One of the specific educational goals at many colleges is for students to achieve technological competence, by which is usually meant facility with the tools of information technology. Here are some ideas and techniques that will encourage the achievement of this goal. A particularly attractive factor of these techniques is that most are self-assessing: completion of the assignment by the student demonstrates that the student can use the tool or perform the skill.

1. Require students to use email to send at least some of their homework, papers, projects, comments, questions, or assessments. A useful assignment is to have students write and mail a narrative evaluation of a paper, reading, or class session they completed. Email can be used effectively by requiring students to submit paper topics early in the term. The professor can simply use the reply function to make comments and suggestions.

2. Use email to send students individual assignments or comments and require that they respond to the assignment (even if it means merely printing out the letter or replying to it). Comments about papers, in-class presentations, or current grade status can be sent to students, together with a request for a response. For small classes, unique regular or extra credit assignments can be sent through email only, followed, if necessary, by a brief mention in class ("Did you check your email recently?").

Commentary: Email dialog between professor and student has been discovered to have numerous benefits in addition to making sure the student learns how to use email. Here are some of them:

Students are less inhibited about asking questions, raising objections, or sharing input about the class with the professor. Many who would never speak up in class "come out of their shell" and speak frankly.
Metalearning--a student's awareness of what he or she is learning--increases, as student and professor discuss student goals, progress, and educational philosophy. Increases in metalearning have been closely tied to increases in overall learning. (That is, talking about what a student is learning helps the student learn more.)
Students emailing the professor are getting writing practice, something most of them need. Learning how to put sentences together and how to articulate one's ideas are skills enhanced by practice.
3. Require students to get assignments online. Post assignments or other information on a web page, intranet page, or shared drive folder. Particular sites with pertinent information might be mentioned in class or listed in an assignment or syllabus, with the requirement that students visit them and obtain certain information from them.
4. Use electronic reserves. Instead of photocopying materials for library reserves, put those readings on your class web page for students to read. That way, students do not have to go to the library to read the reserve material, several students can read it at the same time, and you can leave it on reserve indefinitely or update it regularly. The electronic format not only gives students practice in using technology, but it can simplify their use of the material by allowing them to cut and paste quotations with their word processor. (Note: Be sure to secure the appropriate permissions to post any copyrighted material. You may wish to ask for permission to post only to the campus intranet rather than to the Internet at large. Get all such permissions in writing and include a declaration of permission and notice of copyright on each page or document posted.) E-reserves can include documents, pictures, video, audio, or links to materials from libraries, museums, or other sites all over the world.

5. Require students to search the Internet and make use of one or more Internet sources as part of their research assignments. Books, journals, newspapers, magazines, organizational sites, corporate sites, museums, and a host of other information sources provide a truly staggering amount of useful information. (But plan also to discuss source evaluation with your students because some show a surprising lack of caution in accepting as true whatever they find. As part of their research, you might have them locate some articles on the Net relating to source evaluation or direct them to my article, "Evaluating Internet Research Sources".)

6. Require students to make use of one or more articles in electronic form as part of their research assignments. These forms are usually on CD-ROM and include encyclopedias, magazines, newspapers, and various abstracts and databases.

7. Require students to find research information through other specified technologies, such as online library catalogs, CD-ROM indexes, microform materials, videocassette sources, etc.

8. Require students to subscribe to an Internet mailing list relevant to the class and to turn in one or more useful postings together with an evaluation of it and the mailing list in general. You might even require that the students propose a posting of their own.

9. Require that all papers be written using word processing software. Require the use of some additional functions, such as headlines or subheads, font changes, drop caps, tables, graphs, inserted pictures, boxes, and so on. Help students to stretch themselves and their knowledge of how the word processor can help them present information in a clearer, more effective way. (Note: Make the requirements specific to the skill you want demonstrated. For example, "Present your data in an outlined table inserted into the text and not attached at the end").

10. Require that students use presentation technology such as overhead projectors, data projectors, presentation software, or VCR's for assigned in-class presentations.

11. Include spreadsheet and graphing assignments relevant to your course material. Remember that spreadsheets will do averages, percentages, forecasting, goal seeking, trendlines, graphing, correlation, comparison charts. A physical education class might have students graph times or scores, a business class might chart stocks. Any class that has several grades (quizzes, exams, papers, homework) can require students to keep their own point scores on a spreadsheet and turn it in from time to time. Comment: Not only will the use of a spreadsheet give students technological skill, but it will increase their number fluency, something needed by many students.

