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TLDR 10

Too Long; Didn't Read Issue 10

Published: 2015-08-28 • 📧 Newsletter

Thank you once again for signing up for this newsletter. We're now up over 100 subscribers...and on to our tenth issue. Thanks again for the support. :)

I started up my class here at the CofC this week and met my first group of students here. I also sat in on my first series of committee meetings. It's been very exciting as I get started.

This week I posted:

🔖 Key Takeaways

📺 Watch

Manuel Lima: A visual history of human knowledge

A fascinating, yet haunting look at a thousand year mapping of the networked nature of human knowledge. It makes you reflect on how interconnected we really are. This is especially true when researchers map out what we know and how we make sense of it.

📚 Read

There were a lot of ripples from the piece over the last two weeks for me. In my orientations last week there was a lot of discussion about how we prepare students for discussions and topics that might be a bit upsetting. This piece discusses how our concern and awareness for trigger warnings may be hurting the mental health of students.

Pew Research Report: Americans' Views on Mobile Etiquette

Another great research report from the Pew Research Center. This report discusses the challenges that exist as ubiquitous connectivity affects our lives. If you have ever questioned the use of the cell phone in class, at dinner, on a flight, or watched people with their eyes glued to a screen while walking...this is for you.

The full report is available here.

Recognition, and a general call from the U.S. Department of Education to identify better methods to evaluate apps labeled as "educational." In the post, they announce a Request for Proposal (RFP) to develop this process.

Explain Everything is an amazing app for [iOS (iPad/iPhone)] (https://itunes.apple.com/app/explain-everything/id431493086?ls=1&mt=8), and Android phones/tablets . The app allows you to annotate and record videos of your annotations in real-time...with audio. This is great for creating multimodal tutorials, video walkthroughs, and having students document their thinking aloud. The new Chrome app is only available for Chromebooks at this point, but I'm sure it'll soon be available across all Chrome browsers.

If you're looking for resources for having students document thinking on the iPad, I also recommend checking out this resource on "sketchnoting" from iTunes.

This week Steve Hargadon led a four nights of interviews with teachers and educators acting as incredible agents of change. The end result is an incredible series of videos all free and available on YouTube. You can view the full schedule here .

This is a great opportunity to identify some of the thought leaders in education, listen to their ideas, and follow their work.

An interesting historical piece on the new GigaOm looking at the origin of hypertext. This includes an interview with Ted Nelson who coined the term on August 24th, 1965. It's amazing to see how ubiquitous this has become in such a short amount of time.

How to survive a mass shooting

This post discusses the prevention and reaction to events involving an active shooter. Although this type of post is not directly related to the content I usually share in this newsletter, I think it's important to share widely. During my years in education, I've had too many instances where violence has touched the schools within which I worked.

During my first years teaching, our school invited in FBI profilers to discuss ways to prepare, prevent, and react in an active shooter event. I've also attended other trainings when they're offered at my institutions. Much of this information is the same message I've received throughout. Preparation and planning is one of the best things you can do to help keep you alive.

Guidance from Harvard Ed specialist Tony Wagner and the seven essential things young people need to be successful lifelong learners:

Listen to Tony Wagner present on Play, Passion, & Purpose at his TEDx talk.

🔨 Do

As students start playing with digital content, it's important to find apps that will them to quickly and simply mess around and create something new. There are several good apps teachers can use with students to quickly and easily play with digital content. Animoto and VoiceThread are two that come to mind.

SharAlike is a free tool that makes it quick and easy to mix photos together to create an audio slideshow. It is available on iOS (iPhone/iPad), (soon to be on) Android, and as a web app.

It looks like an exciting new tool to test out and allow your students to play with digital content. Take a look at Richard Byrne's video for a walkthrough.

🤔 Consider

Hitting 100 subscribers on issue #10 feels meaningful—thank you for being part of this conversation. Meeting my first CofC students this week reminded me why documentation matters. Sharing my Chrome workflow and WordPress setup isn't about perfection; it's about building, breaking, iterating, and documenting the failures along the way.

Manuel Lima's visualization of human knowledge is haunting because it reveals how interconnected everything truly is. We often teach in silos, but knowledge doesn't work that way. Neither do our tools—Chrome syncs across devices, WordPress themes scaffold readers, Explain Everything captures thinking aloud. The connections matter.

The trigger warnings debate from "The Coddling of the American Mind" sparked conversations during orientation. How do we prepare students for difficult topics without coddling them? There's a difference between providing context and avoiding discomfort. Education should challenge, not merely comfort.

The mobile etiquette research feels personal—we've all been that person with eyes glued to a screen while walking. Ubiquitous connectivity changes social norms faster than we can adapt.

The school safety piece doesn't fit the usual content here, but preparation matters. I've attended too many trainings after violence touched schools I worked in. Preparation and planning aren't paranoia—they're responsibility.

Tony Wagner's seven essentials—formulate questions, communicate, adapt, initiate, create—aren't skills we teach separately. They emerge when educators make space for play, passion, and purpose.

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