “Despite the fact that some of us have our own specializations, this is really a group effort for all of us. While we’re at work, whoever’s not at the computer controls is observing, or doing research. We have a fair division of labor.” For the members of the Digital S toryt elling track, the question was not of division of labor, but of time. “To be honAudio Production track est, we’re not that excited about our presentation, because we know we can do much better,” confesses team member Jake Linden Morales. “We learned a lot from our resource person, but we wish we were able to get instruction from him and consult with him before we were allowed to gather materials. I wish we took more gadgets with us—video cameras, video editing software, canned music, and the like. When we went on the tour, we mostly took pictures, because we thought that’s all we’d need. It’s only now that we realize that we could have put in

Class Picture short movie clips and other resources that can be embedded on Open Office. Even then, we were able to source an .mp3 of the song “Pinoy Ako,” which is very apt for our theme, Filipino traits.”

On her end, Project-Based Learning resource person Prof. Pat Arinto counsels the participants against obsessing too much on the question of whether or not they deliver work that conforms to professional standards. “[They] have to remember that [many of them] came here with nearly zero knowledge of the track that they were assigned to,” she explains. “The mere fact that they have reached presentation day with finished projects means that they’ve already posted gains in terms of knowledge and skill.”

Video Editing track

VOLUME 1, ISSUE 4

Page 2

IN OUR OWN WORDS Now that the participants’ journey towards becoming content creators in their own right has officially started, some have allowed us to share their stories in this, the second part of our ongoing series, “In Our Own Words.”

GOING ON TOUR BY JAKE LINDEN MORALES

My ICT Camp adventure began when I was chosen , among several other learners in the QC center, to join the ICT camp at CLSU. Upon our arrival on Wednesday, November

19, I learned I was picked to be part of the Digital Story Telling Track and with this, a new journey towards knowledge opened up for me. Over the past few days since I came here to CLSU, I met new people from learning centers all over the country, and hopefully, they will become new friends. I’ve chatted about many different topics with them, but the most exciting part for me happened during the third day of our camp.

We went around the campus to gather materials concerning our assigned track. We started our tour with the Department of Fisheries. We saw a variety of fish like the Koi, which looked much nicer than the chubby circular tadpoles in the opposite pond. We also interviewed several students regarding their relationships with each other. Through this we gathered some insight regarding their interaction with one another.

A CLSU ADVENTURE

From there we went to the Mushroom Farm which had mushrooms bigger than an ear. We proceeded to the Carabao Center, where I tried to feed several of these tame-looking animals which i enjoyed. We also visited the goat pen at the center. Finally, we were brought to a place locals called “Little Baguio.” As I write this article, I’m on the fourth day of our camp and I can honestly say that I’m proud to be a participant in such an event. It is an important experience: I learned to work with other people and step out of my comfort zone. Interacting with each other made us collectively more creative, and allowed our creative juices to come out. It helps us think about how to achieve certain tasks, which makes the experience more exciting. I sincerely hope there could be another ICT camp in order for others to experience what I am talking about.

BY VICTOR ROGER MANLUTAC

The date: November 21, 2008. The organizers split us up into six groups. Each group is made up of people from different sites of Eskwela. Me and Ms. Irene Barzaga, both from the QC site, were assigned to the Video editing track. Our team was completed by our cocomembers Jey A. Orellano from Ormoc, Evan Echem from Cagayan de Oro, Ado Inigo C. Tribiana from Cebu, and Roy M. Bueno from San Jose Del Monte, Bulacan. Once we learned what our task was, we proceeded to brainstorm for the group project idea. This was very hard for me, because the instruc-

tions to simulate an interview were rather vague, and I personally didn’t have any idea for a topic like “The Interview”. That turned out to be a good thing somehow, because my group bonded and got the chance to know each other while we debated possible topics for our project. Honestly, though, what I’d expected was that the trainers had already made parts for our project, and that our purpose was just to assemble the parts into a whole. Imagine my surprise when I realized we had to start from scratch. After the time for brainstorming was up, we took a convoy of hired jeepneys along with the other groups for a tour around C.L.S.U. We went to the Department of

Fisheries, the Mushroom Center, the PCC’s Dairy Farm Office, Milk Processing Area, and Small Ruminant Center (featuring goat and sheep), and our last stop, Little Baguio. I was amazed how big the university was and and how many activities were going on inside the university 24/7. During our trip we took pictures and video clips that we thought we might need for our video editing. Luckily we manage to talk to some passing students and passerbys, who that agreed to be interviewed by our group. After we did our due diligence, we went right back to enjoying the tour. It was fun feeding the animals and talking to the care takers of the farm. I think everyone enjoyed it. I know I was happy to see some cute little baby goats.

On our way to the last stop of the tour, I realized I was already exhausted. As such, when we got to there,I and my fellow Quezon City participants grabbed the chance to take artistic and dramatic pictures because the location was so beautiful. I can say that this trip was great! We learned a lot of things. The place is so beautiful, as is the attitude of the people inside C.L.S.U specifically, the students and the caretakers. I know there are a lot of things we haven’t seen and need to know about C.L.S.U. because it’s just so vast. This is one of those experiences that you can tell to a friend. We have four more days to go, and I’m ready to learn more. And this is still the biggest university I’ve ever seen.