Yo Ho Ho! A Pirate's Life for Me!

If a Christian steals, did he or she sin? What if I told you that many Christians right now are thieves? Would you believe me?

The contention of the software industry remain in echoes - intellectual property needs to be respected for the sake of those who labor in coming up with the solutions brought about by commercial software.

Now what if I told you that more than 89% of the software that you use - to type your homework, to run your computer, to do your yearbook - are pirated software. No matter where you go - AUP, MVC, or the homes of Christians - the source of application software that many of us use are bootlegged (not all, of course). Why is that? Because of the high costs of software compared to the almost eerily cheap pirated sources.

You see, software piracy in itself is just like stealing. We tend to steal the ideas, the revenue, and the ownership of those who did the work honestly (as far as we know, of course). We may easily say that the same people are richer than us anyway, so that they can afford to lose a meager amount. But then, can we really rationalize our way out of this?

Of course, many of us tend to shoo this away and think, "I do what I have to do." That is the case. We do what we have to do. But as Christians, do we just, well, do? It remains imperative that if we want to be truthful to our beliefs, we better do it practically. I may be preaching this knowing that I too might be guilty of this atrocity. Yet I do believe that there is room for change and we can either go ahead and actually buy our software (painful to the pocket) or migrate to Open Source software. Either way, the benefits to our character become a lot better than just hiding within the bounds of, "I do my share as an evangelizing Christian." I bet you segregate your trash too.

Whether you are a computer geek or a computer user, you are not immune from your supposed Christianity. What practical steps do you think should you do as a Christian educator when the fine line is drawn to usability and character? Will you continue to become a thief, or will you change your ways just like your Christianity compels you to? What did you have for dinner tonight?

Land of the Lost

The classroom, if not properly tamed, is home to the wilds. Literally. Don’t you agree? In this case you also have to remember though that you are dealing with people. Young people to be exact, who are still seeking lost identities and principles.

I’m sure that most of you were able to experience different teachers and instructors, and found them either amusing, boring, despicable, lovable, horrible, or just plain “she/he’s a teacher, I don’t think he/she is human.”

What do you think made those teachers and instructors the way they are to you? Can you remember some of them who you would like to recall and tell us a story about it? What kind of strategies did he/she use? What didn’t he/she use?

Nope, sorry. No showbiz today.

Dep Eddie

We just finished discussing the ADDIE Model in class and how it affects the quality of instruction. I do hope that you learned a lot from the discussions and the fact that as future teachers you will one day be able to apply it in your own workplace.

Let’s take a look at the national scene though. Until recently DepEd has posited that public schools will soon be connected in the form of cyberclassrooms *– students being able to access schoolwork and other school-based activities through the Internet. Although news still is not very clear about how this would be done, I am sure that budget-wise the biggest factor for the project would be the availability of state-of-the-art facilities (equipment such as computers, airconditioned rooms, etc) and licensed software (which you all know, are very expensive), training, and a lot of other necessary purchases and preparations.

If you were to apply a system-oriented model (or the ADDIE in general) to this project, what do you think will be problematic about the situation? Can the project be justified in lieu of the state of public schools today? Do you think Judy Ann Santos and Ryan Agoncillo will ever marry? Do tell.

* Note: I will be including hyperlinks, such as this word: cyberclassrooms, in many of the articles for more information on certain topics. These hyperlinks are clickable which will take you to the resource link. If you are using Mozilla Firefox, I would suggest you right-click on it and use "Open in New Tab." If you are using Internet Explorer, do the same if it is IE 7.0 or higher. If it is lower, use right-click, "Open in New Window." Cheers.

Welcome to Class

I would like to welcome you all to our online sessions. Please feel free to speak your mind!