Kaleidoscope Fishbowl Podcast: Episode 1 - Potassium

I've been a little light on posts this summer because I've been working on a podcast.

Last year I wanted to create an education podcast (based on interviews) because I was frustrated with the existing education podcasts (based on interviews).

And I thought it'd be fun.

But scheduling interviews was nerve-racking. It was both a strange and busy year... not at all conducive to scheduling interviews. 

This summer I decided to jumpstart the education podcast by reformatting it. 

No Interviews. Just Me. 

Talking To Myself.

So no interviews.

Just me.

Telling stories and talking to myself.

But each story has to be something about teaching, or a lesson, or the classroom, or an education system, or an education anomaly. 

Here is episode 1 of "Kaleidoscope Fishbowl". I was teaching math and science at Ombuumbuu Junior Secondary School in Namibia from 1998 to 2000. 

Potassium: A story in Namibia

kegneko · The Kaleidoscope Fishbowl: Episode 1. Namibia's Tale

I definitely want to do the interviews at some point. But in the meantime, I'll tell my stories first. 

You can find the podcast on itunes here. 

Transcript:

RIP Scratch and Makey Makey

There needed to be some sacrifices. After almost a decade of co-teaching, I had to say goodbye and bury my beloved counterpart:

I've been teaching Scratch since 2007.

But because we're moving to a 1-to-1 iPad program next year, and because MIT Media Lab can't seem to figure out what this guy figured out, or this Kickstarter campaign figured out, it looks like I've said goodbye to my favorite elementary programming tool for a while.

To mourn and celebrate, I decided to pull together several of the things I like to do in Scratch with 4th graders.

Here's the funeral memorial video:

I've talked about most of these projects before. And there is actually a Scratch Guide and Learner Workbook that's worth taking a look at if you still have access to laptops. I've often pulled a few ideas from earlier versions of these documents.

But enough digression! 
There is so much more mourning and wailing to do.  
Because I not only have to say goodbye to Scratch, but to Makey Makey as well.

You bastard

So here's another funeral memorial video:


I know there is a way to connect Makey Makey and iPads, but I probably won't do it. So RIP Scratch and RIP Makey Makey. You were pretty good. 

Minecraft, Microsoft, and Education: A Dysfunctional Polygamy Made In Heaven

It's summer!

A time to enjoy so many flavors of equality!

This was the most pertinent image I could find

when I Googled "Affordable healthcare act, gay marriage, confederate flag"

Summer also means that it's that special time of year when I can write again. 

I'm excited too, because after a fairly professional and technical stagnant 2014-15 school year, 4th grade at ISP is ringing in the new school year with a 1-to-1 iPad program... 

...A mere 5 years since the iPad was launched, 2 years since the Los Angeles school district adopted them, a year since the Los Angles School district abandoned their iPad program, and only a handful of months since the Los Angeles School district asked for a refund.

I say this without hyperbole or sarcasm: I'm pretty excited.

Clone Zone: Put Your Content On Any Website You Want

The world of digital literacy just got murkier. Today I learned about Clone Zone, a website that allows users to annotate any website they want.

This means that you can change any online newspaper to your version of The Onion.

A USA Today Paper I Made

I used the existing photos from the USA Today website in the above example, but I changed the text. If I wanted, I could have changed the photos as well. 

That's great for teachers, but probably not-so-great for Facebook users. 

Full Disclosure: 

I'm Not Sure The Comments To This Fake Article Aren't Fake As Well

Besides the fun of making your own fake content, there's a lot of potential to teach digital literacy with Clone Zone. Now teachers can stretch their students' digital literacy muscles even more with customizable websites that can look like anything the teacher wants.

This means it's now a little easier to customize my resources when teaching about online authorship and content. 
Teaching Research, by salamanca

The one thing that doesn't seem possible yet with Clone Zone is to change the links of the webpage. If users (teachers) could do that, they could create a whole online ecosystem for digital literacy. 


Yesterday Clone Zone went into closed Beta, and if you want to try it out, check out the link to find out how to sign up. 

The Right To Vote: A Case Study In American Territories

A governments' authority comes from the will of the people. People must show what they want their government to do by voting. Everyone has the right to vote.


For several posts I'm featuring case studies that illustrate an article from the Universal Declaration of Human Rights that children and adults find interesting and illuminating.

The goal is to identify examples that I can use with my 4th grade class. 

I get the Czech Republic version of HBO, and can never really figure out when anything is on. I think John Oliver is on at sometime, but I'm not sure. But there's Youtube, and there's this brilliant critique of US citizens who aren't allowed to vote. John Oliver brilliantly critiques the hypocrisy and ignorance that much of America has with its territories.  



Not all of our territories allow even citizenship though. 
If you're born on America Samoa, you're a US national, but not a citizen.  As John Oliver put it, "they can't run for president, serve on a federal journal, or, depending on where they live, even become a public school teacher." Yet they serve on our army, where a commander-in-chief who they couldn't possibly vote for, send them to war. 

America Samoa, you belong in my "right to country" post.