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TLDR 80

Too Long; Didn't Read Issue 80

Published: 2017-01-13 • 📧 Newsletter

Welcome to the 80th issue of the TL;DR Newsletter.

In TL;DR we discuss the news and events of the week as it relates to education, technology, and literacy. This space is always changing...and we're striving to change with it.

In this issue we'll try to make learning approachable.

This week I worked on the following:

If you haven't already, please subscribe to this newsletter. When you subscribe, I go home and tell my Wife and kids what a wonderful person you are. We spend a moment reflecting on the power of the Internet that brought us together.

You can review archives of the newsletter. Check out TL;DR on Medium.

Connect with me on Instagram and Snapchat. We can play with digital tools as we learn.

🔖 Key Takeaways

📺 Watch

Intriguing interview with David Bowie from a BBC interview in which he discusses the impact of the Internet and possibilities as a communication medium. You can read more about this in this post from Gizmodo.

I'm very interested in Bowie's indication that these communication technologies have the potential to remove the barrier between audience and performer. He likens it to a concert in which the performer on the stage is more or less accompanying the audience as they connect with one another.

Bowie ends the interview by saying:

The idea that the piece of work is not finished until the audience comes to it and add their own interpretation. And what the piece of art is about is the grey space in the middle. That grey space in the middle is what the 21st century is going to be all about.

📚 Read

In last week's issue of TL;DR I took issue with the reports on the "Growing up Digital" research that was reported by The Guardian. This post from Quartz actually shares the links to the report from the study (PDF). The post also shares research (PDF) from Ofcom suggesting that more than half of 12 to 15-year olds in Britain are on Instagram.

This post also directs you to page 10 of the Growing up Digital report in which Jenny Afia, a privacy law expert, provides a re-write of Instagram's 17 page, 5,000 word terms of service that is easier for adults and children to understand.

I strongly recommend reading this if you, or your children/students, use Instagram.

An "open letter" signed by a group of scientists investigating the intersection between screen time and child development. In this piece the researchers urge caution as we encounter "moral panic abut the impact of new technologies on our behavior and development.

They close with a link to guidelines (PDF) for parents to help explain the evidence in the decision...not "hyperbole and opinion."

Following the results of the U.S. elections, I've been thinking a lot about the connections that I have with people online...as opposed to the people that live right next door to me. Barack Obama's farewell address evidenced this point as well as he indicated the need to go talk with people in real life.

This past week I was walking the hallways on the way in to teach a class and noticed all of the students staring at their devices as they walked and waited for class to begin. It has me wondering about the challenges that this has on our beliefs and practices.

A piece from Melinda Anderson in The Atlantic documenting work in urban ed programs as they prepare their students to deal with tough discussions they'll encounter.

The piece describes a series of perspectives that are quite nuanced as the programs try to unpack societal narratives, and create their own culture. Specifically, the representatives recognize that many people tense up, or latch on to a negative connotation when discussing race.

The key component is to disrupt and complexify...what they believe they know about race.

A good post from Alfie Kohn on the challenges of items on standardized tests.

Kohn takes a look at the ways in which students respond to items, while considering what these results say about learners.

I most of all enjoy this quote:

No newspaper, no politician, no parent or school administrator should ever assume that a test score is a valid and meaningful indicator without looking carefully at the questions on that test to ascertain that they're designed to measure something of importance and that they do so effectively.

🔨 Do

I'm in the process of working with some of my neighbors to build a makerspace in our garage to allow the local kids to tinker and build. The challenge is that it's difficult to know where to start and end in the purchases.

This post from Laura Fleming is invaluable as it details the decisions you need to make as you frame and build your space. Fleming breaks down the following framework:

🤔 Consider

"The difficulty lies not so much in developing new ideas as in escaping from old ones." — John Maynard Keynes

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