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TLDR 67

Too Long; Didn't Read Issue 67

Published: 2016-10-14 โ€ข ๐Ÿ“ง Newsletter

Welcome to issue 67 of the TL;DR Newsletter. In TL;DR I'm synthesizing what I read and learned this week in literacy, technology, and education. ใ“ใ‚“ใซใกใฏ.

This week we discuss how our brains adjust to technology.

You can review archives of the newsletter. Alternatively you can also check out TL;DR on Medium. I'm also testing the reposting of these issues after a short delay on LinkedIn to see what happens.

Also, my IMHO site is becoming a space that allows me to quickly share notes and short posts that I want to archive and share materials with others. I'm viewing it as the "B-side" of my main website. I plan on posting and sharing from there 2 to 3 times per week.

This week I worked on the following:

๐Ÿ”– Key Takeaways

๐Ÿ“บ Watch

Australian photographer Beau Pilgrim caught this incredible breach of a humpback whale. For this, and many more photos from Beau, follow him on Instagram.

I'm terribly fascinated by whales and the ocean. I wanted to pursue a career in oceanography and work at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute as I was leaving high school and entering college. The closest that I've ever come to something like this is when I went kayaking with orca whales off of the San Juan Islands near Seattle, WA. A trip that I plan on taking my kids on as soon as they're old enough.

๐Ÿ“š Read

In most of my technology classes there is a week set aside for the "is Google making us dumber" debate. This debate takes many forms, but it tends to be a hot button for many individuals. In these debates, I provide students with a variety of readings and YouTube videos to consume, have a quick-write, and then discuss. For the most part, I tend to stay out of the ensuing argument and see what my students come up with.

This post by Dean Burnett is a comprehensive overview the current context. Dean covers the territory from information overload, to the need (or lack thereof) for fact memorization. He ends with a look at our love for likes in social media contexts. If you're interested, you might want to check out his first book, The Idiot Brain.

My own opinion on the "is Google making us dumber" debate is that we really won't know until decades from now. But, looking historically, I think we won't see that much of a difference from the ways in which we adapted to other technologies. What do you think?

A great post by John Jones on DML Central if you're concerned that the internet may be making us all a bit dumber.

John makes points that I've been making over the last couple of years. First, I think we all need to be not only readers, but also writers of digital media. Second, I think that we should focus on coding, computational thinking, and computational participation in our schools. Third, we don't need all students to grow up to be coders/programmers. But..I want my children and students to know that there is something that is making all of these devices and services run...and they can play a part in making the magic happen.

John concludes his piece with the statement:

If everyone learns to code, they won't necessarily all become rich, but they might all begin to see the world in different, beneficial ways.

Post from Elissa Nadworny on nprEd detailing the history of another technology that we've adjusted successfully to over time.

In this post Elissa mixes images, video, and GIFs to tell the history of the remarkable technology that we often ignore as we pick it up and twirl in the air while writing a manifesto. A great read that is informative, while providing a great guide as to how multimodal writing can effectively tell a story across multiple modes.

With a title like that...you can't stop yourself from reading it. :)

This piece from Wired details a discussion between Barack Obama, Joi Ito, and Scott Dadich on August 24th, 2016. The wide-ranging discussion focuses on technology trends and where we see ourselves in the next decade or so. Most of the focus is on artificial intelligence or machine learning...but this acts as a trojan horse for other topics.

As I indicated last week, we were right in the crosshairs of Hurricane Matthew as it made landfall on U.S. soil. We were lucky to only lose our power for a day, and no damage to our property. There are many others in the hemisphere that were far worse off than my family. I'm very thankful that nothing really happened to us. My thoughts go out to those that suffered, or are still suffering.

While paying attention to the never-ending coverage of the approaching storm, I came across this site. Immediately bookmark this site.

If you click on the word "earth" in the bottom left corner, you can change the focus, data, and information you receive on the globe. You can also zoom in, out, focus on specific locations on the planet. It is an incredible resource for weather nerds from Cameron Beccario.

If you really want to geek out...check out all of Cameron's work on GitHub...even the one shared above.

๐Ÿ”จ Do

I regularly look for opportunities to hack my own work and life processes. Part of this involves modifying, making, or breaking new habits, routines, or rituals.

This post whittles down some of the wisdom from The Art of War and provides guidance for fighting battles that you are prepared to win.

Specifically, he adapts three of Sun Tzu's teachings that can help build better habits:

๐Ÿค” Consider

"A mistake is to commit a misunderstanding." โ€” Bob Dylan

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