ODeL Modality: Virtual Reporting towards the Development of Discourse on Religious Environmentalism
Kim Escobin, Remedios Cadaon, Romeo B. Almonte, Joane Serrano
jserrano@upou.edu.ph
This paper will present a strategy for one ODeL modality called Virtual Reporting that specifically highlights online collaboration towards the development of discourse on religious environmentalism. The concept of Virtual Reporting was applied as a method of dissertation among the student learners enrolled in a graduate course on Environmental Advocacy. Virtual reporting encapsulates video recording during data collection and results presentation. Data collection also included documentary analysis and in-depth interviews and bibliometric analysis.
Religious environmentalism is the deliberate application of a religious attitude toward the environment with the intent of solving or mitigating environmental crises. An example of the contributions of religious advocacy towards environmental movements is the dedication of the next 300 years to the care of the environment by the Sikhs, who measure time in 300-year units. This paper presents examples of the use of video reporting in relation to two cases of religious environmentalism from the Philippines and Thailand: the work of a Buddhist abbot of a small temple situated in the outskirts of the Khon Kaen, the northeastern capital of Thailand, and the dialogue-immersion for 18 years of a Franciscan friar in the Agta and Dumagat communities in the Sierra Madre mountains. Philippine Catholicism and Thai Buddhism both view men as caretakers of their environment. But this perspective is interpreted and applied in different ways. Buddhists value interconnectedness, reincarnation and karma, and they are known throughout history to be caring towards their natural habitat. Catholic viewpoints feature the ideology of dominion over the earth that has been interpreted in different ways by communities and individuals.
The written report and the virtual report based on the video reporting can be found at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gMibfQLgzYA&list=PLFD7B97A212480003 and http://www.youtube.com/user/kimescobin17?feature=mhee)