This PowerPoint was presented in February 2011 at the Conference on Applied Learning
in Higher Education at Western Missouri University in St. Joseph, MO. Presenters were
Dr. Mary Moeller and Graduate Assistant Linnea Lindemann. Funding was provided by
the SDSU Academic Excellence Scholarship of Teaching and Learning fund in 2010. The
research project involved literacy support for Flandreau Indian School students in
reading/discussing Three Cups of Tea through an online academic/social networking site
called WiconiWaste: Education. The project originated in the Flandreau Indian Success
Academy workshop sponsored by the College of Education and Human Sciences by the
same name. The workshop title came from a conversation with a Flandreau Indian
School freshman who suggested the Lakota words wiconi waste as a way of explaining
that education leads to a “good life.”
Three Cups of Tea by Greg Mortenson was an SDSU Common Read in the fall semester
of 2010.