EducateDeviate » Brick In The Wall

Reviving Brick In The Wall: Join Us – Bring Alternative Education To Malaysia

Tiara — Sat, 07 Jul 2007 10:23:15 +0000

If you are interested in youth and alternative education; if you feel that the Malaysian education system needs changes; if you want to make a difference; if you are resourceful, dedicated, imaginative, creative, diligent – Brick In The Wall needs you.

Brick In The Wall was a project I started in 2005 to promote alternative education in Malaysia. It was meant to be a non-profit that organized various programs and facilities to provide educational opportunities to Malaysian youth. Amongst the planned projects included (but were not limited to):

A resource centre, with a library, computing services, education counselling, creative spaces, meeting spaces, and lots more
“Support Me”, a sponsorship program whereby young people put up their projects and receive support (financial, in-kind, or personal) from others
An alternative education fair, with representation from various organizations and service providers
Workshops, skillshares, and roadshows on alternative education
A resource list of various organizations, service providers, and programs open to Malaysians
A scholarship fund for young Malaysians interested in taking up alternative educational opportunities
Publications about alternative education

Based on an initial project proposal, I contacted various people and set up a YahooGroup and a TakingITGlobal Project Page, and even had a preliminary meeting. Some time later I and another member spoke with the Masters in Instructional Design students at Universiti Malaya about our project. I sent out the proposal anywhere and everywhere; ASTRO sounded interested.

We had high hopes, but due to many factors, we really didn’t get anywhere. I was embarking on my Up with People tour and wouldn’t be in the country for half the year. Other members dropped out and became disinterested. We also never made the proposal practical – we didn’t have a budget, which was sorely needed, and we couldn’t work out how to convert ideas into actual project steps. When I moved to Australia, I handed over leadership to another member, and stayed on in a supervisory role. EducateDeviate, which started on New Years Day 2006 after my return from UWP, was my way of getting the word about alternative education across; it was awareness-building without requiring too many resources, and I could start it immediately.

In the past year, especially within the past couple of months, awareness about the need for change in Malaysian education has increased manifold. Government officials, including the Ministry of Education, have spoken up against the rush for As and made it clear that students need to learn from real life, not just books and school. Young people with non-mainstream talents and achievements are being recognized. More and more Malaysians are taking up alternative educational opportunities, or researching about them – for instance, there is a Malaysian travelling in one of the UWP casts this year. I just received an email from a young lady who wants to set up a service to help students apply for internships, since her experience was quite a hassle. Malaysians now realize the importance of supporting youth ventures and of the rich variety of learning experiences outside school, and they’re hungry for information and resources.

It’s time to restart Brick In The Wall.

To get Brick In The Wall up and running again, we need people. We need people with very practical abilities – budgeting, resource planning, grant writing. We need creative people who can generate lots of ideas. We need people who can convert ideas into action. We need marketers and promoters. We need people well-versed in local law, policy, and regulations. We need people with energy, drive, and determination.

We need YOU.

Join the YahooGroup, introduce yourself, and share ideas. Download the project proposal (which desperately needs a rewrite) and suggest ways to improve it. Drop me a line. Pass the word on. Get involved.

Brick In The Wall needs you. Malaysian youth and education need you. Come join us.

Links in Post:

Blogathon: #22 – Learning Designers

Tiara — Sat, 29 Jul 2006 23:35:41 +0000

Sponsor Me – Raised: $36 – Sponsors: 3 – Sponsor Me

Kathy Sierra of Creating Passionate Users writes a followup to an earlier post about the relevance of college in today’s world, and goes through the various options for learning. She then brings up this idea:

Maybe there should be third-party “learning designers” who you pay to plan and choose the best options and put together a perfectly tailored custom program from a variety of learning vendors (instead of throwing all your learning eggs into one school basket) that still includes some general education, but in the way that makes the most sense for that particular student, and uses both online, distance, and *some* face-to-face learning. If a parent (and more importantly, the student) thinks that leaving home is important, that can be a component as well (although I’m still voting for the crash-course with a backpack and a rail pass thing). The students could go to a kind of “advanced learning camp” that could be anything from an off-campus dorm (complete with cafeteria), or something more primitive.

I thought this was a very interesting idea. Learning does come from more than one source, and it makes sense to take full advantage of this and diversify your learning experiences.

For instance, I could pick one or two courses in uni that I thought were interesting. I could then link them up with a year of touring Up With People, followed by a year’s worth of work experience in the field (internships, volunteering, jobs). Along the way, I could encounter a great learning opportunity, and have the time and space to take that on. I’m learning not for the sake of a degree or a certificate, but because it’s what I’m interested in.

