Category: Thoughts (Page 3 of 17)

Now I Know

February 2, 2024 / Troy / 0 Comments

One of the few email newsletters that I have stayed subscribed to is “Now I Know“. The newsletter provides high-interest, entertaining, informative stories. This is a daily newsletter that I read, every day. It brings a bit of joy into my life.
Some recent topics:

Abraham Lincoln created the Secret Service – on the day he was shot
Math and the Missing Planet
The Restaurant of Mistaken Orders – one of my favorites, this is about a restaurant staffed with people experiencing dementia and how to be respectful.

Again, this newsletter brings me a bit of joy every day. I hope that it will bring you joy too.

Dan Lewis recently moved from Mailchimp to beehiv. Some subscribers were lost in the process. So, he’s now running a campaign. With 20 referrals, the referrer, in this case, me, gets a signed copy of one of his books.

Subscribe to Now I Know (and help me get a free book).

Image of a person running on a track. (Image bySee-ming Lee 李思明 http://seeminglee.com / )

Running Your Own

January 12, 2024 / Troy / 0 Comments

Ben Werdmuller, who is brilliant, has a great write up, Running your own site painful. Hosting Nazis is worse. Seriously, this is a GREAT article. Please go read it (and then come back here).

He makes important points about social media, where your stuff is hosted, options for discoverability and more. He focuses on writers, but so much is equivalent to educators.

I’d say his wonderful article is relevant in two ways for educators:

Parent/Community Communication
Educational Resources.

Parent/Community Communication

Parent/Community communication is a challenge in education. All schools have a website and post to the website. However, people don’t generally know when or if to check the website. As social media took off, schools transitioned to posting on social media, mostly Twitter (now called X) and Facebook. Schools also posted to Instagram. Lots of schools also send out emails and texts.

As Ben Werdmuller points out, schools don’t have control over Twitter (X), or Instagram. So, while schools benefit from the audience of those social media sites, schools are also at the mercy of their decisions and plans. So, if a platform were to allow Nazis to post (and promote those posts) the school may be appearing to support those kinds of activities. However, this gets complicated as lots of parents/community members may use the site and maybe they do not see the Nazi posts. or maybe the site gets sold and goes out of business. Now schools have to redirect parent/community members to a new site(s).

A website based upon a domain that you own means that you have control over that. By owning a domain, schools have control over who gets to post and what things look like. However, that means that schools have to develop and promote the site.

Parents/Community members usually find other social sites “easier to use”. They really don’t have to do much. This is a big strength, and a big weakness. They may or may not see specific things. Facebook has gone through many periods where they were/are tightly controlling what people see, what gets promoted (thus seen).

Ideally, parents/community members would set up their own RSS feeds to follow. However, realistically, they aren’t going to do this. (Even though RSS is actually very easy to use. I personally use NetNewsWire). It is a mindset that needs to be developed.

So, schools post to websites, X, Facebook, and Instagram. They may be re-evaluating that as sites change, though given the amount of issues that have come up with Facebook and haven’t resulted in people moving away says that it would take a lot for people to actually move to another platform.

Educational Resources

I see similar issues with Educational Resources. Quizlet is a pretty popular flashcard creator. Recently, I’ve heard that they refuse to sign a DPA (Data Privacy Agreement). Thus, some schools are moving away from allowing access to the site. Some teachers are upset. They have spent years creating resources.

This is really part of a common issue though. Most educational resources need to collect money in order to continue to provide services. Thus, educational resources are constantly adjusting things to make sure that they can stay in business.

Long ago, I was talking to someone and used the phrase “you are always investing in someone – either yourself or someone else”. (I know this because that person repeated it back to me in a future meeting.) Lots of educators have bought into (via their time, and work) an educational resource or ten.

Schools also purchased a variety of resources through the ESSR funds (COVID relief). That money has come to an end. School budgets will be getting tight again. There is the possibility that schools won’t be able to fund all of the educational resources that they have over the last few years.

The alternative though is open-source. Open-source has the advantage of being controlled by the district. It is not free, there are some costs involved in hosting, configuring, and updating. However, it is much, much more affordable. Open-source software tends to not be as pretty as commercial resources. Plus, open-source software tends to be more powerful, but less focused. So, there is some learning involved by the teacher (you are always investing in someone – either yourself or someone else“). If educators would come together and create and share things, the effect could be extremely powerful.

