Specially In This New Age Of Webinars, Presentation Must Lead To Communication!

Webinars here, webinars there: The institutional as well as individual excitements are on! when it comes to appearing online as a guest lecturer or speaker in a special webcast. Good – and Bad.

Above image shows one of the photo albums included in “UPLB Today” Facebook page (shared by NJ Anastacio). Readable entries are “CBSUA Academic Affairs And Policy Summit 2021” and “University of the Philippines Los Baños added 18 new photos to the album #UPLB Today.” CBSUA is the Central Bicol State University located in San Jose, Pili, Camarines Sur, Southern Luzon.

Exactly! What is the CBSUA image doing in a UPLB Facebook page is not explicit – notimplicit either. #UPLB Today has quite a number of those albums – each one without title and without description. Someone slipping on the job.

The above cluttered image reflects what I call “This New Age Of Webinars” – good for personal exposure, not-so-good for science or knowledge gained being transferred from one person to many – because there is hardly any attempt to communicate, that is, to make the non-technical people understand “scientific language.”

Like: A technical presentation via PowerPoint is made – but there is no effort of the presenter to translate the knowledge into something memorable, something familiar.

Apropos to this, let me tell you I am a UPLB alumnus, BSA Ag Edu ’65, a teacher with a Civil Service Professional license. Which should imply my double interests in studying and teaching. Sometime in 1980, I invented what I called “Communication for Development (ComDev),” which was intentionally my personal statement on the value of UPLB Professor Nora Quebral’s concept of “Development Communication(DevCom).” While ComDev is explicit communication to promote the development of villages; DevCom does not mention development as an aim.

Professor Nora’s DevCom is “science presentation” – that’s all. That phrase in quotes precisely describes the webinars here and there in the Philippines: Roughly, each webinar is 90% Presentation, 10% Communication. 90% to impress, 10% to express.

Clearly, to me a digital writer (blogger) and editor (desktop publisher) in the last 34 years, since 1987, current presentations for PH webinars must be rewritten & edited to be 90% popular and 10% technical in language.

So now let me ask: In those PH webinars, what are experts and/or resource persons communicating? Their acquired sets of knowledge and/or their specialties in any of the sciences. Now, who remembers what is being said in any of those webinars? My generous guess is 10 among 100 – and then again, vaguely. Why because those presenters of papers and/or new knowledge have not been priorly made conscious of the need for less presentation in technical language, and more communication in popular language.

So today, webinars are good for presenters, not learners!

If you want to graduate from presentation of science or knowledge to communication, without paying for an editor, you can get ideas simply reading my blog:

BraveNewWorld@PH
(bravenewworldph.blogspot.com)

Sorry to say: Today’s reality with PH webinars is that they are 90% Presentation and only 10% Communication. It should be the other way around.@517

PCAARRD, Thanks For Your eLibrary – Here’s An Even Better Idea!

In PCAARRD’s Facebook sharing accompanied by the image above (essentially), good news: “Over 7,000 Agriculture, Aquatic, and Natural Resources… publications can now be accessed in the PCAARRD eLibrary for FREE!”

Two links: “Visit our website: https://elibrary.pcaarrd.dost.gov.ph/slims/” and “How to use PCAARRD eLibrary: https://bit.ly/HowToPCAARRDeLib” and then these links:

“Ask a librarian”
“Suggest a book”
“List of newly acquired materials”
and
“Recent List.”
“Material Search Filters.”

Your eLibrary is a good idea, but I get confused. Many links to mind! Which all means I have to spend at least 10 minutes clicking those links and maybe finding what interests me.

I am an alumnus of UP Los Baños and I worked for PCAARRD years ago – so I have a good idea what your eLibrary offers. What happens to an eKnowledge searcher who has no idea?

Okay, I’m watching your automatic-continuous display of covers:
Organic Agriculture, Gardening Using EPP Technology, Tilapia Culture, Rubber And Cacao, Vegetable Gardening, Mangrove Crab, Citrus Fiesta…

I click Organic Agriculture and nothing happens!

(I went back to the website and clicked again – nothing again.)

