Gould, Jessica. “Teachers College, Columbia U. Dissolves Program behind Literacy Curriculum Used in NYC Public Schools.” Gothamist, September 8, 2023. https://gothamist.com/news/columbia-university-dissolves-program-behind-literacy-curriculum-used-in-nyc-public-schools.

The Teachers College of Columbia University has shut down the Lucy Calkins Units of Study literacy program.

Missing from the story is more emphasis on not only the social costs, which they touch on, but the tremendous financial (sunk) cost to the system by not only adopting it but enriching Calkins and the institution (in a position of trust) which benefitted from having sold it.

link to: https://hypothes.is/a/eicbpgSKEe6vc0fPdIm05w

Many developed countries have national curricula and specific teacher-training standards, but the United States does not. Instead decisions on curricular and standards are created and enforced at the state and local levels, often by politically elected figures including governors, mayors, superintendents, and school boards.

This leaves early education in the United States open to a much greater sway of political influence. This can be seen in examples of Texas attempting to legislate the display the ten commandments in school classrooms in 2023, reading science being neglected in the adoption of Culkins' Units of Study curriculum, and other footballs like the supposed suppression of critical race theory in right leaning states.

Transmission of medical knowledge has a more immediate and direct application for people; as a result it may tend to be transmitted more faithfully either in written or oral forms. The written record of medical scrolls from antiquity were in constant demand.

Timestamps 19:11 - 35:20

CA Senate Bill 488 2021; signed, in process,

Orton-Gillingham method (procedure/process) but can be implemented differently. Rigorous and works. Over 100 years old.

Wilson program uses pieces of OG. What's this? Not enough detail here.

Dyslexia training will be built into some parts of credentialling programs.

Each child is different.

This requires context knowledge on the part of the teacher and then a large tool bag of methods to help the widest variety of those differences.

In the box programs don't work because children are not one size fits all.

Magic wand ? What would you want?

Madhuri would like to have: - rigorous teaching in early grades - if we can teach structured literacy following a specific scope in sequence most simple to most complex - teaching with same familiar patterns over and over - cumulative (builds on itself) - multisensory - explicit - Strong transitional kindergarten through grade 3 instruction

Prevention trumps intervention.

Otherwise you're feeding into the school to prison pipeline.

Madhuri's call for teaching that is structured, cumulative, multisensory, and explicit sounds a lot like what I would imagine orality-based instruction looks like as well. The structure there particularly makes it easier to add pieces later on in a way that literacy doesn't necessarily.

I wonder if there are also soft skills in literacy

I wonder if there are also soft skills in literacy/

Tools which allow for flexibility and creativity are better for knowledge workers than those which attempt to crystalize their tasks into ruts. This may tend to force the outputs in a programmatic way and thereby dramatically decrease the potential for innovative outputs. If the tools force the automation of thought without a concurrent increase in creativity then one may as well rely on manual labor for their thinking.

This may be one of the major flaws of tools for thought in the educational technology space. They often attempt to facilitate the delivery of education in an automated way which dramatically decreases the creativity of the students and the value of the overall outputs. While attempting to automate education may suit the needs of institutions which are delivering the education, particularly with respect to the overall cost of delivery, the automation itself is dramatically at odds with the desire to expand upon ideas and continue innovation for all participants involved. Students also require diverse modes of input (seen/heard) as well as internal processing followed by subsequent outputs (written/drawn/sculpted/painted, spoken/sung, movement/dance). Many teachers don't excel at providing all of these neurodiverse modes and most educational technology tools are even less flexible, thus requiring an even larger panoply of them (often not interoperable because of corporate siloing for competitive reasons) to provide reasonable replacements. Given their ultimate costs, providing a variety of these tools may only serve to increase the overall costs of delivering education or risk diminishing the overall quality. Educators and institutions not watching out for these traps will tend to serve only a small portion of their intended audiences, and even those may be served poorly as they only receive a limited variety of modalities of inputs and outputs. As an example Western cultures' overreliance on primary literacy modes is their Achilles' heel.

Tools for thought should actively attempt to increase the potential solution spaces available to their users, while later still allowing for focusing of attention. How can we better allow for the divergence of ideas and later convergence? Better, how might we allow for regular and repeated cycles of divergence and convergence? Advanced zettelkasten note taking techniques (which also allow for drawing, visual, auditory and other modalities beyond just basic literacy) seem to allow for this sort of practice over long periods of time, particularly when coupled with outputs which are then published for public consumption and divergence/convergence cycles by others.

