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TLDR 71

Too Long; Didn't Read Issue 71

Published: 2016-11-12 • 📧 Newsletter

Welcome to issue 71 of the TL;DR Newsletter.

In TL;DR we typically discuss events of the week in education, technology, and literacy. This issue will examine a lot of the lessons I believe we're learning from the recent U.S. election. If you've had enough of this topic, you're free to exit out now and we'll see you next week.

Please note that in TL;DR there is a fair amount of "nuance" in the links and commentary below. I'm hoping that you read and think between the lines. I also want you to search, sift, & synthesize to figure out what you've learned from what I shared.

One of the lessons I've learned from the results of the U.S. election is that we need to listen to each other a bit more often. We also need to reach out to try and understand each other and their perspectives. I'm also reinvigorated about the need and power of education.

With that, the focus of TL;DR, and all of my work going forward will focus on three concepts that I used to frame my 8th grade classroom many years ago. These three tenets are educate, empower, advocate. I'll have a post on this framing coming out soon, but for now, let's get to this week's events.

You can also follow along on Instagram and Snapchat. I'm continuing to play with Instagram and Facebook Live as part of this work...and testing some things I'm learning from this week's issue.

This week I worked on the following:

🔖 Key Takeaways

📺 Watch

A thoughtful video from the School of Life YouTube channel this week. This video serves as a good reset button for each of us as we move forward. Suffering, challenge, and choice are present in each day of our lives.

You have a decision to make as you start each day anew.

📚 Read

There is no other way to start this week's issue that with this post. This post from Emily DeRuy in The Atlantic discusses the future of education under a Trump presidency.

As Emily notes, much of this is very unclear. We really have no way of knowing what direction a Trump leadership will head as he vacillated between multiple perspectives and platforms throughout the election cycle. I do hope that his administration will rise to the occasion as I believe education is one of the key ways to break ourselves of this cycle.

Post from Alexander George Theodoris, an Assistant Professor of Political Science at the University of California, Merced. In this piece, Alexander details what he identifies as the "Intensity Gap" in which we (Americans) are less and less likely to be able to understand or empathize with each other.

One of the things (I think) I have learned this week is that education is key in this. But, for the most part we have failed to develop critically aware, sympathetic learners that can read, write, and communicate across texts. I don't think this is solely a problem in America. I think we see (or soon will) this spreading across the globe in our networked system.

This is evidenced in Alexander's piece...and please try to remove politics from this selected quote:

They identify more strongly with their party. They show more bias in interpreting new information. They engage in more boosting of their party (and derogation of the other). And, they are more likely to select out of receiving messages from the other side.

This week I think we also saw the effects of the "filter bubble" rear its ugly head. Yes, there are major divisions across race, gender, and education. Yes, we need to really examine the role of education and higher ed specifically. We also cannot discount how big data failed us, and the increasing challenges of global hackers. Given all of these challenges, as we grow increasingly polarized, we need to consider what options our digital texts are providing us.

The filter bubble was coined by Eli Pariser and details how our internet searches, or content displayed in our social networks & newsfeeds may be customized to only show us what we want to see. This is all determined by algorithms and many times you don't know that it is even happening. In plain english, Facebook (and others) are showing you what you want to see.

The post I shared at the top of this section from Tristan Harris shows how this goes a bit deeper into the design and user interface of apps and the web. In many ways, we're being spoon-fed as technology is "hijacking our psychological vulnerabilities."

After this week's election results, Facebook and Twitter indicate that they are "grappling with their role as news filters." Facebook admitted that it must do more to stop possible misinformation on its platform, even though you may not have even seen it.

One thing that you can do to avoid this in the short-term is to possibly follow people outside of your beliefs and perspectives on social networks. I'd also recommend bookmarking Mediagazer and reading it as you consume political news. It takes news streams from everywhere and pulls it into one "text" for you to consume. It's not perfect...but it's a start.

What do we tell the children?

Many of us spent time this week with children as we moved on from the election. This may be in our role as a parent, or as an educator. In my classes this week I could see the emotions writ plainly on the faces of my students who are all undergraduates in college.

My strategy was to provide a "safe space" for students to open up and express themselves. I didn't inject my own perspectives into the discussion. I also did not express some of the guidance shared in this post. My goal was to get them talking and listening with one another.

Post from Kate Bowles documenting the subtle art and elegance of "listening." In this "case study" she recounts and reflects on the roles and outcomes for educators in higher ed.

So those of us who work in college education anywhere in the world have woken up to work to do. We have the expertise to do it. We need to think very hard about who comes to us, how we treat them, how much attention we pay to what they're saying and what they believe; and we need to think every day about who is not in the room with us, and why. Computational analysis can't do this as well as we can; data isn't dead, but our faith in data has been naive. Dazzled by the bigness of analytics, we benched ourselves and our insights, because data promised to take on this shadow work for us. We outsourced our own capacity to think.

I think her words also provide guidance for all of us involved in education, or learning from others.

So let's summon the confidence to return to work slowly, to recalibrate what we understand education to mean, to show up, and to attend at the level of human insight. The behavioural patterns computation delivers to us in relation to what students want, and what they do when they show up, can suggest where to start. But it's absolutely time to put aside the fantasy that higher education can engage with the fear and frustration, the complex refusals, that this election represents with some kind of snappy tech-led solutions: analytics, automation and low-waged casual hiring.

This result is in our terrain. If we now think we can fix any of this without human listening, we have no business in education.

🔨 Do

As the world becomes increasingly connected due to the internet and other communication technologies, we have a limitless amount of information at our fingertips. With this influx of information and the ability to communicate, many communities have become more "polarized and entrenched in a particular worldview."

Katrina Schwartz details a series of initiatives designed for students and educators to "make the exotic familiar." In this we have the opportunity to help students develop positive habits around interactions online.

🤔 Consider

"There is a crack in everything, that's how the light gets in." — Leonard Cohen

This week: lessons from US election.

Four Questions For podcast rebooting series subscribe Soundcloud iTunes Google Play, control your controllables my Wife deserves credit weave in Stoic philosophy. Focus TL;DR educate empower advocate three tenets from 8th grade classroom. School of Life resilience hard times - you have decision to make as you start each day anew. Trump future of education - I do hope his administration will rise to occasion, education one key way to break ourselves of this cycle. Hyper-polarization intensity gap - I think education is key, we failed to develop critically aware sympathetic learners, spreading across globe in networked system. Filter bubble technology hijacking minds - we're being spoon-fed psychological vulnerabilities, Facebook grappling with role as news filters, follow people outside your beliefs bookmark Mediagazer. What do we tell children - my strategy was provide safe space for students to express themselves, goal get them talking and listening. Kate Bowles listening - this result is in our terrain, if we think we can fix without human listening we have no business in education. Cross-cultural dialogue builds critical thinking - make the exotic familiar develop positive habits around interactions online.

There is a crack in everything, that's how the light gets in.

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