New Programs at UPOU

The UPOU continues to develop and offer new degree programs offered in the distance mode.  In the last meeting of the UPOU University Council, said Council approved the institution and offering of five new degree programs, as follows:

The Bachelor of Educational Studies focuses on two major areas: alternative education systems (referring to non-mainstream or non-traditional approaches to teaching and learning), and instructional design and technology (to focus on the need for educators who have mastery of the systematic use of technology to address educational challenges both in school-based and alternative learning environments).  The BES has a total of 141 units.

The Diploma in International Health is ladderized with the Master of International Health.  The DIH intends to develop in the students the capability to design health programs that deal with global health problems, implement services that work in global contexts, evaluate health development programs and strategies across various settings internationally, and engage in effective collaboration with international organizations.  The MIH shall develop in the students these same goals and on top of these provide the students opportunities to contribute to the body of knowledge of the evolving discipline called international health.  The DIH has 24 units (all course work), and the MIH 36 units (which includes a 6-unit thesis).

The Diploma in Land Valuation and Management is ladderized with the Master of Land Valuation and Management.  The DLVM intends to develop professional valuers or assessors and property managers whose standards of practice are globally competitive, and who understand fully the potentials of land valuation and management as essential components of sustainable development.  At the MLVM level, these same goals shall be achieved and on top of these graduates of the MLVM shall be able to contribute to the body of knowledge of land valuation and management as a developing discipline.  The DLVM has a total of 24 units (course work), and the MLVM 36 units (including a 6-unit thesis).

On top of these, five stand alone credit courses were approved for institution, as well.  These courses are: ASEAN Studies; Physical Education Course in Chess; Communication and Media in the ASEAN Context; Advanced ASEAN Studies; and Education, Health, and Social Welfare in ASEAN.  All these shall be offered beginning in the semester starting in June 2011.

To date, therefore, UPOU offers  three (3) undergraduate degree programs (AA, BAMS, BES), one post-baccalaureate Certificate Program (GCDE), ten (10) diploma programs (DCS, DENRM, DIH, DLLE, DLVM, DMT, DRDM,DST, DSSE, DSW), 13 master’s degree programs (MAED [LLE, SSE], MAN, MDC, MDE, MENRM, MHA, MIH, MIS, MLVM, MPH, MPM, MSW) , and two (2) doctorate degree programs (PhD in Education, and Doctor of Communication).  Besides, the UPOU also offers nonformal courses and certification programs, some of which are conducted f2f during the summer session.

One program that I’d like to focus on is the Doctor of Communication (DComm) Program, just one year old (we started offering this Program last year only).  We’ve had only two admission batches – the first group of 14 students who began their program last year, and another batch (comprised of 20) who’ll begin theirs in June 2011.  That means we now have a total of 34 students  in the DComm Program.  We expect to evaluate, on the average, at least 15 applicants each year.  Assuming that all these are admitted to the DComm Program, we are looking at a steadily growing program, increasing student population by 15 each year.  The number of applicants to DComm will eventually taper off, but we expect an increasing interest in the program over the next five years, at least.  We hope to plateau at 50 ongoing DComm students at any given semester during the next 5-10 years. 

Inquiries from interested individuals in various universities in the Philippines continue to come in, and we’re beginning to get inquiries from higher education institutions in other countries.    For example, I’ve just been informed by one of our faculty members in DComm, who’s also a member of the DComm Admissions Committee, and who’s just back from a communication conference at STOU in Bangkok, that she was approached by the Dean of STOU’s School of Communication Arts.  Said Dean, who graduated from the PhD Program of UPLB-CDC years back (she happens to have been my advisee) informed her that three of her faculty members intend to apply for admission to the DComm Program.  We also have other inquiries from other countries a well. 

Since, evaluation of applications for the semester starting in June 2011 is over, all applications from hereon shall be evaluated past the January 31^st deadline.   Any admissions arising from such evaluation shall begin in June 2012.

By the way, UPOU will conduct the first DComm Orientation Program on 19-20 May 2011 at the UPOU Headquarters in Los Baños.  We’re testing if this F2F orientation would be helpful to DComm students.  We’ll also study the possibility of doing this orientation online in the future.  For now, we hope that ongoing and incoming DComm students would find meeting with their professors and academic supervisors face-to-face beneficial.  This orientation would also be a chance for the DComm students to further clarify their research agenda while enrolled in he DComm Program.    

