DL 382

Learning In Self-Defense

Welcome to Digitally Literate, issue #382. This week, we explore literacy, digital privacy, and governance in an age of rapid technological advancement.

🔖 Key Takeaways

• Digital Literacy: Understanding the history and evolving forms of reading in the digital age.
• Digital Privacy: Highlighting the impact of corporate surveillance and paths forward for privacy.
• AI Governance: Exploring differing visions for AI's role in society and the economy.
• Techno-Optimism: Comparing perspectives from key tech leaders on the future of innovation.

📚 Recent Work

• Secondary Teachers' Adolescent Literacy Efficacy and Professional Learning Considerations – Published in Reading Research Quarterly.
• Promoting Informed Citizenship in a Connected World: Advancing Media and Information Literacy – Collaboration with Doug Belshaw and Laura Hilliger.
• The Online Misinformation War: Navigating a Cacophony of Competing Narratives.
• Reckoning with Slavery's Legacy Across America – Reflections on How the Word Is Passed by Clint Smith.

🎥 Watch: Large Language Models Explained

Introduction to Large Language Models (LLMs): Andrej Karpathy provides an hour-long, general-audience overview of LLMs, covering their potential, challenges, and the emerging security considerations in this new computing paradigm.

🧠 The Students Aren’t Paying Attention

The Friends of Attention collective argues modern technology erodes attention spans, damaging education and democracy:

• Attention Education: Teach people how to focus meaningfully. Read more.
• Why This Matters: Creating a more engaged and attentive citizenry is vital in combating the dark side of technology’s profit models.

🔒 Thinking Privacy First

The Electronic Frontier Foundation’s report, Privacy First: A Better Way to Address Online Harms, highlights:

• Corporate surveillance as a root cause of many internet issues.
• The need for dismantling surveillance systems to foster serious discussions about the internet's future.

💸 Show Me The Money

The conflict at OpenAI underscores divergent views on AI’s role:

• Capitalist Governance: AI is seen as a tool for transformative wealth creation. Explore.
• Why This Matters: This shift reflects broader industry trends, aligning with capitalist imperatives while sidelining cautionary approaches.

📜 Another Techno-Manifesto

Marc Andreessen’s "techno-optimist manifesto" and Vitalik Buterin’s counter-argument:

• Andreessen: Advocates for markets and capitalism as engines of technological progress.
• Buterin: Proposes a selective, decentralized, and democratic approach to innovation.

📖 One Must Learn to Read in Self-Defense

Elyse Graham reflects on the evolving history of reading:

• “Reading itself is infinitely various. The death of reading has been greatly exaggerated.”
• Modern technologies provide new ways to define ourselves as readers. Explore.

📚 Recommended: Better Quality Ebooks

Check out Standard Ebooks, a volunteer-driven project offering beautifully formatted, open-source, and free public domain ebooks.

🌟 Closing Reflection

"I don’t even call it violence when it’s in self-defense; I call it intelligence." — Malcolm X

Thank you for being a part of Digitally Literate. Let’s navigate these digital landscapes together! Reach out at hello@digitallyliterate.net or browse the Newsletter Index for more insights.