Category: Notes

Some interesting places and spaces around UBC

A 54-block glass mosaic representing UBC’s faculties and departments

The Corruption of the Best: On Ivan Illich

Further exploration of the Möbius Strip

Sacasas, L. M. (2024, November 27). The Enclosure of the Human Psyche. The Convivial Society

Phelan, A.M. (2005). On Discernment: The Wisdom of Practice and the Practice of Wisdom in Teacher Education

Zimmerman et al. (1998). A Complexity Science Primer: What is Complexity Science and Why Should I Learn About It?

Leggo, C. (2005). Pedagogy of the Heart: Ruminations on Living Poetically

Palmer, P. J. (1993). To Know as We Are Known: A Spirituality of Education. HarperOne. But yield who will to their separation, My object in living is to unite My avocation and my vocation As my two eyes make one in sight. —Robert Frost Header image: ﻼF in Gimp A recovery of community: ﻼF ~ […]

…we should ask not what AI will do to us, but what we want it to do for us

Shales, E. (2017). The Shape Of Craft. [Under Construction] EDIT

Naloxone (pronounced na-LOX-own) is a fast-acting medication used to temporarily reverse the effects of opioid overdoses, also called an opioid poisoning. [source] Header image: Darryl Dick/The Canadian Press (Dec 13, 2024) B.C. pharmacist who dispensed 28,400 naloxone doses to single person fined, suspended https://bc.ctvnews.ca/b-c-pharmacist-who-dispensed-28-400-naloxone-doses-to-single-person-fined-suspended-1.7145665 (Sept 27, 2024) Naloxone, AED’s to be added to Richmond schools, […]

Header image: ﻼF in Dall-E Nathan Gardels interviews Yuval Noah Harari about his new book Nexushttps://www.noemamag.com/al-will-take-over-human-systems-from-within/ the truth is a very rare and costly kind of information. If you just flood the world with information, truth is bound to lose. If you want truth to win and to acquire knowledge and wisdom, you must tilt […]

Header image: ﻼF in Dall-E Seemann, K. W. (2009). Technacy education: Understanding cross-cultural technological practice. In J. Fien, R. Maclean & M. Park (Eds.), Work, learning and sustainable development (pp. 117-131). Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4020-8194-1_9 Header image: ﻼF in Dall-E Technology studies are both highly visible but rarely valued in almost every national curriculum. It is often […]

Some Knowledge is Sacred and Only Shared With Permission and/or in Certain Situations “Exploring Indigenous knowledge in the classroom was challenged and struck down in the court case Servatius v. Alberni School District No. 70, where it was deemed that a smudging ceremony which took place in a Port Alberni, BC school was not a […]

Header image: Screenshot of home page of Indigenizing Shop Jeremy O’Shea is a Tech Ed teacher at Edward Milne Community School, SD#62 Sooke. In 2021, he completed his MEd at UVic, submitting the following project: The project was to create “an online website that will act as a resource for technology educators to guide in […]

Header image: Foundation for Economic Education A charming story which explains how something as apparently simple as a pencil is, in fact, the product of a very complex economic process based upon the division of labor, international trade, and comparative advantage. [source] The pencil details the complexity of its own creation, listing its components (cedar, […]

Header image: KF – personal pic [in progress] Kahlil Gibran: Sand and Foam (1926) I have learned silence from the talkative,tolerance from the intolerantand kindness from the unkind.I should not be ungrateful to those teachers. Remembrance is a form of meeting.Forgetfulness is a form of freedom. One may not reach the dawn save by the […]

Professional Autonomy Lens (2023)https://www.bctf.ca/classroom-resources/details/professional-autonomy-lens “Autonomy refers to thinking for oneself in uncertain and complex situations in which judgment is more important than routine. For teachers, the nature of their work and its social context complicates this definition. Teaching involves placing one’s autonomy at the service of the best interests of children.”—Anne Phelan and Alice Pitt. […]

Meaning in context: is there any other kind? (Mishler, 1979) “knowledge is personally constructed, socially mediated, and inherently situated” Vignette #1: ‘study over-runs’ Vignette #2: ‘key information absent ‘‘the critical issue is not the determination of a singular ‘truth’ but the assessment of the relative plausibility of an interpretation’’ (Mishler, 1986, p. 112) five points […]

Header image: Screengrab from YouTube Video Babakiueria (Barbeque Area) is a 1986 Australian satirical film on relations between Aboriginal Australians and Australians of European descent. BabaKiueria https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BabaKiueria Notes below video: ∞ KF Lesson ideas Paired with / preceded/ succeeded by Recall…🤦🏻‍♂️