This could be run Scout-style, or International-Award-style. Prepare a list of subject matter – Travel, Engineering, Non-Profits, Computing, Underwater Basketweaving, and so on. Under each subject matter, organize opportunities. For instance, under Travel you’d have listings for study-abroad groups or working holidays. Under Non-profits you’d have a job ad from a charity, or a university course on non-profit management. You’d make your choices, and then you’d communicate with a facilitator who would help schedule everything, suggest related options, and help organize your materials for entry (for instance, student visas for overseas study). You could set a learning plan for yourself and have this facilitator guide you and monitor your progress. Once you’ve accomplished your plan, you can get a certificate outlining your learning acheivements. You could also build up a portfolio, which would be very handy in job searches or networking. Accreditation would be handled by the specific party providing the opportunity – the learning designers just sort out the opportunities that come their way.

This was the idea we were trying to get at with Brick In The Wall (now under new management) – providing and suggesting options for alternative learning. It would be very interesting to see how such a system would work. Would anyone be up for it? Does it already exist?

If you could design your own learning path, how would it look like?

Sponsor Me – Raised: $36 – Sponsors: 3 – Sponsor Me

Penang State and Supplemental Education

Tiara — Wed, 01 Mar 2006 13:53:14 +0000

According to this article in ALIRAN Malaysia, the Penang state government have been initating a number of projects over the past few years to supplement formal education there.

… the State can focus on areas that somehow have received scant or no attention within the formal system of education.

- Datuk Dr Toh Kin Woon, State Executive Councillor for Economic Planning, Education, and Human Resources Development Committee, Penang, Malaysia

Among their projects include:

Bureau on Learning Difficulties (BOLD), aimed at helping children with learning difficulties (or underpriviledged children) learn literacy and numeracy skills through talks and workshops
PACE, aimed at providing opportunities for continuous learning through regular talks on varied issues such as astronomy, healthcare, and self-development
Arts-Ed, which provides art education through short courses in music, drama, visual art, literature, and video production
The Penang Public Library, with resources on Penang’s culture and heritage
The Penang Library Network, which connects the catalogues of participating libraries

It’s highly interesting to see such efforts being done in Malaysia, especially at a state level – it shows that the state government has alternative and supplementary education in mind and realizes that there are still many limitations to the current educational system that require outside help.

Many of these ideas – especially BOLD, PACE, and Arts-Ed – are reminiscent of plans for Brick In The Wall, a project I founded last year to support and promote alternative education. We too had plans for talks and art education, as well as including those with learning difficulties, though our focus was mainly on being a no-governmental open network and resource for alternative educational programs.

Our biggest problem was that not many important people (who could really make a difference for us) really took us as seriously as we wished (and we need to work on organizing), but these efforts by the Penang State government are really inspiring and helpful, and help provide a framework and support for our project.

It would be good to see efforts like this implemented in other states, and hopefully nation-wide. Are there any plans like this elsewhere?

Links in Post:

The Thrill’s Just Starting

Tiara — Sat, 18 Feb 2006 15:39:07 +0000

So plenty has happened ever since I thought about that thrill in my toes. It seems that the thrill is just about to begin.

My round of interviews for the World Bank Essay Competiton has started, and I've received some pretty good responses. I even managed to talk to Bob and DeeAnn over Skype (add me, I'm "divabat") and ask them questions. I suppose I could have done it better (DeeAnn was a last-minute addition so I was completely underprepared) but I did get what I wanted – or at least know who to ask from now – and it was 7:30 in the morning outside a McDonalds.

Why am I doing a Skype interview at 7:30 in the morning outside a McDonalds?

The move to Petaling Jaya was a bit frustrating – the apartment wa a bit dilapitated, but worse of all, there was no Internet. There was a LAN line, but it was disconnected. This frustrated me greatly because the only reason I even took this apartment (besides my dad vetoing all my other choices out) was because the previous tenant had said there was a connection. And now I have to pay RM60 a month for at least six months, when I probably won't live here that long. There is a Maxis WiFi connection, which I still have to pay for (RM33 monthly) but it's not very strong on the 15th floor, especially not at odd hours of the day. Hence the early morning interview outdoors, where the signal is clearer. (Even as I'm writing this, the signal is coming and going, and I'm theoritically in the area with the best reception – nearest to the balcony.)