12. Require students to create their own Web pages and to post their papers or reports to them. Not only will they learn to use technology for the dissemination of information, but they will have a lesson in sharing the fruits of their intellectual labors, and perhaps be more motivated by the thought of a larger audience than the professor.

General comment: Many students take to technology avidly. But perhaps a third are less enthusiastic, and, given the chance, will avoid it. Therefore, in order to accomplish the technology-use goal, it is important to (1) make the use of technology required of all students in the class and (2) make assignments and performance expectations clear and specific, so that students know exactly what is wanted. (For example, "You must send me by noon Thursday an email describing your topic and plan of procedure, in at least three paragraphs.") Take a few minutes in class and/or in the form of handouts to instruct students how to perform the skill you want them to exhibit. As with most kinds of assignment, vagueness creates fear and loathing. You may need to take more time now for instruction than you will in a couple of years, when students are more techno-literate. But if every professor trains students a bit more, and if every professor incorporates some of these requirements in each class, students will quickly become adept with the tools of information technology.

Doblar Para Television,
Dayuhang Konsepto, Konseptong Filipino
nina Cyreene Bautista, Ulysses Largado at Marcris Simon
Mga Kasapi
Tunay na kinagigiliwan ng mga Pilipino ang panonood ng mga telenovela. Mula pa sa mga panahon ng pagsubaybay sa buhay nina Flor de Luna, Mara Clara, Ana Luna, Agila, Valiente at marami pang iba, naging isang paboritong libangan na ang panonood ng drama sa telebisyon. Ngunit sa gitna ng pamamayagpag ng mga palabas na ito, ipinakilala naman ang mga dayuhang telenovelang nilapatan ng wikang Filipino. Nagustuhan ng mga manonood ang mabilis na takbo ng kwento sa mga palabas na ito. Bago rin sa paningin ang mga lugar, dayuhan ang mga gumaganap, kakaiba ang kultura at takbo ng kuwento, kaya naman tila ba nakakarating na rin sa ibang lugar ang mga manonood.

Hindi maipagkakailang madaling minahal at tinangkilk ng masa ang ganitong pagbabago. Ngunit wala sa mga kaakit-akit na lugar o artista ang susi sa pamamayagpag nito. Kapansin-pansin ang hindi sabay na pagbuka ng bibig sa pagbigkas ng mga aktor sa mga salitang kanilang binibitiwan. Bunga ito ng pagsasalin sa Filipino ng mga dayalogong nasa dayuhang wika. Ngunit dahil rin sa inobasyong ito, ang sariling wika ang nagsilbing tulay upang lubos na masundan at maunawaan ng manonood ang tindi ng bawat eksena sa serye. Dito nabatid at narinig ng lahat ang galing ng Filipino sa larangan ng ‘dubbing.’

Pagsasalin at dubbing, mula noon hanggang ngayon

Pagsapit ng ika-2 ng hapon, mapapansing sunud-sunod na ang pagpapalabas sa telebisyon ng drama at cartoons na ginamitan ng dubbing. Kitang-kitang malayo na ang narating ng pagsasalin at dubbing. Ngunit kung ating aalalahanin, ginagamit na ang ganitong pamamaraan sa pagpapalabas ng mga pelikulang Tsino at cartoons partikular nga ang pinakatanyag na Japanese Animé ng kasaysayan, ang Voltes V. Kasama na rito ang mga kuwento ng pakikipagsapalaran ni Bioman, Shaider, Ultraman, at iba pang katulad nito.

Gayumpaman, lumalabas na mas nabigyang-pansin ang dubbing nang ginamit ito sa drama series na mas kinilala natin sa tawag na telenovela. Hindi natin maaaring kalimutan ang La Traidora, ang unang dayuhang telenovela (mula sa Venezuela) na ating nasaksihan at naintindihan dahil sa wikang Filipinong ipinatong sa wikang Kastila. Naging hudyat ito sa iba pang TV networks upang subukan kung tatangkilikin ng masa ang ganitong mga programa. Dito nagsimula ang kasikatan ni Thalia sa kanyang mga pagganap bilang Mari Mar, Maria Mercedes, Maria la del Barrio, at Rosalinda.

Ngayong taon lamang, ipinakilala naman sa manonood ang Amazing Twins ng IBC Network at Meteor Garden (MG) ng ABS-CBN bilang ilan sa mga kauna-unahang Chinese telenovela, o chinovela, na isinalin sa Filipino. Sapagkat kinakitaan ang masa ng matinding pagtangkilik sa mga chinovelang ito, sumunod ang ilan pang Chinese telenovela tulad ng My MVP Valentine, The Poor Prince, Lavender atbp.