So, what are some examples?

H5P
Moodle

Both of these are open-source and powerful. H5P allows users to create Flashcards and much more. Both have platforms available to share work. Even more powerful for me is that both can allow students to create resources.

So, what’s going to happen is that some educators will switch from one commercial product to another. Teachers may be upset and frustrated that they have lost a bunch of work. They will then switch to another commercial product. That will work for a while until a business model changes, free accounts become too limited to be useful, or something else. They will get frustrated. They will move to the next product.

What a powerful world it would be if the students were doing the creating. What a powerful world it would be if educators took control of educational resources. What a powerful world it would be if educators were sharing, and adapting resources.

Outline of a human face transitioning to lines representing a network above. Image by Deepak Pal: (www.iqlect.com)

AI Training

January 11, 2024 / Troy / 0 Comments

I have shared my work, both writing and visual, openly for the most part. (There is a part of me that secretly hopes to publish something that becomes wildly popular and makes tons of money.)

I’ve been thinking about this lately in terms of AI. AI has scraped the web for data to create models. There are several lawsuits currently in place trying to resolve some of the issues around collecting and using data.

There are a couple of theories around the issue of collecting and using data to train models.

Data used for training AI models is just like a human accessing the data. If a human reads something that helps inform the human moving forward. Likewise, AI should be able to “read” something and use that to create things.
The data provider should have the right to approve or deny the use of that data. These rights would include payment if requested.

Jeff Jarvis falls into the camp that any data can be used for training. His argument largely falls into the bucket of this is how things have always been done and how humans have been doing things forever. Additionally, information is free, but the value comes from the expression and analysis of that information.

Others fall into the camp, the data is “stolen”. For things behind a paywall for example, should the AI pay a one-time fee to completely copy everything and use that forever? The structures that have been put in place were put in place long before AI was making a difference, but there has long been controversy around similar issues.

The AI providers have made an interesting argument that they can’t afford to pay for all the data. (Apparently, in many cases AI companies have used pirated copies of data.) That is, I can’t become a millionaire unless I get your data for free. (I need to find the link to this)

Anyway, my thoughts are a bit more emotional at this point. I create and share things that I intend for other humans to use (or me – because sometimes I search for something and find that I did the write-up on how to do it). I want to help people. Similarly, I’ve shared photos under the construct that people are looking at them.

So, I’m not sure how I feel about things that I’ve created being used to train an AI model. One could argue that the result of the training is used by humans, so it’s really no different. Yet, somehow, at least right now, it feels different.

A lego snowplow with two skiers (representing parents) walking in front of the snowplow. The skiers are carrying skis on their shoulders.

Snowplow Parents

January 9, 2024 / Troy / 0 Comments

The New York Times recently posted an article (apparently a subscription is now required) about online grades and “Snow Plow Parents”.

What is a “Snow Plow” parent? According to Parent:

…a snowplow parent removes any obstacles in their child’s way. This type of parent does not want their child to experience any discomfort or problems, so the parent intervenes and fixes it for their child.

I remember “Helicopter Parents”, those parents who hover over their children. I remember that when my own kids went off to college, there were a few parents who actually moved to the college town that their kid was attending.

Snow Plow and Helicopter parents are related. Both take on way too much of their child’s life.

I found the article interesting and insightful. There is a definite bias early on in the article about the “dangers” of online grades being available for parents, which is balanced out later in the article. (Thus, it is important to read the whole article.)

Really, the article ends up focusing on the importance of students developing agency and responsibility. Oh, and how some parents are taking that away from kids.

Part of the advice is about making sure that parent’s connection with kids goes beyond grades:

…parents shouldn’t want conversations about grades “bleeding into every conversation you have with your kids. That does a disservice to your relationship, and it does a disservice to your child.”

A big focus of the article is about kids developing executive functioning.

“Part of executive functioning and personal management is understanding what’s the right time and place to have a conversation versus not. And so students do need to develop that,” she said.

