Bicycling with my camera along Charles River

These photographs were really my rewards of the day


It was one summer day, perfect sun, and perfect mood. Look at these ducks. They were going home in harmony.


But then they got confused. "Now.. where shall we go?"


Finally, I was happy with the catches of the day and off course very tired. I rode bicycle from Allston along Commonwealth Avenue all the way to Boston Water Front. I went back going through bicycle track along Charles River and North Harvard Street where I stopped to take this picture.

A little time with a lot of creativity

It was the first snow i saw in Boston. It wasn't just snowing. It was storming for three days. This little snowman picture was created using a toothpick, a rubber band, a piece of screw, the cap of my cough medicine, several dents from my window and my Nokia3650.

Indonesian Educational Technology in Indonesian Grad Forum

I was delivering speech about Indonesian Educational Technology in Indonesian Grad Forum, Boston, MIT, Fall2003

The Semidevildemigod

This picture was taken in Government Center during "Taste of Boston 2004"

Places at the table - Influences in Educational Media and Technology

This seri of 7 pictures is a caption of Educational software that I am working on. The title of the software is "Places at the table - Influences in Educational Media and Technology". In the software, the setting is a formal dinner among influential people in EM&T. The student is going to organize the dinner by identifying the invitees to the dinner and proposing a subject to discuss during the dinner.

This software consists of two process. The first one is how the software is presented before the learner in order to help the student structuring the information. The first process is intended to support the process in the classroom. The second one is the classroom process. The second process is supposed to help the students producing new knowledge by sharing in class what they have understood so far. This approach is based on Saettler’s remark that product must support the process.
The software is used at the last session of EM550 class - Introduction to Educational Media and Technology. By this time, student must already finish reading all the course material and complete Saettler's book. The instructor must assign the student to use the software before coming to the class and bring the printed output of the activities from the software.

In order to do so, student will be doing three subcategories of activities before inviting the guests and deciding the topic of discussion. The first subcategory will be a lesson in some basics concepts and several lessons to fill in information in the timeline. The first subcategory lessons are laid out in the following frameworks. Student will be given the objectives and instruction of the lesson. It is then followed by motivating strategy. The motivating strategy can be in the form of quotation, video, or illustration. The motivating strategy is an approach based on Weber methodology in order to prepare the student to go about the presentation. The next activity, student will be presented by two questions for each information in the timeline presentation. The first question will recollect student's memory about that information.

The second question will be asking the student to make more value of that information by commenting or choosing the right comment. All these interaction will be recorded in the timeline for later analysis by the students.


By the time the student finishes the first subcategory, the student will be challenged to simulate pattern by making connection among information by using arrows in the second subcategory activity. Student can name the connecting arrow with keyword that reminds the student of what that arrow represents.

In the last category, students will be given some problems to review the whole activities. In this last activity, student will be asked to recognize the influential people in the influential field in EM&T by making the list of invitees using summative problems. At the end of the third subcategory, students will be presented with the most important element that often be left behind and neglected in developing EM&T, who is the teacher.

Classroom Process
At this point, student will already be refreshed with key information which was presented through out courses. Refreshing students with key information is one of the objectives of the software especially for the students who have taken the course. Student will bring his/her pre-conception about the pattern in his/her mind and a printed visual aid to help him/her sharing it with the rest of the class.
With that in mind, the classroom activity will mainly about sharing and making inferences from the information shared by classmate. The following is the process format.
The objective of the classroom discussion is that to make students aware of changing perception and definition towards technology through out history. How the perception and definition change also transform the approach and implementation of technology in the classroom. This transformation is called paradigm. The student should be able to identify the pattern of the paradigm and be able to predict the future paradigm.
After being presented with the objective, the student will be presented with motivating strategy. In the software, the student will be notified that the real dinner is this class, therefore in this motivating stage; student will be asked what they will talk about if they are among the invitees. The instructor will elicit student’s timeline in this discussion at this stage.
Then students will work in pairs (or in groups) to share their timelines. Each group or pair will be asked to come up 5-10 statements that summarize the groups understanding about their timelines and write it down in the white board.
Based on the writings on the white board, student will be asked to draw conclusions by answering the following questions which are geared by the instructor:

What was the very first description of technology (Thames)? How it is changed over the periods? What is student’s definition of technology?

When was the first implementation of technology in classroom? How it is changed over the periods?

What is paradigm? Can the students see any paradigm shifts in their timeline?

Based on the pattern that changes the paradigm, what is students’ prediction toward the future paradigm in EM&T?

Conclusion
By asking the student to play with the software before coming to the class, students will be ready to discuss more about the pattern. Their minds have been engaged by the activity in the software. The visual aid will have the student by giving visual cues to what they have learnt from the software. They can use it to share it with other student and evaluate whether there is similarity in the patterns they created. They can add each other and finally make conclusion out of it.

Another Educational Television?

