My thoughts about Education Humanities, Technology and Digital Culture. Interested on social media tools in educational contexts and
gamification in education.
Today is the "Worldwide Social Media Day". Portugal is one of the countries that join this initiative.
The aim is to have a global comprehensive conclusion of the revolution that has transformed the Media into a social environment.
The initiative joins the super social media blog Mashable. More than 340 meetups in the world in about 90 countries will take place.
You can keep up with the celebration on Twitter by tracking by following @mashSMday or #smday.
In Porto (Portugal) the meeting will take place today at UPTEC. The Portuguese event will be cover in real-time via Internet from 6:30PM (Portuguese time) on this website
You can also keep up with the Porto's meetup on Twitter by following@Web_Mkt_Tuga
There will be some interesting speakers that will discuss the phenomenon of social networks in Portugal.
With the first anniversary of the dead of Michael Jackson, gamers and fans will have a new opportunity to learn the moonwalk, dance and sing along with The King of Pop.
Ubisoft® announced June 14, 2010, at the E3 Expo 2010, in Los Angeles, the development of an interactive performance-based video game, inspired by the legendary King of Pop, Michael Jackson. The game is family entertainment at its best and will provide an interactive experience that enables players to step into the shoes of Michael Jackson himself and re-live his most iconic performances through their own singing and dancing.
The upcoming game will include the most famous tracks from Michael Jackson's extensive catalogue such asBeat ItandBillie Jean, as well as an array of his awe-inspiring dance moves for players to learn and emulate within the game.
Additionally, fans will be able to sing along and test their vocal skills while immersed in the performance.
(...)
"We're delighted to have the opportunity to develop a game based on the songs and moves of one of the world's most incredible performers of all time," said Yves Guillemot, chief executive officer at Ubisoft. "We expect the game to bring Michael Jackson fans, families and friends together with the energetic song and dance of The King of Pop."
The game will be available for "Project Natal" for Xbox 360® video game and entertainment system from Microsoft, PlayStation®3 system with PlayStation®Move support, PSP® (PlayStation®Portable) system, Nintendo's Wii&tm; system and Nintendo DS&tm; handheld system, for holiday 2010.*
José Saramago, the Portuguese writer who won the Nobel Prize in Literature on the 26 November 1998. He died on June 18, 2010, at the age of 87. His ashes are in Lisbon under a 'oliveira' (olive tree)as his wishes near Foundation José Saramago. The Nobel Prize in Literature 1998 was awarded to José Saramago: "who with parables sustained by imagination, compassion and irony continually enables us once again to apprehend an elusory reality" Nobel Prize
He lived in Spain and Portugal with his Spanish wife. After Saramago death, Pilar del Río, came to Portugal as the new director of Fundação José Saramago. The fondation will continue to promote and preserve the study of Saramago incredible literary work, correspondence and other works of the Portuguese Nobel Prize in Literature.
"Promover o estudo da obra literária do seu Instituidor bem como da sua correspondência e espólio e respectiva preservação".
"Começar a ler foi para mim como entrar num bosque pela primeira vez e encontrar-me, de repente, com todas as árvores, todas as flores, todos os pássaros. Quando fazes isso, o que te deslumbra é o conjunto. Não dizes: gosto desta árvore mais que das outras. Não, cada livro em que entrava, tomava-o como algo único."1)
José Saramago, Outros cadernos de Saramago
His message in this document is about the power of literacy!
This children's book ant its animated video (Portuguese or Spanish language could be a beautiful motivation to read the book in your Languages lessons ( Portuguese or Spanish, native language or foreign language).
Animation:
The video is an animated version (2007) of his children's book. It's narrated and featured by José Saramago himself. There is a Spanish version too.
"A magnificent parable of loss and disorientation and a vivid evocation of the horrors of the twentieth century, Blindness has swept the reading public with its powerful portrayal of man’s worst appetites and weaknesses-and man’s ultimately exhilarating spirit. The stunningly powerful novel of man’s will to survive against all odds."
Teachers and students can find the book/ e-book in so many languages here
"He writes a prose of particularly luminous intensity, brilliantly rendered into English by his regular translator Giovanni Pontiero…Sweepingly ambitious."
Education: Different ideas, and different teaching levels to include José Saramago, Nobel Prize in Literature, into school curricula. Levels: Primary and K 12 schools: A Maior Flor do Mundo.
Elementary schools: Memorial do Convento/ Das Memorial "In early 18th-century Lisbon, Baltasar, a soldier who has lost his left hand in battle, falls in love with Blimunda, a young girl with visionary powers. From the day he follows her home from the auto-da-fé where her mother is burned at the stake, the two are bound body and soul by a love of unassailable strength. A third party shares their supper that evening: Padre Bartolomeu Lourenço, whose fantasy is to invent a flying machine. As the Crown and the Church clash, they pursue his impossible, not to mention heretical, dream of flight."
"What distinguishes the book is the concern Saramago breathes over his characters; like potter's clay, they are patiently moulded into their best shape, retaining soft marks of memory"
"Claraboya es la puerta de entrada a Saramago y será un descubrimiento para cada lector. Como si un círculo perfecto se cerrara. Como si la muerte no existiera"
Pilar del Río
And of course so many more! Make your choice and invite your students to participation.
Secondary/Vocational education: Teachers can propose different Saramago books: Novels, essays, chronicles, theatre, poetry, diary, memories... There so many interesting books that teachers an students can read students. Make a choice by inviting your students.
«Um tempo múltiplo. Labiríntico. As histórias das sociedades humanas. Ricardo Reis chega a Lisboa em finais de Dezembro de 1935. Fica até Setembro de 1936. Uma personagem vinda de uma outra ficção, a da heteronímia de Fernando Pessoa. E um movimento inverso, logo a começar: “Aqui onde o mar se acaba e a terra principia”; o virar ao contrário o verso de Camões: “Onde a terra acaba e o mar começa”. Em Camões, o movimento é da terra para o mar; no livro de Saramago temos Ricardo Reisa regressar a Portugal por mar. É substituído o movimento épico da partida. Mais uma vez, a história na escrita de Saramago. E as relações entre a vida e a morte. Ricardo Reis chega a Lisboa em finais de Dezembro e Fernando Pessoa morreu a 30 de Novembro. Ricardo Reis visita-o ao cemitério. Um tempo complexo.»
L'Année de la mort de Ricardo Reis
José Saramago
éditions les Points
Ricardo Reis est l''un des hétéronymes du grand poète portugais Fernando Pessoa. Créature imaginaire, qui pourtant s''inscrit dans la réalité en signant une œuvre poétique importante, il devient, sous la plume de José Saramago, le personnage central d''une fiction romanesque.
Dans une Lisbonne changeante, que les reflets du Tage font parfois paraître comme irréelle, Ricardo Reis poursuit une quête d''identité où se mêlent le vrai et le faux ; les morts côtoient les vivants, les sages, les fous, en un mystérieux jeu de miroirs.
Curricula: Literature and Languages, Arts, Multimedia. “We use words to understand each other and even, sometimes, to find each other.” José Saramago