OLDaily

The physics of social spaces are not like the physics of physical spaces
Jon Dron, 2021/06/21

You may have seen me reference last week a disagreement I had on twitter with Jesse Stommel. In this post Jon Dron offers a pretty good overview with a focus on the issues he feels were essential to the dispute. "On Jesse’s side," writes Dron, we have the view "that we have a reasonable expectation of being left alone during a private conversation in any public space and, on Stephen’s side, that there should be no expectation of privacy in a public digital space like Twitter, and that any claims to it tread on extremely dangerous ground." That's the surface-level debate (which Dron fully recognizes) but I was also troubled by the presumption that there is some sort of social contract or agreement that governs people in spaces like Twitter, and also that such norms are best defined by means of one person telling others what they ought not do. I may have more on this should I decide to expand on these thoughts.

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I Taught Online School This Year. It Was a Disgrace
Lelac Almagor, Larry Cuban on School Reform and Classroom Practice, 2021/06/21

There is some real dissonance in this article in which a charter school teacher describes her experiences during the pandemic. When Covid hit, she writes, the supports provided by the school evaporated. "The wealthiest parents snapped up teachers for 'microschools,'... others left for private school... middle-class parents who could work remotely toughed it out at home, checking in on school between their own virtual meetings. Those with younger kids or in-person jobs scraped together education and child care." Bad, right? Right. Lelac Almagor writes, "I am still bewildered and horrified that our society walked away from this responsibility, that we called school inessential and left each family to fend for itself." Well, yeah, because that's what people wanted when they set up a charter school. In the real public school system, meanwhile, teachers and staff performed miracles making sure everyone was included.

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Building a Digital Profile
Helen Blunden, Activate Learning, 2021/06/21

Sometimes 90 percent of the reason I link to something here is because I want to share the image, not the article. This is one of those times. It summarizes the author's approach to a workshop (which she won't share because "the evidence of my work is actually already out there currently on Twitter, LinkedIn, my blog...") and talks about how she 'stands out' in a crowd. She also expresses the idea that "the older we get, the less we need digital profile and the more we need physical relationships and friendships. Real people." None of this applies to my own experience. Ah... but the diagram is catchy, demonstrating a range from 'Fake Me' on Instagram to 'Real Me' in person. Here it is. Great concept. But again, not exactly my own experience, as often people are more real online than they are in person.

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Just link!
Robin Sloan, 2021/06/21

So the newest wave in email newsletters could be... web pages? It seems it's better to just send a short description and link, rather than to cram all that content into an email newsletter. Why? It's a better way of measuring engagement (especially given the recent crackdown on tracking images and cookies). Also, authors can fix mistakes and make updates. And finally, web pages are a lot more flexible. For example, they can include embedded video, interactive elements, and even modern design and typology. What else would be a good idea? A newsletter than included, say, five or six of these links to web pages, maybe from different authors....

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Is philosophy having a moment?
Ian Coutts, University Affairs, 2021/06/21

I've never known a time when philosophy was not relevant to contemporary students; over the last few decades we've traveled through emphases on ontology, information, knowledge and creativity, and most recently, ethics. But it's interesting to see this article reflect on an apparently newfound interest in the field, especially as a primary focus in the department at the University of Calgary, where I got my degrees. I still remember in that department a notice posted on the wall warning students they should not expect their studies to lead to employment. What's great was that it attracted professors and students who didn't care about that warning, and focused instead on the work itself, which (IMO) made them rather better candidates for employment.

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