Tsino, Mexicano, Hapon, Latino... Paano Nagsasalita ng Filipino?

Bago kinagigiliwan ng Pilipinong manonood ang mga drama at cartoon na Latino at Asyano, nagsisimula ito sa pagpili ng isang magandang materyal. “It’s the management who decides on which program to show,” ayon kay Rose Varian, voice talent at translator mula pa noong 1994 at kasalukuyang nagboboses kina Doña Ynez at Juliet sa Paloma at kay Nena sa Daniella. “They usually go abroad, sa TV fests, to look for programs,” dagdag pa niya.

Binibili ang napiling materyal at pagkabili nito, sisimulan na ang pagsasalin sa Filipino at paggawa ng script. Lingid sa kaisipan ng karamihan, dalawang magkaibang proseso ang pagsasalin at scriptwriting. “Halimbawa, Japanese show o Spanish show, you’re usually given an English script,” paglalahad pa ni Varian. Ang script sa Ingles ang siyang isinasalin sa Filipino. “The scriptwriting is different. Bukod sa nagta-translate ka, isusukat mo pa ‘yung buka ng bibig [ng artista] dun sa isusulat mo.” Sapagkat may mga pagkakataong mas maikli o mas mahaba ang script na diretsong isinalin mula sa Ingles batay sa buka ng bibig ng mga karakter, ang scriptwriter ang bahalang isukat ang mga dayalogo kasabay ng pagbuka ng bibig.

Para naman maging epektibong tagapagsalin, “hindi naman kailangang professional ka, siguro kahit proficient lang,” paliwanag ni Gari Ryan Ang, Mandarin Translation Consultant para sa MG. “Actually, pinapanood ko lang siya (footage ng MG) through VCD. Tinitingnan ko yung mga subtitle, tapos per line pino-pause ko siya tapos kinokopya ko. Then saka ko siya tinitingnan sa Chinese Dictionary, o kapag naiintindihan ko na, tina-translate ko na sa English.” Sa kaso ng MG, mahalagang magkaroon ng koordinasyon ang tagpagsalin at ang direktor na siyang pumipili ng mga tamang salita. “Actually, ‘yung sinu-supply ko lang sa kanya (director) (ay) ‘yung information ng kung ano‘‘yung essence ng sinasabi sa linyang Chinese,” dagdag pa niya.

Sa pahayag ni Ang, “Ang mahirap isalin (ay) ‘yung mga dual meaning na characters, then ‘yung mga proverbs, kasi kasabihan siya, ‘yung ibig sabihin hindi mo maililiteral. “ Hindi magiging epektibo sa mga Pilipinong manonood ang mga patawa at kasabihan kung isasalin lamang ito sa wikang Filipino mula sa banyagang salita. Bilang pagbibigay halimbawa, ang mga sikat na katagang napulot natin kay Dao Ming Si (pangunahing karakter sa MG) tulad ng “kung matatanggap ang pasensya, hindi na kailangan ng parak,” ay hindi magiging epektibo kung isasalin lamang at hindi pag-iisipang mabuti ang bawat salita. Samakatuwid, kailangang maging malikhain at mapili sa salita ang mga tao sa likod ng dubbing upang makiliti ang isipan at mapalambot ang puso ng mga manonood.

Matapos maisaayos ang mga dayalogo sa wikang Filipino, isusunod ang pagpili sa voice talents na nararapat sa mga karakter sa pamamagitan ng voice casting o audition. “We don’t go for first-timers,” ayon kay Danny Mandia, direktor ng dubbing para sa MG na siya ring nangangasiwa sa pagpili ng mga voice talent at paglalagay sa kanila sa iba’t ibang karakter. “We usually held invitationals, they drop by to try out parts from the program bago sila ilagay sa mga role.”

Sa sandaling makapagsanay ang mga napiling voice talent, dito lamang sinisimulan ang dubbing. Sa mahusay na paggabay ng direktor ukol sa tamang emosyon, intonasyon at lakas ng tinig, sumasakto ang anumang boses, hindi lamang sa buka ng bibig ng tauhan, kundi pati na rin sa emosyong nakapaloob sa eksena. Ngunit higit pa sa tulong ng direktor, kinakailangan ring ipakita ng mga voice talent ang kanilang husay. Mahalaga rin para sa kanila ang matutunan o ma-internalize kahit papaano ang mga karakter, upang lumabas ang emosyon sa kanilang mga boses. “Importante ang pag-arte ng mga dubbers,” pagpapaliwanag ni Pocholo Gonzales, voice talent mula pa noong 1995 na ngayo’y nagboboses sa ama ni San Cai sa MG at kay Marcos sa Altagracia. “Katulad nung sa tatay ni San Cai, kung ano ‘yung pag-react niya, ganun din ako.”

