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TLDR 54

Too Long; Didn't Read Issue 54

Published: 2016-07-14 • 📧 Newsletter

Welcome to issue 54 of the TL;DR Newsletter. In TL;DR we're documenting the news of the week in literacy, technology, and education. If this is your first time here...welcome. :)

This week we focus on real and augmented human connections.

You can review archives of the newsletter. Alternatively you can also check out TL;DR on Medium.

This week I worked on the following:

🔖 Key Takeaways

📺 Watch

Super cool (and possibly scary) video project from Keiichi Matsuda that paints a picture of what our future may look like with an influx of augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR) into our world.

To find out more about Keiichi's work, please visit his website.

📚 Read

This past week my Wife looked up from monitoring her Facebook feeds and exclaimed, "I'm so sick of seeing Pokémon in my feeds." Soon after that I also started to see the AR game being discussed with friends online and off. The strangest thing to me was when I noticed men, women, and children walking around the neighborhood holding out their phones and searching for something.

The secret sauce behind Pokémon Go isn't really a secret. Former Google company Niantic Labs developed a very popular game called Ingress that caught on with mostly the seriously geeky. Niantic rebooted the formula and added Pokémon to create a cult hit.

I believe that the game will captivate our imagination like this for a week and then we'll see it fade away to be used by devoted gamers. What does interest me is seeing the "normal" people out there that don't usually associate with technology or gaming get really excited by this use of AR.

There are some fears that this is a covert surveillance activity, or is trying to teach Americans the metric system. There is also a collaborative syllabus being passed around now with educators building a course on Pokémon Go. I think this game will pass...but I'm hoping this is a sign that AR is a bit more mainstream.

Post on NPR Ed about encouraging cross-racial friendships and empathy in students. The post documents a growing body of research on diversity and the habits that we fall into.

Specifically:

In past decades, it's become increasingly clear that diversity in classrooms isn't just a buzzword. A growing body of research points to classroom diversity as an important aspect of childhood development. Kids who make friends with kids of other races tend to be more socially well-adjusted, more academically ambitious and better at interacting with people who are different from them.

A great post from Vera Triplett on EdSurge that provides guidelines for "more compassionate schooling."

She identifies four steps:

Over the last six months we've seen Facebook Live include a live video streaming tool to compete with the use of Periscope on Twitter. YouTube is also reported to soon offer a livestream feature from mobile devices as well.

The premise is simple. Hold up your phone, click the button, and stream from your phone to the planet. The challenge is in what we decide to broadcast.

Ben Thompson's post in Stratechery discusses the problems with how Facebook is handling these videos that may be graphic, but (IMHO) we need to see them. But, this is only my opinion. You need to decide what happens when these videos are shared in our social feeds. I think we need to have the discussion as a community.

I think we'll see more of this as the tools advance. We need to understand the consequences of broadcasting this content. I think we need to also understand our legal rights to broadcast this to a global audience. For more guidance on this (in the US) please review this recent AMA on Reddit.

In EdTech and software development we often hear the term "personas" being uttered. For the most part it's an attempt to identify a specific type or profile of person that will be using the tools or environment.

I think it's important to understand these perspectives when we use these tools in our classrooms. I think it's also important to consider the learner background as we consider pedagogical decisions with learners.

This post from Gunnar Counselman in Getting Smart identifies 15 personas that you might consider in higher ed (and beyond). The descriptions for each profile do a good job of identifying the possible knowledge, skills, and dispositions for each type of learner.

🔨 Do

Once again, here in the tail end of TL;DR, I'll identify some sort of make, or hack that you can test out. This often deals with some sort of digital technology, backyard science, productivity hack, or something with food.

This week I'm sharing one of my favorites to play with in the kitchen...homemade pizzas. My son just turned six, and we're trying to get him more interested in food, and cooking. I think we should all play and make in the kitchen. This weekend we'll be test driving the wonders of yeast and making pizzas.

🤔 Consider

"Do stuff. be clenched, curious. Not waiting for inspiration's shove or society's kiss on your forehead. Pay attention. It's all about paying attention. attention is vitality. It connects you with others. It makes you eager. stay eager." — Susan Sontag

This week: real and augmented human connections.

Lawrence Lundy 4Q4 podcast on blockchain landscape. Keiichi Matsuda HYPER-REALITY super cool and possibly scary AR/VR future. Pokémon Go tragedy - what interests me is normal people excited by AR, hoping this is sign AR is mainstream. NPR Ed on cross-racial friendships - diversity makes kids more socially well-adjusted and academically ambitious. Vera Triplett four steps for compassionate schooling. Ben Thompson on Facebook Live graphic videos - I think we need the discussion as a community about broadcasting consequences. 15 higher ed personas - important to understand these perspectives in classrooms. Homemade pizza dough with my six-year-old.

Pay attention. attention is vitality. stay eager.

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