Revisiting the Dragon of Manila

Unlike most of the members of the small group from the AUDRN workshop, yesterday's trip to Binondo was not a first-time thing for me.

My first "real-world" job was with the Yuchengco Group of Companies' Pacific Plans, Inc. Their old office--before transferring to the more prestigious RCBC Plaza in Makati--was in an old building in Binondo, several stories high and wedged in between other residential-slash-business buildings. Every working day for 4 months, I took the bus to Manila, a jeep to Escolta, and walked several blocks until I got to that spot in one of the many crowded crevices of Old Manila. I was young and angsty and oblivious to many other things around me.

Yesterday, on a one-day trip to Binondo, Manila, guided by Mr. Karl "Happy Place" Go, I got to see the "Dragon of Manila" with fresh eyes. I chose to focus my fresh, sleepy eyes on the versatility of the space spanned by the historical construct of Binondo. Like what Karl said, the value of space (real estate) in Binondo is probably the most expensive in Manila; basically because the physical space doesn't grow, but the business, the population, and the vibrant life it fosters, do.

From Binondo Walk

Therefore, what caught my fancy yesterday was how people maximize space, and how space has acquired a versatility, a plurality of purpose, a fluid, transformable quality that fits in seamlessly with the pace of life of its inhabitants. People are used to it, no one is shocked, offended or jarred (except perhaps bumbling "tourists" like us, which the dragon has uncomplainingly accommodated, as well). The versatility comes naturally as the will to survive.

From Binondo Walk

From Binondo Walk

From Binondo Walk

A Prezi on Tragedy (based on Aristotle's Poetics)

May also be viewed on the Prezi site: http://bit.ly/fCYZDh

Embedding Greader feed Folders as Blogroll Lists

Eurethra!! [sic]

I am glad for the delasalle.ph igoogle/email accounts (despite some feature, data ownership and privacy limitations). There's really a lot you can do with it. Earlier in the schoolyear, Ms. Cielo and I found out how to maximize Gdocs filesharing and storing features during the AUDRN workshop. Later on, Sir Ronnie and I found time to tinker with GDocs form creator to make surveys for classroom and CFA use. Recently, I have been encouraging students to get more reading done by subscribing to their fave blogs using RSS functions and Google Reader.

Anyway, this might be old news for some tech-savvy educators out there, but I recently discovered a way to make blog-checking easier--by subscribing to feeds via Google Reader, yes--PLUS by embedding whole folders (I made one for each class) of blog feeds as a blogroll/list on your own blog or wordpress site. I use blogger to archive these and before I discovered this particular blogroll embed in Greader, I've always dreaded going through that tedious task of manually putting in blog URLs into lists (hah, ang tamad talaga).

But there you are! I just wish there were better design templates. Ah, well, be content, Ruby, you schmuck!

I would LOVE to sit down with fellow teachers who do not know this yet so I could share why blogging makes a better student output tool. I would love to share experience with it (positive and negative as well) and how to make blogging as an educational tool less of a headache. Of course, I would definitely appreciate hearing what tools and techniques you have found to be useful as well.

All we'll need is a decent internet connection and coffee. Message me!! :)