Education | Chris Aldrich

Listened to Alan Levine by Terry Greene from Gettin' Air The Open Pedagogy Podcast | voicEd

Terry Greene (@greeneterry) speaks with Alan Levine (@cogdog) about the endlessly amazing work Alan has done in the open over the years, including his involvement in the Ontario Extend project and where that work is headed.

I’m starting to see a pattern in these episodes. 😉

Terry puts a hard out at about 30 minutes and teases the audience by saying to the guest something like “I want to have you back again, our time was too short.” Some of the older episodes are old enough, he’d surely have had guests back by now. What he’s doing is great, but I have to inure myself against the disappointment of great guests coming back (any time real soon.)

Alternate formats of An Urgency of Teachers by Jesse Stommel and Sean Michael Morris

I’m gearing up my reading list for the holidays. I wanted to add An Urgency of Teachers: the Work of Critical Digital Pedagogy by Jesse Stommel and Sean Michael Morris. Seemingly I can only find .html, .azw3, and .pdf copies of the book, and I’d far prefer an .epub version. Fortunately the book has a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International license (CC BY-NC 4.0), so I’ve spent some time this morning to convert an original and made myself an .epub version for my Android devices.

I’m happy to share it if others are looking for the same and don’t have the ability (or frankly the time) to make the conversion. I also have a .mobi version (for Kindle) of the text as well since it didn’t require much additional work. These are exact replicas with no changes and come with the same CC BY-NC 4.0 license. If Jesse or Sean want copies to make available on their site, I’m happy to send them along.

If you have the means, please be sure to make a donation to help support the book and Sean and Jesse’s work.

Replied to LA Roadshow Recap by

Jim Groom (bavatuesdays)

10 days ago I was sitting in a room in Los Angeles with 12 other folks listening to Marie Selvanadin, Sundi Richard, and Adam Croom talk about work they’re doing with Domains, and it was good! That session was followed by Peter Sentz providing insight on how BYU Domains provides and supports top-level domains and hosting for over 10,000 users on their campus. And first thing that Friday morning Lauren and I kicked the day off by highlighting Tim Clarke’s awesome work with the Berg Builds community directory as well as Coventry Domains‘s full-blown frame for a curriculum around Domains with Coventry Learn. In fact, the first 3 hours of Day 2 were a powerful reminder of just how much amazing work is happening at the various schools that are providing the good old world wide web as platform to their academic communities.

https://roadshow.reclaimhosting.com/LA/

I’m still bummed I couldn’t make it to this event…

One of the questions that came up during the SPLOT workshop is if there’s a SPLOT for podcasting, which reminded me of this post Adam Croom wrote a while back about his podcasting workflow: “My Podcasting Workflow with Amazon S3.” . We’re always on the look-out for new SPLOTs to bring to the Reclaim masses, and it would be cool to have an example that moves beyond WordPress just to make the point a SPLOT is not limited to WordPress (as much as we love it) —so maybe Adam and I can get the band back together.❧

I just outlined a tiny and relatively minimal/free way to host and create a podcast feed last night: https://boffosocko.com/2019/12/17/55761877/

I wonder if this could be used to create a SPLOT that isn’t WordPress based potentially using APIs from the Internet Archive and Huffduffer? WordPress-based infrastructure could be used to create it certainly and aggregation could be done around tags. It looks like the Huffduffer username SPLOT is available.
–annotated December 17, 2019 at 10:46AM

Read Reclaim Your Domain LA Hackathon Wrap-up by Kin Lane (kinlane.com)

I spent the weekend hacking away with a small group of very smart folks, at the Reclaim Your Domain Hackathon in Los Angeles. Fifteen of us gathered at Pepperdine University in west LA, looking to move forward the discussion around what we call “Reclaim Your Domain”.

An interesting list of people in the DoOO/IndieWeb space in/formerly in the LA area.

Michael Berman – California State University Channel Islands (@amichaelberman)
Chris Mattia – California State University Channel Islands (@cmmattia)
Mikhail Gershovich – Vocat (@mgershovich)
Rolin Moe – Pepperdine (@RMoeJo) ❧

A bit curious that for a reclaim the web event around DoOO that he highlights their Twitter presence rather than their own websites. Potentially for lack of notifications/webmention functionality?
–December 17, 2019 at 08:49AM

Once again I am reminded of the importance of API 101 demos, and how I need to focus more in this area. ❧

I’d love to see a list of API 101 demos. This would be particularly cool if there were a DS106-esque site for content like this. Examples can be powerful things.
–December 17, 2019 at 08:57AM

Lastly, I walked through Github Pages, and how using a separate branch, you can publish HTML, CSS, JavaScript and JSON for projects, turning Github into not just a code and content management platform, but also a publishing endpoint. ❧

More information on how to use GitHub pages to build your website: https://indieweb.org/GitHub_Pages
–December 17, 2019 at 08:59AM

Replied to Recommendations for (simple to use) Podcasting app? by

Kim Carter (Reclaim Hosting Community)

I am hoping to have a simple (to use) podcast where I can record pieces of lessons that are problematic and potentially have student guests for Q/A. Is there a domain app/plugin that is simple to use? What are you using?

In addition to all the other great recommendations, and in part to expose the idea, if you want to go really low tech, there are a variety of phone apps that will record audio in .mp3 format. If you give it a flexible enough license, you can upload/host your audio with notes and other meta data for free on Archive.org. (OER podcasting anyone?)

