TLDR 104

Too Long; Didn't Read Issue 104

Published: 2017-06-30 • 📧 Newsletter

Welcome to issue #104 of TL;DR. This week's issue is all about our private epistemologies.

This week I posted the following:

• Stop motion animation, creativity, & divergent thinking - I think there is a gold mine of intellectual curiosity in the intersection between creativity and divergent thinking. The trick is...how do we get there? This post shares some research I just completed with some colleagues and students. We're sharing this publication before it (hopefully) becomes a publication to promote open scholarship.
• What to do with your kids during the summer: Read, write, play, & hack - I was interviewed this week by a local reporter to discuss what to do with children during the summer so they don't fall behind. This post provides a good overview of inquiry based activities you can do to learn more about your children.

🔖 Key Takeaways

• Stoicism Provides Opportunities: I think stoicism provides opportunities to teach our students and ourselves about grit, and what to do when things go wrong.
• Behind the Scenes Initiatives: What is interesting to me is some of the behind the scenes initiatives in this multi-pronged effort to build up computer science and computational thinking in our classrooms.
• Should Everyone Have Access: Should everyone...everyone...have an opportunity to educate themselves? Should everyone have access to the Internet and engage in the literacy practices we fight for, and enjoy?
• Lecturing Is Not Effective: Kohn cites research and some anecdotal data that indicates that lecturing as a practice is not that effective.
• Silent Learners Matter: Instead of "lurkers," we should refer to these individuals as "silent learners" or "legitimate peripheral participant." This is an important factor to understand as we think about teaching and learning in open, online spaces.
• Expert Learners Scan: Expert learners are likely to scan different sources of information, seeking out a range of potential sources of learning in the environment. They regard valuable knowledge as somewhat volatile, context dependent, widely distributed, and including tacit understandings, as well as generalizable understandings.

📺 Watch

The philosophy of stoicism - Massimo Pigliucci

This short Ted-Ed talk covers the basics of stoicism. I've written quite a bit about stoicism in the past and will continue to dive in soon. I think stoicism provides opportunities to teach our students and ourselves about grit, and what to do when things go wrong.

Click here for the lesson plans that accompany this video.

📚 Read

How tech companies are pushing coding into schools

This post in the NY Times by Natasha Singer shares some of the backstory behind Code.org and the work by Google, Microsoft, Facebook, and Salesforce to get coding into schools in the U.S.

What is interesting to me is some of the behind the scenes initiatives in this multi-pronged effort to build up computer science and computational thinking in our classrooms. I don't have any problem with folding this content into our classrooms, but I want to make sure we know the philosophies behind the groups pushing this into schools.

The lifelong learning of lifelong inmates

While working at my last institution, I worked closely with two colleagues that were very interested in research of education in penal institutions. What I found interesting in these discussions was how much can we learn about our own epistemologies as we examine discussions and policies about educating and rehabilitating prisoners.

We can learn a great deal about how we feel about literacy and education as we consider whether or not prisoners should have access to education, libraries, and/or the Internet.

What are your thoughts on this? Should everyone...everyone...have an opportunity to educate themselves? Should everyone have access to the Internet and engage in the literacy practices we fight for, and enjoy?

Don't lecture me!

This post from Alfie Kohn shares his insight into the value of lecturing in teaching and learning. Kohn cites research and some anecdotal data that indicates that lecturing as a practice is not that effective.

Kohn begins his post with the following quote from George Leonard:

[Lecturing is the] best way to get information from teacher's notebook to student's notebook without touching the student's mind.

Lurkers as invisible learners

I'm busy working on several publications that focus on open learning, and connections to massively open online courses (MOOCs). I've also published a bit in the past as I've helped develop and facilitate several MOOCs.

As I've studied MOOCs and open learning, one of the key pieces that I haven't been able to factor in is the "lurker." What this means is the individual that is online looking at your work, and possibly watching others engage with these materials...but they're not reaching out and connecting. I think these individuals are valuable, and your open materials are valuable, but it's a challenge to figure out what role they should play in teaching and learning.

This post from David Hopkins shares his thoughts about this topic as he reviews research by Sarah Honeychurch and colleagues. In this, Hopkins shares this focus that instead of "lurkers," we should refer to these individuals as "silent learners" or "legitimate peripheral participant."

This is an important factor to understand as we think about teaching and learning in open, online spaces.

Daring to learn how to learn

As I continue to think/write deeply about open pedagogy in hybrid spaces, this post from Stephen Downes also provides understanding about how learners interact online. In this post, he pulls the salient materials from this reporting of research on over 100,000 online learners in a MOOC from the University of Melbourne.

The key takeaway from Downes is that "learners with lower levels of learning expertise are likely to be passive in their behaviour." Alternatively, "Expert learners, by contrast, are likely to scan different sources of information, seeking out a range of potential sources of learning in the environment. They regard valuable knowledge as somewhat volatile, context dependent, widely distributed, and including tacit understandings, as well as generalizable understandings."

The question is...how do we get individuals to operate as expert learners in these spaces?

🔨 Do

Turbocharge your classroom workflow

Turbocharge your classroom...and personal workflow through this great list of digital texts and tools from Vicki Davis.

I'm teaching two online classes next month and many of these tools are already built into the syllabus. Check out the list and see what interests you.

🤔 Consider

"I see my path, but I don't know where it leads. Not knowing where I'm going is what inspires me to travel it." — Rosalia de Castro

🔗 Navigation

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🌱 Connected Concepts:

• Corporate Influence in Education — Code.org's work backed by Google, Microsoft, Facebook, and Salesforce represents multi-pronged effort to push computer science into classrooms, requiring examination of philosophies and interests behind groups shaping educational priorities and curriculum.
• Educational Equity — Prison education access raises fundamental questions about universal opportunities to learn: should everyone have access to education, libraries, and internet regardless of incarceration status, revealing our epistemologies about literacy, rehabilitation, and human rights.
• Active Learning Pedagogy — Research shows lecturing is ineffective as George Leonard noted: "Lecturing is the best way to get information from teacher's notebook to student's notebook without touching the student's mind," demanding shift toward engagement-based instruction.
• MOOCs and Participation — Reframing "lurkers" as "silent learners" or "legitimate peripheral participants" recognizes diverse participation patterns in open online spaces, challenging assumptions about what constitutes meaningful engagement in digital learning environments.
• Expert Learning Behaviors — Research on 100,000+ MOOC learners reveals expert learners scan multiple sources, view knowledge as volatile and context-dependent, and actively seek distributed tacit understandings rather than passively consuming single authoritative sources.

Part of the 📧 Newsletter archive documenting digital literacy and technology.