March 4, 2019 – Library Media Blog

Courageous Learning

Offair Listings

– There are more than 93 million Americans in the workforce today without a degree. Their standard of living is falling and their earnings gap is increasing. These adults missed their chance to go to college – or never finished a degree program. Courageous Learning follows the lives of three adult students: Shawn, Joe, and Angeline -a veteran, a single dad, and a nurse – as they face obstacles in the pursuit of higher education. Experts, including leaders from academia, think tanks, government, and nonprofits, provide a guide to the landscape of post-secondary education in the 21st century – and reveal it as terrain that too few travel. Narrated by actor Dennis Haysbert.

Airs 3/11 at 1:30 a.m. (3/18 at 2:30 a.m.)

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Shots Fired

Offair Listings

Shots Fired is a short documentary about courage, communications and resilience in the face of a school shooting. Just before school started on an April morning a student with a .357 Magnum walked into the Commons, an area teaming with North Thurston High School (NTHS) students, raised the gun and fired into the ceiling. Chaos erupted. The student fired a second shot. What happened next is the best-case scenario in the face of such terror. No one died. Rather than taking sides in the gun control/rights debate, Shots Fired offers a rare look at a school shooting. Even with no fatalities, the residual trauma is palpable. Students, teachers, school administrators and staff along with first responders reflect on what happened, what went well and what could have worked better. School shootings often end in unbearable tragedy. In Shots Fired, tragedy is upended by unforgettable courage and resilience.

Airs 3/11 at 1 a.m

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Makey Makey and Accessibility

BlogPosts Lessons & Maker Space Ideas

While doing some research for the Makey Makey workshop, which was ultimately canceled due to the weather, I came across an interesting post from Perkins School for the Blind. It introduces the Makey Makey, and reports that it can be used as a tool for students with visual impairments. The article is brief and not very in depth, but if you’d like to read it you can read it here: Click here to read the Perkins article.

This article sent me down a path looking for more information on how this tool can be used specifically as an assistive device. This article from EdCan Network out of Canada, explains further: https://www.edcan.ca/articles/makey-makey-assistive-resource/

The video above is a quick clip of an assistive technology prototype built during one of the full-day workshops (like the one being offered here on the 14th of March). The opportunities are endless!

We are considering rescheduling the hour-long Makey Makey workshop, however as there is already a full-day workshop being offered on March 14th, it likely will not be held until April or May. If you are not registered or cannot make it to the workshop being held on March 14th, and would like some instruction on Makey Makey, please contact me. I will reschedule the shorter one if there is enough interest.