Anyway, you have a good list of topics:

Agri-Aqua Systems
Agricultural Machineries
Agricultural Resource Management
Agriculture
Biology
Communications
Crops
Ecology
Education
Environmental Science
Fisheries
Forestry
Genetics
Health and Wellness
Library and Information Science
Livelihood
Livestock
Marine Aquatic
Nutrition
Ornamental plants
Science and Technology
Social Sciences
Socio-Economics
Soil Resources
Technology Transfer
Veterinary Medicine
Water Resources
Wildlife

I try to register – I get lost. Anyway, it tells me that you are first interested in counting the number of those who use your website and not whether you are being of good service to them or not. It’s been about 20 minutes and your eLibrary is notmaking things easy for me to search for the eKnowledge that I am interested in.

If I may suggest: PCAARRD should instead build an eKnowledgeBank that can answer any blind question about the latest knowledge and/or conjectures in Agriculture, Aquaculture, and Natural Resources Research and Development, which are its areas of expertise. PCAARRD is almost 50 years old – half a century – and should know much!

If your eLibrary were much more user-friendly, for instance, I visit your website and just type these words:

goat raising,
Asingan,
source of stocks,
capital needed,
people with experience in or near Asingan,
market prospects,

and your eLibrary would be giving me instant replies on each of those queries!

(Your eLibrary would know that “Asingan” is in Pangasinan. And it would tell me about the market prospects as of such & such dates.)

And since I am into communication for development, I would also be interested in asking your eLibrary such questions as:

ü most common pitfalls in goat raising
ümost successful provinces in goat raising
ümost important consideration in goat raising.

Oh, and by the way, PCAARRD, aren’t your publications all technical? Have pity on the non-technical people and beforehand“translate” the science into common language, if not common knowledge.

You must assume that the ones visiting your eLibrary know little science or almost none – so help them!@517

Youth Education – Nourishing Multiple Intelligences Into Multiple Entrepreneurs

Joei Villarama, proprietor of Abot Tala, a non-traditional school for youth in Manila, is having a difficult time teaching her own children.

Today, Sunday, 06 June 2021, a leisurely Sunday, I saw on Facebook Ms Joei’s sharing, “Homeschooling Is Not Easy” (upper image). She says:

Homeschooling is not easy, all the more during this time when there is no other choice… My husband and I don’t see eye to eye on certain things about homeschooling but we both want what’s best for our children even if we may have different methods… Dealing with differences is a part of life.

“Homeschooling is not easy.” Because current teaching methods are difficult! “Dealing with differences is a part of life,” she says. Inadvertently, that is her clue to excellent education!

This is a teacher speaking, with a Civil Service Professional license, obtained 1964 in the very first Teacher’s Exam given in the Philippines. 80.6%, sans reviewers.

In 1999, for the Cahbriba Alternative School founded by Pilar Habito with husband Cielito F Habito (NEDA Director General), to raise funds for the high schoolers, I packaged a proposal I simply called “Y2K.” That was the time of the forecasted millennium bug called “Y2K,” referring to Year 2000, which experts predicted will cause a digital world crash, destroying all wealth. Y2K was scaring people all over the world. Not scared, the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA) approved my Y2K for a P1 million funding.

Via CIDA, the Canadians showed that they knew what was good for schooling!

My Y2K proposal embodied Harvard professor Howard Gardner’s revolutionary theory of education that he called Multiple Intelligences (MI), plural. MI teaches that there are 9 intelligences in each of us:
“bodily-kinesthetic“ – gift with mobility;
“existential“ – gift with understandinghuman life;
“interpersonal“ – gift with relatingwith others;
“intrapersonal“ – gift with understandingself;
“musical“ – gift with sounds;
“naturalist“ – gift with understandingnature;
“linguistic“ – gift with language;
“logical-mathematical“ – gift with analyzingproblems; and
“spatial“ – gift with the arts.
(intelligence image^[1]from University of Tennessee)

My MI advice to Ms Joei 1 or 2 years ago was that MI was the best way you can inject in education an exciting voyage of discovery for every learner, no exceptions. There are no dull individual learners, only undiscovered individual talents!

