TLDR 60
Too Long; Didn't Read Issue 60
Published: 2016-08-26 β’ π§ Newsletter
Welcome to issue 60 of the TL;DR Newsletter. In TL;DR I'm synthesizing what I read and learned this week in literacy, technology, and education. If this is your first time here...welcome. :)
This week we discuss the challenges and opportunities in creating your own narrative.
You can review archives of the newsletter. Alternatively you can also check out TL;DR on Medium.
This week I did a lot of work behind the scenes as classes and the new semester started up. Most of my new work is living in various syllabi. No worries...I'll share more of this in upcoming posts.
- Teaching literacies with technology survey - If you haven't already, I'd suggest taking the TLT survey as part of our work with The Digitally Literate Research Project. We'll soon send the survey out for translation into (most likely) Spanish and Mandarin. We'll also start up interviews within the next two weeks. Let me know if you're interested in getting involved.
π Key Takeaways
- Definitely Will Fold These In: I started up a playlist of these videos here. Definitely will fold these into upcoming discussions and lectures about culture, identity, and diversity.
- I Often Provide Time for Play: I often provide time for play to alleviate some of the anxiety as students explore new content, spaces, and tools.
- I've Often Had These Struggles: I've often had these struggles as I build and break things online. I strive (and teach others) to build up your own personal cyberinfrastructure that you own.
- I Love That Maha: I appreciate how they both took the time to blog and respond to each other. Finally, I love that Maha used hypothes.is to provide additionally commentary to Audrey's post. Great stuff!!!
- I Wasn't Accepted: Last spring I applied to speak at the upcoming TEDx Charleston event. I wasn't accepted. :(
πΊ Watch
A working day - Dressmaker, Ghana
I've shared a lot of videos here on TL;DR from Alain de Botton and The School of Life. Apparently through their website, and their YouTube channel, the collective is now focusing on developing emotional intelligence.
This week I noticed that they started sharing a series titled "A Working Day." These videos follow people from around the world during a normal day. I started up a playlist of these videos here. Definitely will fold these into upcoming discussions and lectures about culture, identity, and diversity.
π Read
Like. Flirt. Ghost: A journey into the social media lives of teens
Mary H. K. Choi in Wired documents some of the behaviors used by teens in their social media practices. In the piece, she meets with five teens to have them deconstruct their own behaviors.
Mary tries to capture the strange and mystical world of the socially media savvy teen:
Teens, though, are remarkably elusive. You could follow one on Twitter (although the majority avoid the platform) or chat with them during gameplay on Xbox Live, but for the most part it's very weird for everyone. Besides, ask any teen how to use social mediaβwhat those rules areβand they won't be able to tell you a thing. But ask them targeted questions and they'll break down a palimpsest of etiquette in rote, exhaustive detail: the moon emoji (indicates awkwardness), screengrabbing Snapchat messages (don't do it), and Instagram selfie saturation points (no back-to-backs). To them the rules are a birthright. To most of us adults, they're as mysterious as the flight patterns of bees.
In defense of play
Post by Alison Gopnik, professor of psychology and philosophy at UC Berkeley in The Atlantic. The post discusses the need and importance of play in learning.
In many of my classes I indicate that play is usually one of the most important elements of learning and cognition. This is especially true in the technology classes and programs that I have taught/developed. I often provide time for play to alleviate some of the anxiety as students explore new content, spaces, and tools.
As Alison notes in this piece, even though everyone (humans, chimps, wolves, dolphins, rats, crows, and even octopuses) plays, the role role of play in the classroom is under fire.
What is play? Gopnik details the varying elements of play in cognition and provides examples of these different areas.
Noam Chomsky defines what is means to be a truly educated person
Some perspectives on what it means to be "truly educated" and "creative" from video interviews of Noam Chomsky. These are pulled together on the Open Culture website.
