Pure Manaʻo

Source:  Mirani, L. (2014, August 21). Going Walden: What it feel like to be the last generation to remember life before the internet [Web log]. Retrieved from  http://qz.com/252456/what-it-feels-like-to-be-the-last-generation-to-remember-life-before-the-internet/ What is Sacred: I am reading a lot of summaries. I think it is about teaching the course on literature reviews which is all about being able to summarize larger works, so my tolerance for larger works is giving way to just wanting to read the summaries and see people put their thoughts together as model texts for what I want my master's students to do. More like wishful hoping? This summary of Michael Harris' (above) book The End of Absence : Reclaiming What We've Lost in a World of Constant Connection gives a fair reading of the book. It is balanced and does not fall into the trap of personalizing someone else's message in order to tout your own agenda. Nice. Connections to Current/Future Work: Thi...

Source:  Sacasas, M. (2011, August 25). Kranzberg's six laws of technology, a metaphor, and a story [Web log]. Retrieved from  https://thefrailestthing.com/2011/08/25/kranzbergs-six-laws-of-technology-a-metaphor-and-a-story/ What is Sacred: This is a link from a link from a link. As someone born before 1985 , and a dying breed of humans who exist as both BI and AI navigators (before internet - after internet), Kranzberg's six laws of technology are indeed both metaphor and story.  I have been on an annotated bibliography, summary kick, but the writing is superb. Go read the link from the source instead as my writing a summary of Sacasas' summary will be disrespectful of the words on screen.  Connections to Current/Future Work: I hone in on the fifth law: all history is relevant, but the history of technology is the most relevant.  Let's talk about that. I want to have that conversation with my secondary social studies candidates. My co...

ISTE 2012 (International Society for Technology in Education) is in San Diego this summer at the convention center. The conference started off with the usual business affairs, then moved on to a much hyped keynote by Sir Ken Robinson , an advocate for creativity in education. The ISTE volunteers and hosts valiantly tried to control the seating in the room by cordoning off rows of seats in order to force educators into the sides of the room first. They did not realize that we are teachers who have traveled from across the country on our summer break to attend this conference. Not only that, but we breathe democracy and social justice. If we show up one hour before the talk and respectfully stand in front of the door, it's not fair to push us toward the nether regions of the room instead of the prime seats at the center. Controlling us was impossible as people started breaking the ribbons. Robinson talked about the need to personalize education, "The problem is the whole...

"Infographics are 30 to 40 times more likely to be viewed and shared than text."  I think that's especially true for our students who live in a world saturated by visual stimulants vying to grab our attention. It's not enough to have billboards lining the highways. Now it's animated billboards. It's no wonder that our textbooks and newspapers are filled with colorful infographics. It's how we read. As a genre, infographics challenge creators to synthesize information and visually depict the information in a catchy, yet logical fashion. It's hard, but it's still a worthy skill to have students practice. easel.ly , although still in beta form, and very limited in its templates is a nice site that allows students to play with data using pre-made templates. The teacher would of course need to have a conversation with students on the purpose of each of the templates, and it's by no means perfect for all content areas, but check it out, it's...

Saw this on a tweet and decided to try it with our 6th grade Hawaiian studies readings. Check it out. Start here .  You'll get the screen below. I then went to grab some text from the Hawaiian Studies curriculum. This particular one is from the book on Kamehameha V: Lot Kapuāiwa, Introduction Chapter 1, pages 1-3. I put it into the VocabGrabber and here's what I got. A couple things I noticed: The list of 37 words on the bottom left are set up like a wordle, so the ability to bring out themes and important words is already built in. It gives you an example from the text which helps when doing a literary critique because you have possible citations. There are visual connections with the main word as the  piko  or the center (see screenshot below with the word unify) Yes, it does cost money if you want to create a word list or do more with it, but there is a 14-day free trial offer, and on their "educators" page on the menu bar, they give lots of tips o...

and why we must provide the tools for our digital natives. Nwp Digital Is De Voss View more documents from devossda .

I've used voice threads in my language arts class, but how did it work in other classes, and how was it better once we actually paid the $1/child for their own account? This is an example from Mele's Hawaiian studies class. The students were doing research on Princess Pauahi and what she did for her people, then they drew a picture for their slide and wrote a script. Positives: the students were able to continue recording until they were satisfied. They took to the technology quickly. They were able to get comments from their parents, so there was a connection between school and home. Things we still need to work on: I continue to say this, and I'm going to say this again: technology is just a tool. Good literacy instruction is the foundation for all projects, so teachers need to check the writing first. I think Mele had to go back after some were recorded because their information was wrong. We're working on fixing that - check everything first. Second, the students ne...

1. Type this blog with any kind of speed that's not considered geriatric. 2. Figure out how to put pics on this blog if my pics are not uploaded to an Internet site. And finally, 3. Type this blog without looking like a lame-o old lady who does not have her multiple finger cheating on my test taking abilities down. Still, since I'm on way to San Antonio, my husband says why do you need to take your computer, you have your iPhone? It can do everything you want it to do. So, in order to save space for books I'm going to scrounge for free, I am without my laptop. I have 4 days to figure out how to get my iPhone to work for me so that I too can be an iPhone weiner.

I am in a love-hate relationship with the other woman. Her name is Magellan and she has this very calming voice, even when she is giving us the wrong freaking directions. Magellan, our GPS, is actually my husband's girl. She has replaced me as the official map reader and navigator on our travels (travails). This other woman was supposed to curb our stress level and keep our bickering to a minimum. I, as the map reader like to have all the instructions plotted before we leave the parking lot, my husband likes to start up the car and go, which starts us arguing right away, because if he takes the wrong turn out of the parking lot, I have to throw out my directions and look at the map again. Magellan has ended those arguments, but even if she doesn't snap at my husband or give him the silent treatment, she is not always perfect either and this other woman has changed the way the two of us navigate our way through life. Before Magellan, my husband and I had to up our learning curve...