Pathways DTM Chew Ban Seng: Pathway's Obstacles and Joys

"It is the flexibility and freedom from Pathways that give me the flight of joy and pleasure."

Chew Ban Seng DTM

Past District Governor

Several Toastmasters submitted applications for their Pathways DTMs in the month of March. They are fortunate to have unutilised credits from earlier years to fulfill the new requirements. Chew Ban Seng is one of the first one's. He also writes a blogspot blog. 

Chew Ban Seng wrote in his blog when he got his Pathways DTM:

"Now that I have completed my Pathways DTM journey, I have been asked to share. I am doing this at District 51 Annual Conference 2018 which is held at the Royale Chulan Damansara, Petaling Jaya, Malaysia. 

On Friday afternoon 20 April 2018, 12 "Experts" will share their Toastmasters experiences based on 4 'cluster' themes. Each cluster consists of 3 Toastmasters. Each speaker will speak for 15 minutes with the balance 15 minutes for panel discussion. I am the final speaker in "Cluster 1: Toastmasters in the Digital Age". "

A familiar face in the middle! Lorraine Taylor speaking about Online Toastmasters Clubs!

The title of the presentation is "Pathways: 2 Biggest Obstacles and 1 Biggest Weakness"

"Basically the challenges I faced will be similar to what most of you will be facing when you embark on Pathways.

The first major obstacle is mindset. Getting people to change from the traditional education path is the most difficult. Switching from what we normally do to something new - blended learning - is never easy. For many, the transformation is huge... but we know that it must be done for the future of Toastmasters.

The second major hurdle (or obstacle) is the lack of computer literacy skills. Even though I use the computer on a daily basis I still had challenges. I really appreciate my Vice President Education (who is a Pathways Guide) for the patience to hold my hands with hiccups after hiccups. In the process, I now fully understand the whole Pathways system including the workings within Base Camp.

I believe that Toastmasters International should invest in a dropdown menu with auto-translation into the key languages used. In District 80, many Mandarin-speaking Toastmasters felt lost navigating unchartered territories.

Surprisingly, this in my opinion is still not the biggest weakness...

Even though we paid for our Pathways path, the present system does not allow us to look further ahead. What is the reason to restrict our access to projects of higher levels? Why is this necessary?

Without doubt this is the biggest weakness in the new educational system. For someone who likes to work "with the end in mind", I felt very frustrated and unfulfilled. It was only after I had completed  one Pathways path, that I could see the "big picture" for the second using the first as guide since many of the elective projects are similar.

I sincerely hope that Toastmasters International will lift this unnecessary restriction once the new Pathways is fully rolled out in all Districts by 30 June 2018. "   

In our messaging, I asked Chew "and your Greatest Joys"? He answered me in his blog:

"My major joys??? It is the flexibility and freedom from Pathways that give me the flight of joy and pleasure" and he gave me permission to publish from his post here.

"The most enjoyable thing about Pathways is the opportunity to try new things otherwise not possible. If you had followed my blog, I did a lot of Rotary activities and tied that with Pathways. I am doing good serving humanity and doing my Pathways at the same time.  Certainly a "win-win" approach which I believe is the essence of Pathways. 😍" 

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As for me, after I read about the new Educational Learning Systems and Blended Learning, I did better understand why we can not see the whole picture in our first path. About that another time. But in the beginning, I was also frustrated not being able to see to the end as I am not part of those who grew up on video games, also based on Levels where you can not see farther till got through one of them.