DL 296

Creativity Is Subtraction

Published: July 3, 2021 • 📧 Newsletter

Welcome to Digitally Literate, issue 296. Your go-to source for insightful content on education, technology, and the digital landscape.

🔖 Key Takeaways

Digital Futures Research: Our chapter on talking with children about privacy, security, and algorithms is available for open peer review through MIT Press
Cancel Culture Analysis: Cancellation requires participating third parties with oversight to perform sanctions—it affects people unequally
Design for Diversity Framework: D4D offers tools for illuminating cultural and racial biases in design and creative processes
Digital Intelligence (DI): The DQ Institute offers a framework for digital citizenship, creativity, and competitiveness
Subtraction Habit: Research shows removing elements from problematic ideas often works better than adding—but you must remember to try it

We improve the quality of what we are doing by reducing the quantity of what we shouldn't be doing.

This week some of my recent research in screentime was posted. Our chapter, Co-constructing Digital Futures, is now available for #OpenReview as part of the @mitpress Works in Progress program. I worked with Katie Paciga, Elizabeth Stevens, and Kristen Turner as we talked with our children about privacy, security, and algorithms as they use tech.

This is being published through MIT Press using an open peer review process. You can create an account and give us feedback until October 5. Please read and comment!

📺 Watch

James Bond Deepfake - Digital Art by Jarkan

Here at Digitally Literate, we track deepfakes closely.

Digital artist Jarkan, the same talented hand behind turning Millie Bobby Brown into Harry Potter's Hermione Granger, has dipped into the world of James Bond for their latest piece.

The technology keeps improving. Our media literacy must keep pace.

📚 Read

Cancel Culture and the Karens

Cancel culture is a phenomenon where individuals transgressing norms are called out and ostracized on social media.

This literature review by Hervé Saint-Louis explores how cancel culture affects people unequally by examining the "Karen" phenomenon.

The piece argues that cancellation can only occur if participating third parties with oversight over transgressing individuals perform sanctions. Without institutional power, calling out has limited effect.

A Review of Frameworks for Anti-Racism Content Development

As content creators and learning designers, how do we start to think about race and racism in our work? How do we do this individually and when working with program teams?

One opportunity is the Design for Diversity (D4D) framework. Though not specific to education, D4D contains tools and guided critical thinking exercises for "illuminating cultural and racial biases within your design, ideation, and creative processes."

After EI, DI? Digital Intelligence

Emotional intelligence (EI) is the ability to perceive, use, understand, and manage emotions.

The DQ Institute is working on the Digital Intelligence Quotient—an encompassing framework for thinking about digital citizenship, digital creativity, and digital competitiveness.

What might digital intelligence (DI) look like, and how might we develop it?

Ray Schroeder with a paragraph stuck in my mind like an earworm. I will be stealing this for future discussions:

Are you and your colleagues teaching through the windshield or the rearview mirror? What steps are you taking to bring new materials and fresh experiences to your classes? Will your teaching hold up through five years? Who is leading the charge to make your curriculum relevant to tomorrow?

The Subtraction Habit for Problem-Solving

New research shows that removing rather than adding elements to a problematic idea, product, or process is often better—but first you have to remember to take that approach.

Try it. The next time you solve a problem or improve a situation, think about how less could be more.

🔨 Do

Brickit: Scan Your LEGOs

Brickit will scan your LEGOs to create an inventory of your collection—counting total bricks and sorting by size.

Spread your LEGOs on a flat surface, take a photograph, and the app suggests different figures you can build using your collection, including step-by-step directions.

A clever use of image recognition to unlock creative possibilities.

🤔 Consider

Creativity is subtraction.

Austin Kleon

Kleon's principle connects to this issue's threads—the research showing subtractive solutions often outperform additive ones, the need to subtract biases from our design processes, and the question of whether we're adding to curricula or subtracting what's no longer relevant. Sometimes the most creative act is removing what doesn't belong.

Bonus: Facebook tests prompts that ask users if they're worried a friend is "becoming an extremist." What could go wrong?!?!

Previous: DL 295 • Next: DL 297 • Archive: 📧 Newsletter

🌱 Connected Concepts:

Media Literacy — Cancel culture analysis, deepfake tracking, digital intelligence
Pedagogy — Anti-racism frameworks, OER, teaching through windshield vs rearview
Digital Wellbeing — Digital futures research, screentime conversations with children
Civic Engagement — D4D framework, cancellation and institutional power
Philosophy — Kleon on subtraction, less as more