As part of the requirements to graduate with a masters degree in Library and Information Science (MLIS), us students have to take 9 units of cognates from another college in UP. Learnings from these will constitute the foundation of our masters thesis.
In this regard, I chose Educational Technology (EdTech) from the UP College of Education (UP Educ) as my cognate. To be honest, it was not my first choice. Initially, I wanted to enrol at the Technology Management Center (TMC) because prior to my enrolment in MLIS, I was working as an Offshore Operations and Projects Manager for a Digital Media Marketing and Website Development agency based in Orange County, California. I thought that learning how to manage technology in the commercial or business context was going to be helpful for my line of work.
Fortunately (I say this instead of "unfortunately" because I really am thankful that I ended up with EdTech), the tuition fee per unit at TMC was 2000php. At the time, I wasn't earning that much to be able to afford that rate. Another reason was it was more difficult to access the TCM building since it was technically "outside" the UP borders. It was along C.P. Garcia Avenue and I have to take four public transportation vehicles to get there. It was quite a hassle.
So I consulted some professors at the School of Library and Information Studies (SLIS) and I was told that there's a similarity between TMC and EdTech, the latter leaning, of course, more on the education side than the business technology side. It was perfect! Why didn't I think of this before?
I love Education. In fact, when I was an undergrad at SLIS, my thesis was more on the educational benefits of proper academic advising than on the actual practice of library and information science. I was interested on how the educators' behaviour and attitudes influence the performance and perceptions of a particular group of students (i.e. the shiftees and transferees). I was nominated Best Thesis for that study and it made me really happy and proud.
Signing up for EdTech cognates was a no-brainer. My first class was the foundations (EDT210) with Sir Gerson Abesamis. It was my favourite even among my LIS majors. We started with a fun workshop and I could recall I never had this perfect first impression for a UP class before. EDT210, indeed, was perfect.
I do not expect for EDT270 to be as perfect as my previous EDT class but I sincerely am hoping for it. I'm hoping that the class will have a lot of sharings from my classmates' first-hand experiences in their classes and institutions. I also expect that by the end of the semester, there would be many points I can consider as thesis topics for my next and final LIS subject. 😃
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