Select a result to preview

TLDR 40

Too Long; Didn't Read Issue 40

Published: 2016-04-08 • 📧 Newsletter

Hi all. Welcome to the TL;DR Newsletter...issue 40. And...we with this issue we're up over 300 subscribers. Thank you for the support.

This week we examine the human/artificial, illumination, & global leaks.

I'm always tweaking TL;DR to better suit you. If you have feedback, questions, or concerns...please feel free to the "reply" button and send me a response. I'd love to hear from you.

This week I've been working on the following:

🔖 Key Takeaways

📺 Watch

Poignant profile of Dillan as he utilizes his iPad to connect and communicate with family and therapist.

Yes, it is an Apple commercial...but it's a good reminder of the power of technology if thoughtfully utilized. Sometimes we forget about the things that we can change on the individual level.

📚 Read

This past week news organizations from around the globe published investigations based on a massive trove of leaked documents that reveal corruption on a global scale. The Panama Papers, as they're being called, consist of about 11.5 million documents, or about 2.6 terabytes of data.

These documents provide fascinating insight into a global industry that secretly manages the estates of the world's rich and famous.

As a regular reader of TL;DR, you know that we always find time to discuss privacy, security, and encryption. It's an increasingly important element of our digital identities. The link shared above is a great post from Thomas Fox-Brewster in Forbes that details these elements...and the power of open source software.

As we continue this look at privacy, security, and global settings, I was fascinated by this post about the settings, security, and systems that make up the Internet in China.

We take for granted the digital texts and tools that we use in our daily work and communications. As I'm embarking on an open research project to investigate the digital literacy practices in global classrooms...this post is a great reality check.

We can't assume everything is the same for everyone.

I'm always impressed by the work of the incredible Amy Burvall, and this post is no exception.

I watched as Amy contacted David Kipping and started asking him questions, which led to a Google Doc and a discussion about art & science. Amy allowed us to add our own questions to the mix...and David answered everything.

Amy then synthesized this into the post that is linked above. A normal person would type up that post and be done with it. One of the things that makes Amy special is that she sketched out all of the illustrations for the post to help add context to the message.

One of my favorite quotes from this piece is: You just need to tell the world about what you're doing, why it fascinates you and illuminate the process of finding things out.

I recommend following Amy and her work to get some insight into how you can be more creativity and expressive in your content creation. This is doubly true if you're working with students as they create and write.

Excellent report from the American Council on Education, and an all-star team (Deb Everhart, Evelyn Ganzglass, Carla Casilli, Dan Hickey, and Brandon Muramatsu)

The report defines and discusses credentials, and then unpacks some of the challenges that exist in the current system, and how this relates to higher education.

Specifically, they indicate: The diversity of credential earners and the needs of credential consumers are evolving rapidly. This poses challenges to academic institutions preparing the next generation of workers, innovators, and leaders.

If you do not review, or save the entire report, skim through this post by Doug Belshaw in which he synthesizes everything for you.

Depending on who you talk to, the next big platform in tech may be voice, or bots, or something unforeseen. We see the potential for voice in tools like the Amazon Echo, Google Now, and Siri. As we add artificial intelligence (AI) to these voice tools, we see the potential for virtual assistants. The world that we (may have) dreamed about in the movie Her, is quickly becoming a reality.

In the development of these virtual assistants, there is not only the need for the use of code to make things run, but tech companies are increasingly hiring writers of a different type to meld the human and artificial. The end goal is to develop AI that is smart, savvy, and sounds authentic.

🔨 Do

I think we need to find opportunities to move learners (and ourselves) from content consumers, to content curators, to content creators. I put together this weekly newsletter as one example of curation of online content.

Candy is a new "shiny" Chrome extension that you can use to curate content as you're reading online. Basically you can highlight portions of a page and save these "candy cards" together with the author and source information. It makes the process of researching, curating, and synthesizing online very easy and streamlined.

I'm testing it out as we speak. It reminds me of a mix of Storify, Hypothesis, & Evernote wrapped up in one. I don't know if I'd pivot from these other tools...but I think you should test it out to see for yourself.

🤔 Consider

"The world is full of magic things, patiently waiting for our sense to grow sharper." — W. B. Yeats

This week: human/artificial, illumination, global leaks. Over 300 subscribers - thank you.

Technology can change things on the individual level. The Panama Papers reveal 11.5 million documents exposing global corruption - privacy, security, and encryption matter. China's Great Firewall reminds us we can't assume everything is the same for everyone. Amy Burvall's interview with Dr. David Kipping shows the power of illuminating the process. Credentials are evolving - Doug Belshaw synthesizes the ACE report. Poets are flocking to Silicon Valley to make AI sound human. Candy helps us curate content as we read.

W. B. Yeats: The world is full of magic things, patiently waiting for our sense to grow sharper.

Previous: TLDR 39 • Next: TLDR 41 • Archive: 📧 Newsletter

🌱 Connected Concepts:

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