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TLDR 28

Too Long; Didn't Read Issue 28

Published: 2016-01-15 • 📧 Newsletter

Hi all, welcome to the TL;DR Newsletter. In this 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.

This week I shared the following:

You can contact me for this...or any other request at wiobyrne@gmail.com or reach out on Twitter. To review past issues please click here.

🔖 Key Takeaways

📺 Watch

WSJ version

As Joanna Stern indicates in the video...you need to learn about Snapchat. The kids are there, business is there...the White House is there.

Snapchat can be very confusing due to the interface...but once you get the hang of it you can have fun. I believe this video is the best overview of Snapchat out there.

📚 Read

This past week in the State of the Union, Obama spent some time to talk about his legacy, and point toward the future. In this he indicated that he'll spend time in his remaining year developing programs to help students learn how to code.

The link above pushes back against this initiative by including guidance from Dan Garcia, a computer science professor at the University of California, Berkeley. Dan publishes videos from a makeshift studio at his home for a MOOC he has developed called the "Beauty and Joy of Computing."

This post by Jeff Utecht details the "four Cs that are going to change education in the 21st Century." There is not much new in the elements that he indicates (communication, collaboration, creativity, critical thinking) but I believe it's important to continue to highlight some of these dispositions or mindsets our students will need in the future.

Over the past couple of weeks I've been developing new goals for projects/initiatives in the upcoming year.

Much of this work, when it involves technology or digital content, is hard to discuss or imagine without seeing a prototype. To that end, the minimum viable product (MVP) is often viewed as that prototype.

This post indicates that the MVP isn't really a prototype, it's a learning object. The post is 5 in a series of posts. The posts are primarily developed for business and innovators. I think they have merit for those of us thinking about innovating in our classrooms or personal life using digital texts and tools.

This post from Brett Terpstra provides a good perspective into coding and possible connections to cooking.

The ideas presented are not necessarily new, but they do provide insight into the frameworks and steps involved in the process.

Does size matter - for brains?

Interesting piece in Scientific American looking at brain size and cognitive ability in organisms from humans to honeybees to whales.

Although we cannot entirely look at size or number of neurons, perhaps we can start to consider the streamlining of our synapses and neurons as we each evolve.

🔨 Do

Hypothes.is is an open annotation tool for the Internet. In the past I've used tools like Genius to markup and annotate texts.

I've moved over to Hypothes.is and prefer the lightweight ways that it plugs in to my browser and connects my comments and links saved across the Internet. It's basically providing us with a way to add a social, annotated layer to the web. Definitely check it out.

🤔 Consider

"If you set your goals ridiculously high and it's a failure, you will fail above everyone else's success." — James Cameron

This week I shared three pieces of work. Tom Liam Lynch interview about coding, programming, and computational thinking/participation—part of a series of interviews conducted with experts in the field to act as supplement to JAAL Department columns. WalkMyWorld Project iteration—reflection and feedback to Greg McVerry post about possible next steps in planning/facilitation of project. Using blogs and Medium to create fishbowl discussion for project planning—opportunities to use blogs and other digital texts to plan and facilitate discussions in the public...while allowing others to comment. The progression is deliberate. Interview as supplement. Iteration as feedback. Fishbowl as public planning.

Joanna Stern indicates in the video: you need to learn about Snapchat. The kids are there, business is there...the White House is there. Snapchat can be very confusing due to the interface...but once you get the hang of it you can have fun. I believe this video is the best overview of Snapchat out there. The endorsement is unequivocal. The confusion is acknowledged. The fun is promised.

This past week in State of the Union, Obama spent time to talk about his legacy, point toward future. He indicated he'll spend time in his remaining year developing programs to help students learn how to code. The link pushes back against this initiative by including guidance from Dan Garcia, computer science professor at UC Berkeley. Dan publishes videos from makeshift studio at his home for MOOC he developed called "Beauty and Joy of Computing." The contrast is instructive. Presidential directive versus makeshift studio. Policy versus pedagogy.

Jeff Utecht details "four Cs that are going to change education in the 21st Century." There is not much new in the elements that he indicates (communication, collaboration, creativity, critical thinking) but I believe it's important to continue to highlight some of these dispositions or mindsets our students will need in the future. The acknowledgment is honest. The repetition is justified. Sometimes highlighting familiar concepts matters more than discovering new ones.

Over the past couple of weeks I've been developing new goals for projects/initiatives in the upcoming year. Much of this work, when it involves technology or digital content, is hard to discuss or imagine without seeing a prototype. To that end, the minimum viable product (MVP) is often viewed as that prototype. This post indicates that the MVP isn't really a prototype, it's a learning object. The post is #5 in a series of posts. The posts are primarily developed for business and innovators. I think they have merit for those of us thinking about innovating in our classrooms or personal life using digital texts and tools. The reframing is significant. Prototype as learning object. Business concepts as pedagogical tools.

Brett Terpstra provides good perspective into coding and possible connections to cooking. The ideas presented are not necessarily new, but they do provide insight into the frameworks and steps involved in the process. The admission is refreshing. Not necessarily new, but insightful anyway.

Brain size and cognitive ability in organisms from humans to honeybees to whales. Although we cannot entirely look at size or number of neurons, perhaps we can start to consider the streamlining of our synapses and neurons as we each evolve. The speculation is modest. The implication is profound.

Hypothes.is is open annotation tool for the Internet. In the past I've used tools like Genius to markup and annotate texts. I've moved over to Hypothes.is and prefer the lightweight ways that it plugs in to my browser and connects my comments and links saved across the Internet. It's basically providing us with a way to add a social, annotated layer to the web. Definitely check it out. The migration is complete. The preference is clear. The recommendation is direct.

James Cameron: If you set your goals ridiculously high and it's a failure, you will fail above everyone else's success. Developing new goals for projects. Learning about Snapchat. Beauty and joy of computing. Highlighting dispositions and mindsets. MVP as learning object. Cooking as coding. Streamlining synapses. Social annotated layer. All forms of setting goals ridiculously high. The question remains: what will we fail at that puts us above everyone else's success?

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