Then to quickly generate a subscribe-able podcast feed, create a free Huffduffer.com account (using the class name perhaps?) and use Huffduffer’s browser bookmarklet to save your Archive.org posts to your account. Huffduffer can provide podcast feeds out of individual user accounts, collectives, and even by tags, so you’ve got a lot of flexibility in how you and students can subscribe to content there. As an example you can subscribe to a “community podcast” for the tag A Domain of One’s Own.

If you create a custom/unique tag for the class, students can record and tag their own content to create an audio conversation back and forth if desired.

Replied to Cornell Note-Taking System by

Josh Cohen (Art of Memory Forum)

Has anyone tried the Cornell Note-taking System? It looks interesting.

They layout looks like this:

Here’s a summary:

1. Record: During the lecture, use the note-taking column to record the lecture using telegraphic sentences.
2. Questions: As soon after class as possible, formulate questions based on the notes in the right-hand column. Writing questions helps to clarify meanings, reveal relationships, establish continuity, and strengthen memory. Also, the writing of questions sets up a perfect stage for exam-studying later.
3. Recite: Cover the note-taking column with a sheet of paper. Then, looking at the questions or cue-words in the question and cue column only, say aloud, in your own words, the answers to the questions, facts, or ideas indicated by the cue-words.
4. Reflect: Reflect on the material by asking yourself questions, for example: “What’s the significance of these facts? What principle are they based on? How can I apply them? How do they fit in with what I already know? What’s beyond them?
5. Review: Spend at least ten minutes every week reviewing all your previous notes. If you do, you’ll retain a great deal for current use, as well as, for the exam.

More details:

The Cornell Note-taking System

Wikipedia page

I’ve used Cornell notes specifically with mnemonic methods before. In addition to the date, name, subject area, I’ll also write down an associated memory palace.

I typically keep some space in the recall column to write down associated PAO, Major System, etc. images related to the key concepts, dates, and other notes and sometimes include locations along with the images. Sometimes I may make the notes themselves the memory palace by drawing sketches, doodles or other drolleries into the margins. Depending on the information I may also encode details into other pre-existing palaces.

I can then come back to the notes and do spaced repetition over them to strengthen the images, loci, and ideas. Depending on the material, I might transfer the basics of the notes over to Anki or Mnemosyne for more formal spaced review.

Read Dandelions, Tulips, Orchids and Neurological Pluralism by

Ryan Boren (Ryan Boren)

I’m always on the look out for new ways of thinking about and designing for neurological pluralism, especially when it comes in threes. Dandelions, tulips, and orchids designate low-sensitive, medium-sensitive, and high-sensitive people. I like the way this aligns with caves, campfires, and watering holes, the red, yellow, green of interaction badges, and the three speeds of collaboration.

This is a fascinating thesis with some interesting long term effects on evolution.

Listened to Memory Craft: Lynne Kelly On The Potent Power Of Ancient Mnemonics by Anthony Metivier from magneticmemorymethod.com

Not only is Lynne Kelly the author of several books on memory, but she is a highly skilled researcher, science educator, author and memory competitor.

Most known for her theory about Stonehenge’s purpose, she has also contributed to work in popular science and is a promoter of skepticism.

Lynne’s critical thinking and contributions to such a wide range of science subjects has led to awards from the Royal Zoological Society of South Wales among others. As a memory expert, Lynne Kelly is that rare practitioner who takes on large learning projects and shares the journey in addition to attending memory sport activities.

Episode covers:

The real reason why stores play such upbeat, catchy music.

Why outdoor Memory Palaces can be so helpful for memory retention.

The benefits of “setting aside” time for memory training versus incorporating practice into everyday life.

How vivid, violent, or vulgar imagery can bring abstract concepts to life.

Why “rapscallions” are useful memory tools and not just mischievous little creatures.

How art can help you remember more in a Memory Palace.

The pros and cons to living with aphantasia.

The key to using hooks and layering to create dynamic visuals.

How to “dialogue” with your memory aids.

Why we should encode using music and places for maximum mental skill (and possible mental health) benefits.

The usefulness of memory techniques for school aged children and their long-term effects.

The secret to overcoming “ghosting” when using memory techniques.

Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | Android | Google Podcasts | Stitcher | RSS

A fascinating interview, but likely needs some additional introductory material to make sense of what is going on. The audience here are people who have at least a passing knowledge of mnemonics and many of it’s methods. I could have stood to hear a few more hours between these two given my academic interest in the area.

There’s an interesting segment on aphantasia and post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) in the middle here. I’d definitely be interested in looking into the research on aphantasia more. There’s also some more material here on memory methods for education (compared with other interviews with Dr. Kelly). She does use a physics example on force and the idea of push/pull with respect to Star Wars which I’ve heard her mention before.

Originally bookmarked on December 07, 2019 at 01:11PM

Read 6 tips for low-cost academic blogging by Matt Might (matt.might.net)

The secret to low-cost academic blogging is to make blogging a natural byproduct of all the things that academics already do.

Doing an interesting lecture? Put your lecture notes in a blog post.

Writing a detailed email reply? "Reply to public" with a blog post.

Answering the same question a second time? Put it in a blog post.

Writing interesting code? Comment a snippet into a post.

Doing something geeky at home? Blog about what you learned.