TLDR 141

Too Long; Didn't Read Issue 141

Published: 2018-03-17 • 📧 Newsletter

Welcome to Issue 141. It's all part and parcel of the ability to adapt.

This week we had a lot of things happening in relation to gun violence in our schools. I spoke at a Save Our Schools rally organized by students on our campus. My piece is available here. You can watch some video on Facebook Live and review some photos of the event. As I have been saying here in TL;DR over the last couple of weeks, I believe that we need to find ways to amplify the voices of our youth.

Here's some other stuff I posted this week:

• The four types of online discussion. Where are you? - This post shares the model I've been developing as part of my research. Feel free to let me know what you think.
• Rating the relative hotness of digital literacy - This post has been percolating for some time. I hinted to this in my SC IRA talk and last week at the VSRA talk. Let me know what you think.
• Video: Four questions for Tim Huey about vigilance and critical incidents in K12 schools - This video hasn't been made fully public, but you're getting the early access pass. Don't share it widely for now.

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Say hey with a note at hello@wiobyrne.com or on the socials at wiobyrne.

🔖 Key Takeaways

• Cryptocurrency Demystified: Bitcoin is "everything you don't understand about money combined with everything you don't understand about computers," making it perfect target for scams and speculation, requiring foundational understanding before investment.
• Media Literacy Backfiring: danah boyd's provocative SXSW EDU keynote argues critical thinking and media literacy efforts may be backfiring as simplistic assumptions about media lead people not to trust anything, even legitimate journalism, creating more chaos.
• Audiobooks Rising But Print Dominant: Nearly one-in-five Americans now listen to audiobooks according to Pew, challenging classroom assumptions that audio content doesn't count as "real reading," while print books continue outpacing e-books and audiobooks in popularity.
• Quarter Constantly Online: Pew research shows quarter of U.S. adults say they're "almost constantly" online, reflecting dramatic shift in connectivity patterns and raising questions about attention, distraction, and digital wellbeing.
• University Value Beyond Skills: Debate over university degree worth centers on whether benefits come from jumping through hoops or skills developed, with discussion of blockchain technologies, digital badges, and micro-credentials as alternative credentialing systems.
• Playground Risk Builds Resilience: British schools adding risk to learning environments through fires, knives, saws under supervision to build grit and resilience rather than reducing all danger, challenging safety-first paradigm.

📺 Watch

Cryptocurrencies: Last week tonight with John Oliver

I spend (probably too much time thinking about the blockchain and trying to make sense of possible futures. In this video from John Oliver, he explains Bitcoin using $15,000 Beanie Babies and rap videos. As he explains in the intro, Bitcoin is "Everything you don't understand about money combined with everything you don't understand about computers."

I would recommend watching the video to build up background knowledge and get your ideas flowing.

📚 Read

You think you want media literacy...Do You?

This past week danah boyd presented the keynote at SXSW EDU 2018. The talk is quite nuanced, and I recommend taking the time to read it.

boyd talks about how critical thinking and media literacy efforts are backfiring. She surveys some media literacy programs and sees a simplistic set of assumptions about the way media could and should work in our world. She posits that if we head down this path, the future might look even more chaotic as we learn not to trust anything...even the media.

There has been a lot of great feedback and discussion on this piece since it first posted. I'll have an upcoming response, but want to take the time to read danah's time and let it gel. I'm also enjoying reading the incredible responses.

Did media literacy backfire? by Renee Hobbs indicates that "Media literacy educators, with their focus on evidence and reasoned argument, value expertise even as we point out that expertise is itself a social construction." Benjamin Doxtdator responds that boyd is suggesting that we need to "inoculate" people, but this response fails to address power dynamics in society. Peter Levine pulls all of this together and explores our relationships with "truth" and "reality" as it relates to our information seeking behaviors. Finally, I'd recommend reviewing this response to the criticism from danah.

I know that it's a lot of reading...but I'd be interested in knowing what you think. As I stated...I'll have a response soon.

Nearly one-in-five Americans now listen to audiobooks

The Pew Research Center is an excellent accounting of the changes in our behaviors as a result of the Internet and other communication technologies. This week they had two reports that really had me thinking.

The first is this one about audiobook usage by Americans. In my literacy research and education circles, audiobooks and podcasts tend to be things that we all use and consume. Yet, when we think about "real reading" in the classroom...we don't think that audio content counts. I think we need to problematize this thinking.

One of the storylines from this report also suggested that print books continue to be more popular than e-books or audiobooks.

The second report suggest that a quarter of U.S. adults say they are "almost constantly" online. Just let that sink in for a minute.

