Months before the pandemic lockdown, I was talking with Joie Villarama, innovative owner of Abot Tala, about introducing Internet-based learning via school-based laptops to her teenager learners, donations considered. Today, she has students working & studying at the same time at home: above, boy with laptop & girl with cellphone (images[1] from Abot Tala Facebook page). Domestic activity, domestic tranquility!
Teaching teenagers, Abot Tala is now showing us educators what we can do with our hands tied and classrooms closed by over-zealous government regulators.
Next, Abot Tala must step up more boldly and graduate from Artificial Intelligence (AI) to what I call Authentic Intelligence (AI2). AI is mechanical, machine-generated; while AI2 is mental, learner mind-generated.
Am I saying Authentic Intelligence versus Artificial Intelligence? No. AI is Man motioning Machine for the mechanical transfer of knowledge; AI2 is Man (Mind) learning via Machine (Menu) out of the knowledge available via AI. Teaching via AI alone is teaching memorizing, not understanding. (Definitions from American Heritage Dictionary: Authentic: “Conforming to fact and therefore worthy of trust, reliance, or belief[2]” Artificial: not natural, imitative.) Understanding relationships is learning; Mere transfer of knowledge even via intellectual muscle is not learning!
Today, at Abot Tala, the process of presenting learning materials is intelligent (AI), but the procedure of teaching learning is not yetAI2. The unseen problem is that Abot Tala teachers are teaching mechanical repetition, not teaching thinking.
Yes! Abot Tala’s “Self-Directed Learning” must be via thinking, not simply taking in. The school’s “Interest-Led Learning” must be carried out with the schooler learning thinking anywhere from A to Z: analyzing, comparing, deducing, dividing, matching, or synchronizing whatever. The Abot Tala teacher should allow individual differences and not force the students to learn exactly the same things the same way!
I love it that Abot Tala says about its “Summer Block” 22 March to 21 May, 2021:
This program is ideal for teens who are looking for a community that encourages Interest-Led Learning. We welcome teen homeschoolers, unschoolers, and those who are taking a break or gap year, especially during this global pandemic.
Abot Tala says further:
We’ve set up a virtual Abot Tala teen center on Slack. Think of it as a teen hub where teens get to hang out to chat, share music, art, book and video finds, and more through the different non-class channels where they can talk to the teens and mentors in our community anytime they want to.
I am a teacher by profession, PH Civil Service Professional Level –by choice & self-study an indefatigable blogger for digital education. This Teacher now says, “Ma’am Joei Villarama, that arrangement of the virtual Tala Teen Center at Slack is (almost) the way to go!”@517
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