I have indeed started my job with Channel [V] International at their Petaling Jaya office. My job title is "Production Assistant", and despite all the warnings from SoYouWanna.Com and other production websites about how menial the job is, I have yet to make anyone coffee or peel self-bought oranges or book manicures. Instead, in the past three days of work, I've been compiling Oscar trivia to be used by one of our VJs on the Red Carpet, writing scripts for the same VJ on a different TV show, standing in for another VJ for a light/camera test, making one of my colleagues (and new found friend) who sits diagonally across from me in awe of me as I keep coming up with quick and easy Internet solutions for everything he needs, and structuring & designing the first ever Channel [V] Oscars PreShow on the Red Carpet, featuring the trivia list I was working on, to be aired on [V] before the official Red Carpet Preshow.

I'm pretty surprised that they assigned me the Preshow-Preshow on only my third day, especially since I don't have any actual television experience. As it is, they've never had the chance to do this sort of show before (this is the first time they've had access to something like this) so there isn't a set sample structure, and I'm prety much working on this alone. I would have expected at least a team effort. I wonder if they have loads of confidence in me to trust me to such a major job (too much confidence, maybe?) or if this is really something really easy and I'm just too inexperienced to know better. In any case, I'd better work on pulling this off, because then it'll give me leverage to apply for leave come April.

Yes, I've been confirmed to perform in the Premire of Up With People's new Show and Program. I've been accepted into the PreStaging. The thing that would have given me my biggest thrill. And I've got it.

It's working out really well actually. Right about now Malaysia Airlines is holding a promotional Travel Fair, and I'm entitled to save up to RM400 on tickets (this is including taxes and fees and all – it would be a LOT cheaper if it wasn't for the USD320 add-on taxes). I've been in touch with my ex-host family and they've agreed to host me again. I already have a US visa, so that isn't a problem for me. All that's standing in the way is the application for leave, which I can do at the latest by mid-March – besides, the boss already knows of my plan. Obviously, though, they would be more supportive of giving me time off if I've worked hard enough to deserve it, rather than if I've just been slacking off so far.

Which, to be honest, I have been. I should be working on the essay or the show structure but instead I've spent the whole day going online, catching up on my Bloglines subscriptions, and stalking my friends on Friendster to see if there's anyone I know that I haven't added in yet.

Technically, that's a lie. I have been doing other things besides being glued to the computer. This morning I went to take the IELTS exam for use for entry into Malaysia (because claiming English as your first language, even if it really is your first language, doesn't really cut it if your native language is Malay and your mother tongue is Bengali. Long story.) It's not nearly as mindless as my sister made it out to be – for goodness sake, how am I to come up with off-the-cuff remarks about whether or not it's a good idea to restrict air travel due to pollution if I don't have time to do proper research?! – but it wasn't too bad. It was interesting that my topic for the Speaking section was adult education…it was too bad that there was a time limit, I could have gone on further.

Tomorrow there should be a meeting with some of the other people in the Brick In The Wall project, a project to promote alternative education in Malaysia. If you're reading this in Malaysia and you're interested, join the YahooGroup or come by on Sunday 19th February 2006 at 2:30 PM at McDonalds Sec 14, next to Jaya Shopping Centre. We'll be talking about how to simplify our plans and actually realize them – as well as drafting mini-proposals for projects like a youth group in Thailand that's giving grant money for this sort of thing. Maybe we'll get something worked out.

Tomorrow there was meant to be an article from me in The Star's Education section – originally a letter written in response to all the letters sent in the past couple of weeks about getting As in exams. I was basically fed up with people who wrote in saying "if I miss a single A I am a failure" and "the only people who don't care about As are underachievers or rich" and so on, so I wrote back detailing all the various experiences I had that had nothing to do with my exam results. The editor called me up the next day and asked if they could publish it as a feature, with accompanying photos. I agreed, and sent in some photos (and a slightly polished up version of the letter; I wrote the original close to midnight and was quite sleepy) – though unfortunately I heard soon after that my article would be postponed to the following Sunday due to space issues. Oh well! Keep an eye out on the Sunday Star and try to look for one of my articles. I'll post it here with comments when it's published.

When I was at the IDP Centre to take the IELTS test, I noticed a sign for their upcoming roadshows – "Aussie Fairs". Their KL roadshow would be held on Saurday the 4th of March, at Pan Pacific Hotel. One day after my IELTS test results are released, on a weekend, and hopefully I'll have time to get my certificates released from college too. Then I can show up at the roadshow with all my materials, and start applying – good thing the application fees are waived too. I could also probably see what sort of courses are out there that fit my new-found perspective and interests.

That, though, is a post for another day. For now, let's just mull over the different opportunities that have arisen, marvel at the gifts of the Universe, and feel that thrill in our toes again.

Links in Post: