april 2012
U.P. Newsletter 11
Javier Menendrez, Education Adviser of the Spanish Embassy, met with the officials of UP Visayas (UPV) last March 15 at UP Visayas, Iloilo City campus toward establishing linkages, including inter-university collaboration in any field of study, between UPV and universities in Spain. Plans on possible educational cooperation focused on the promotion of Spanish language and culture were also discussed. Menendrez also cited some programs already being offered free of charge by the Instituto de Cervantes on language teaching . Also present during the meeting was
Photo by Jonathan Madrid
Spanish Embassy education adviser meets with UPV officials May Perez Pioquinto, founder and national president of ASPROFIL Spain-Philippines and honorary investment and trade representative of Spain to the Philippines, and her son Albarito Perez Pioquinto. The UPV officials who met with Menendrez were Vice-Chancellor for Academic Affairs Emilia Yap, ViceChancellor for Administration Nestor Yunque, College of Arts and Sciences Dean Ma. Luisa Mabunay, College of Management Dean Joy Lizada, Prof. Ruben Gamala of the College of Management, and Prof. Leticia Ami of the College of Fisheries and Ocean Sciences. (Anna Razel L. Ramirez)
ERDT launches new program to boost country’s (Continued from page 9) IC design capability program,” which would have a more lasting impact to the industry and academe—to increase the number of IC design engineers in the country. During the launch, several representatives from the electronics industry also shared their ideas on the need for more IC design engineers in the country and the Filipinos’ potential in the IC design industry. Those present were Manny Malaki of Analog Devices Inc.; Rey Bruce, chairman and CEO of BiTMICRO Networks; Robert
Minguez II, director of Xinyx Design; Darence Tan, regional sales manager of Synopsys Pte. Ltd.; and John Imperial, director of design engineering of Lattice Semiconductor Corp. The conference was followed by an open forum with representatives from six of the ERDT consortium-member universities, with former UP College of Engineering dean and ERDT program leader Dr. Rowena Cristina Guevara as moderator.
UPOU holds 1st Int’l Conference on ODeL (Continued from page 4)
institutions. First was “WE ALL LEARN: Web searching in the world of e-books, Elearning and blended learning, Availability of open source and free software, Leveraged resources and OpenCourseWare, Learning object repositories and portals, Learner participation in open information communities, Electronic collaboration and interaction, Alternate reality learning, Realtime mobility and portability, and Networks of personalized learning.” The second, called TEC-VARIETY, is a framework where each letter stands for a motivational principle for assessment: “Tone/climate, Encouragement and feedback, Curiousity, Variety, Autonomy, Relevance, Interactivity, Engagement, Tension, Yields products.” R2-D2 is what Bonk named the third framework. It stands for read, reflect, display and do. Read is for auditory and verbal learners. Reflect is for reflective learners. Display is for visual learners. Do is for tactile, kinesthetic and exploratory learners. But Bonk said he was most excited about the last framework, which he called “From Tinkering to Tottering to Totally Extreme Learning.” It traces the movement of the ODeL environment from the usual practices to bold new ways of education. Tinkering deals with blended learning, using the usual supplemental tools such as multimedia and the Internet. Tottering was something he described as “flipping the classroom”—almost transforming the way classes are conducted and “on the edge of the jump-off point.” An example he gave was the practice of Prof. Ron Owston of York University, Canada, who gives his students the chance to have a say on the flow of the course by having a wiki-syllabi. Totally extreme learning “stretches the edges of humanity” and Bonk said this involves a variety of ways of learning, which he showed through examples. A soldier in a war zone continues to get his education and earn his Master of Business Administration degree. A retired professor offers his expertise and provides mentorship online. An Archaeology graduate student
discovers areas for future study with the use of Google Earth. South African teenagers get virtual mentoring from all over the world. Information about scientific processes and discoveries are disseminated immediately through blog updates with photos and videos from field and laboratory researchers. Experts conduct lectures to a global audience via the Web. Finally, Dhanarajan left the conference participants with some thoughts to ponder upon in his talk where he asked, “What does it really mean to be open? Are we really open?” In Asia, inequities continue to plague higher education. Enrollment at the tertiary level remains low compared to the secondary and elementary levels, he pointed out. The poor, those in rural areas, nomadic people, even women in some countries still do not have access to education. “Demography is the biggest pressure point,” Dhanarajan revealed. The population growth in Asia has shown no signs of slowing down. This led him to conclude that different approaches to providing education must be explored because inequities have not only persisted, they have increased. There must be a “new openness,” where learning is ubiquitous, experience and new ways of assessment are recognized; where there is open inquiry, open collaboration, open leadership and education for openness. Content must be developed collaboratively, freely available and can be reused, repurposed and redistributed. In closing, he presented the choices that ODeL institutions have in the face of increasing inequities: remain the same in terms of products, clients and methods; change methods but retain the same clients and products; change products but methods and clients remain the same; change clients, may be revolutionary though products and methods are retained; change everything, which is radical and ideal; or simply perish. The 1st ICODeL was organized in partnership with the UPOU Foundation, Inc. and the Philippine Society for Distance Learning, Inc.
