(Feb 12, 2024) AI Could Actually Help Rebuild The Middle Class https://www.noemamag.com/how-ai-could-help-rebuild-the-middle-class/ Although artisanal expertise was revered, its value was ultimately decimated by the rise of mass production in the 18th and 19th centuries. Mass production meant breaking the complex work of artisans into discrete, self-contained and often quite simple steps that could be carried […]
Category: Notes
The Shape Of Craft
[in progress]
Header image: KF personal pic (Salthill, Galway, Ireland) [I am going through some old notes and I found this piece I wrote back when I thought my dissertation was heading in a different direction to where it is heading now] Cochrane (2000) outlines the biological crisis that arose in the global fisheries industry in the […]
(Sept 27, 2024) Naloxone, AED’s to be added to Richmond schools, facilities https://www.richmond-news.com/local-news/naloxone-aeds-to-be-added-to-richmond-schools-facilities-9578590 (Sept 5, 2024) Enhanced resources available at UBC to help prevent overdoses https://ubctoday.ubc.ca/news/september-09-2024/enhanced-resources-available-ubc-help-prevent-overdoses (June 22, 2024) Richmond students, parents divided on proposed naloxone kits in schools https://www.richmond-news.com/local-news/richmond-students-parents-divided-on-proposed-naloxone-kits-in-schools-9115237 (Jan 3, 2024) Why B.C. trades workers are demanding nasal naloxone on construction sites https://vancouversun.com/news/local-news/bc-trades-workers-nasal-naloxone-construction-sites The New PPE […]
Al Will Take Over Human Systems From Within
Header image: KF 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 […]
Technacy education
Header image: KF 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 Netherlands. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4020-8194-1_9 Technology studies are both highly visible but rarely valued in almost every national curriculum. It is often spoken about and […]
Servatius v. Alberni School District No. 70
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 […]
Indigenizing Shop: Jeremy O’Shea
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 […]
Read (1958) I, Pencil
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, […]
A Checklist for Evaluating our Maturity
From Al-Anon Booklet “Alcoholism: The Family Disease” (p. 4) The difficulties of coping with alcoholism in another are much more effectively met when we ourselves reflect attitudes of mature adults A mature adult is one who:
Sand and Foam
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. […]
Manual Training for All
Header image: KF get pic from BC Archive Goddard, C. (2024, August 21). Manual training for all. Front Porch Republic. https://www.frontporchrepublic.com/2024/08/manual-training-for-all/ Darnell Epps Doug Stowe argues that learning to work with the hands prepares students to “discover and test truth firsthand.” Thus, manual training might also be a bulwark against the fakery of our screen-addled […]
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 […]
PhD as Pilgrimage
I am framing my dissertation as a “pilgrimage”. Yes, this is a “journey” but a special kind of journey and one more meaningful for me given where I’ve some from, where I am, and were I may be going. McCulloch, A. (2013). The quest for the PhD: A better metaphor for doctoral education. International Journal […]
Babakiueria (1986)
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…🤦🏻♂️
Educated Person Exercise
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 (review)
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 (2024) Curriculum Fragments
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
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 […]
ﻼF Fragments
Header image: KF in Dall-E I did not write for 25 years. All those thoughts churned around inside my head,a host of ideas and inspiration,my very purpose,the song of my soul, stillborn for want of expression. My companion dis-ease undermined me,Eroding and eating into my sense of self,Until, I came crashing down,And could not recognize any […]
Pilot Protest
Header image: KF personal pic; view from Blackrock And so, they decided to do it. The pod had considered it for weeks, knowing that it would mean death, even for the young ones. Even so, the refused to teach the young ones that doing nothing was preferable. So they beached themselves, hoping the Takers would finally […]
Header image: Screenshot of Discipline Outcomes page Starting in 2024, I’m making a list of “teacher stories” here for reference. See the BC Commissioner for Teacher Regulation Discipline Reports: https://teacherregulation.gov.bc.ca/ProfessionalConduct/DisciplineOutcomes.aspx ∞ (Sept 4, 2024) Youth training program grows by 11% in one yearhttps://burnabybeacon.com/p/youth-work-in-trades-program-burnaby-2024 (Oct 20, 2024) Burnaby high schools eyeing longer day, staggered classes to […]
