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DL 326

Still Raging On

Published: April 9, 2022 • 📧 Newsletter

🔖 Key Takeaways

Welcome to Digitally Literate, issue 326.

Thank you to everyone who sent messages of support over the last week. I shared the eulogy for my father on my blog, and I appreciate the kindness shown during this time. It feels good to return to sharing and learning together here in DL.

📺 Watch

I've been exploring new music through YouTube channels like 2666 - The Art of Listening. This channel is a treasure trove of quirky and creative albums that fuel creativity. Highly recommend diving in if you need some fresh inspiration.

📚 Read

Outrage is a useful emotion that helped our ancient ancestors survive. It is an evolutionarily useful emotion because it punishes rulebreakers and keeps people in line. Today, we express much of our outrage online, which serves no particular purpose and only rarely addresses the moral offense or seeks to correct it. Ultimately, this leaves us feeling angry, tired, powerless, and miserable.

We are not slaves to our nature. We can disengage from outrage.

Jill Lepore reflects on the century-long battle over public education. Today's debates echo historical struggles, with teachers caught in the crossfire of political and societal expectations, all while addressing students' post-pandemic needs.

There and elsewhere, parents are harassing school boards and reporting on teachers, at a time when teachers, who earn too little and are asked to do too much, are already exhausted by battles over remote instruction and mask and vaccine mandates and, not least, by witnessing, without being able to repair, the damage the pandemic has inflicted on their students. Kids carry the burdens of loss, uncertainty, and shaken faith on their narrow shoulders, tucked inside their backpacks. Now, with schools open and masks coming off, teachers are left trying to figure out not only how to care for them but also what to teach, and how to teach it, without losing their jobs owing to complaints filed by parents.

Prior to the pandemic, we identified what was first labeled as a teacher shortage. This then became a teacher exodus, at least in my state. As the pandemic slowly retreats into the distance and this school year ends, I have a feeling the new school year will begin, and parents/society will get a good glimpse of the trouble we're in.

This reflection by Dina Ley and her Twitter thread underscore the urgency of supporting educators.

This primer breaks down the essential concepts you'll need to navigate this decentralized internet frontier. Some terms you'll start to encounter more often as you browse digital spaces:

Working out loud online is a practice I value deeply. This guide offers actionable tips for crafting compelling reports and presentations, incorporating storytelling, and engaging your audience effectively.

🔨 Do

Giving critical feedback is challenging but essential. Principles for effective feedback include:

  1. Praise in public, criticize in private.
  2. Use "I" language to express impact.
  3. Be specific with SBI (situation-behavior-impact).
  4. Approach feedback as a collaboration.
  5. Avoid addressing issues when emotions are high.
  6. Create a tight feedback loop for continuous improvement.

🤔 Consider

Wise people understand the need to consult experts; only fools are confident they know everything.

Ken Poirot

Poirot's observation resonates with the teacher exodus—educators are experts being overruled by confident non-experts. It connects to online outrage too, where certainty replaces inquiry and everyone becomes a pundit. Wisdom lies in knowing what we don't know.

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