Television is the best technology for delivering messages. It can transfer sound and moving pictures into its viewer’s mind almost instantly. The logic then, this medium must be good for learning purposes. Television is so powerful that, in the advent of television in the mid-1960s, Marshall McLuhan correctly described television as the message when he said “the medium is the message” (1967). Television as an entertainment medium has been proved, but television as an educational tool has not. Nevertheless, according to the Jakarta Post on Oct 13, 2004, Indonesia is launching a government educational television broadcast which is called Televisi Edukasi (TVE).
This breakthrough is an antithesis of today’s condition. We are having a lot of junk material in our television screen, for example. So, TVE perceived as the right thing to do. However, it is worthy to asking: Is it truly the right course of action to answer the challenge of Indonesian today’s media situation? What is the real challenge that an educational television is facing in the future. This article is trying to explain the challenge in the future based on historical pattern.
Should we have another state-run TV station, when TVRI is on the brinks of bankruptcy (The Jakarta Post, December 29, 2003)? This situation shall not be a hindrance of doing a good deed in Indonesian Educational Media and Technology history. However, this is a sign that building another state-run educational television must be taken into consideration seriously. For sure TVE does not want to be written in the history in the same class with the Televisi Pendidikan Indonesia (TPI) as failure.
TVE will be operated by PUSTEKKOM (Kompas, October 13, 2004). After being left behind by TPI, PUSTEKKOM was left with a lot of educational TV programs that PUSTEKKOM produced for TPI on subcontract basis. I believe one of the reasons TVE is launched is because TVE can take the advantages of these abundance material and millions-of-dollar idle equipments. However, relying on old paradigm; such as advertisement and production house business model; or just merely making a good use of idle resources may lead TVE to the same bitterness of failure. The stake is especially high for TVE to operate an educational television that is aiming to educational institution market such as universities and schools because The University of Indonesia is also planning to build an educational television station. This television broadcast, which will be called TVUI, is aiming from the same market.
So let us see what happened to TPI. TPI was founded in January 1991. It was aiming for educational institution such as formal schools; and distance learning audience from the Universitas Terbuka (UT – Indonesian Open Learning University). TPI was supported by many institutions in the same field such UT, PUSTEKKOM (Pusat Teknologi Komunikasi dan Informasi Pendidikan – Center for Educational Information, Communication and Technology) and SEAMEO SEAMOLEC (South East Asia Ministers of Education Organization – Open Learning Center) in developing the content and technology. TPI was struggling for several years before it finally changed its course of action to pursue commercial objectives and leaving its allies behind.
According to Paul Saettler, educators have struggled for recognition to secure the channels for educational broadcasting. Frieda Hennock was the first person who was able to force the government to issue 10% of the broadcast license for education in 1952. She was succeeded because she was also supported by educators who were willing to testify for her. The US government continued to support the educational television movement through National Defense Act 1958. The first direct aided fund was signed by President John F. Kennedy in the Communication Act in 1962.
The first non-experimental Educational Television was founded in Iowa State University as early as 1954, however, in 1952; there was an urge demand for an educational television network which was proposed by the Penn State College (now University). The first educational network was developed in Alabama and succeeded in raising standard of instruction throughout the state. Due to the raising needs of distribution and suitable programs, Public Broadcast Service (PBS) was built in 1967. PBS does not produce any programs; it interconnects several major production centers.
Several successes followed in the following years have led the governor of American Samoa, H. Rex Lee, to build an Instructional Television Station in 1964. Many teachers were sent to American Samoa to become TV Tutors. Of all huge investment made for this effort, American Samoa Instructional Television failed because it did not listen to the history and previous research projects on instructional television.
What can we learn from above information? First of all that what happened to TPI was historical De Ja Vue. It is similar to what happened to American Samoa. Further more, Saettler mentions that many University TVs have been reported stagnancy in their effort to maintain sustainability. TVE (and TVUI too) may be doomed to repeat the same mistake as pointed out in American Public broadcast history. Surprisingly that TV tutor model has been around for long and it also the reason of failure for the American Samoa Instructional Television. So what works then? Throughout his book, Saettler mentions that many educational technology’s failures were caused by focusing more on the product rather than process. Especially in American Samoa case, the television program was not followed up by in class activities.
John Dewey, said that, learning process must allow learners to discover and construct knowledge. Indonesian students have shown their capability in doing so. In recent independent educational television project in July 2004, several SMUN70 students created a fifteen minutes educational video on Osteoporosis. It is reported that they learnt better about the subject by doing this project.
To create process in adopting television in the classroom requires bigger support from the government to include it in the curriculum. Government support is not the only key success factor, as we can also learn from American history that the movement was initiated from the educators, we need more educators’ initiative because in order to make TVE’s efforts come to a full cycle. Television is a powerful medium as McLuhan noted, making it full cycle in the hands of the right people will enhance its impact.