TLDR 118

Too Long; Didn't Read Issue 118

Published: 2017-10-07 • 📧 Newsletter

Welcome to issue 118 of TL;DR. You will never find a more wretched hive of scum and villainy.

Feel free to share with someone that you believe would benefit. If you haven't already, please subscribe to make sure this comes to your inbox each week. You can review archives of the newsletter or on Medium.

This week I posted the following:

Making Healthy Skepticism happen in teaching and learning - This post focuses on how I think we can best fight the lack of critical evaluation skills by students and adults. I see a need to empower our learners to be healthy skeptics in and out of the classroom.
Video: Allow elementary students to search & sift online texts using Google Custom Search Engine

Feel free to keep in touch by sending me a note at hello@wiobyrne.com or on the socials at wiobyrne.

🔖 Key Takeaways

Needed to Turn Off: This week, and the writing of the newsletter this was difficult. Truth be told, I needed to turn off the Internet for a bit.
Two Thoughts This Week: First, I think you need to start to build awareness of what you would do in the instance of an active shooter. My second thought is focused on what we can do to stop this trend in the U.S....and around the world. What can we do using online tools to enact change?
Really Should Have Taken Seriously: We (as a society) really should have taken Gamergate much more seriously. If you look back in time, you can see what Gamergate should have taught us about this movement.
Need to Start Thinking: If you are building data-driven systems, you need to start thinking about how that data can be corrupted, by whom, and for what purpose. The tech industry is now the foundation of our democracy, economy, and information landscape.
Increasingly Recognizing Negative Impacts: Study suggests that students were increasingly recognizing the negative impacts of tech on their well being. They were beginning to pull away and detox a bit from these online spaces and platforms.
Critical Thinking More Important: Research suggests that critical thinking may be more important than intelligence in the long run.

📺 Watch

Oddisee: NPR Tiny Desk Concert

This week, and the writing of the newsletter this was difficult. Truth be told, I needed to turn off the Internet for a bit.

To bring me back, one of my favorite things is YouTube...and one of my favorite things on YouTube is the Tiny Desk Concert series on YouTube. To this dear reader...you're probably saying...what is the Tiny Desk Concert series?

The Tiny Desk Concert series is from NPR, and it is the exact opposite of what you would expect from some of these artists. But, it is exactly what you wanted. If you're just diving into the series, you should just subscribe here on YouTube and let it play. I usually hook people with the Adele performance, but you should check out these as well.

This concert from Oddisee really stuck with me all week. While you're there, you might want to check out this recent video from Oddisee...but I'm not there yet.

📚 Read

Google and Facebook failed us

Monday morning I woke up and turned on the news as I was crawling out of bed. I quickly learned about the gunman in a high-rise hotel that opened fire on a country music festival late the night before. I watched the news a bit and then needed to turn it off and walk away from media and social networks.

Tuesday morning I started reading and reviewing news in my feed and sent out a couple links. At the same time, I saw links the one I shared above...and this link about fake news covering the event. All of this requires that we ask questions about fake news, computer algorithms, and then some.

At this point in the week, I have two thoughts. First, I think you need to start to build awareness of what you would do in the instance of an active shooter. As I've written about too many times...I don't think it's a question of if, but when...especially in educational settings. If you're on a higher ed campus...this resource is as good as any. If you're in K-12....I'm working on materials to share. More info to come.

My second thought is focused on what we can do to stop this trend in the U.S....and around the world. Sadly in the U.S., we'll move on from this story soon. What can we do using online tools to enact change? Will one more tweet or like on Facebook make a difference? Not sure.

Alt-White: How the Breitbart machine laundered racist hate

Breitbart, or more formally, The Breitbart News Network is a far-right, news, opinion, and commentary website. The platform is known for publishing a number of intentionally misleading or false stories and conspiracy theories. Breitbart, and its authors have also been labeled as misogynistic, xenophobic, and racist.

As detailed in this post from the Southern Poverty Law Center, this week Buzzfeed obtained a cache of internal documents from Breitbart. The documents detail some of the behind the scenes machinations as the outlet focused on promoting racist ideologies to white nationalists.

A couple things really struck me from this news. The first is that there is a rather large pool of people and money behind the scenes that are fueling this machine with either stories, ideas, and/or money. Some of this might be as simple as an email suggesting that the platform target an individual with a crazy backstory. The next day, a story pops up and goes viral.

