Mary Jane Camarador

The Good, the Better,
and the Best Practices
in Information-Age Education

MARY JANE S. CAMARADOR teaches communication subjects at the SLSU. She finished her Bachelor of Arts in Speech Communication degree at the University of the Philippines, Diliman. She currently pursues a post graduate degree in Communication Arts at the University of the Philippines, Los Baños. She is in her second year of teaching.

Best practices, like benchmarking, synergy, outsourcing, online and open-university learning, high and low product endings, and focal group discussions, is not just a globalized-economy, tech-heavy and an in-thing jargon. “Best practices” is a means to catalogue experiences from different sectoral and institutional partners. Best practices can be done through conferences, formal discussion, and as we presently experience heavy downpour of technological advances, this can also be done, especially and effectively, using the internet. Best practices topics and issues in education proliferate in the net. And though the net comes in handy in doing researches and instant book reviews, there couldn’t be any better than having your own Best-Practices and unabridged book to review the old-fashioned and pre-Best Practices age way—non-virtual, that is a book made with real pulp and paper.

There are some repackaged concepts and ideas that you can find in the book “Best Practices in Journalism Education in the Information Age Proceedings” which some may find a bit usual and ordinary—the internet, learning, journalism, etc. The book, edited by Violet B. Valdez, Executive Director of CFJ; Mark Vincent Escaler, Officer-in-Charge of the Ateneo’s Department of Communications; Chay Florentino Hofileña, veteran journalist and Program Director for post-graduate journalism program, also of the Ateneo; and Werner Von Busch, member of the CFJ Executive Board, explains the need for a whole new parameter in journalism education, that is, using the millennia tool for education, a.k.a. the internet.

The Konrad Adenauer Center for Journalism (CFJ ) at the Ateneo de Manila University is basically a training center for students all over Asia. The Jesuit cum Non-Government Organization institution offers degree and non-degree programs using methods in online learning. Its major concern is the development of Journalism Education in Asia—the rudiments of diverse culture, politics and economics that affects the very fiber of journalism. Its method capitalizes on the power of internet to facilitate virtual classrooms for students.

The book comprises four panels, all tackling different aspects about online education. The first panel, aptly titled “Breaching the Limits” discusses processes beyond norms in traditional education. It speaks about context during the first stage of online learning. The big difference of traditional classroom setting is being compared to a virtual classroom for a virtual teacher and virtual students. From all indications cited by the book, there are, expectedly, limitations and disadvantages of not having a face-to-face interaction, like how is the teacher-student relationship (read: pedagogy) quantifiably differs in a physical classroom compared to a virtual one.

The second panel—“Managing Participation” discusses how limitations such as the one cited above could be managed. It also describes and suggests maximization on the various internet-based technologies like electronic mails, discussion groups, and chat. But formal learning isn’t all about giving lessons and workshops, online or otherwise. Assessment and evaluation plays a critical role in education. This process was discussed in the third panel, “Assessing Performance” where it mainly deals with evaluating and monitoring the performance of net-based students.

Having worked for the academe as an instructor, determining the level of understanding for virtual students can be daunting to say the least. There are just too many factors that need to be considered. Language, both verbal and non-verbal, could pose a serious problem in evaluating online student’s understanding of a lesson or a project.

“Trends and Future” cites technology and education developments that can be indicated in online pedagogy. The last panel also discusses the challenges that an institution like CFJ will face in the continual coming of the Information Age.

Best Practices in Journalism Education in the Information Age: Proceedings is a rarity for teachers, instructors or professors undertaking and planning to undertake online learning. The book critically balanced the pros and cons and the ifs and buts of the globalized trend of internet-based learning.

The proceeding though it describes online teaching can also be useful in teaching communication theories because of the following reasons:

Communication theories deal with different theories under the seven traditions according to Craig: Rhetorical, Socio-Psychological, Cybernetics, Semiotics, Socio-Cultural, Critical and Phenomenological. Meaning, theories come from just about everything. This book can be magnified under some of the traditions like Cybernetics and Socio-Cultural traditions.

Second, a number of fresh insights and strategies were mentioned. A good reference material for teachers and students:

(a) Teacher-student relationship is compared to a master-apprentice relationship. The teacher is responsible to create a fair class interaction. But how would that be possible in the internet? It is also a challenge to the teacher to make the class discussions—discussion-boards or chats in online teaching—interesting or interactive.

(b) Since this is an online learning, emotional bond seems nil. For the traditional classroom setting, teacher meets and sees the students every meeting. The teacher can speak face-to-face, and be able to see the students’ non-verbal but equally meaningful signs. Virtual classroom is different. The teacher will not be able to see his students. There is no face-to-face (read: physical) interaction.

(c) The issue in diversity of culture. The teacher can have an international class in an online learning. Students from different nations or regions have different cultures. Time-zone can also be considered a valid issue for a global-classroom. But then again, business process outsourcing, more popularly known as call centers, proliferates in the country. Adjusting body clocks vis a vis time zones can be learned, ironically, in time.

Third, the dissimilarity of traditional teaching versus online teaching does not necessarily mean that one method is better than the other. Both have their own proverbial strengths and weaknesses. It is how or when or what to use which method, and in what context, that one can be better than the other.

Talk about being mobile frenzy in this SMS cum chat-age world, this book can be helpful: It can help students from different places and time zones share knowledge (best practices anyone?) in this new media and millenia. We can breach time. We do not need to hurry or be stuck in traffic, or as in my case, won’t be able to spend for transportation fares bloated by skyrocketing oil prices. With the help of this book—all the insights and information it gives—teaching and learning can be more interesting, exciting and more thought-provoking.

Reference

Valdez, Violet B. et. al. 2005. Best Practices in Journalism Education in the Information Age Proceedings. Quezon City: Ateneo de Manila University.