The Team to Beat!

eSkwela has a great project team! Coupled with dedicated partners, this makes my role as the project manager a lot more manageable. True, the project has a long way to go - with all the possibilities and opportunities to enhance its design and widen its reach. But with such a great team working on the project, it makes the task less daunting.

I'm so happy with the recently concluded eSkwela Team Action Planning because the team members showed that they have really internalized their respective roles and responsibilities - admittedly, with much room to grow. We do have our numerous ups and downs, accomplishments and challenges, successes and frustrations - but hey! we're definitely making progress.

One thing I love about the group is that we're not afraid to learn from external experts and from each other - no airs, no hang-ups. What matters is we're constantly on the lookout to make the project work. And yes, we do know how to have fun in our own simple ways (sweldong gobyerno po...heheh!).

Para sa Bayan ito - go eSkwela Team! =D

And to all the eSkwela partners and collaborators - I'd just like to reiterate that the project won't survive without you...thank you for being there.

Ever so grateful,
Mel

P.S. I have yet to get a good team photo to post, so bear with this one for now...

The ADSOC Experience

Advocacy and Social Mobilization (ADSOC) is part of the duties of a mobile teacher of the Alternative Learning System (ALS) of the Department of Education. ADSOC activities are comprised of, but not limited to, determining the literacy profile of the community and gathering community data on the number of out-of-school youth and adults. The data gathered from these activities will help determine the targeted clientele of ALS.
I joined Angie and Irene, mobile teachers of Quezon City, in their ADSOC activity. We were tasked to go to Barangay Masagana in Project 4. Before even doing house to house visits, we had to do a courtesy call to the Chairman of Barangay Masagana. The chairman was not around, but we were met by Kagawad Ohm Aquino. Barangay Masagana had only a few ALS enrollees, and this is no different from the other barangays in Project 4. Project 4 is one of the wealthier communities in Quezon City. All ALS learners in Project 4 are enrolled in the ALS Center of Kalantiaw Elementary School. So we ended up going around Project 4. We talked to an Instructional Manager at the ALS Center at Kalantiaw ES, and told us that they have about 60 learners at the center. We also visited Barangay Socorro, since we were told that there were computers at their barangay. We proposed the possibility of putting up an eSkwela center at their barangay, but we were told that we'd have to ask the permission of the Veterans Freedom Party, who happen to be the owners of the computer. I just left my contact number with them, in case there is a possibility of a partnership. We also tried to get in touch with the chairman of Barangay UP Village, since we were told that he is also interested in setting up an eSkwela center in their barangay.

Overall, this first attempt by Angie and I to engage in ADSOC (Irene is the more experienced mobile teacher) was a fruitful learning experience.

Here are the pictures of our ADSOC experience: http://picasaweb.google.com/mauisalang/ALSADSOC

Welcome to the eSkwela Blog

Hello, welcome to the eSkwela Blog. Here you can read up on recent developments related to the eSkwela Project - in blog fashion. Every now and then, do expect a stream of unadulterated and less structured ideas and thoughts from the Project Team as they go through the task of establishing eSkwela Centers all over the archipelago. Be it on eSkwela's project management, content development, community mobilization, teacher training, monitoring and evaluation, ICT use - you will find it here at The eSkwela Blog.

I apologize for the rather straightforward name of our blog. We will make it up on the content.

We do hope that by maintaining this blog, the eSkwela Project Team can share the skill and experience it has and will inevitably acquire, and will be a well of creative ideas to educators, government/NGO/development workers, project implementers, ICT and e-learning advocates, and YOU.

For starters, below is the textbook definition of eSkwela:

The eSkwela Project, a word play on the Filipino equivalent of "school", is a flagship project of the Commission on Information and Communications Technology (CICT), through its Human Capital Development Group (HCDG), that is envisioned to provide ICT-enhanced educational opportunities for Filipino out-of-school-youth and adults. The initiative responds directly to a national development priority and will bring e-learning opportunities and ICT for learning resources to mobile teachers / instructional managers and out-of-school learners in the Philippines in an exciting, innovative, and locally meaningful way.