The other thing that really stuck out to me was that we (as a society) really should have taken Gamergate much more seriously. I'm still amazed when I talk with students and colleagues and they don't know anything about gamergate...and why you should care about it. If you look back in time, you can see what Gamergate should have taught us about this movement.

Your data is being manipulated

This text is from a keynote danah boyd gave to the 2017 Strata Data Conference in New York City recently. You can watch a portion of the keynote here.

Some of the big takeaways include:

Addressing implicit and explicit cultural biases in data is going to be a huge challenge for everyone who is trying to build a system dependent on data classified by or about humans.

No amount of excluding certain subreddits, removing of categories of tweets, or ignoring content with problematic words will prepare you for those who are hellbent on messing with you.

If you are building data-driven systems, you need to start thinking about how that data can be corrupted, by whom, and for what purpose.

The tech industry is no longer the passion play of a bunch of geeks trying to do cool shit in the world. It's now the foundation of our democracy, economy, and information landscape.

This past week I presented a keynote on parenting in the age of screentime at the elementary school my son previously attended. In this address, I was struck by some of the parents that were impressing their value and belief systems about tech on their children. What I mean by this is that they were indicating what they think their children need, or want from tech...given what they (parents) need or want from tech.

In the Q & A session at the end, I referenced this post reporting results from a study that suggests that students were increasingly recognizing the negative impacts of tech on their well being. They were beginning to pull away and detox a bit from these online spaces and platforms.

It also reminds me of danah boyd's book It's Complicated. You can read the whole text here on her website. Guided by boyd's work, and some of my own anecdotal thoughts about the field...I don't think we can definitely state what kids need or want of these tools. I do think it is up to us to protect them, and fight for a free, open Internet so it's useable when they get to their futures.

Why do smart people do foolish things?

A post from Scientific American looking at the difference between intelligence and critical thinking. The piece is by Heather Butler, an Assistant Professor in the Psychology Department at California State University Dominguez Hills. She frames most of the post around her family that teases her for being so "intelligent" but at the same time doing some really "dumb" things.

She breaks down the difference between "intelligence" and "critical thinking" and shares some recent research that suggests that critical thinking may be more important than intelligence in the long run.

🔨 Do

A cake you can take with you anywhere

My son has recently become really interested in cooking and baking. As a result, we're trying to help support this recent area of interest by having him help more in the kitchen.

A recent "success story" in these endeavors includes making a chocolate chip quick bread. He proudly ate that bread over the course of the past week with his sister.

This post shares the "history" of these "visiting cakes" and how they were designed to be portable. They also share a recipe for a delicious lemon spice visiting cake that we'll be making soon.

🤔 Consider

"Some days are diamonds. Some days are rocks. Some doors are open. Some roads are blocked." — Tom Petty

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🌱 Connected Concepts:

Platform Failures — Las Vegas shooting exposed Google and Facebook's algorithmic failures as fake news dominated search results and trending topics, requiring questions about active shooter preparedness and whether online tools can enact meaningful change to stop violence trends, highlighting inadequacy of platform responses.
White Nationalism Pipeline — Buzzfeed documents reveal Breitbart's behind-scenes machinations promoting racist ideologies to white nationalists with large pool of people and money fueling machine, demonstrating how Gamergate controversy was ignored warning sign about alt-right movement's coordination and radicalization strategies.
Data Manipulation — danah boyd's Strata keynote warns that addressing implicit and explicit cultural biases in data is huge challenge, requiring builders of data-driven systems to think about how data can be corrupted, by whom, and for what purpose, as tech industry has become foundation of democracy, economy, and information landscape.
Youth Digital Wellbeing — Keynote on parenting in screentime age revealed parents projecting their own tech values onto children, while research shows students increasingly recognizing negative impacts on wellbeing and pulling away from platforms, guided by danah boyd's "It's Complicated" insight that we can't definitively state what kids need but must protect them.
Critical Thinking Development — Heather Butler's research suggests critical thinking may be more important than intelligence in long run, breaking down difference between "smart" people doing foolish things and developing capacity to evaluate information, arguments, and claims systematically regardless of innate intelligence.

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