When Teachers Become Students

I’ve had a busy two weeks! I facilitated four UVLe (Moodle) hands-on workshops for the faculty of the UP College of Medicine at the UP Manila library Learning Commons. UVLe stands for University Virtual Learning Environment. The Diliman Interactive Learning Center maintains this learning management system.

It’s a strange feeling to have your own teachers when you were in medical school now become your “students” as they try to master moving around Moodle. The generation gap can be quite obvious. Some (not all) of the more senior faculty are afraid to “break” the computer. They gingerly touch the keyboard and hesitate to just click anything when an unfamiliar page comes up. The younger faculty in contrast, bang away at the keyboard and only raise their hands for my help when they become “lost,” which is not that often.

This is the third straight year I’ve held these faculty workshops. For the first two years, faculty who were module coordinators were (ahem) required to attend. The workshops this year were for general faculty. I wrote the departments to send those who were willing to learn. I learned later that they were also (wink) required to attend. I’m not quite sure if I will be offering these workshops again. Hopefully, we’ve reached a critical mass of faculty to keep this eLearning initiative going!

I referenced my eLearning experiences at the UP College of Medicine when I gave this presentation last February at the Association of Philippine Medical Colleges meeting. I was quite nervous having deans and faculty of medical colleges from all over the Philippines in the audience.

Almighty and eternal God, who created us in Thine image and bade us to seek after all that is good, true and beautiful, especially in the divine person of Thine Only-begotten Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, grant, we beseech Thee, that, through the intercession of Saint Isidore, Bishop and Doctor, during our journeys through the internet we will direct our hands and eyes only to that which is pleasing to Thee and treat with charity and patience all those souls whom we encounter. Through Christ our Lord.   Amen.