Community Electronic and Media Library (Online or Offline)

COMMUNITY ELECTRONIC AND MEDIA LIBRARY

I salute the dedication of our EDUCATORS (in San Remigio, Antique) for their personal sacrifices in exchange for a survival pay. However they are inhibited by the lack of resources and they can only do so much with chalk and black board and the national curriculum that fall so short of the international standards.

Here is the opportunity to increase the exposure of the students to what is happening in the

field of education in the developed countries and somehow increase general knowledge.

Using simple technology, the advantages are enormous provided the community contributes in little ways to start and implement this project.

Raspberry pi

Raspberry pi is a computer module that runs on gnu/LINUX – an open-source free software as operating system (same as windows and mac). Simple to set up with basic computing skills required. This can be configured as a fully functional COMPUTER or customized as a MEDIA CENTER which can be used specifically as a presentation device. This can be scaled up to be part of a network to be used in classroom or library to do simple task as browsing the internet, word processor and spread sheets.

The significance of this setup to the project is it can be installed anywhere where it is needed such as barangay hall, community center or at home where electricity is available.

MECHANICS

There should be an organizer to lead the group in the locality and may provide assistance such as interpretation from english or technical terms. Media presentations/ topic will be determined by the organizer based on the learning needs of the group at a particular time.

With the assumption that there is no internet connection available, contents will be loaded though USB stick. Contents will be provided by volunteers/partners who have internet connection to secure the media (video instructional) from the internet. Contents can also created by volunteers as part of a community project or a school project.

  
If the internet connection is available, this project will be scaled up to access the Khan Academy: a free world-class education for anyone anywhere. That means inside the classroom or outside of class room.

Other important uses would be to provide video tutorials about anything to raise awareness about technology that happens outside the confines of our barangay or town. It could be about agricultural technology that happen in other countries, video tutorial about certain electronic project, arts and crafts, home industry – possibilities are endless.

A more advanced electronic and media library can be implemented using a traditional computer system running  on linux  and can be accessed using laptop, tablet and smart phones.

Again, as I highlighted before that the educational system that is available in our community is not good enough to teach us to be internationally competitive, this is the only way we could help our people elevate their knowledge base to keep up with the changing world around us.

How much I've miss out

Looking back 30 years ago I thought I was smart and that I got a good education. I was wrong.  I only realize the opportunity for children my age in other parts of the world, the world we know as the developed world and how it passed the time line parallel to mine and yet so far and so different. The education I had taught me co-dependence, service and hard work yet it did not teach me to be an individual and to be critical.

Twenty years after finishing a college degree I am still wondering what could have happened had I been taught critical thinking.

I have a chance to get out of my comfort zone and went to work in a developed country, started a family and now I can compare the way my son is being taught at school and the way I was taught. I can clearly see the big difference in the learning opportunity he enjoys although most children his age take it for granted. They never have to bring pencil and paper to school. They have activity books that are so simple but systematic. They have access to computers and internet and many online learning sites. Assignments can be done online. There are a lot of related educational trips.

Outside of school learning opportunities are endless ranging from educational television programs to structured play sessions. Not like in the Philippines where children are glued to cartoons and tele novela which I can conclude not quite educational.

It is not only the educational system but the unavailability of technology can be attributed to the lack of opportunity.

Now I have the educational and technological opportunity,  I don't have the luxury of time. I can only make up for the things that matter most.

I would like to share the little opportunity that I have to children and everyone interested by means of technology.