The article even addresses a couple of interesting issues:

At its heart, the issue is that too many parents see their children’s grades as the ultimate reflection on themselves and their parenting.

and

There were kids, he said, who were “incredibly skilled at gaming the system” — grade grubbing rather than achieving anything intellectually.

In the end, the author admits that it’s not all negative.

… not every teacher I spoke to had a negative experience with online grade books. Some said that the technology made their lives easier and improved communication with some parents. Even the teachers who pointed out the unseemly behavior of some parents and students stressed that it wasn’t a majority who abused the system.

I find this an interesting time to be a parent (just like all the other ones in history). Parents today deal with social media, connectedness, information overload, pressure to be successful, and on and on.

I don’t think any of this is really new, but it is new for each parent. Also, the number of parents who are truly “Snow Plow” is pretty minimal (still makes it rough for those particular kids).

So, what about online gradebooks? These can be beneficial. However, it is also important to establish how grades work in the classroom early on in the year (or now). Set out expectations of when work will be graded. Communicate how grades are calculated. Take advantage of the power of the gradebook. I have found online gradebooks to have much more good than negative. The article even points this out. Remember, no matter what system that you use, you could have a lot of these same issues. Many of these are “people” issues, not technology issues.

If you are a parent of a child under 18, do your best. Help them grow. They’ll make mistakes. They’re human. Don’t be a Snow Plow.

Subscriptions

January 8, 2024 / Troy / 2 Comments

I’m feeling a bit lonely. But, maybe I shouldn’t? My subscriptions may have been broken.

I have subscriptions turned on, but I don’t really have anyone who subscribes.

Currently, I use Icegram Express to handle the subscriptions. This allows me to set up subscriptions so that people could get posts, no payment involved and you have to confirm your intention to subscribe. I do have a few people who seem to have filled in the “Subscribe” form, but have not confirmed.

Hm. I did have to set up DKIM and SPF for my domain a while back. It was supposed to be on, but, well, my hosting service messed that one up.

Anyway, I’d sure feel less lonely if a few people subscribed. I don’t do any real tracking, I don’t sell any information, etc. I’d obviously have an email address, but I’ve turned off any tracking (like whether the email was open or not).

There is a form to subscribe right there on the front page.

CC-BY-NC-SA along with the symbol for each of these.

Attribution

January 6, 2024 / Troy / 0 Comments

I recently read a wonderful post by Alan Levine – Cogdog on a picture that he had shared that ended up being used in an advertisement. I share almost all of my photos with the CC-BY-NC-SA license.

This breaks down to this:

BY: credit must be given to the creator
NC: Only noncommercial uses of the work are permitted
SA: Adaptations must be shared under the same terms

Alan Levine talks about a write up where he shared his images as CC-0 (Public Domain Dedication: essentially making them free for anyone to use in any way). One of his favorite pictures of him and Cori ended up being used in an Instagram advertisement for OMGYES (which is focused on intimacy and pleasure).

He reached out to the company and received a reply from a real person. That person, Rob, sent along an apologetic email. He had the image removed from all ads. Here’s the thing, Rob didn’t have to do that. Alan had shared the image in a way that legally allowed Rob to use the image. (Rob also added a note about Alan’s photography being “stunning”). So there are good people out there. Alan has since changed the licensing of the photo to CC BY-NC-SA.

Since I’m participating in 52Frames this year, I got to thinking about licensing. Specifically, what is NC (noncommerical)? So I did a bit more digging. Unfortunately, I couldn’t find a detailed explanation on Creative Commons. Specifically, does an ad count as “commercial”? (To me, it’s obviously a “Yes”, but I’ve been around enough to know that sometimes the law is different than my logic.). After a bit more research, it seems that NC is pretty broad and covers anything that “incorporates a financial transaction”. The Smithsonian has a nice explanation:

Non-commercial use encompasses a wide range of exciting possibilities—including artistic, educational, scholarly, and personal projects that will not be marketed, promoted, or sold. Examples include, but are not limited to, presentations, research, tattoos, sixth-grade science fair projects, tablet backgrounds, free and ad-free apps, GIFs, holiday centerpieces, Halloween costumes, decoupage, inspiration boards, and shower curtains.