Once the youth find their individual talents via MI, on their own they will gladly find ways to improve themselves.

So, we can use MI to encourage the youth to discover that which to them is the Undiscovered Territory of Agriculture (UTA). Examples of UTA research:

Bodily-kinesthetic– discover how to reduce farming motions.

Existential– discover people’s motivations.

Interpersonal– discover how successful farmers relatewith others.

Intrapersonal– discover what counter-productive habits people have.

Musical– discover what music inspires which animals.

Naturalist– discover how nature can help.

Linguistic– discover how to turn science into practice.

Logical-Mathematical – discover what makes an enterprise successful by the numbers.

Spatial– discover how art can move farmers to succeed.

As you can see and feel, MI makes both teaching and learning exciting – isn’t that doubly beautiful?!@517

 

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[1]https://www.uthsc.edu/tlc/intelligence-theory.php

How A Well-Rounded Editor In Chief Can Help A Digital Publication Grow & Thrive

A WFH Writer and Editor, I browse Facebook several times a day, as I know people are using Facebook as a convenient modern medium of communication to the world. Mostly. Welcome to The Digital Club!

I look for either news or views on agriculture and related subjects, and that’s how I found that CropLifePhilippines (https://www.croplife.org.ph) has a digital publication, Good Harvest[1](upper image). This is the 4^th monthly issue, dated June 2021, which I have downloaded easily. Now I want to help CropLife improve its publication, and others beside.

First, the name is notoriginal – I googled  for “good harvest” and I got 1.9 million results! You want to be original, to be remembered as only you.

Next, there is a cover but no Table Of Contents.

While the individual articles are worthy in themselves, they do not cite sources of data or information, and thereby lack credibility.

In the article “Improving Soil Health: Key To Improving Vegetable Yield,” there is no author given. Also, the article is not quite credible, as it cites only one authority (never mind who), from Iowa State University, and not one from the Philippines.

The article “Best Veggies For Startup Backyard Gardens” merely repeats what is already contained in the guide published by the Agricultural Training Institute (ATI). Instead, that article could have simply summarized the ATI publication and come up with its own recommendations. Why reproduce an existing publication in your publication?

There is another portion of the publication with the title “Best Practices.” And no, it does NOT deal with “best practices” for vegetables while it mentions only unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) or drones with the subtitle, “UAV Applications On Vegetables In Asia Show Promise.”

The article “The Tomorrow Of Agriculture” by Leopoldo C Valdez of CB Andrews Asia Inc mentions “The Agricultural Revolution” as composed of:
1. improved crop growing methods and models
2. advances in livestock breeding
3. invention of new farm equipment
4. discovery of the laws of inheritance by Gregor Mendel, an Augustinian friar.
Too short, hence not quite credible.

And Good Harvest has an extra-long article on gene editing, which tells me CropLife’s main interest lies in new crops created by gene manipulation.

Here’s Good Harvest quoting Jordan Baoedang as saying that he and fellow farmers of Buguias, Benguet are still recovering from their losses during these months of lockdown – and does not say anything about how things will improve.

Finally, I note that, curiously, the publication has zero editorial staff! CropLife can afford the staff expense, but perhaps it has not found good candidates. At the very least, CropLife should look for an Editor In Chief, someone digitally literate, someone who has the unifying power of insight – intimated above, lower image. (Me, I’m volunteering as a one-man band, WFH. Sim Cuysonknows how to contact me, via ELR.)

From my 46 years of editorial experience in publications, print and digital, I see that Good Harvest suffers because there is no knowledgeable Editor In Chief minding the business!@517

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[1]https://us7.campaign-archive.com/?u=f400d4d770aeee1cb3e0b54a6&id=4a2376f041

Steve Jobs’ Single Lesson On Creativity That Made Apple The Biggest Company Ever

I love to write. To write to show my genius in concocting stories or fiction? No, to write so that I help people think better, think of winning ways. That is to say:

Many Things,
Many Thinks,
Winning Ways!

