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TLDR 18

Too Long; Didn't Read Issue 18

Published: 2015-10-23 • 📧 Newsletter

Thank you for subscribing to this newsletter. Please feel free to share with others you believe would benefit. In TL;DR I'm sharing things that happened during the week in literacy, technology, and education that I think you should know.

Thanks again for the support. :)

This week I worked on the following:

🔖 Key Takeaways

📺 Watch

Yes, the new trailer for Star Wars: The Force Awakens was released this week. Yes, the Internet freaked out over it. What I love about this video is that it strips out the dialogue and accentuates the music in the production. You get a real feel for the mood and tone created by the music.

📚 Read

In this post, Bill Moyers shares video of interviews he conducted with great writers over time. The end result provides insight into how these minds work, synthesize, and create.

The writers include Toni Morrison, Norman Lear, MFK Fisher, Luis Alberto Urrea, Maxine Hong Kingston, Isaac Asimov, Robert Bly, Lucille Clifton, & W. S. Merwin.

Web of Illusion: How the Internet affects our confidence in what we know

This post by cognitive scientist Tom Stafford looks at our illusions of knowledge and our own beliefs in our intelligence as modified by the advent of the Internet. If the Internet is really changing how our minds operate...what effect does this have on our confidence and certainty about our thoughts?

What happens to the brain during cognitive dissonance?

One of my favorite concepts to teach in my Education classes focuses on cognitive dissonance and opportunities for learning. Cognitive dissonance is the state of mental stress or discomfort that occurs when you're trying to make sense of something that you're not previously accustomed to. It's when you hold two competing ideas in your head...or are confronted with information that conflicts with existing beliefs, ideas, or values.

This post from Keise Izuma at the Scientific American looks at the neural complexity of what happens during these states at the brain cell level.

This post from Rebecca Shuman at Slate discusses the problems that exist when academics focus on model students as opposed to the real world ones that show up daily in their classrooms.

The American professoriate shouldn't gear their courses exclusively to students who are so bright and motivated they could learn the material on their own. They should also include components designed for the average, real, very-much-not-ideal student they will actually meet.

I think this post provides insight for educators and instructors from Pre-K up through higher ed. I think it also provides keen insight into instructional design in online and hybrid spaces. This post begs questions about how we design and scale up MOOCs.

Some rules of language are wired in the brain

This post by Madhuvanthi Kannan, a postdoc at Yale studying neurobiology discusses the sound, symbol, and meaning relationships that are possibly hard wired into our brains. The post focuses on some research that suggests that as infants, our brains are essentially cross-wired to recognize sounds and symbols across languages and systems. As we grow and age in our specific language and culture, we lose this sensitivity to other languages and systems.

We've always considered this to be true...perhaps we're getting some more insight into engineering at the cellular level.

Interesting work from the Autism Glass Project that builds off of work from the MIT Media Lab and Project Capture the Smile. In short, the Google Glass is scanning the faces of other individuals, recognizing cues for engagement and emotions, and giving the wearer of the Google Glass some insight into motive and purpose of others. The hope is that this will help help autistic children recognize and classify emotions.

Entropy explained in comic book form

Ever since Nick Sousanis released his dissertation in graphic novel form, he's been a deity in my world.

This piece is one of his nonfiction pieces in which he explains the connection between life and entropy. I thoroughly recommend clicking through to the link above from the Boston Globe to review the whole piece.

🔨 Do

I've discussed the past how much I love Vine and try to embed it into lessons and activities. But, have you ever thought about those six seconds in Vine seemed to be too long? Perhaps not. :)

But, I think you should check out the new app Boomerang from Instagram. The app uses images and videos you created, and mixes in some of their Hyperlapse secret sauce. The end result is a 1 second clip that mimics some of the magic in GIFs.

I'll play with this and see what I can do with it. Please share what you create.

🤔 Consider

"We are all now connected by the Internet, like neurons in a giant brain." — Stephen Hawking

Bill Moyers' interviews with nine great writers—Toni Morrison, Isaac Asimov, Lucille Clifton—provide insight into how minds work, synthesize, create. Watching writers explain why they write reveals the process beneath the product. The interviews become archaeological excavation of creative thinking.

Tom Stafford's piece on Internet knowledge illusion strikes at something uncomfortable: the web changes how our minds operate, affecting confidence and certainty about our thoughts. We confuse access to information with possession of knowledge. The Internet creates illusions of competence we haven't earned.

Cognitive dissonance remains one of my favorite concepts to teach. Mental stress when confronting information that conflicts with beliefs creates opportunities for learning. You hold two competing ideas simultaneously, or encounter evidence that challenges values. Keise Izuma's work reveals neural complexity at the brain cell level—the physical architecture of intellectual discomfort.

Rebecca Shuman's critique cuts: professors shouldn't gear courses exclusively to bright, motivated students who could learn material independently. Design for average, real, very-much-not-ideal students who actually show up. This applies Pre-K through higher ed. This begs questions about how we design and scale up MOOCs. Are we building for ideal learners who don't exist?

Nick Sousanis became a deity in my world when he released his dissertation in graphic novel form. His entropy comic explains the connection between life and disorder through visual thinking. Comics aren't simplified explanations. They're sophisticated arguments that work differently than text.

The Autism Glass Project uses Google Glass to scan faces, recognize engagement cues, give wearers insight into others' motives and emotions. Helping autistic children classify emotions through augmented reality. The technology mediates social understanding.

Madhuvanthi Kannan's work suggests language rules are wired in the brain. As infants, we're cross-wired to recognize sounds and symbols across languages and systems. We lose this sensitivity as we grow into specific language and culture. Engineering at the cellular level reveals what we've always suspected.

Stephen Hawking's metaphor resonates: we're all connected by the Internet like neurons in a giant brain. But neurons in giant brains can misfire, create illusions, confuse access with understanding. The question isn't whether we're connected—it's what kind of thinking emerges from these connections.

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