Kung tutuusin, mahirap at may pagka-komplikado rin ang mga prosesong ginagawa para matapos ang isang buong episode. Madalas na inaabot ng ika-2 hanggang ika-4 ng umaga ang dubbing at pangangasiwang teknikal para sa dalawang episode lamang. Puyat ang itinuturing na pinakamatinding kalaban ng mga technician at audio engineer. Dahil dito, nakatutulong ng malaki ang pagkakaroon ng am at pm shift pati na ang malinaw na koordinasyon sa pagitan ng mga ito.

Ilan naman sa mga kinakaharap na suliranin ng mga voice talent ang pagkakasakit (ubo at sipon) na tiyak na may epekto sa kanilang boses. “Minsan, minalat ako for one week. Siguro nawala sa’kin mga P40,000Ö. Sobrang ‘my voice is a treasure’ talaga,” pagsasalaysay ni Gonzales.’Bukod dito, may mga pagkakataon ding may problema sa hindi magandang script, problema sa iskedyul ng mga voice talent, at problema pati na rin sa relasyon o pakikisama nila sa isa’t isa.

Saan hahantong ang susunod na kabanata?

Kung susuriin natin ang listahan ng mga programa ng mga pangunahing broadcasting network, mapapansing kumain ng malaking oras dito ang mga telenovela at animé na hindi maitatangging patuloy na tinatangkilik at naiintindihan ng karamihan dahil naisalin ito sa wikang Filipino. Hindi lamang ito nagsilbing isang tandang nagkaroon ng magandang pagbabago sa industriya ng telebisyon. Isa rin itong matibay na manipestasyong mabisang instrumento ang wika upang maipakilala sa lahat ang kulturang kaiba sa atin. Bukod sa pagiging isang alternatibong uri ng programa, ang mga telenovela at animé ang nagdala sa atin sa mga lugar na hindi pa natin nararating, nagpakilala sa atin sa mga bagong tauhang sumalamin din sa ating mga buhay at nagpakita sa atin ng mga kultura at kaugaliang masasabing banyaga ngunit natutunan na nating yakapin at tangkilikin.

Sa isang banda, hindi lamang pagtangkilik ng masa ang naging motibasyon ng mga broadcasting company upang magpalabas pa ng ganitong klase ng programa. “We really don’t know the actual cost,” ani Mandia, “but it is a lot cheaper. You just have to pay for the copyrights, the voice talents, engineers, directors.” Sa maliit namang badyet na ito, nakababawi ang kumpanya sa mga commercial load.

Ito ang mga dahilan kung bakit hanggang sa kasalukuyan, namamayagpag sa telebisyon ang mga programang isinalin sa Filipino. Ngunit ayon kay Varian, hangga’t may mga manonood na itinuturing nang bahagi ng kanilang buhay ang telenovela, patuloy pa rin ang pagpapalabas nito sa telebisyon. Habang may mga manonood na nakakaintindi sa mga programang ito bilang isang alternatibong programang pangdrama at habang nakikita nila ang kanilang sarili sa kanilang napapanood, tiyak na magtatagal sa ere ang galing ng dubbing.

Pagpapalaganap ng banyagang konsepto sa konteksto ng ating wika – ito ang isa sa mga magandang bunga ng pagsasalin. Bukod pa sa pagkakaroon ng isa pang lagusan sa pagpapahayag ng damdamin, patuloy na napapayaman ng dubbing at pagsasalin ang wikang Filipino. Sa pamamagitan ng mga telenobelang ito, napapagalaw ng kapangyarihan ng wika ang imahinasyon at pang-unawa ng mga manunood nito. Hindi lamang natatapos sa pagiging isang libangan ang panonood ng mga banyagang telenovela. Bukod pa sa mas nakikita at mas nahahasa ang isipan ng mga Pilipino pagdating sa wika (sa bahagi ng mga nagsasalin at scriptwriters), naiuugnay rin ng mga manonood ang kanilang mga sarili sa buhay ng mga bida. Ang lahat ng ito, bunga ng hiwaga ng pagsasalin at pagdu-dub sa sariling wika.

