TLDR 145

Too Long; Didn't Read Issue 145

Published: 2018-04-13 • 📧 Newsletter

Welcome to Issue 145. This week we grin and bear it.

Here's what I posted this week:

What is "empowerment" in education? - This post shares a bit of the research and theory about empowerment...and why you should care.
Moving beyond survival - A short post about awareness, building self-confidence, and problematizing your perspectives.

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

🔖 Key Takeaways

Decentralized Future Vision: Albert Wenger presents compelling vision for decentralized future in World After Capital, inspiring formation of summer reading and discussion group to collaboratively explore how technology, education, and economic systems might evolve beyond capital-driven models toward knowledge-based societies.
Internet Health Requires Human Focus: Mozilla's 2018 Internet Health Report reveals more people opening eyes to real impact Internet has on societies, economies, and personal wellbeing—beginning to see Internet health not just as technical issue but human one across privacy and security, openness, digital inclusion, web literacy, and decentralization.
12 Essential Tech Principles: Anil Dash outlines fundamental principles everyone should understand: tech is neither neutral nor inevitable, most people in tech sincerely want to do good despite lack of ethical training, tech history is poorly documented, tech is often built with surprising ignorance about users, and no institution currently has power to rein in tech's abuses.
Digital Natives Know When to Unplug: Adults talk big game about deleting Facebook or taking Twitter breaks, but true digital natives—teens entering kindergarten while Myspace peaked—actually possess self-awareness and ability to know when to unplug for mental health, recognizing Instagram and Snapchat stresses are very different with much higher stakes than adult disenchantment with news.
Psychographic Profiling Enables Mass Persuasion: Need to spend more time unpacking "science" behind psychographic profiles and impact of data collection on identities and practices—essentially collection of socio-demographic data online for micro-targeting purposes raises profound question of whether digital footprints can be leveraged for mass or individual persuasion.
Instructional Designers Understand Everything: Sean Michael Morris argues instructional designers are teachers who understand digital space, understand learning, understand teaching, and understand technology—wearing multiple hats daily as they navigate challenges of creating meaningful educational experiences in increasingly complex technological landscape.

📺 Watch

Albert Wenger on the Decentralized Future (10:46)

This video was a bit of an unexpected inspiration in my week. I recommend watching it and considering what this means for our futures.

In addition to the video, I'm considering starting up a "summer reading/discussion group" in the upcoming weeks. We'll collaboratively read Wenger's book, World After Capital. Let me know if you're interested in joining us in these discussions.

📚 Read

Mozilla's 2018 Internet Health Report

This week Mozilla released the 2018 version of their Internet Health Report. The Internet Health Report is about the human experience of the Internet. It is an independent, open source compilation of data, research and stories that show how the Internet is evolving across five issues.

This report features global insights and perspectives across five issues: Privacy and security, Openness, Digital inclusion, Web literacy, and Decentralization.

The key takeaway: More people are opening their eyes to the real impact the Internet has on our societies, economies, and personal wellbeing. We are beginning to see the health of the Internet as not just a technical issue, but a human one.

12 things everyone should understand about tech

Great overview by Anil Dash about the role of tech in our lives, culture, politics and society. Dash notes, "Given all the time we spend with our gadgets and apps, it's essential to understand the principles that determine how tech affects our lives."

Anil's 12 points:

Tech is not neutral.
Tech is not inevitable.
Most people in tech sincerely want to do good.
Tech history is poorly documented and poorly understood.
Most tech education doesn't include ethical training.
Tech is often built with surprising ignorance about its users.
There is never just one single genius creator of technology.
Most tech isn't from startups or by startups.
Most big tech companies make money in just one of three ways.
The economic model of big companies skews all of tech.
Tech is as much about fashion as function.
No institution has the power to rein in tech's abuses.

Adults talk a big game about #deletefacebook or taking a break from Twitter, but true digital natives actually know how to take a break for their own mental health.

We think of teens as being connected to social media like an umbilical cord, incapable of breathing without it. For teens, the stresses caused by Instagram or Snapchat are very different than an adult's disenchantment with the news on Twitter, and the stakes are often way higher.

Perhaps only these true parseltongues, who were entering kindergarten while Myspace was peaking, have the self-awareness and ability to know when to unplug.

Psychological weapons of mass persuasion

We need to spend more time unpacking the "science" behind psychographic profiles and the impact of this data collection on our identities and practices. Basically this is an indication of the collection of your socio-demographic data online, and using/selling your data for micro-targeting purposes.