Header image: KF photo – Alex Janvier’s Morning Star Coulter, D., & Wiens, J. R. (2008). Prologue: Why do we educate? Renewing the Conversation. Yearbook of the National Society for the Study of Education, 107(1), 5–18. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1744-7984.2008.00126.x The Educated Person Exercise {DFN} [People] who wonder about the world they inhabit [KF: Roy]. Many are voracious […]

Byung-Chul Han’s Burnout Society: Our Only Imperative is to Achieve https://philosophybreak.com/articles/byung-chul-han-burnout-society-our-only-imperative-is-to-achieve/ Hyperattention Self-exploitation.  Auto-exploitation is more efficient than allo-exploitation [i.e. external-exploitation] because a deceptive feeling of freedom accompanies it. The exploiter is simultaneously the exploited. Exploitation now occurs without domination. That is what makes self-exploitation so efficient. The capitalist system is switching from allo-exploitation to […]

Poetter, T. S. (2024). Curriculum Fragments: A Currere Journey through Life Processes. Routledge. https://www.routledge.com/Curriculum-Fragments-A-Currere-Journey-through-Life-Processes/Poetter/p/book/9781032595771 Foreword [BP] The past is never dead. It’s not even past. All of us labor in webs spun long before we were born, webs of heredity and environment, of desire and consequence, of history and eternity.” (William Faulkner, Requiem for a […]

David Whyte (2014) – Consolations: The Solace, Nourishment and Underlying Meaning of Everyday Wordshttps://www.goodreads.com/book/show/24108839-consolations Hiding is a way of staying alive. Hiding is a way of holding ourselves until we are ready to come into the light. Hiding is one of the brilliant and virtuoso practices of almost every part of the natural world: the […]

Header image: Screenshot of Discipline Outcomes page Starting in 2024, I’m making a list of “teacher stories” here for reference. ∞ (Jan 19, 2024) ‘They are nearly impossible to detect’ – schools issue warning on ‘highly addictive’ nicotine pouch trend https://m.independent.ie/irish-news/they-are-nearly-impossible-to-detect-schools-issue-warning-on-highly-addictive-nicotine-pouch-trend/a602394087.html (Jan 16, 2025) BC’s Ombudsperson Is Investigating the Exclusion of Kids from School https://thetyee.ca/News/2025/01/16/BC-Ombudsperson-Investigating-Exclusion-Kids-School/ […]

Header image: KF in Midjourney Petrina, S. (2003). The Educational Technology is Technology Education Manifesto. Journal of Technology Education, 15(1), 64–74. DOI: http://doi.org/10.21061/jte.v15i1.a.5 Ed Tech (ET) is Tech Ed (TE) Granted, ET may be a subset of TE

Header image: KF “DALL·E-2022-09-29-08.11.45-A-painting-in-the-style-of-Rubens-of-Sisyphus-rolling-his-boulder-uphill-while-Albert-Camus-smokes-a-cigarette-watches-from-afar” Connell, R. (2009). Good teachers on dangerous ground: towards a new view of teacher quality and professionalism. Critical Studies in Education, 50(3), 213-229, https://doi.org/10.1080/17508480902998421 Part 1: the changing idea of the good teacherFrom servant to scholar-teacher In an admirable study called The Good Teacher, Moore (2004) finds three competing discourses in […]

(Sept, 2022) The Therapeutic Benefits Of Wood Carving https://thespooncrank.com/the-therapeutic-benefits-of-wood-carving/➡️ A Phenomenological Study of the Therapeutic Benefits of Woodcarving By Jenny Rudell; Graeme Hamilton is working in Technical Studies and Counselling at Oak Bay Secondary School in Victoria, Canada. His master’s thesis from the Simon Fraser University is called A phenomenological study of the therapeutic benefits of woodcarving As I talked […]

Header image: Justice Laws Website The Criminal Code (Cr.C )https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Criminal_Code_(Canada) 318 – Hate Propaganda Re: Bill C-19: the Budget Implementation Act (June 15, 2022) Paula Simons: We cannot fight hate by criminalizing speech, no matter how vile https://nationalpost.com/news/paula-simons-we-cannot-fight-hate-by-criminalizing-speech-no-matter-how-vile Ernst Zündel https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ernst_Zündel Malcolm Ross (school teacher) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malcolm_Ross_(school_teacher) James Keegstra https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Keegstra

Header image: Gauguin (1897) Where Do We Come From? What Are We? Where Are We Going? The 2004 CBC Massey Lectures, “A Short History of Progress” Part 1: Gaugin’s Questions where do we come from 18:43 42:48 Part 2: The great experiment

BCIT visit: May 1, 2024 Melanie Mark: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Melanie_Mark Melanie’s LinkedIn ⬇: https://www.linkedin.com/in/melanie-mark-95598b97/recent-activity/all/ Provincial Tuition Waiver Program https://www2.gov.bc.ca/gov/content/education-training/post-secondary-education/pay-for-school/provincial-tuition-waiver-program ∞ Provincial Tuition Waiver Program and Learning for Future Grant brochure ⬇