It`s all over, GMA wins!

By Ryan Ponce Pacpaco

Journal Online

Thus declaredSenate President Franklin Drilon as the joint congressional canvassing committee wrapped up last night its mandate to canvass the votes for president and vice president in the May 10 elections.


Drilon together with Speaker Jose de Venecia took over the reading of the last of the 177 certificates of canvass from Cotabato City at 8:15 p.m. which was read with no objections from the opposition.

The final tally showed Mrs. Arroyo with 12, 905,808 votes as against Poe's 11,782,232 votes or a margin of 1,123,576.


The event outshadowed the earlier "walk out" of Sanlakas party-list Rep. J.V.Bautista who withdrew from the canvassing committee following a heated exchanged of words with Atty. Romulo Macalintal, counsel for Mrs. Arroyo, who dismissed his claims of dagdag-bawas in Sultan Kudarat as nothing but "kuwentong kutsero."


The Batasan session hall erupted into an applause as De Venecia finished reading the tally for the vice presidential race at exactly 8:21 p.m.


Suzette Pido, who once hogged the limelight after handing a "shut up" note to Maguindanao Rep. Didagen Dilangalen, emerged from the gallery and handed out red and white roses to the senators and congressmen as a gesture of appreciation for speeding up the canvass.


Congress is expected to convene on Wednesday for a joint session to receive the report of the canvassing committee and officially proclaim Arroyo and De Castro.


Sen. Francis Pangilinan, head of the committee that tallied the vote results said he was hopeful Arroyo could be formally declared the victor by Friday.


"I'm happy we got this far and I'm very tired. The bulk of our work is over," said Pangilinan after two weeks of delays by the opposition which slowed down the vote tally process.


Exit polls and preliminary results earlier showed Arroyo winning the election but Poe's allies in the legislature charged she used fraud to steal the vote and had delayed the constitutionally-required congressional tally of voting results for two weeks through protests and filibustering.


Two opposition legislators had walked out of the vote tally in protest over alleged cheating before the count was completed but this did not prevent the completion of the tally.

To be young is all there is in the world. They talk so beautifully about work and having a family and a home (and I do, too, sometimes) --but it's all worry and head-aches and respectable poverty and forced gushing. Telling people how nice it is, when, in reality, you would give all of your last thirty years for one of your first thirty. Old people are tremendous frauds.


~ Wallace Stevens ~

Youth should be a savings bank.


~ Anne Sophie Swetchine ~

Like a kite cut from the string, lightly the soul of my youth has taken flight


~ Ishikawa Takuboku ~

It is better to be a young June-bug than an old bird of paradise.


~ Mark Twain ~

Youth is not a time of life; it is a state of mind; it is not a matter of rosy cheeks, red lips and supple knees; it is a matter of the will, quality of the imagination, a vigor of the emotions; it is the freshness of the deep springs of life.


~ Samuel Ullman ~

Youth today must be strong, unafraid, and a better taxpayer than its father.


~ H. V. Wade ~

The deepest definition of youth is life as yet untouched by tragedy.


~ Alfred North Whitehead ~

Youth, large, lusty, loving -- Youth, full of grace, force, fascination. Do you know that Old Age may come after you with equal grace, force, fascination?


~ Walt Whitman ~

Those whom the gods love grow young.


~ Oscar Wilde ~

The most conservative persons I ever met are college undergraduates. The radicals are the men past middle life.


~ Woodrow T. Wilson ~

Young people need models, not critics...


~ John Wooden ~

Youth is not a time of life, it is a state of mind. You are as old as your doubt, your fear, your despair. The way to keep young is to keep your faith young. Keep your self-confidence young. Keep your hope young.


~ Luella F. Phean ~

Youth has no age.


~ Pablo Picasso ~

Use your youth so that you may have comfort to remember it when it has forsaken you, and not sigh and grieve at the account thereof.


~ Sir Walter Raleigh ~

When the newspapers have got nothing else to talk about, they cut loose on the young. The young are always news. If they are up to something, that's news. If they aren't, that's news too.


~ Kenneth Rexroth ~

A man loves the meat in his youth that he cannot endure in his age.


~ William Shakespeare ~

Even the youngest of us may be wrong sometimes.


~ George Bernard Shaw ~

Don't let young people tell you their aspirations; when they drop them they will drop you.


~ Logan Pearsall Smith ~