I'm still digging in to make sense of how I feel about this. But, the question remains...can your digital footprints be leveraged for mass or individual persuasion?

Instructional designers are teachers

This post by Sean Michael Morris was exactly what I needed this past week. The post details the challenges and multiple hats that instructional designers wear on a daily, or hourly basis.

Don't get me wrong...I'm not an instructional designer by trade. I was once asked if I was an instructional designer and I needed to look it up online. But, if you're wondering whether or not this column is for you, here's the section that did it for me.

Instructional designers, then, understand digital space. They understand learning. They understand teaching. And they understand technology.

🔨 Do

Space debris and satellite tracking visualization

Please be advised that this super-cool data visualization project has the potential to keep you busy for some time.

James Yoder, an incoming freshman at the University of Texas Austin, just published a site detailing every satellite, busted rocket, and piece of space junk currently orbiting Earth. The website reveals an astounding map of the roughly 20,000 pieces of debris floating in space, as well as information pertaining to its launch year, velocity, altitude, and inclination.

Clicking on any of the thousands of available dots reveals such information, and also displays the object's orbiting flight path.

🤔 Consider

"Sometimes your joy is the source of your smile, but sometimes your smile can be the source of your joy." — Thich Nhat Hanh

This week we grin and bear it. The Buddhist monk and peace activist reminds us that we don't always need to wait for joy to arrive before we can smile—sometimes the simple act of smiling itself can create the joy we're seeking. In challenging times, this bidirectional relationship between our actions and emotions offers a practical tool: we have more agency over our emotional states than we often realize.

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🌱 Connected Concepts:

Albert Wenger Decentralized Future — Albert Wenger presents compelling vision for decentralized future in 10:46 video serving as unexpected inspiration for week, with World After Capital book exploration potentially becoming summer reading and discussion group to collaboratively explore how technology, education, and economic systems might evolve beyond capital-driven models toward knowledge-based societies where value creation shifts from scarcity to attention and time.
Mozilla Internet Health Report 2018 — Mozilla's 2018 Internet Health Report examines human experience of Internet as independent open source compilation revealing more people opening eyes to real impact on societies, economies, and personal wellbeing—beginning to see Internet health not just as technical issue but human one across five critical areas: privacy and security, openness, digital inclusion, web literacy, and decentralization.
Anil Dash Tech Principles — Anil Dash outlines 12 essential principles everyone should understand about technology: tech is neither neutral nor inevitable, most people in tech sincerely want to do good despite lack of ethical training, tech history is poorly documented, tech is often built with surprising ignorance about users, there is never just one genius creator, most tech isn't from startups, big companies make money in just three ways, economic model of big companies skews all of tech, tech is as much about fashion as function, and no institution currently has power to rein in tech's abuses.
Teens Social Media Mental Health — Unlike adults' big talk about deleting Facebook or taking Twitter breaks, true digital natives—teens who entered kindergarten while Myspace peaked—actually possess self-awareness and ability to know when to unplug for mental health, recognizing Instagram and Snapchat stresses are very different with much higher stakes than adult disenchantment with news, demonstrating only these parseltongues understand when disconnection is necessary for wellbeing.
Psychographic Profiling Persuasion — Scientific American explores psychological weapons of mass persuasion through psychographic profiling requiring deeper unpacking of "science" behind collecting socio-demographic data online for micro-targeting purposes—raising profound question of whether digital footprints can be leveraged for mass or individual persuasion, with impact of data collection on identities and practices still being understood as methods become more sophisticated.
Instructional Designers Teachers — Sean Michael Morris in Hybrid Pedagogy argues instructional designers are teachers who understand digital space, understand learning, understand teaching, and understand technology—detailing challenges and multiple hats worn daily or hourly as they navigate creation of meaningful educational experiences, with role requiring integration of pedagogical knowledge, technological expertise, spatial awareness, and learning science despite many not identifying as instructional designers by trade.
Space Debris Visualization — James Yoder, incoming University of Texas Austin freshman, created astounding interactive map visualizing roughly 20,000 pieces of debris orbiting Earth including satellites, busted rockets, and space junk—each clickable dot reveals launch year, velocity, altitude, inclination, and orbiting flight path, providing super-cool data visualization with potential to keep viewers busy for extended time exploring orbital patterns and space traffic complexity.

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