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DL 232

Tolerating the Noise of Others

Published: February 8, 2020 • 📧 Newsletter

Welcome to Digitally Literate, issue 232. Your go-to source for insightful content on education, technology, and the digital landscape.

🔖 Key Takeaways

Hi all, welcome to issue 232 of Digitally Literate.

I worked on (and submitted) a manuscript this week for a bit of research on infusing computational thinking into content area instruction. I'll share more as this moves through the review process.

If you haven't already, please subscribe if you would like this newsletter to show up in your inbox. Feel free to reach out and let me know what you think of this work at hello@digitallyliterate.net.

📺 Watch

Andrei Tarkovsky was a Russian filmmaker, writer, and film theorist. In this video he offers prescient advice to today's always-on, multi-screen culture:

I don't know… I think I'd like to say only that they should learn to be alone and try to spend as much time as possible by themselves. I think one of the faults of young people today is that they try to come together around events that are noisy, almost aggressive at times. This desire to be together in order to not feel alone is an unfortunate symptom, in my opinion. Every person needs to learn from childhood how to spend time with oneself. That doesn't mean he should be lonely, but that he shouldn't grow bored with himself because people who grow bored in their own company seem to me in danger, from a self-esteem point of view.

His words from decades ago anticipate our current attention economy and the challenge of finding stillness amid constant connection.

📚 Read

An important post by McKay Coppins in The Atlantic provides an overview of the technologies and techniques that will shape the upcoming 2020 elections in the U.S. This playbook is already being used around the globe.

Every presidential campaign sees its share of spin and misdirection, but this year's contest promises to be different. In conversations with political strategists and other experts, a dystopian picture of the general election comes into view—one shaped by coordinated bot attacks, Potemkin local-news sites, micro-targeted fearmongering, and anonymous mass texting.

For more insight, skim through this tweet thread from Coppins as the post went live.

Last week the Iowa caucuses, the first official event of the 2020 race for the Democratic nomination, saw results delayed and thrown into disarray.

Part of the challenges in this mess were the creation and use of an app for data collection and reporting. This is yet another example of the need for professional development and human support when implementing new technological solutions.

It appears this was not the only challenge. The back-up plan had precinct leaders call in results, but online trolls from 4Chan clogged the lines to effectively stop this process—coordinated disruption meeting inadequate infrastructure.

A district in New York has adopted facial recognition technology in the name of safety. Opponents cite privacy and bias concerns.

Read more about the challenges and concerns in an op-ed from Jim Schultz, a parent cited in the piece.

In a related thread, 1.7 million students are attending schools with police but no counselors. As policymakers call for more surveillance and school police, many students lack access to nurses, social workers, and psychologists necessary for support.

As I teach my students to develop a digital identity, I previously indicated a need to connect the dots between their different spaces and silos online. I also suggested that they strive for openness and transparency. Much of my thinking on this has changed over the last couple of years.

This piece from Tanya Basu in the MIT Technology Review shares the recent desire for smaller, better-defined networks as a possible response to data missteps from the past decade.

Kate Eichhorn, associate professor at the New School and author of The End of Forgetting, calls this second wave of post-Facebook social media "micro-networks." Tweens and teens are very aware of reputation management and are looking for smaller spaces to create community.

Ewan McIntosh on applying principles of digital development to physical learning spaces so we can imagine totally different means of designing and constructing new learning environments.

Digital land knows no boundaries of space, time or geography. The effect on learning has been profound this past decade, though still not consistently so on learning in schools. When we apply the principles of digital development to physical learning spaces, we can imagine a totally different means of designing and constructing new schools.

Thanks to Stephen Downes for this link.

🔨 Do

Exploring Linux and Browser Privacy

I'm spending more time reviewing the digital texts, tools, and connections I use in my work. This includes using various Linux distributions on my computers. I spent an hour yesterday installing Pop!_OS on my Chromebook.

This desire to use Linux on my Chromebook was to enable me to install Firefox and continue to use privacy-focused browser extensions. The move toward more intentional tool choices reflects a broader reconsideration of digital dependencies.

🤔 Consider

We all become great at what we do over time.

Mary Higgins Clark

Clark's reminder about growth through persistence connects to this issue's themes. Whether learning solitude like Tarkovsky suggests, building new micro-communities, or redesigning learning spaces—improvement comes through sustained engagement, not instant transformation.

If you made it to the bottom of this week's issue, check out this long read examining how technology and notifications may make us more susceptible to misophonia—the inability to tolerate the noise of others.

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