And you? Maybe not write but think of better ways, even brilliant ways out of something or other. If you don’t know it yet, you can learn to do it. We have a simple lesson from Steve Jobs.

Steve Jobs was/is my idol of idols – creative, unrelenting, undefeated. Loved the digital world and what he could do to bring out its wonders: Applepersonal computer (PC), music on call at the push of a button (iPod), handy PC-in-1 (iPad), Macintosh– all business with pleasure.

To him, it was pleasure first, business second.

This morning, Tuesday, 25 May 2021 in Manila, I saw the Facebook sharing of VP Alfie (top image): “The only way to do great work is to love what you do – Steve Jobs.” (That’s how he and his great friend Steve Wozniakinvented the PC as we know it: body, monitor, mouse, keyboard, hard disk, floppy disk (now replaced with hard disk & flash drive).

Thank you, Steves! I am now 80+, thank God. Now, let me tell you how, since January 2020, I have been writing and blogging every single day! Including holidays of obligation. (And yes I do everything from blank screen to blog: Google for data & information, type the many drafts onscreen; edit; tighten; revise; and finalize into a short essay of exactly 517 words[1]including title, excluding name of author.)

Above, lower image is my Werk From Home (WFH) Kingdom. Werk, not Work because I love what I’m doing!

My way of creative thinking is from the “Po Technique” of another intellectual genius, Edward De Bono.

In the Po Technique, there are no negatives. Everything has positives, even a negative. (Try it sometime!)

Po explains how since about the year 2005, I have blogged about 5,000 long essays (1,000+ words each), and 1,000 short essays (517 words each, such as this one); that is to say: I have written and blogged thousands of essays, some of them similar or of the same topics, without plagiarizing myself!

I think the best way you can learn from me is notfor me to teach you directly how to think or how to come up with your stories, their twists and turns, but for you to read me and see for yourself those twists and turns!

I love to write, yes – not because I love to brag about how good I am at writing but to show you how good you yourself can be as teacher, persuader, initiator, motivator, follow-upper, cheerer.

Especially when it comes to Philippine Agriculture, which needs all the cheerers it can get!

I want to inspire you to do good, or to do better in what you’re doing, as long as it needs some thinking!@517

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[1]“517” being the number of letters in my byline: Frank A Hilario.

On Extension, PH’s Agricultural Training Institute (ATI) Is Good – How To Make Better!

The Agricultural Training Institute (ATI) of the Department of Agriculture (DA) prides itself as “Home of E-Extension” as far as the Philippine government is concerned (upper image[1], ATI.gov.ph), which it is – except that you have a double limitation: number of courses offered, 18; ergo, number of experts engaged by ATI!

No, neither do you have unlimited subjects nor can you ask that the training be a perfect fit for you, your farm and location. Sorry. Farmers cannot be choosers! If like me you want to choose more than 1 crop or more than 1 location (lower image)? No can do.

As of now, ATI limits you to this list of 18 “e-Learning Technokits” posted by Marianne Antonioon 25 July 2019 at the institute’s website – not alphabetized, not numbered, not updated, not edited:

Cacao Techno Kit
Highland Vegetable Production Kit
Organic Fertilizer Production Kit
Durian Production Kit
Lowland Vegetable Production Kit
Cashew Production Kit
The Philippine Cattle Industry
Broiler Production
Bangus Techno Kit
Hog Finishing Production Information Kit
Meat Processing TechnoKit
Coffee Production Kit
Corn TechnoKit
Citrus Production Kit
Mango 1: Mango Processing Information Guide
Mango 2: A Guide to Mango Production
Total Quality and Productivity for Rice
Banana Production Guide.

As extension stands today, with ATI you have to rely only on the expert. The problem is: What you’re going to be told is what you’re going to be told – you have no choice! Your trainor knows everything and you hardly know anything.

Your favorite crop may already be in the list – but how will your training fit your location, soil, water supply, not to mention market? How will you deal with alternative techniques of growing, like chemical vs organic?

The ATI is not ready to deal with a farmer like you who must deal with local realities. The problem is not the expert but the fact that the ATI has no Knowledge Bank.