Specifically, Noam notes that "truly educated" (from his perspective) is identified by:
the core principle and requirement of a fulfilled human being is the ability to inquire and create constructively, independently, without external controls.
He continues:
..."it's not important what we cover in the class; it's important what you discover." On this point of view, to be truly educated means to be resourceful, to be able to "formulate serious questions" and "question standard doctrine, if that's appropriate"β¦. It means to "find your own way."
A domain of one's own in a post-ownership society
Great post by Audrey Watters which is a response to another great post by Maha Bali. The posts unpack the challenges and opportunities that exist as we create and curate our digital identities...and how much we can actually "own" online.
I've often had these struggles as I build and break things online. I strive (and teach others) to build up your own personal cyberinfrastructure that you own. In doing so, I often hear from others that I don't really own anything, and that I'm being a digital packrat or hoarder. :)
I appreciate understanding the way that these two brilliant people are making sense of these same challenges. I also appreciate how they both took the time to blog and respond to each other. Finally, I love that Maha used hypothes.is to provide additionally commentary to Audrey's post. Great stuff!!!
I have a piece coming out soon in JAAL about "a domain of one's own." I hope to interview these two to have them speak more about their perspectives.
18 Digital tools and strategies that support students' reading and writing
Another great post from Katrina Schwartz in MindShift. This post shares possibilities for digital texts and tools to scaffold student literacy practices.
The post shares advice about tools and practices (like the sue of screencasting) to support students as they prewrite, draft, edit, publish, evaluate, read, and research.
Two of the tools that I'm now checking out as a result of this post are Instagrok and Rewordify.
π¨ Do
Give an anonymous TED Talk
Last spring I applied to speak at the upcoming TEDx Charleston event. I wasn't accepted. :(
But...this past week I noticed that Chris Anderson and TED are looking for free thinkers that want to submit anonymous audio stories to the network. In this experiment, they're partnering with Audible to share humans expressing their own narratives. I think this will be extremely powerful and form a new podcast series worth following. I'm also intrigued by the anonymous nature of these submissions.
I had an anonymous idea I was considering submitting to the Academics Anonymous section of The Guardian. This might be even more interesting.
What ideas might you share?
π€ Consider
"Every story I create, creates me. I write to create myself." β Octavia E. Butler
This week: challenges and opportunities in creating your own narrative.
Digitally Literate TLT survey translation into Spanish and Mandarin. School of Life A Working Day series - definitely will fold these into discussions about culture identity and diversity. Mary Choi on teen social media behaviors - rules as mysterious as flight patterns of bees. Alison Gopnik defense of play - I often provide time for play to alleviate anxiety as students explore. Noam Chomsky on truly educated - ability to inquire and create constructively independently, find your own way. Audrey Watters and Maha Bali on domain ownership - I've often had these struggles, digital packrat or hoarder. I love that Maha used hypothes.is to provide commentary. Great stuff. I hope to interview them for JAAL piece. Instagrok and Rewordify tools checking out. Anonymous TED Talk submissions - I wasn't accepted for TEDx Charleston, this might be even more interesting.
Every story I create, creates me.
π Navigation
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π± Connected Concepts:
- School of Life β A Working Day series on emotional intelligence, definitely will fold into culture identity diversity discussions.
- Teen Social Media β Mary Choi on behaviors, rules as mysterious as flight patterns of bees, moon emoji and selfie saturation.
- Play β Alison Gopnik defense in learning cognition, I often provide time to alleviate anxiety exploring new content.
- Noam Chomsky β Truly educated as ability to inquire independently, find your own way, what you discover not cover.
- Domain of One's Own β Audrey Watters and Maha Bali on ownership challenges, I've often had these struggles as digital packrat.
- Hypothes.is β I love that Maha used it to provide commentary on Audrey's post, great stuff.
- TED β Anonymous audio submissions for expressing narratives, I wasn't accepted for TEDx Charleston, this might be more interesting.
Part of the π§ Newsletter archive documenting digital literacy and technology.