Commercial use is any reproduction or purpose that is marketed, promoted, or sold and incorporates a financial transaction. Examples include, but are not limited to, merchandise, books for sale (including textbooks), apps that will be sold or have advertising, periodicals and journals with paid subscriptions, TV programs and commercial films, advertisements, websites that sell images, and cause-related marketing.

So, it seems that choosing the CC-BY-NC-SA license is generally going to be right for me. On some of the photos that I submit, I may keep an All Rights Reserved on, but I’m guessing that will be pretty few.

Ownership, Anti-Ownership, and Deleting “Your” Stuff

December 21, 2023 / Troy / 0 Comments

…or why you “bought” it, but don’t own it.

In the “good old days”, one went to a bookstore and bought a physical copy of the book (this also applied to movies). Once one had read the book, one was free to give that to a friend. Or, you put it on your bookshelf. Or donate it to a library. You also have/had the legal right to sell the book (in order to get money to buy more books – 🙂 ). The ability to sell the book is known as First Sale Doctrine.

In the digital age, that has all changed. Legally, when you “buy” a book (again, same for movies) through an online site, you are really just acquiring permission to access it. That permission to access the “book” (or movie) will have limitations. These resources are for your “personal, non-commercial” use only (i.e. you can’t share it, or in the case of movies, show it to a group).

The landscape has changed, but the expectations of many people haven’t. Yet, this is important to note.

There are a couple of recent posts that highlight this.

The Anti-Ownership Ebook Economy by SARAH LAMDAN, JASON M. SCHULTZ, MICHAEL WEINBERG, CLAIRE WOODCOCK
PlayStation is erasing 1,318 seasons of Discovery shows from customer libraries by SCHARON HARDING

The Anti-Ownership Ebook Economy

This is a lengthy read that has lots of great information. The article points out that not only do you not have the right to sell the book that you “bought”, but that your behavior can also be tracked while you are reading that book.

The article points out the additional attacks on public libraries as well. Specifically, publishers are fighting online lending.

PlayStation is erasing 1,318 seasons of Discovery shows from customer libraries

This is a pretty easy to understand write up. People bought movies through Playstation. Those that did so will lose access to them. Here is the notification:

As of 31 December 2023, due to our content licensing arrangements with content providers, you will no longer be able to watch any of your previously purchased Discovery content and the content will be removed from your video library.
We sincerely thank you for your continued support.

Discovery would like people to subscribe to MAX or Discovery+.

Between the two articles, it is very clear that the rights to media have changed. If you don’t like this and would like to see different rules, reach out to your Congressperson.

Tragedy in Maine

October 27, 2023 / Troy / 0 Comments

On Wednesday evening (October 25th), an individual attacked a Bowling Alley and a Bar & Grille. The individual used an AR-15, which has no other use than quickly and efficiently killing humans, to shoot a wide variety of innocent people. Currently, 18 people are identified as having lost their lives. 18 people who won’t be coming home. 18 people who won’t be hugging their family members. Numerous people won’t be sharing stories, laughs, or hugs with those 18 people.

Thursday, news was that the perpetrator had not been found yet. Androscoggin County has been placed in a “shelter in place”. Lots of schools and businesses are closed. My school is also closed.

We’ve been practicing active shooter drills for decades. We’ve ingrained into students that someone could show up and shoot up their school. We surreptitiously essentially told teachers that we expect them to be prepared to lay down their lives for our children.

A teacher in Virginia was shot by a six-year-old. The teacher is trying to sue the school district for negligence. The school district’s response is that this is covered under “workman’s compensation” since the event was, essentially part of the job description. (Yes, in reality, I understand that this is a lot of legal wrangling to prevent the school district from paying out millions of dollars, but the underlying argument still rings to the expectation that this could happen to teachers.)

I realized that my own reaction was very different than many others. I have lived a different life. For me, this has been somewhat of a constant since 9/11. Having lived and worked in Dearborn, MI, we were under constant threat of violence. I can’t remember the number of videos that I’ve seen of “patriots” driving around Dearborn threatening “those foreigners”. Nor can I remember the number of threats to come to Dearborn to do harm. (On October 12th, there was a threat to “come to Dearborn and attack Palestinians”).

Some of my friends and former students immigrated to the United States from places where wars were common and ongoing. So their lived experience was fear of losing loved ones.