With a full-blown Knowledge Bank, the ATI  could adapt an existing e-course for you, or even fashion a new one according to your needs.

Today, what the ATI expert knows is what s/he knows, that’s all.

I cannot point to you an example of a Knowledge Bank existing here or abroad. The ATI Knowledge Bank should contain much of the science and experiences with all the Philippine farm crops, livestock and fisheries you could think of, in order to cater to anyone. Science must be open, not simply possessed by experts with whom you are forced to be trained.

And yes: Science must be democratic – if the farmer doesn’t like your science, such as crop, produce or method, you cannot force it on that poor fellow!

More importantly, the Knowledge Bank must show the farmer how to be a good entrepreneur.

(The Knowledge Bank must be also for those who do not wish to be trained but are interested in learning by themselves so much agriculture or so much fisheries.)

The customer is always right! That goes with farmers too if you want to train them well.@517

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[1]https://ati.da.gov.ph/ati-main/director/09022019-1714/e-learning-technokits

PhilRice, Here Am I Checking How User-Friendly Is Your PalayCheck!?

A not-so-poor farmer’s son from Sanchez, Asingan, Pangasinan, I am an agriculture graduate of the premier agricultural university in the Philippines, UP Los Baños, 1965, BSA major in Ag Edu – I should know much about the growing of rice, right? Well, I don’t!

Right now, I’m thinking of how PH Agriculture with Secretary of Agriculture William Dar can serve the information needs of the 10 million Filipino farmers[1], as counted-reported by Zoilo “Bingo” Dejaresco III (12 September 2019, “The Tragedy Of The Filipino Rice Farmers,” Businessmirror.ph). Our farmers cannot grow enough rice, so we have to import – and the traders take advantage of all of us! We have to help our own farmers grow more rice.

If half of them planted only rice, that would give us 5 million farmers. To do right for everyone, we have to make sure that for those 5 million, their costs are minimum, their harvests are maximum, and their returns optimum.

Are we teaching them well? I will now check not by asking the farmers but by referring to their source of instructions or guide about planting irrigated lowland rice. So, here I am reading out the entries in Pinoy Rice Knowledge Bank[2] (Pinoyrice.com).

This is the first thing that appears on the website:

PalayCheck is a dynamic rice crop management system that:
(1) Presents the best key technology and management practices as Key Checks;
(2) Compares farmer practices with the best practices; and
(3) Learns through farmers’ discussion group to sustain improvement in productivity, profitability, and environment safety.

What is (all) that?! I expected farmer-friendly instructions, but it does not even present examples of “the best key technology and management practices!”

(I checked and, no, not even the IRRI Rice Knowledge Bank is farmer-friendly; likewise, it is only expert-friendly!)

Immediately, we need a Rice Knowledge Bank that even a high school student can understand and appreciate. For the sake of our farmers, ultimately for our sake.

As a lowland rice farmer of Asingan, Pangasinan, immediately I would need instructions or pieces of advice, such as these:

ü How much should I loan from our Nagkaisa Multipurpose Cooperative good for one cropping?
ü Which of the available hybrid rice varieties is best for my farm in barangay Sanchez?
ü How many kilos do I sow for transplanting?
ü How soon should I transplant?
ü What is the best distance for planting? Why?
ü Should I use the transplanter?
ü When is the best time to plant?
ü Where can I buy organic fertilizers? If I want to make my own, how do I do it?
ü What about organic pesticides? Instead, how do I make my own?

All that and more a farmer-friendly Rice Knowledge Bank should contain.

Not to forget – the language should be plain English even a high school student understands. (Later, the translations into Tagalog, Ilocano, Bisaya etc.)

My message to Mr Dar now is this:

Let us create a farmer-friendly Rice Knowledge Bank! (Websites for other crops can come later, when we’re happy with rice.)@517

[1]https://businessmirror.com.ph/2019/09/12/the-tragedy-of-the-filipino-rice-farmers/#:~:text=TODAY%20there%20are%2010%20million,and%20they%20are%20in%20trouble.


[2]https://www.pinoyrice.com/palaycheck/