Beyond Fear, Destiny Awaits

Welcome back to Digitally Literate and issue #259.

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. Thank you to all of my friends that reached out via email and the socials to express thanks for coming back…and looking forward to see what changes might be afoot. You are appreciated. ❤️

This week I worked on the following:

• Going high tech without losing high touch – As we move to digital spaces, we cannot lose what it is that makes us human.
• My DIY Peloton – Quarantining for months has added on some pounds and tons of stress. Years of playing rugby makes my knees dead when I want to go for long runs. Here is how we’re trying to stay fit as a family.
• Humans Have Bodies – This open letter to my children has been a long time in the making.

San Francisco In Fire Sky

I need you to care that our planet is on fire.

Blazes like the ones currently overpowering the West Coast have become more frequent and intense as a result of climate change. Fire seasons have grown longer, and larger areas of land are going up in flames.

Hate Social Media? You’ll Love This Documentary

The Social Dilemma — a new Netflix documentary out this weekend — makes the case that social media is humanity’s greatest existential threat.

Social media itself is not the existential threat. Rather, it’s the way that social media surfaces and amplifies the worst of humanity.

Trump orders crackdown on federal antiracism training, calling it ‘anti-American’

I’m hesitant to share this news as it seems like another example of the President and his administration shouting about something that will never materialize. I do think it is troubling as it creates oxygen for those groups that agree with these narratives.

Trump orders crackdown on federal antiracism training, calling it ‘anti-American.’

This pushes back on any training materials “that teaches, trains or suggests the following: (1) virtually all White people contribute to racism or benefit from racism (2) critical race theory (3) white privilege (4) that the United States is an inherently racist or evil country (5) that any race or ethnicity is inherently racist or evil (6) Anti-American propaganda.”

The Department of Education indicated that they plan to scrutinize a wide range of employee activities – including internal book clubs – in search of “Anti-American propaganda” and discussions about “white privilege” as it carries out the White House’s demand that federal agencies halt certain types of race-related training.

How Conspiracy Theories Are Shaping the 2020 Election—and Shaking the Foundation of American Democracy

It’s hard to know exactly why people believe what they believe.

When asked where they found their information, almost all these voters were cryptic: “Go online,” one woman said. “Dig deep,” added another. They seemed to share a collective disdain for the mainstream media–a skepticism that has only gotten stronger and deeper since 2016. The truth wasn’t reported, they said, and what was reported wasn’t true.

How forcing colleges to go online could change higher education for the better

Matthew Yglesias trying to identify a possible silver lining to the fact that the global pandemic has pushed our learning environments to virtual spaces.

This desire to “reinvent higher education” is a common narrative that is trotted out every couple of years. I prefer this piece from 2010. I remember being excited about iTunes U when I started up my first program in higher ed.

I do wonder about the lessons we should learn about educational technologies as we head through these times. More to come.

If you’d like to chart out that future, check out the manifesto for teaching online.

How Are You Combating Your Kid’s Zoom Fatigue?

Sadly, Zoom is now critical infrastructure. As part of this, we’re seeing youth tuning in to courses remotely using a variety of tools.

How are you ensuring that your students and children are not endlessly staring at screens all day?

Get Out of Your Mind and Into Your Life

This episode of The Art of Manliness podcast focuses on Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT).

…if people don’t know what their values are, they take their goals, the concrete things they can achieve, to be their values.

Thanks to Doug Belshaw for the tip.

In the sky, there is no distinction of east and west; people create distinctions out of their own minds and then believe them to be true.

Buddha

Beyond fear, destiny awaits.

Connect at hello@digitallyliterate.net or on the social network of your choice.