Calantoc, Kalina

Reflection #3
February 12, 2015

As current or prospective educators, how do we interweave cultural and/or ancestral

knowledge with modern electronic technology? How do you see culture and todays
technology intersecting symbiotically? When might they be kept apart?

While modern technology is extremely useful and allows educators to teach and share
information in a plethora of ways, there are still times when technology needs to be kept apart
from culture. Modern technology allows the world to see and learn about a cultures ways. It
allows us to learn in ways that we never have been able to do before. Technology is there to
give educators more tools to be innovative and more opportunities to connect and relate to
todays young generations. Todays youth demands modern technology. Creating an app for the
star compass was a fine example of how we can interweave cultural knowledge with modern
electronic technology. That activity allowed us to use electronics hands-on to create an app, a
tool, for cultural knowledge (star compass). Other ways to interweave the two can include:
videotaping cultural practices and sharing them via computer; photographing cultural elements
and using the photos to create interdisciplinary projects; creating other apps that represent
cultural elements; creating powerpoint presentations based on culture; sharing music. The
possibilities really are endless. With video sharing and websites and emails and photos and
video calls, people all over the world can see a culture. And while technology makes this vision
possible, it is still just a lens to culture. Many times, you must be fully present and physically
apart of a cultural experience in order to understand it and feel it. It is with these experiences
that I think culture and technology should be somewhat kept apart. Feeling the vibrations of a
chant or feeling the life of the land beneath your feet or hearing stories from elders who are

looking straight into your eyes and sharing their knowledge with youthese experiences cannot
be told through technology. You may be able to share the outside of these experiences with
technology, but experiences like these need to remain sacred. There are times when we need to
put down the technology, our phones and computers and TVs and other electronics, and just be.
Be fully present and fully aware of the cultural experiences we have the opportunity to be a part
of.
I think the ESTEM Institute is so awesome because it gives educators the opportunity to
experience culture hands-on and on-site, through an educational lens. We get to put our
technology down. We get to go to these places and feel the land and hear the stories and be a
part of these cultures experiences. And while we get to be fully present, technology still
surrounds us and allows our experiences to be sharedThanks to Stacey with his camera, and
Linda and Joe and our hui advisors with their emails and communication and ESTEM website.
Technology is still present and involved with our ESTEM experiences, but we get to just be. And
that is a fantastic example of how culture and modern technology should be interweaved. I want
to give my students opportunities to just beto learn hands-on through culture, while still using
technology to benefit the essence of the experience.

Some other things I reflected on after our PD#1 session together:

Dr. Arthur Powell opened my mind to ask Why is ethnomathematics important? WE

want our students to be creative problem solvers. We want to value and appreciate a
variety of ways to solve a single problem. We want our students to make connections
and find meaning in the STEM work they do. Ethnomathematics helps break down
discriminatory barriers established by the dominate society. If students feel enabled
and empowered because they find math in their own cultural context, math then means
something far greater than numbersMath means connections, better understanding,
people, and place.

What do Naau Pono mean to me, regarding ESTEM:

o Break down the barriers through ethnomathematics
o Make learning accessible to ALL
o Differentiating and scaffolding instruction
o WWV: Since we are traveling and emitting carbon, lets offset that footprint by
o

planting 1,000,000 trees

Make mathematical connection opportunities available to all