Aaaaand we’re back. Welcome to Digitally Literate, issue #326.
Thank you to all that sent in messages of support over the last week or so. Your correspondence was very much needed. I shared the eulogy for my father over on my blog. I’ll continue to post more personal content in/across my digital spaces. For now, it’s good to get back to doing what we normally do here in DL.
If you haven’t already, please subscribe if you would like this newsletter to show up in your inbox. Reach out and say hello at hello@digitallyliterate.net.
Beat Music: The Los Angeles Improvisations
I love finding new, interesting content online…especially on YouTube. The 2666 – The Art of Listening channel has been an awesome discovery for me. I love useful channels that upload musical obscurities. I use many of these channels to discover new music.
This channel shares a ton of cool, quirky, albums that will fuel your creativity.
Outrage! Our minds and morals did not evolve to cope with social media
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.
Why the school wars still rage
I’ve been spending more time looking back and studying historical contexts as I look forward and try to figure out the future. One of the recent areas I’ve been studying is what Jill Lepore calls the most recent “hundred years’ war, the campaign against public education.”
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.
Teachers Are Done. No, Really.
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 were in.
Dina Ley expands on this situation in this post and this twitter thread.
What the hell is a Web3 browser? And what does it do?
Here is your weekly primer on Web3. (੭ ᐕ)੭*⁾⁾
Some terms you’ll start to encounter more often as you browse digital spaces.
- Wallet: Your cryptocurrency wallet where you store different tokens or currency.
- dApps: Decentralized applications running on blockchain-based protocols.
- Blockchain: A decentralized public ledger that keeps track of all transactions.
- Smart contracts: Snippets of programs on blockchain that execute when terms of the agreement are specified in it are met.
- IPFS: The InterPlanetary File System is a decentralized, peer-to-peer storage protocol network.
Creating Engaging Reports & Asynchronous Presentations
I try to work out loud as much as possible online. This means that I’m sharing drafts of publications, slide decks and recordings from classes/presentations, blog post reflections, and a weekly newsletter that distills what I think you need to know. (ﾉ◕ヮ◕)ﾉ*:･ﾟ✧
This post from the Nielsen Norman Group shares some great, actionable guidance on incorporating storytelling techniques such as writing for your audience, adding anecdotes, and using analogies in your online content.
How To Criticize Coworkers
Although this has a clickbait title, the post from Alex Turek shares some great insight into giving and receiving direct, critical feedback.
Some principles of good feedback:
- Praise in public, criticize in private
- Use “I” language instead of “you” language
- Be as specific as possible using SBI (situation-behavior-impact)
- Be on the same side
- Stop if you’re too worked up
- Use a tight feedback loop
Wise people understand the need to consult experts; only fools are confident they know everything.
Ken Poirot
Hilarious post from the antiwork subreddit.
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