Journey Into The Self

Welcome to Digitally Literate, issue #387. Your go-to source for insightful content on education, technology, and the digital landscape.

This week I worked on the following:

• 🕴️Navigating the “Self” in the Age of AI: A Journey into Generative Horizons – In this post, I unpack some of my thoughts about the self, individuality, and subjectivity as we think about the impact of generative AI in society. Matthias Melcher and Stephen Downes gave me some great feedback on the post here. I’ll edit that into the original post.
• 🚀 Exploring Humanity Through a Galactic Lens – Adrian Tchaikovsky‘s sci-fi novel Children of Time crafts a stunning narrative about the bounds of human nature and evolution’s power across cosmic timescales. This first book in the trilogy was amazing. I’m already in the middle of the final book.
• 🧠 The Evolving Digital Commonplace Book – I’m taking time to document my personal knowledge management systems. This post describes my philosophy with the system.

Highlights of this week’s issue:

• 🖤 Teaching and Learning the Whole Year – Discover the significance of Black History Month, uncovering overlooked histories and advocating for accurate representation of Black culture in education.
• 🚺 We Have to Talk About Status – Dive into the discussion on gender dynamics and societal status, exploring how beliefs in male dominance impact various aspects of life and perpetuate inequalities.
• 🤖 The Human and the Machine – Explore students’ attitudes towards generative AI in higher education, alongside proposed rights for educators and students in the era of artificial intelligence.
• ⚒️ The Cult of Done – Embrace imperfection and the journey of completion in creative endeavors.
• 🌿 “Artists are the gatekeepers of truth. We are civilization’s radical voice.” – Paul Robeson📚✨ Protect and nurture your inner critical lens. 🌟

Teaching and Learning the Whole Year

Each February, the United States celebrates Black History Month, a national commemoration of the contributions and achievements that Black people have made throughout the history of the United States. Black History Month grew from a week-long celebration that started nearly 100 years ago — and it’s not random that it’s in February. Read

Ashley Dennis indicates that decades before the fights over Black studies courses and departments, the Chicago public schools implemented a mandatory Black studies curriculum that aimed to introduce Black and white children to the contributions of Black people in all areas of society. This overlooked history should inspire educators to continue the fight for accurate representation of Black history and culture in schools. All children benefit from learning truthful and more comprehensive narratives about the past. Read more

African American artists — poets, writers, visual artists, and dancers — have historically served as change agents through their crafts. The National Museum of African American History and Culture shares resources on arts as a platform for social justice.

We Have to Talk About Status

Young men and young women’s world views are pulling apart. The consequences could be far-reaching. Investigate.

Rosalind Shorrocks provides some context here while John Burn-Murdoch digs in more deeply here. They suggest that Gen Z is two generations, not one. Breaking things down by gender provides an explanation: young women are very progressive, young men are surprisingly conservative.

Alice Evans pulls these threads together and indicates that gender inequalities and the division of domestic labor can only be understood if we recognize the role of status.

Throughout history, men have been revered as high status while women have been seen as low status, despite their important contributions to society. The belief in male dominance and the expectation for women to serve is deeply ingrained in many cultures. This belief in gender status affects various aspects of life, from marital discord to women’s participation in the labor force. Gender status beliefs are widespread and can lead to economic dependency and violence against women. Read more

The Human and the Machine

A policy note by HEPI and Kortext explores students’ attitudes towards generative AI in higher education. The study finds that the use of generative AI has become normalized among students. Urgent action is needed to stop a new digital divide emerging, and students want clear AI policies and support. Dig deeper.

Katie Conrad proposes a set of rights for educators and students, which include input on purchasing and implementation, input on policies, professional development, and autonomy for educators, and guidance, consultation, appeal, and notice for students Explore.

We are all sub-postmasters these days: each of us daily dealing with computer systems which make our lives harder. Techno-admin will ruin your life.

The Cult of Done

The Cult of Done Manifesto was written by Bre Pettis and Kio Stark. The original manifesto is shared below. Watch here.

1. There are three states of being. Not knowing, action and completion.
2. Accept that everything is a draft. It helps to get it done.
3. There is no editing stage.
4. Pretending you know what you’re doing is almost the same as knowing what you are doing, so just accept that you know what you’re doing even if you don’t and do it.
5. Banish procrastination. If you wait more than a week to get an idea done, abandon it.
6. The point of being done is not to finish but to get other things done.
7. Once you’re done you can throw it away.
8. Laugh at perfection. It’s boring and keeps you from being done.
9. People without dirty hands are wrong. Doing something makes you right.
10. Failure counts as done. So do mistakes.
11. Destruction is a variant of done.
12. If you have an idea and publish it on the internet, that counts as a ghost of done.
13. Done is the engine of more.

Artists are the gatekeepers of truth. We are civilization’s radical voice.

Paul Robeson

Made me chuckle. 🙂

Original tweet

Thank you for being a part of Digitally Literate. Stay tuned for more insights and discussions. Reach out at hello@digitallyliterate.net or connect on social media.

Cover Photo CC BY using Playground AI