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UPOU Graduates more than 200

On 7 May 2011, more than 200 shall receive their respective diplomas from the UPOU.  The UPOU graduates shall be awarded their academic degrees by UP President Alfredo Pascual.  These degrees range from the Associate in Arts, Bachelor’s degrees, Certificate in Distance Education, Diploma degrees, Master’s degrees, and the PhD in education.  The UPOU Graduation ceremonies shall begin at 6pm at the UPOU Oblation Park, followed by Graduation Dinner at the UPOU Headquarters.  It’ll be nice meeting my students, many of them for the first time.

UP President Pascual shall be UPOU’s Graduation Speaker, and I’m informed that all the system officials shall be present.



UPOU Oblation Park, cite of graduation
ceremonies on 7 May 2011.

Those attending the graduation ceremonies would be well-advised to bring with them dinking water.  True, the Oblation Park is an open amphitheater outdoor area but it will still be generally hot late afternoon until early evening time.

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John Hunter on the World Peace Game | Video on TED.com

John Hunter on the World Peace Game | Video on TED.com

To my students in EDSC 250.

What do you think are the learning theories at work in this learning situation being described by John Hunter? Would you be able to do this in your own classes? Perhaps you might also want to brush up on simulations and gaming as techniques of teaching.

Eric Whitacre: A virtual choir 2,000 voices strong | Video on TED.com

Eric Whitacre: A virtual choir 2,000 voices strong | Video on TED.com

This is incredibly beautiful. Must view.

Eric Whitacre: A virtual choir 2,000 voices strong | Video on TED.com

Eric Whitacre: A virtual choir 2,000 voices strong | Video on TED.com

I simply couldn't resist posting this on my blog. This is beautiful. View it.

Triggers of Reconnection With UPLB

For our UPLB alumni who have been unable to come back to UPLB years after graduation, we wish to provide some triggers that will reconnect them with their Alma Mater.  Naturally, there are numerous physical markers that would refresh or trigger recollection of some fond memories of Los Baños in some still not-so-distant past, but we thought that one such trigger would be citing at least some of the UPLB Heritage Trees.

The idea of designating certain specific trees as UPLB Heritage Tree is a good one.  This was conceptualized during the chancellorship of Luis Rey Velasco (who is on his second 3-year term as Chancellor).  In 2008, the UPLB Heritage Tree Committee designated a number of trees on the UPLB campus as heritage trees mainly because these have stood on the UPLB campus over time and have become culturally important.

Perhaps the most popular among these trees is the dao (Dracontomelon dao [Blanco] Merr. & Rolfe) tree which is simply called Dao Sa S.U. by the UPLB Heritage Tree Committee.  I recall, when I came to Los Baños in 1963 as a greenhorn (term used to refer to freshmen in those days), this dao tree was already standing very tall and strong by the Molawin Creek (the SU building was constructed only in 1965).  The buttresses then were very much smaller, though.  

Many would recall that in 2005, during the chancellorship of Wilfredo David, this dao tree became focus of national attention when it was declared a hazard to life (the then Chancellor said it has rotten inside and was about to fall, possibly on the SU building, so it had to be cut down).  Many environmentalists, led by the husband-and-wife team of biologist Dr. Perry and Landscape Architect Susan Ong, however, fought hard to scrap such idea.  Even then Senator Jamby Madrigal (who publicly censored Chancellor David) joined the national discussion in support of sparing the dao tree.  Ultimately, the tree was not cut down.  When the very powerful typhoon Milenyo devastated the UPLB Campus in 2006 (the eye of the typhoon passed through Los Baños), the dao tree remained standing, belying the declaration that it was about to fall down due to a rotting root system.  Today, said dao stand proudly and healthy as ever.  It even regularly blooms.

