On Module Writing and Teacher Shaming

 A few years back, I was commissioned to write modules by the Ayala Foundation for Centex’s teacher training programs. I also had the pleasure of working with YGoal, a social development and training agency, for a module on youth development for the BPI Foundation. I have good memories of the experience. I learned a lot.

I worked with good friends to begin with. The foundations and agency that ran the project were very supportive of our needs and respected our vision, as well as our temperaments (mine especially). There was team work, collaboration and a lot of fun! Given the chance, in this day and circumstances, I will do it again when offered the job especially if the project benefits children, families and educators.

Writing a module for young learners, on the one hand, is different from creating a module for adults. Learning concepts, theories and approaches in pedagogy are important to the former. Principles in andragogy are applied to the later. Whether writers and creators of modules are writing and creating for children or adults, they need to set up a process that ensures quality control in every step. These things take time.

Speaking of process, what I find most enjoyable in the writing process is research and development. It is exciting to hunt for answers and gather information. As a librarian writing a module for teachers, the professional network comes in handy. Libraries, archives, museums and record centers spell the difference in this stage of the writing process. Call it my bias, but who can give you professional assistance in validating content but from librarians, archivists and curators? Never count them out of the equation.

At the beginning of the quarantine,

Jim Tuscano

invited me to several online discussions on learning and creating modules in the time of the pandemic. These talks were meant to help teachers shift to online distance learning. Visit Jim’s empowerEd channel on YouTube to view the videos and get links to the podcast too. As a follow through of Jim’s interview, I wrote some tips on module writing in my blog.

Here are short excerpts from the blog post.

"There are four basic steps in writing namely, pre-writing, writing the draft, revision and editing, and publishing and sharing. This means, you can schedule your writing of text based learning materials and that, you need a reader to give you feedback on your work. From there, you can revise, make changes and edit your materials."

"Work closely with the illustrator, designer, technology specialist and editor of the learning materials. The logistics and operational work flows can be set early on but a shared vision binds the team together. Collaboration is key."

Giving and getting feedback is a life saver.

In this time of the pandemic, let us continue to save lives. In big and small ways, I encourage you to save the life and the dignity of teachers and their oath to teach.

#NoToTeacherShaming #bridgethedivide