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SPECIAL DELIVERY: AN INSIDER'S LOOK AT THE TEXT2TEACH PROJECT
By Timothy Tuason

WE LEFT MANILA AT 7AM; THE ROAD ahead was long, not because we had to travel the 100 or so kilometers that lay between us and Sto. Tomas, Batangas, but because we had to contend with the twisted, snarling traffic that snaked its way through the city. We were on a four-day mission, all of us: we were going to do extensive documentation on the text2teach project, which meant we would be talking to a legion of teachers, school heads, students and parents – all of whom were participating in or directly benefiting from the project. That would be no mean feat. Sitting in the car, I wondered what the next four days would do to me. I wondered if I would be a different person by the time Friday rolled around and we headed home; little did I know how significant this trip would be, and what I would take back with me to Manila.

We followed our directives as faithfully as possible. We met with all the teachers and principals; we went to all the schools; we spoke to students with bright, beaming faces, eager for knowledge and still looking a long way down the road of their life. We asked many questions about how the project had affected students’ mastery of the concepts being taken up in class, and whether the teachers and the school heads observed a positive impact on the learning of the children. We got overwhelmingly similar responses from everyone we spoke to; all the teachers and the school heads agreed that what was happening was a good thing, and that the technology was helping the students comprehend the lesson in completely new ways. The students couldn’t hide the fact that they were learning more, and enjoying science more. More than a few students told us that they wanted to become scientists when they grow up.

Two days into our mission, it became clear to me that we were on to something here; as far as the teachers were concerned, this project was making a significant impact on actual learning in the classroom. While in transit to one of the last schools of the day, I thought about how the technology probably meant different things to different people. In Europe, the Nokia 260S is an entertainment device, a receiver for digital satellite broadcasts and a personal video recorder as well, this means you can not only receive the television broadcasts, but also record your shows without the need for a Ph.D. in VCR operation. Now – and pardon my terminology here – this first-world entertainment device has become a third-world solution in the delivery of quality education. This is video on demand for classrooms everywhere, and the more I contemplated on the potentials of the technology, the more I became convinced that it would be a formidable weapon against the marginalization that has resulted from what has become the new byword for the millennium – the digital divide. But it isn’t just the technology that works; the entire delivery and support system has been designed to maximize the use of the KnowledgeBox Videos used in the classroom. Each lesson – video, activities and discussion – is founded on a specially crafted lesson plan that incorporates activities and the videos in a package that arouses students’ interest and encourages greater participation in the learning process.

The effectiveness of moving pictures in learning is a phenomenon I am intimately familiar with. I believe that television programs were instrumental in expanding and developing my worldview as I was growing up. Direct experience only counts for so much of what I know, the rest of my understanding of the world is a result of me experiencing things vicariously, through moving pictures on a television screen. Experts in adult learning like Malcolm Knowles tell us that we retain about 50 percent of what we see and hear, while we only retain 20 percent of what we hear. No wonder I still remember snippets of the Electric Company a quarter of a century after its last episode aired on Philippine television.

Video goes a long way in expanding a student’s knowledge beyond what she or he can experience directly through the immediate surroundings. It surpasses a still photograph in a book, because the student sees what is actually happening; she or he sees the lion racing across the plain in pursuit of its prey, or the movement of molecules in convection currents. And then, in five seconds, the student suddenly understands what might have taken hours to explain verbally; the student suddenly “gets it” – the interaction, the relationships, the causes and effects. Once that happens, it becomes a part of the student’s body of knowledge, and it becomes another piece in the child’s worldview puzzle that she or he slowly builds over time.

With the coming of Friday, and the completion of our tasks, I took the long road home from Batangas with something fresh and new. I wondered what it was for a while, and then it hit me – it was hope. I got home more convinced than ever that if the right technology finds its way to people who get the short shrift in life, there’s hope for fairness in our divided world.

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