#documenting lessons

See pic of computer, in a school with no electricity.

myth #1 It's about the content... but the hardware is what sells

This is a great "believed" contradiction. I've heard it three times in my short life as an education upstarter: "We're going to say it's about the computers" "the computers is what will bring people there" "but really it's about the education"

here are my two big points to consider after hearing these phrases (come out of your mouth or someone elses):

1. If you sell the hardware, you will get people (decision makers, and future users) who are there for the hardware, not for the education. People want an education, they are hungry for it, spend more time finding and attracting these people.

2. As you sell the hardware, you will be spending time, energy and money, getting the hardware, making it presentable, and teaching folks how it works., etc. We already said, it's the content that matters, how do we spend more time and resources on that?

and here are the things I wish the education community would do more and more, things which I am writing here, because I have struggled with them.

Lesson #1: Build from the content

1.  Don't spend too much time on the fancy box if you're only going to fill it with hope. I know of too many empty classrooms turned bodegas, too many dusty computer shells covered with fancy printed lola looking cloth. Filipino teachers need to build content that connects to filipino students from all walks of life. We cannot fly in a curriculum from somewhere else and expect it to magically work in the Philippines. BAM! Like magic. Our problems are our problems, WE (tayo mismo) need to build the solutions.

2. Prototype fast, make things accessible. There are so many great thesis, studies, funded projects around #1, with content in context, but they were made for academics, not for students in public schools, their parents and their teachers. Let's measure the success by the number of times it was used, not the number of places it was distributed, by the number of offshoot lessons, and not the number of locations.