DL 266

Infrastructure Influences Everything

Published: October 31, 2020 • 📧 Newsletter

Welcome to Digitally Literate, issue 266. Your go-to source for insightful content on education, technology, and the digital landscape.

🔖 Key Takeaways

• Proctoring Normalizes Surveillance: Universities digitally spy on students—a whole generation could be learning to tolerate surveillance
• Section 230 Hearing Was a Sham: Lawmakers hammered tech CEOs for political gain, not policy substance—partisan divide on full display
• Machine Learning Distributes Risk: Like many tools of technocratic governance, ML is implicated in social production of risk during COVID
• Infrastructure Is Three-Legged Stool: Physical, digital, and human infrastructure are interdependent—any leg faltering topples everything
• Family Device Rules Work: Write down current rules, write down future rules, collaboratively agree, sign and pin to fridge

Hi all, welcome back to Digitally Literate and issue 266.

Thanks for showing up this week. I hope you're taking time to recharge your batteries.

This week I worked on the following:

• What's Next? - I was selected as one of the winners of the Divergent Award from the Initiative for 21st Century Literacies Research.
• Combating Misinformation & Disinformation - The battle between misinformation and disinformation begins and ends with you.
• When Critical Evaluation Goes Too Far - What if modern conspiracy theorists are altogether too media literate?
• Play "What's The Rule?" to Develop Computational Thinking - Collect and observe objects and discuss patterns, trends, and regularities.
• Seeing The Change In The World - Our beliefs and narratives hold us back in many ways.

📺 Watch

Building a Home Streaming Setup

The YouTube algorithms gifted me with this video and the Tom Buck channel this week.

I've been slowly building up my home workspace to allow for teaching, research, and meetings. After this video, I'm thinking about adding a second camera for different angles.

The other point Buck makes is around livestreaming. Educators are already livestreaming—it's just being wasted in Zoom calls.

📚 Read

Universities Are Digitally Spying on Students

Universities are digitally spying on students to make sure they don't cheat on online tests. A whole generation could be learning to tolerate surveillance.

Proctoring software is a symptom of a deeper mistake: Using tech to manage a problem that is fundamentally economic.

Many students who are required per their teacher's instructions to take tests while being recorded told Mary Retta at Teen Vogue they felt heavily surveilled while doing so.

The Section 230 Hearing Wasn't About Section 230

Lawmakers hammered the chief executives of Twitter, Facebook, Google and one another at a Senate hearing on Wednesday, with Republicans claiming the companies were suppressing conservative views while Democrats accused their colleagues of holding a "sham" hearing for political gain.

Unlike previous tech hearings, this one put the partisan divide on full display.

Zeynep Tufekci indicates that this should be a discussion about free speech and attention.

High Tech, High Risk: Tech Ethics Lessons for the COVID-19 Pandemic Response

As the COVID-19 pandemic has drastically reshaped society, many have looked to machine learning as a technology capable of addressing large problems at scale.

The challenge is that machine learning, like many tools of technocratic governance, is deeply implicated in the social production and distribution of risk.

Emanuel Moss and Jacob Metcalf on the role of machine learning in the production of risk.

Infrastructure Influences Everything

A terrific white paper from the Siegel Family Endowment.

The reality is that the infrastructure reinforcing today's society is multifaceted and interdependent. Think of this as a three-legged stool: Should any leg falter or be cut off, it will topple the person sitting on it.

Take some time to scroll through the white paper and look at the web design. It's incredible.

Family Device Rules

Doug Belshaw with some great guidance on how to discuss and agree on device rules:

1. Wrote down (individually) what we think the current rules are. Had a discussion.
2. Wrote down (individually) what we think the future rules should be. Had another discussion.
3. Collaboratively came up with rules that everyone could agree to. Signed them, and pinned to fridge.

🔨 Do

Email Masterclass

Email can be time consuming, stressful, and kill your productivity. This FREE video masterclass puts you in control to process emails faster.

🤔 Consider

If you can make a woman laugh, you can make her do anything.

Sean Connery

With Connery's passing this week, we remember a figure who shaped how generations thought about masculinity and charm. This week's issue examines infrastructure—not just physical, but the systems that shape behavior. Surveillance infrastructure teaches students to accept being watched. Partisan infrastructure turns policy hearings into performances.

🔗 Navigation

Previous: DL 265 • Next: DL 267 • Archive: 📧 Newsletter

🌱 Connected Concepts:

• Privacy Rights — Proctoring surveillance, generation learning to tolerate being watched
• Media Literacy — Section 230 hearing, critical evaluation going too far
• Digital Wellbeing — Family device rules, home streaming setup
• Platform Accountability — Tech CEO testimonies, partisan divide
• Philosophy — Infrastructure as three-legged stool, interdependent systems