#rawthought: The only two things we should teach

This post from Sonia Sodha sparked a great discussion between a group of my friends in a Slack channel. The post talks about the value of a university education in relation to the cost of these experiences. Is your degree only worth the paper it's written on? How much of the benefits of a degree come from jumping through a hoop, and how much from the skills you develop?

In our initial discussions, Doug Belshaw and I talked about the possibilities for digital badges, micro-credentials...and of course I brought it to blockchain technologies. We talked about the individual bits of what we wished we had in our educational history...and where we see the future heading.

The incredible Amy Burvall was listening and distilled her thinking into a post replete with many of her original works of art. Burvall suggests that we should focus our curriculum on two elements, philosophy & the arts. She notes that "Philosophy teaches us how to think and the arts teach us how to feel."

I should indicate again that I really appreciate Amy's thinking, and the ways in which she creates and shares her work. This always inspires me to do a better job than relying solely on text for sharing my ideas.

In Britain's playgrounds, "bringing in risk" to build resilience

This piece in the NY Times talks about a growing number of elementary and early childhood centers that are seeking to build grit and resiliency by seeking to add risk to the learning environment...as opposed to reducing it.

"Now, Ms. Morris says proudly, 'we have fires, we use knives, saws, different tools,' all used under adult supervision. Indoors, scissors abound, and so do sharp-edged tape dispensers ("they normally only cut themselves once," she says)."

When you give a tree an email address

This is one of my favorite posts of the year. The city of Melbourne assigned trees email addresses so citizens could report problems. Instead, people wrote thousands of love letters to their favorite trees. Check out the super cool website for the project.

I've received a lot of great feedback from others as they've enjoyed the post as well. My favorite is from Algot Runeman who shared a small poem in response:

Love letters to trees.
What's next, the bees?
Maybe we'll be one who sees
Nature is not "ours" to squeeze.

🔨 Do

Slow Thought

I've had a lot of colleagues talking to me recently about "slow thinking" and the potential benefits. Doug Belshaw shared an overview of this thinking in a post on his Thought Shrapnel site.

Belshaw provides the following overview:

1. Slow Thought is marked by peripatetic Socratic walks, the face-to-face encounter of Levinas, and Bakhtin's dialogic conversations
2. Slow Thought creates its own time and place
3. Slow Thought has no other object than itself
4. Slow Thought is porous
5. Slow Thought is playful
6. Slow Thought is a counter-method, rather than a method, for thinking as it relaxes, releases and liberates thought from its constraints and the trauma of tradition
7. Slow Thought is deliberate

🤔 Consider

"Intelligence is the ability to adapt to change." — Stephen Hawking

🔗 Navigation

Previous: TLDR 140 • Next: TLDR 142 • Archive: 📧 Newsletter

🌱 Connected Concepts:

• Cryptocurrency Bitcoin John Oliver — John Oliver explains Bitcoin as "everything you don't understand about money combined with everything you don't understand about computers" using $15,000 Beanie Babies and rap videos, demystifying cryptocurrency hype while warning about scams and speculation without foundational understanding.
• Media Literacy Backfire danah boyd — danah boyd's provocative SXSW EDU 2018 keynote argues critical thinking and media literacy efforts may be backfiring as simplistic assumptions about how media works lead to not trusting anything including legitimate journalism, creating more chaos rather than less, sparking extensive debate among experts like Renee Hobbs, Benjamin Doxtdator, and Peter Levine about power dynamics, inoculation, and relationships with truth.
• Audiobooks Reading Pew — Pew Research shows nearly one-in-five Americans now listen to audiobooks, challenging literacy education's assumption that audio content doesn't count as "real reading" in classrooms despite widespread use among educators and researchers, while print books continue dominating over e-books and audiobooks.
• University Degree Value — Debate over university education value centers on whether benefits come from credential signaling (jumping through hoop) or skills developed, sparking discussions of blockchain technologies, digital badges, micro-credentials as alternative credentialing systems, with Amy Burvall arguing curriculum should focus on philosophy (teaching how to think) and arts (teaching how to feel).
• Playground Risk Resilience — British elementary and early childhood centers building grit and resilience by adding risk to learning environments through supervised use of fires, knives, saws, sharp scissors and tape dispensers rather than reducing all danger, challenging safety-first paradigm with philosophy that controlled risk exposure builds competence.
• Melbourne Trees Email — Melbourne city assigned trees email addresses for problem reporting but citizens wrote thousands of love letters to favorite trees instead, creating unexpected human-nature connection documented on interactive website, with Algot Runeman poem celebrating seeing nature as not "ours to squeeze."
• Slow Thought Philosophy — Doug Belshaw outlines slow thinking philosophy as counter-method marked by Socratic walks, face-to-face encounters, dialogic conversations, creating its own time and place, having no object beyond itself, being porous and playful, deliberately relaxing and liberating thought from constraints and trauma of tradition.

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