How many school shootings have we had (58 as of the moment I’m typing this)? How many mass shootings have been in the U.S. this year alone (587 as of the moment I’m typing this)?

America is pretty much alone in the type of violence. We could do something. We actually had a ban on assault rifles at one point, but Congress let it sunset. Jared Golden, one of five Democrats to vote against banning assault rifles is now coming out in support of an assault rifle ban. We shouldn’t have to wait for enough Congress people to experience firsthand the pain of attacks by an assault rifle in order to pass legislation. We can vote for representatives who will take this issue seriously.

It’s beyond time that we take action. Get out and vote for sanity.

Not being Good is Great

October 25, 2023 / Troy / 0 Comments

I really do wish that past me had learned this lesson. However, present me is trying really hard to implement the advice here.

When Kurt Vonnegut was fifteen, he spent a month or so working on an archeological dig.

*(A rather peculiar place for a young man that would one day grow up to become a tremendous writer of science fiction.) *

He once told a story of how he was talking to one of the archeologists one day over lunch and the archeologist was bombarding him with all of the typical getting to know you questions…

“Do you play sports? What’s your favorite subject?”

Vonnegut told the archeologist that while he didn’t play any sports he was in theater, choir, played violin and piano and used to take art classes.

The archeologist was impressed.

“Wow. That’s amazing!”

To which Kurt Vonnegut responded…

“Oh no, but I’m not any good at ANY of them.”

And this is where the archeologist said something to Kurt Vonnegut that Vonnegut would later say changed the trajectory of his thinking…

“I don’t think being good at things is the point of doing them. I think you’ve got all these wonderful experiences with different skills, and that all teaches you things and makes you an interesting person, no matter how well you do them.”

Here was how Vonnegut said the quote changed him…

“…I went from a failure, someone who hadn’t been talented enough at anything to excel, to someone who did things because I enjoyed them. I had been raised in such an achievement-oriented environment, so inundated with the myth of Talent, that I thought it was only worth doing things if you could “Win” at them.”

Some Thoughts on X, er, Twitter

October 13, 2023 / Troy / 0 Comments

I used to be a Twitter user. I joined Twitter in June of 2008. I used Twitter for a good number of conferences. I met people, made connections, found resources, and more through Twitter.

In 2018, I tried out Mastodon. I loved the idea. However, there really weren’t many educators there. So, I kept the account but also stayed on Twitter.

With the purchase of Twitter, and the changes that wrought, I left Twitter.

There are still tons of people on Twitter, er X. On one hand, I understand why. There are still lots of good links and good people on X. However, X now supports a great amount of misinformation and disinformation. Actively.

I’m off Twitter and I’ll explain why.

Now some people don’t see that much. So, their belief is that it really doesn’t matter. I think it does.

Discrimination, bias, and manipulation matter. Even if you don’t see it all the time. Kind of like, I don’t actively see racial discrimination every day. But I know that it exists. I don’t support places that support racial discrimination even if I don’t necessarily see it.

I won’t support Twitter. Be clear, having an account on Twitter and using it, supports Twitter. If you are logging in to Twitter, if you are checking Twitter, you are supporting Twitter. Obviously, if you are paying for an account, you are supporting Twitter.

I’m choosing not to support the bias and manipulation that is now Twitter. Yet, I understand that others may not have the same opinion. Twitter was a very valuable resource. Lots of educational organizations still support X and Facebook. Recently, a Maine Department of Education representative was asked about a grant opportunity. Their answer was to check “Twitter or Facebook”. This is frustrating to me. In order to get information about a grant I have to give my attention to “Twitter” now X or Facebook (which has been caught lying and doing bad things repeatedly).

Maine, like most states, is very concerned about privacy and security. There is even a current ban on State departments using AI due to privacy and security. Yet, the Maine Department of Education is actively supporting two companies that do not respect privacy and security.

Again, on one hand I understand. It’s hard to keep track of who is supporting what. It’s tough if you don’t obviously see the bias and discrimination.

On the other, isn’t this what being an informed citizen is about? Shouldn’t we be aware of those sites that we support? Do we bear any responsibility to be proactive about combatting discrimination and bias?