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TLDR 24

Too Long; Didn't Read Issue 24

Published: 2015-12-04 • 📧 Newsletter

In TL;DR I'm sharing things that happened during the week in literacy, technology, & education that I think you should know. Please feel free to share with others you believe would benefit. If you like what you see here, I recommend subscribing to get it hand-delivered to your inbox.

To send me feedback, questions, concerns...please email me at wiobyrne@gmail.com or reach out on Twitter. To review past issues please click here. Thanks again for the support. :)

This week I attended LRA 2015 in Carlsbad, CA. I'll have more info on those sessions and my reflections in upcoming posts.

🔖 Key Takeaways

📺 Watch

I love the Every Frame a Painting channel on YouTube.

In the latest installment they study the art and creation of Buster Keaton, one of the fathers of visual comedy.

📚 Read

This post from Wired spends time with MIT Media Lab co-founder Nicholas Negroponte and current director Joi Ito to talk about some of the lab's biggest contributions from the last three decades.

This post from MindShift shares trailers from a series of games that blur the line between traditional gaming and contemporary art.

Lately I've been thinking/writing about games...and considering the lines between creativity and digital art...so this post has been extremely helpful.

Another post from MindShift examining digital games and education. This post examines lessons learned from Drs. Chris Haskell and Lisa Dawley, from the education department at Boise State University. In their work they identify the potential for integrating quests and other game elements in delivering coursework.

I routinely share and promote the use of free online tools from Google in our classrooms and hybrid spaces. This recent update/complaint from

The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) filed a complaint with the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) against Google for collecting & data mining school children's personal information, including their Internet searches—a practice EFF uncovered while researching its "Spying on Students" campaign.

Intriguing look into the data, ethos, and culture behind Facebook from The Atlantic.

Over the past two weeks I've had numerous friends and family shocked when I suggested that Facebook alters their feeds depending on unknown algorithms. Additionally, I also was involved in several discussions while at LRA in which we discussed the challenges of having our digital identities treated as commodities by companies like Facebook.

Makerspaces are usually identified by using their hardware, software, and other technologies. This sometimes creates a shopping-list mentality among people interested in creating this learning environment.

I'm learning that a makerspace is defined not by what's in it but rather by what comes out of it: projects, experiences, artifacts, and learning.

This post shares 20 tools being used in one makerspace to provide guidance.

🔨 Do

Last week in this newsletter I shared my love for the Raspberry Pi. This post from MakeUseOf shares ten simple projects to get you tinkering if you decide to start playing with this powerful, inexpensive device.

🤔 Consider

"Write it. Shoot it. Publish it. Crochet it, saute it, whatever. Make." — Joss Whedon

LRA 2015 in Carlsbad. I'll have more info on those sessions and reflections in upcoming posts. Conferences create spaces for conversations that continue long after panels end. Digital identities as commodities, algorithms altering feeds, privacy concerns—these weren't abstract discussions. They were lived experiences we were unpacking together.

Every Frame a Painting studying Buster Keaton, one of the fathers of visual comedy. I love this channel. The art of the gag reveals principles—timing, framing, physical comedy as visual grammar. Keaton understood that comedy isn't just funny—it's architectural.

MIT Media Lab's three decades of contributions with Nicholas Negroponte and Joi Ito. The lab's biggest innovations transformed our world not because they predicted the future, but because they built it. Sometimes invention requires institutional permission to experiment without knowing outcomes.

Lately I've been thinking/writing about games, considering the lines between creativity and digital art. This MindShift post has been extremely helpful. Games that blur traditional gaming and contemporary art aren't categorization failures—they're category expansions. Digital games creating learning journeys through quests. Boise State integrating game elements in coursework. The potential is structural, not cosmetic.

I routinely share and promote free online tools from Google in our classrooms and hybrid spaces. This recent EFF complaint complicates that practice. Google deceptively tracking students' Internet browsing, collecting and data mining school children's personal information including searches. "Spying on Students" isn't hyperbole when the surveillance is literal. The challenge: we need these tools, but not at this cost.

Over the past two weeks I've had numerous friends and family shocked when I suggested Facebook alters their feeds depending on unknown algorithms. The shock reveals how invisible these systems are. At LRA we discussed challenges of having our digital identities treated as commodities by companies like Facebook. Identity as commodity isn't metaphor—it's business model.

I'm learning that a makerspace is defined not by what's in it but rather by what comes out of it: projects, experiences, artifacts, and learning. This reframes everything. Shopping-list mentality among people interested in creating these environments misses the point. Tools matter, but outcomes matter more.

Last week I shared my love for Raspberry Pi. Ten beginner projects to get tinkering with this powerful, inexpensive device. The power isn't just computational—it's pedagogical. Learning by making, making by learning.

Joss Whedon: Write it. Shoot it. Publish it. Crochet it, saute it, whatever. Make. The imperative is clear. The methods are open. The permission is implicit. Just make.

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