“A picture paints a thousand words…”

Yes its true, “A picture paints a thousand words…” last night was the second day of the eLearning session where I was attending. Again, sir Ray presented several topics. Let me just share on my very important learning acquired in these series of eLearning sessions.

First learning I have is on a picture or what we call images as we call it. A simple yet very important thing to be reminded of. Yes, images or pictures is very important within a story. Well, almost everybody knows that of course but one thing that strikes me most is that not everybody knows that images’ role in the story is just as good as how it goes along with it. Yes, a picture or image should always connect to the facts of the story.

It was a very enjoyable moment while sir Ray was trying to convey all of us with this thoughts. He made used of series of sample slides that really caught each and everyone’s attention.

So what’s the real point presented in here as far as I could understand it? Well, it shows several points to consider in eLearning;

1. It is important to engage learners not controlling them or manipulating in such a way the lecturer would want – this is very true. I’ve been a witness with these in attending several staff development programs.

2. In eLearning, Learners should control the learning

eLearning Learnings!

My learning experience might be different of the others. Probably because of the cultural thing or precisely because eLearning is not yet a known strategy for learning in companies and educational institutions here.

"pedagogy empowered by digital technology" It is important to realize that the term e-learning is ambiguous. It is nearly impossible to define what it is, as it has different meanings to different people”. Yes these were the only thoughts I have upon starting with this eLearning session with sir Ray.

During the session, I was keen observant to all the participants on what to do and what words to put in the chat box. After all this is my first time. For now, I might say I have already a grasp of the term “eLearning”. So this is it! A new method, unique strategy and not a boring one.

For now, I think my learning were too personal. I don’t have so much in depth understanding of the topics, at least a little perhaps. But I saw some effective strategies and methods.

I believe a lot of companies here in the Philippines needs to engage with such trainings. I can see personnel departments of some medium and large companies here needs this. A lot of their staffs needs to be capacitate.

Getting rid of Hard Water

Hard water is not hazardous to our health. In fact, hard drinking water generally contributes a small amount toward total calcium and magnesium that a human dietary needs. In instances that dissolved calcium and magnesium were very high, water could be primary contributor of calcium and magnesium to the diet.

But not everybody knows that it must be softened. Majority of the households might wonder why clothes washed in hard water often look dingy and feel harsh and scratchy. Yes, this is due to the hard minerals combined with some soils to form insoluble salts, taking them difficult to remove. Thus, continuous laundering in hard water can damage fibers and shorten the life of clothes by up to 40 percent.

Not only has that, bathing with soap in hard water left a film of sticky soap curd on the skin and in washing dishes, especially in a dishwasher, hard water may cause spotting and filming on your crockery. And these definitely posed a serious problem to each and every household.

Hence, it would be ideal solution to leave the calcium in the water, but alter its state so that it couldn't form lime scale. And definitely, the solution is either to filter the water by distillation or reverse osmosis to remove the calcium and magnesium, or to use a water softener. Filtration is definitely expensive to use for all the water usage in a house and therefore a water softener is the most affordable solution that every household has to consider.

So what can water softener do? The idea on how a water softener works is really simple. Sodium ions will replace the calcium and magnesium ions and the problems on hard water is eliminated because sodium does not precipitate out in pipes or react badly with soap. Thus, to do the replacement, the water in the house shall run through a bed of small plastic beads or a chemical matrix.

Soft water is definitely safe for drinking because softened water still contains all the natural minerals that each and everyone needs. It’s only the calcium and magnesium ions which were taken off and some sodium is added during the softening process. It is likewise advisable that softened water contains only up to 300mg/L of sodium. Thus in areas with extreme hardness the softened water must not be used for the preparation of baby-milk, because high sodium content after the softening process has been carried out.