Header image: DALL·E 2024-01-03 – a sci-fi image of an Ouroboros I had been using the the term LLM (large-language model) and refraining from using the somewhat misleading term “Artificial Intelligence” (AI). Going forward, I will use Artificial General Intelligence (AGI). Generative AI in K-12 Education | November 5, 2024 https://educ.ubc.ca/generative-ai-in-k-12-education-november-5-2024/ Chris Kennedy start: 10:04-28:55 […]

Header image: KF in DALL-E (Mar 1, 2024) Five key elements of Canada’s new Online Harms Act https://srinstitute.utoronto.ca/news/canada-online-harms-five-key-aspects However, some important questions about the bill remain unanswered. (March 14, 2024) EU Parliament passes AI Act in world’s first attempt at regulating the technology https://therecord.media/eu-parliament-passes-ai-act-regulation We finally have the world’s first binding law on artificial intelligence, […]

Header image: KF in Dall-E (Jan 30, 2024) Pluralistic: My McLuhan lecture on enshittification https://pluralistic.net/2024/01/30/go-nuts-meine-kerle/Transcript of the session ⬆Video of the session⬇ My notes ⬇ Enshittification: First, platforms are good to their users; then they abuse their users to make things better for their business customers; finally, they abuse those business customers to claw back […]

Header image: KF photograph – Jesus, Mary, and Joseph, as seen on a wall in a church sacristy in Changchun. The Dean of Shandong: Confessions of a Minor Bureaucrat at a Chinese University (Daniel A. Bell, 2023)https://press.princeton.edu/books/hardcover/9780691247120/the-dean-of-shandong “Surely a full life involves serving the public in some capacity” “Confucius himself was asked for one saying that […]

Header image: See Google Knowledge Panels David Pye was trained to be an architect of wooden buildings, but after a few years in the field the Second World War propelled him into the Navy, kindling a lifelong interest in ships and naval architecture. He then taught for twenty-six years at the Royal College of Art […]

(Feb 23, 2024 – L. M. Sacasas) Secularization Comes for the Religion of Technology: Or, how to make sense of techno-optimist manifestos, the Open Ai/Altman affair, EA/e-acc movements, and the general sense of cultural stagnationhttps://theconvivialsociety.substack.com/p/secularization-comes-for-the-religion The moment it became an end in itself, that is to say, the moment technology became the dominant partner in the religion […]

Header image: KF in Dall-E Maxwell, B., Senécal, M., and Waddington, D. (2023). Pedagogical freedom and sensitive issues in school: A companion guide for teachers and school leaders. Centre d’intervention pédagogique en contexte de diversité.[Available for download at Bruce Maxwell’s Academia.edu page] “Primary and secondary school teachers don’t have full academic freedom, but they do […]

All models are wrong, but some are useful. George Box  The map is not the territory Alfred Korzybski Gall–Peters projection https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gall–Peters_projection South-up map orientation https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/South-up_map_orientation

Header image: KF personal pic Did this course at BCIT in Jan. Two 3-hour online sessions, one either side of a full day (Sat) on-site at the shop at BCIT. https://www.bcit.ca/courses/basic-vehicle-maintenance-and-operation-auto-1050/ The instructor (Naveen Jit) was great; I would recommend this course.

Some background: Bäuchle (2021) John O’Donohue: The Fateful Years of a Priest To Come Home To Yourself May all that is unforgiven in you,Be released. May your fears yieldTheir deepest tranquilities. May all that is unlived in you,Blossom into a future,Graced with love. from Benedictus: A Book of Blessing Journey of The Soul One of […]

Header image: BC Freedom of Information and Privacy Association Logo FIPA For Teachers https://fipa.bc.ca/fipa-for-teachers/ Senior High Schools (Grade 10-12): British Columbia Digital Privacy Rights for Youth

A dear friend just gifted me this lovely book, Begin Again, by Oliver Jeffers. Check it out here: https://www.oliverjeffers.com/begin-again Art’s purpose is to imperceptibly shift the ground under people’s feet. Science, technology, engineering, and maths are how we do things. Art is why we do them See the beautiful poem from it below. The Heart […]

(May 6, 2024) Maybe Even Build a Boat: Rediscovering the lessons of craft https://hedgehogreview.com/web-features/thr/posts/maybe-even-build-a-boat “Objectives are likely to be much more effective if teachers conceptualize what students might and ought to know, feel, and do at the end of a lesson rather than the beginning”.   Petrina, S. (2007). Advanced teaching methods for the technology classroom. Information Science Publishing. https://blogs.ubc.ca/dandt/files/2014/07/Petrina2007.pdf […]