TGIF! Faculty members and research staff enjoy a fun activity as part of the TGIF series sponsored by the Office of the Vice-President for Academic Affairs. Held on Friday evenings, the activity is meant to foster camaraderie and exchange among the university’s academic constituents in an informal setting.
DOST secretary checks milkfish and shrimp research programs at UPV Soledad S. Garibay
UP President Alfredo Pascual, UP Visayas (UPV) Chancellor Rommel Espinosa and UPV officials, faculty members and researchers welcomed Department of Science and Technology (DOST) Secretary Mario Montejo during his visit to UPV in Miagao, Iloilo last February 29. His visit was part of the on-site evaluation of two on-going multimillion-peso research programs of DOST for shrimp and milkfish. The Secretary was accompanied by DOST Undersecretary Carol Yorobe; Head Executive Assistant Marilyn Yap; Philippine Council for Agriculture, Aquatic and Natural Resources Research and Development (PCAARRD) Executive Director Patricio Faylon; Deputy Executive Director for Aquatic and Natural Resources of PCAARRD Cesario Pagdilao; DOST Regional Director Rowen Gelonga; and other DOST staff members. The UPV Institute of Aquaculture (IA) of the College of Fisheries and Ocean Sciences (CFOS) is currently implementing research programs on milkfish and shrimps. IA Director
Crispino Saclauso is the prog ram leader of the “National Milkfish R & D Program” while IA Brackish Water Aquaculture Center Station Head Valeriano Corre Jr. is the program leader of the “Integrated and Sustainable Development Program for the Shrimp Industry.” Saclauso and Corre are both faculty members of IA. They and other researchers from UPV and the Southeast Asian Fisheries Development Center Aquaculture Department (SEAFDEC AQD) reported on the status and accomplishments of the on-going research during the meeting at the Conference Room, Umali Hall, CFOS, Miagao, Iloilo. Montejo and company visited the research facilities at the IA Multi-Species Hatchery Building as well as the adjacent wet and dry facilities being used in the implementation of both research prog rams. They also inspected the experiments on the biofloc system and immunostimulant in the tanks and ponds at the UPV-CFOS-IA Brackish Water Aquaculture Center in Leganes, Iloilo.
ERRATUM I n t h e a r t i c l e “ P h a r m a S e a s, PhilHABS project featured in 2nd OVPAA Research Symposium” (March 2012, p. 2), PhilHABs Program Leader Rhodora Azanza requested a correction on the second sentence of the fourth paragraph “HABs result in ‘toxin accumulation’ that, in turn, lead to fish kills because of reduced oxygen in the ecosystem.” Azanza wrote that it should be
“HABs can result in toxin accumulation or fish kills, depending on the causative organism. Fish kills are caused by absence or low oxygen; rarely by fishspecific toxins which are different from human-specific toxins. Toxins (e.g. Paralytic Shellfish Toxins) can be carried/ accumulated by vectors such as shellfish and passed to humans if this HAB is not properly managed.” We apologize for the error.