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TLDR 75

Too Long; Didn't Read Issue 75

Published: 2016-12-10 • 📧 Newsletter

Welcome to issue 75 of the TL;DR Newsletter.

In TL;DR we typically discuss events of the week in education, technology, and literacy. In this issue we consider facts being louder than opinion.

This week I spent time getting caught up following LRA closing out the fall semester. I had the privilege of speaking with a group of awesome educators in the SC Virtual Charter School. I'm looking forward to working with them to reconsider pedagogy in online & hybrid spaces.

I also launched a t-shirt on Teespring for some of my friends in academics. You should take a peek and see if you want to purchase one for yourself...or a friend.

If you haven't already, please subscribe to this newsletter. You can review archives of the newsletter. Check out TL;DR on Medium. You can connect with me on Instagram and Snapchat.

🔖 Key Takeaways

📺 Watch

With some of the recent discussion about whether or not climate change is real or a hoax, it was interesting to see The Weather Channel release a rebuttal to a Breitbart post indicating that global temperatures might be plummeting. The Weather Channel took issue with Breitbart "cherry picking" info from their content to "mislead Americans."

My favorite line from the video asks scientists to make "facts louder than opinion."

📚 Read

This post from Carole Cadwalladr in The Guardian came out last week as I was finalizing issue #74 of TL;DR. I decided to hold on to it for this week to think a bit more about the ideas presented.

In years past, we would play with Google autocomplete to create found poems...among other things. Cadwalladr revisited this tool and examined what would happen if you entered specific terms to see what the predictive algorithms would present. These terms included "Are jews...", "Are women...", "Are muslims...", etc. You can review the post to see the full extent of the presented results.

We've talked a bit in previous issues of TL;DR about the challenges of critically evaluating what we read online and the problems with filter bubbles. This challenge of autocomplete in Google is as damaging as we routinely ask Google for answers to our queries.

One of the key takeaways from this post is a quote from Danny Sullivan of SearchEngineLand.com:

This is the equivalent of going into a library and asking a librarian about Judaism and being handed 10 books of hate.

This week the NCES released results from the 2015 PISA (Program for International Student Assessment). You probably don't know about the PISA...but you should. The PISA is an international assessment of 15-year olds that is given every three years. The PISA assesses science, reading, and mathematics.

I value the PISA results because it provides some insight into global educational trends. It is also helpful to see the types of items used in the assessment.

The latest results suggest that average science and reading scores for U.S. 15-year-olds in 2015 were not measurably different from any of the previous comparison years, while mathematics literacy scores declined. Results also show average science and reading scores are not measurably different from the OECD average, while the mathematics average score was below the OECD average.

Click here to view the full report. Click here to learn more about the PISA. Click here for a series of webinars about what the results mean.

A new report from the Pew Research Center includes findings from 1,520 U.S. adults aged 18 and older. The study suggests that generally American adults appreciate access to lots of information, and do not feel "overloaded" by this.

Other interesting trends:

Click here for the NPR report on this study. Click here for the complete report (PDF).

Horrible title from a Lifehacker post on a very important topic.

The international Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) group conducted a study of 215,942 people across 33 countries from 2011 - 2015. The study tested the skills of people aged 16 - 65 to measure their basic computer literacy as it relates to job-related skills.

These results suggest a rather large divide between the broad population and the more digitally savvy. 14% of the population cannot even effectively use computers. An example of a task at this level would ask participants to delete an email. Moving up a step into "Level 1" users included another 29% of the adult population. An example of a task in this area asks participants to reply all to an email.

This research from Common Sense Media provides a nice counter narrative to the regular panic about the screen time of children. These results suggest that parents are accounting for more than their fair share.

The research surveyed nearly 1,800 parents of U.S. tweens and teens to find that parents indicate that they spend more than nine hours per day with screen media. Eighty-two percent of that time (almost eight hours) is devoted to personal screen media activities such as watching TV, social networking, and video gaming, with the rest used for work.

More analysis available here from KidScreen. The full report (PDF) is available here.

🔨 Do

Using brain breaks to restore students' focus

This post from Edutopia suggests integrating quick learning activities known as "brain breaks" to allow your students to keep focused.

The post suggests that:

Brain breaks are planned learning activity shifts that mobilize different networks of the brain. These shifts allow those regions that are blocked by stress or high-intensity work to revitalize. Brain breaks, by switching activity to different brain networks, allow the resting pathways to restore their calm focus and foster optimal mood, attention, and memory.

Brain breaks might provide opportunities to ensure that students remain actively engaged in class.

🤔 Consider

"I am a firm believer in the people. If given the truth, they can be depended upon to meet any national crisis. The great point is to bring them the real facts." — Abraham Lincoln

This week: facts being louder than opinion.

SC Virtual Charter School I'm looking forward to working with them to reconsider pedagogy in online and hybrid spaces, launched t-shirt on Teespring for friends in academics. Weather.com rebuttal to Breitbart cherry picking info mislead Americans - my favorite line from video asks scientists to make facts louder than opinion. Google autocomplete and democracy - I decided to hold on to it this week to think a bit more about ideas presented, in years past we would play with Google autocomplete to create found poems, Danny Sullivan equivalent of going into library and being handed 10 books of hate. PISA 2015 results you probably don't know about but you should - I value the PISA results because provides some insight into global educational trends, U.S. mathematics literacy scores declined. Information overload Pew study - 80% say easy to determine what information is trustworthy, 79% say having lot of information makes them feel more control. Computer literacy horrible title important topic - OECD study 14% of population cannot even effectively use computers delete an email, another 29% reply all to email. Common Sense Media parents screen time - nice counter narrative to regular panic about children, parents spend more than nine hours per day with screen media. Brain breaks restore students' focus - allow regions blocked by stress to revitalize foster optimal mood attention and memory.

I am a firm believer in the people. If given the truth, they can be depended upon to meet any national crisis.

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