The dao marker says:

The Dao tree served as an inspiration to the National Artist, Leandro V. Locsin, for the design of the Student Union Building.  The columns projecting from the ceiling to the ground is a mimic of the flaring Dao trunk and buttress.  On April 14, 2005, the National Committee on Monuments and Sites, National Commission for Culture and the Arts (NCCA) declared in its resolution No. 2005-07 indeed recognizing the intrinsic cultural value of the said Dao tree at the UP Los Baños Campus.  More recently, Regent Romulo Davide in his letter expressed that the tree be named the Centennial Tree after it has survived several typhoons other than Milenyo in Septemnber 2006.

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On the other side of Molawin Creek, near the Palma Bridge, is another heritage tree, just simply referred to locally as the Kapok.  This tree is also known by its English common name, American Cotton Tree, Ceiba pentandra (L.) Gaerin.   This kapok tree is far from being an ordinary tree to me; it’s the cause of my asthma, when those snow-like flakes fall off from the tree crown.

Standing “tall and huge …,” says the Marker, “…and the popping continues as the ‘bulak’ fall snow-like landscape announcing the special event of Graduation Day in the UPLB Campus.”

Well, this much I know about this particular tree.  When I was freshman at UPCA, this kapok tree was already there, but the buttresses weren’t there then.  Today, those buttresses are as high as 10 feet.  It has stood time.

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Forestry alumni, do you recall the large White Lauan (Shorea contorta Vidal) near the College of Forestry (now College of Forestry and Natural Resources – CFNR) Administration Building?  It’s just behind what is now the main office building of the Makiling Botanic Garden.  And did you know that this tree was planted by students of silviculture in what was then a cogonland?  Let’s have a look at its marker:

This White Lauan tree is a living testimony of successful reforestation in the Philippines which started in the Forestry Campus in early 1900s in connection with the establishment of the UP School of Forestry.  This White Lauan tree was one of the indigenous tree species planted in 1913 in this once cogon-dominated site by the forestry students and faculty as part of their laboratory exercise in silviculture.

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Now, here’s another one.   Who can possibly forget the huge acacia tree near the Institute of Animal Science (then called the Department of Animal Husbandry)?  This has stood witness to many a tryst among UPCA students, and its campus nickname was “fertility” tree, which was just a joke to some of us who couldn’t afford intimate relationships in those days which we knew as hard times.   Today, this acacia has extended its crown and its shade  has become favorite place for week-end family, athletic, and alumni gatherings.  It still goes by its favorite nickname “fertility” tree for UPLB students.  Indeed, it’s much more comfortable under its shade now than it used to.

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Remember Pili Drive?  It’s still there.  It hasn’t changed much since it was constructed in 1962, when IRRI was established.  The Pili trees are, of course, aging but there are new plants now.  During our time, it was prohibited to pick fruits on the UPCA campus, but today every kid in town does so without calling any attention.   In our time, all fruit trees like Kaimito and Pili trees carried markers warning people, “Fine for picking of fruits: P50.”  Of course, P50 in those days was huge amount of money.  And us, new students, were all scared of it.  It’s different today.  Informal settlers just at the other side of the UPLB fence gather kaimito fruits in quantity and sell these on makeshift fruit tables along UPLB roads.  How about the Pili fruit pickers?  Well, they don’t only pick those that have fallen off, but they do climb and pick those fruits.  At one time, I asked a couple who were carrying a sack-full of pili fruits on Pili Drive, “what do you use these for?”  and their straight forward response was  “we make pili sweets and sell them.”  But those were not fruit contractors of UPLB.

It’s strange when one feels one is missing out on what used to be culture-and-value rich campus experience.  Indeed, the UPLB Campus has changed, actually generally deteriorated, and one can feel it to the bones.  Or may be, I’m too old-fashioned.

Do visit the UPLB Campus now and then.  Everybody is still excited about being here now and then.  See you around, folks.

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Stay Safe, Stay Alive, Don't Drive Today

There are a couple of reasons this entry is here.  One, I’d like to share with you a little of what researchers advocating driverless cars have been doing to avoid traffic accidents, and, two, I hate those tricycles driven by underaged-lisenceless, non-tax-paying morons making driving on our roads a death race.

Let me deal with the latter first.

