Upi, Maguindanao is nestled between mountains. Its location poses difficulties in the delivery of distance learning through on-line lessons.   It is not just a matter of access to the internet.  There are severe limitations in the ownership of laptops, PCs, and smart phones among teachers and parents.  Most importantly, teachers are handicapped with respect to content.  I used to buy teachers’ manuals and students’ workbooks when I was teaching grade 3 students.  I needed models on how to present lessons creatively, construct work exercises, and ask questions to assess students’ understanding.  Currently, the internet provides samples of these.  In many cases however, the user has to pay a subscription to gain full access to learning materials.

The Mayor of Upi, Ramon Piang, decided to help address these limitations. He organized a “writeshop” to develop learning modules to ensure that students could start working on them by the time school opens.

He invited the teachers to assemble in the town hall wearing masks and observing physical distancing.  The Mayor set up a big screen on the stage to project the zoom meeting .But the sound came out so bad that we eventually turned the system off.  The teachers shared computer screens or used their smart phones.

Our first problem was to get an interactive discussion.  I found it hard to call the participants since their names did not appear on the screen.  Many others were using their smart phones and had no access to a screen or to a chat box.  So, I asked them to write their ideas and use the microphones to share their answers.

The second problem was more difficult.  How do we develop the lessons when teachers and student have a distant relationship?  It would have been easier if all the students were able to read independently and follow instructions.  But the reality is that more than a quarter of elementary students have difficulties in reading.  So, we need to be a Pollyanna to assume that students will understand the lessons just by reading them.  All that could be done is to present the lesson in the most interesting way using poems, drawing, stories, and problems that they can solve.  Learning Mathematics independently is more difficult.   Normally, children need to go through three stages in learning: manipulation of real objects, working with semi-abstract materials such as drawings, and moving to abstract exercises using numbers.  Now, we expect them to learn number processes without the process of manipulation.  The same is true in learning science where children should be able to use all their senses to observe, compare, and analyze before they can generalize.  Distance learning may over-emphasize the learning of facts instead of developing process-skills and learning through discovery.

The third problem was with respect to writing our thoughts. Many of us can communicate our thoughts orally but find it difficult to write them down clearly and simply.  Framing questions are tricky especially those that begin with “do”, “does” or “did”.  “Did the parents go here yesterday?  “Does the children plays in the field? “  Agreement of tenses and subject and predicate is not simple for many of us who speak English as a second language.  Thinking in Filipino and translating sentences into English hinders fluency.

We could not help but laugh with the fourth and fifth problem.  The Mayor joined us but he was on and off the system because the internet signal was so unreliable.   And the last one, the brownout, we could not do anything about.

Remote learning is complicated and it will take a village to make it succeed. [email protected]