TLDR 65

Too Long; Didn't Read Issue 65

Published: 2016-09-30 • 📧 Newsletter

Welcome to issue 65 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...स्वागत हे

This week is all about the gateways to healing when it hurts.

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

This week I worked on the following:

Develop good advertising like Google Scholar does - In this latest post I try to deconstruct my recent experience with advertising from Google Scholar. I write a ton of manuscripts, proposals, and other work throughout the year. This requires me to search extensively on Google Scholar. Along the way, Google Scholar has made some interesting suggestions to me as I search for materials. These suggestions are very good. So good that I'm not sure you can call them advertising. :)
Using clear goals and strategies in grant proposals - I spent my early part of this week writing a couple of grant proposals. In the process, I began to debate the role of goals, objectives, and strategies in these proposals. In this post I attempt to clarify goals and objectives, and suggest how best to use each in grant proposals.
Project ELATED Grant Proposal Overview - I did a lot of work this week to submit a grant proposal to the National Leadership Grants for Libraries program through the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS). I'm excited (and nervous) to share that we submitted our proposal on Sept. 30 (today). The proposal is titled Project ELATED and is investigating Extended Literacies Acquisition and Technology Enhanced Development. I'll be presenting a webinar in an upcoming week to share more information about the proposal, its design, and its ultimate goals.

🔖 Key Takeaways

This Past Week I've Been Watching: Elon Musk recently outlined his vision for a manned mission to Mars. This past week I've been watching a series of news reports, interviews, and discussions. It's so refreshing to see someone talking about vision and hope amidst all the negativity we're surrounded by.
My Sons Often Come to Me: This is a great resource. As I'm writing this, my sons often come to me to share stories about things they've seen or heard online. In this, they need help making sense of what they're experiencing.
How Do I Talk: How do I talk to my kids about these very adult concepts and situations?
These Results Are Scary: These results are scary. Unfortunately I do not think this is isolated to the preschools in this study. We need the discussion. We need the research.
This Is Really Cool: This is really cool. Yet another example of ways that neural mapping is helping us understand how we think, create, and connect.

📺 Watch

Making humans a multiplanetary species - Elon Musk (10:31)

Elon Musk recently outlined his vision for a manned mission to Mars. As he's detailed previously, he's not taking out a government contract to get us there. Elon and SpaceX intend to build a colony on Mars.

This past week I've been watching a series of news reports, interviews, and discussions covering his presentation to the 67th International Astronautical Congress in Guadalajara, Mexico. It's so refreshing to see someone talking about vision and hope amidst all the negativity we're surrounded by. What really fascinates me is the engineering feat that this represents. Moving large amounts of people off the planet...putting them on another planet...and having them thrive. My students ask me all the time what career they should get into. This seems like a good one.

📚 Read

Mindfulness and storytelling can help kids heal from trauma

This is a great resource. As I'm writing this, my sons often come to me to share stories about things they've seen or heard online. In this, they need help making sense of what they're experiencing. This piece from Katrina Schwartz in MindShift discusses the ways in which mindfulness and storytelling can help kids process trauma and difficulty.

The piece discusses the work happening at Turnaround for Children in New York as they teach kids to identify and name their emotions. They blend this work with mindfulness practices and opportunities for kids to tell their stories. The resource also includes an embedded video and additional resources for educators and parents.

Talking to your kids about what they see in the news

Another really interesting resource dealing with kids and ways to talk with them about things happening in the world. I'm writing this as my community (Charlotte, NC) tries to make sense of protests that have occurred over the last week as a response to a police shooting in the city.

How do I talk to my kids about these very adult concepts and situations? This post from Cory Turner and Eric Westervelt at NPR Ed provides some good suggestions and insight.

Implicit bias may help explain high preschool expulsion rates for black children

Important new research from Yale documenting the extent to which bias may be influencing the way educators interact with young children. The results are extremely disconcerting as we see that educators demonstrate implicit bias when observing young black children.

In the study, preschool teachers were asked to view videos of children in classrooms and then identify challenging behaviors. Researchers tracked the educators' eye movements as they watched the videos. Results indicate that teachers spent significantly more time watching black children, and especially black boys, when they expected to see challenging behaviors.

These results are scary. Unfortunately I do not think this is isolated to the preschools in this study. We need the discussion. We need the research. You can read the study here (PDF).

How the brain builds a sense of self from the people around us

I'm a huge fan of The Moth Radio Hour. A few weeks ago I listened to an episode in which one of the storytellers was a neuroscientist documenting research investigating the ways that our brain builds meaning as we listen to stories.

I found the story, and then followed it up with this post on Nautilus. The basic gist is that as a storyteller builds a narrative, a listener builds a representation of that story in their brain. Furthermore, the research team was able to identify a "semantic space" or "meaning map" in the cortex of the brain.

This is really cool. Yet another example of ways that neural mapping is helping us understand how we think, create, and connect.

Seven tips for supporting successful global collaboration

I've discussed John Spencer's work multiple times here on TL;DR. In addition to being a talented designer and teacher, John is also a skilled blogger and writer. I really enjoy his work as he documents his thinking and learning.

This latest piece discusses some practical tips that John has picked up from working with educators and students from around the world on collaborative projects. His suggestions focus on the need for a flexible culture, a shared vision, a willingness to take risks, trust, clarity, patience, and a sense of celebration built into the process.

🔨 Do

An insider look at my (super low-tech) creative process

You may have noticed that I'm sharing two pieces this week from John Spencer. This latest post discusses the way that John goes about creating some of his sketchy videos and sketchy comics. If you've spent any time on his blog, you'll notice that John makes extensive use of his own sketches as he makes sense of ideas, and communicates them to others.

I loved this post because it provides a good walkthrough of the creative process that John uses. I enjoy connecting the ways in which he thinks through an idea, builds it out, and publishes...and I appreciate the honesty that is embedded in the process.

You can see some of the sketchy videos here and here.

🤔 Consider

"The wound is the place where the light enters you." — Rumi

This week: gateways to healing when it hurts.

Google Scholar advertising so good not sure you can call it advertising, goals and strategies in grant proposals, Project ELATED submitted to IMLS. SpaceX Mars colonization - Elon Musk vision and hope amidst negativity, engineering feat moving people off planet. Mindfulness and storytelling - my sons come to me to make sense of what they experience online, Turnaround for Children teaching kids to identify emotions. Talking to kids about protests in Charlotte - how do I talk about these very adult concepts. Yale study implicit bias in preschool - these results are scary, we need the discussion and research. Brain's meaning map from Moth Radio Hour - this is really cool, neural mapping helping understand how we think and connect. John Spencer on global collaboration tips flexible culture shared vision trust clarity patience celebration, and sketchy video creative process honesty embedded.

The wound is the place where the light enters you.

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🌱 Connected Concepts:

SpaceX — Elon Musk Mars colonization vision and hope, refreshing amidst negativity, engineering feat moving people off planet.
Mindfulness — Turnaround for Children teaching kids to identify emotions, storytelling can help kids heal from trauma.
Protest Education — Charlotte NC protests, how do I talk to my kids about these very adult concepts and situations.
Implicit Bias — Yale study preschool teachers watching black children more, these results are scary, we need the discussion.
Brain Research — Moth Radio Hour semantic space meaning map in cortex, neural mapping helping understand how we think.
John Spencer — Global collaboration tips flexible culture shared vision, sketchy video creative process honesty embedded.
Global Collaboration — Seven tips flexible culture shared vision risk-taking trust clarity patience celebration built into process.

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