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
The Three Rules of Humane Tech
recommender systems https://proto.life/2023/12/social-media-artificial-intelligence-and-the-battle-for-your-brain The Three Rules of Humane Tech Rule one: When you invent a new technology, you uncover a new class of responsibility. Rule two: If the technology confers power, you start a race. Rule three: If you do not coordinate, that race will end in tragedy as you exploit that thing. “I also […]
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 […]
SW9 – Metal
I’ve been fortunate to encounter Brian Ennis in SW9 many times now. He and I have spent many hours discussing our enduring Irishness, as well as all kinds of interesting inroads into teaching and learning. He also offered to school me on the machine lathe and I jumped at the chance. My notes from this […]
Make: Ideas
s s https://www.pamono.eu/mid-century-wooden-bowl-by-carl-auboeck-for-werksta-tte-carl-auboeck
The Therapeutic Benefits Of Wood Carving
(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: KF in Dall-E Commentary in relation to John Fletcher Moulton. (1924). Law and Manners. The Atlantic. ➡ https://www2.econ.iastate.edu/classes/econ362/hallam/NewspaperArticles/LawandManners.pdf I first came across the term “Obedience to the Unenforceable” in an Al-Anon meeting a few years ago and its message has stayed with me since. Written 100 years ago, Moulton’s words seem like they might […]
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
A Short History of Progress: Ronald Wright
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
Daily notes
(May 16, 2024) L. M. SACASAS: The Stuff of (a Well-Lived) Life https://theconvivialsociety.substack.com/p/the-stuff-of-a-well-lived-life “The experience of a [focal] thing is always and also a bodily and social engagement with the thing’s world.” Albert Borgmann When society is built to run like a machine for the optimization of profit and productivity with little regard for the […]
Kedrick James, reading poems by Carl Leggo
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: KF personal pic, mosaicked [writing in progress] The Irish do have a despairing quality of gaiety, but they have also a dour and brooding ghost that rides on their shoulders and peers in on their thoughts. Let them laugh too loudly, it sticks a long finger down their throats. They condemn themselves before they […]
Citizens for a Canadian Republic
My Under the Crown piece found support in places I hadn’t expected (from some older Canadians) and ruffled the feathers of some in a way that surprised me (younger Canadians and new Irish-Canadians). I’ve made this page to add my notes/thoughts, as they relate to the goal of Citizens for a Canadian, specifically, “advocating the […]
Protected: Update 16: April 2024
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Under The Crown
Receiving my Canadian passport last week and seeing the Canadian Coat of Arms on its cover, I was again struck by seeing the appropriated symbols of my country of birth on another document that embodies what it means to be Canadian. 🍁At the outset, let me be clear: I am grateful that I have been […]
Header image: DALL·E 2024-01-03 – a sci-fi image of an Ouroboros Important, I think, to use the term LLM (large-language model) and to refrain from using the misleading term “Artificial Intelligence” (AI). The term “LLMs” highlights the fact that the output is an assemblage of data, reconstituted as knowledge, and presented as wisdom: AI, AI, […]
Beebe Period_Lesson_day Plan
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 […]
Bell (2023) The Dean of Shandong
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 […]
Google knowledge panels
Almost everyone has seen these but it’s unlikely that you’ve given them much thought. I have given them quite a lot of thought, so read on and allow me to do some of the heavy lifting for you. ➡ In short, I believe you should claim your knowledge panel (if/when you get one). ╬ Google […]
May you be adequate
Header image: From https://harrypotter.fandom.com/ This post was prompted by my remarking to another teacher that, as in schools in British Columbia, they use a proficiency scale for grading at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.In the end, I worked out my point: “adequate” is the goal. I get the reasoning behind proficiency scales but, in […]
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 […]