Just an hour ago, driving home from a busy day in the office, I was cut by a tricycle from the right and decided to stay just one meter in front of me before overtaking and cutting the next fellow ahead of me in the same way that he did to me a few seconds earlier.  In the process, he made traffic signs with his foot, which, of course, was barely seen under normal circumstances, and never mind if his passengers, about six of them in one tricycle, were swaying left and right according to the gyrations of the motorcycle.  On top of that, the tricycle driver apparently added too much toti (the gasoline additive for two stroke motor engines which make the motor cycles expel too much smoke from the exhaust pipe) making visibility almost zero.  It is as if the tricycle driver intentionally violated traffic rules and the anti-air pollution act.

One wouldn’t  wonder why tricycle drivers are involved in senseless traffic accidents, almost always resulting in damage to the other vehicle.  Of course, the tricycle driver would always claim he can’t afford to pay the damage since he was only trying to make a living for his family, and all that stuff that we hear all the time.

Did you know that tricycle drivers also charge exhorbitant rates?  For a distance of less than two kilometers in a lower-middle class residential area, they would charge something like at least P15 pax because it’s “out of the way” or it’s simply “special rate.”  But, hey, who’re their passengers?  They’re the people who’re even poorer than the drivers themselves.   It’s worse for people living in remote barangays (they pay higher fares frequently reaching P50 one way for just a couple of kilometers or so of a not-busy street).

One wonders why the LGUs are unable, or may be unwilling, to do anything about this problem.  In certain cities and towns, like, for example, Calamba City, there may be 5,000 tricycles roaming the streets wasting gasoline at any given time (frequently they don't have passengers because they select their passengers, prioritizing those willing to pay much higher fares to their respective barangays).  And did you know that the tricycles always stay within the center of town, avoiding passengers going back to their barangays outside the center of the city?  In Los Banos, the tricycles only like to go around the streets near the gates of UPLB.  Go to places, just a kilometer away, still within walking distance from UPLB Gates, and you're charged more because the place you're going to is "out of the way."  Out of the way relative to what?!

 Have you observed this interesting tricycle driver behavior?

It’s common  practice for tricycle drivers to simply make a U-Turn right in the middle of the road even if there is no U-Turn sign.  This particular driver did so as if there were no other vehicles on the road, least of all one behind him.  Very inconsiderate.  But, of course, tricycle drivers behave as if they own the road (but I doubt if they pay taxes, including road users' tax).  When do they do it?  Any time they feel like doing so.  This driver just ahead of me suddenly made a U-turn without even making a sign.  Good thing there was no on-coming traffic, else he could just be part of the stats now.

Here's an interesting news for operators of motor vehicles. 

I don’t have stats for the Philippines just right now, but let me share with you what Professor Sebastian Thrun, a robotics researcher at Stanford University, told his TED.com audience recently about driverless cars.  He made the driverless car for Google, by the way.

According to Professor Thrun, in the US alone self-driving accidents are the number one cause of death among young people, almost all of which are due to human error.  Such fatal accidents could have been prevented.  The robotics professor, who has made it his advocacy to completely prevent traffic deaths through self-driving by developing cars that don’t need human drivers (as a teen ager, he lost his best friend to traffic accident), said that we could improve highway capacity by a factor of two or three and reducing drastically the number of deaths on the road by simply staying on our own lanes while driving (snaking through more than one lane is common practice for many drivers but this is highly inefficient use of the road aside from it being dangerous).  Too, if we keep to our lane, we could easily eliminate all the traffic jams, Thrun said.

Well, under Philippine conditions, drivers always “must” snake through the traffic and insist on being the first to pass through a single lane traffic area.  Filipino drivers, by the way, seem to believe that five cars abreast could squeeze into a single lane so that they could all pass simultaneously and much faster together.

Thrun tells us that on the average US drivers waste 52 minutes per day in traffic, which (given the US population) adds up to four billion hours and a gasoline wastage rate of 2.4 billion gallons per year.  Oh, but Filipino drivers will tell you, “that doesn’t happen in the Philippines!”  Yeah!  True!  Indeed, it’s worse here!

Have you been watching TV news?  May be stats in the US and the Philippines don’t differ much.  Perhaps the point of difference might be that most deaths on urban and city roads in the Philippines might be due to motorcycle and tricycle accidents.

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