This may also point out some of the stagnation allowed by social media whose primary modes is neither convergence nor divergence. While they allow for the transmission/communication portion, they primarily don't actively encourage their users to closely evaluate the transmitted ideas, internalize them, or ultimately expand upon them. Their primary mode is for maximizing on time of attention (including base emotions including excitement and fear) and the lowest levels of interaction and engagement (likes, retweets, short gut reaction commentary).

One starts education with where the student is. But mustn't we also inventory what tools and attitudes the student brings? What tools beyond basic literacy do they have? (Usually we presume literacy, but rarely go beyond this and the lack of literacy is too often viewed as failure, particularly as students get older.) Do they have motion, orality, song, visualization, memory? How can we focus on also utilizing these tools and modalities for learning.

Link to the idea that Donald Trump, a person who managed to function as a business owner and president of the United States, was less than literate, yet still managed to function in modern life as an example. In fact, perhaps his focus on oral modes of communication, and the blurrable lines in oral communicative meaning (see [[technobabble]]) was a major strength in his communication style as a means of rising to power?

Just as the populace has lost non-literacy based learning and teaching techniques so that we now consider the illiterate dumb, stupid, or lesser than, Western culture has done this en masse for entire populations and cultures.

Even well-meaning educators in the edtech space that are trying to now center care and well-being are completely missing this piece of the picture. There are much older and specifically non-literate teaching methods that we have lost in our educational toolbelts that would seem wholly odd and out of place in a modern college classroom. How can we center these "missing tools" as educational technology in a modern age? How might we frame Indigenous pedagogical methods as part of the emerging third archive?

Link to: - educational article by Tyson Yunkaporta about medical school songlines - Scott Young article "You should pay for Tutors"

aside on serendipity

As I was writing this note I had a toaster pop up notification in my email client with the arrival of an email by Scott Young with the title "You should pay for Tutors" which prompted me to add a link to this note. It reminds me of a related idea that Indigenous cultures likely used information and knowledge transfer as a means of payment (Lynne Kelly, Knowledge and Power). I have commented previously on the serendipity of things like auto correct or sparks of ideas while reading as a means of interlinking knowledge, but I don't recall experiencing this sort of serendipity leading to combinatorial creativity as a means of linking ideas,

Beyond this, Gracie also had senses of timing and spatial skills that many also often lack. This is a sort of neurodiversity piece which some are either lifted up or pulled down by within our literacy-focused teaching system.

It may be a skill she's focused on improving, or one which she's naturally gifted and might improve upon to use in a professional career. Focusing on a literacy-only framing for her education is the sort of thing that, instead of amplifying her talents, may have the effect of completely destroying them, and her altogether.

Dame Adjin-Tettey, T. (2022). Combating fake news, disinformation, and misinformation: Experimental evidence for media literacy education. Cogent Arts & Humanities, 9(1), 2037229. https://doi.org/10.1080/23311983.2022.2037229

Alper, S. (2021). When Conspiracy Theories Make Sense: The Role of Social Inclusiveness. PsyArXiv. https://doi.org/10.31234/osf.io/2umfe

Simone, Costanza De, Antonella Battisti, and Azzurra Ruggeri. “Differential Impact of Web Habits and Active Navigation on Adolescents’ Online Learning.” PsyArXiv, March 1, 2021. https://doi.org/10.31234/osf.io/hsvc4.

Paakkari, L., & Okan, O. (2020). COVID-19: Health literacy is an underestimated problem. The Lancet Public Health, S2468266720300864. https://doi.org/10.1016/S2468-2667(20)30086-4

This website provides technology teaching resources as part of the Southern Methodist University (SMU) Center for Teaching Excellence. Users can find informational links to various technology tools that can be used for enhancing teaching and learning in online, hybrid, or face-to-face courses. On the right of the page under "Technology," users can click on the tech tools for additional resources/research on their implementation. Examples of these technologies include Blackboard LMS, PowerPoint presentation software, Google Suite products, blogs, and social media sites. Rating 8/10

This website outlines digital literacy initiatives provided by the Literacy Information and Communication System (LINCS). The U.S. Department of Education, Office of Career, Technical, and Adult Education (OCTAE) implements these intitatives to aid adult learners in the successful use of technology in their education and careers. Students have free access to learning material on different subjects under the "LINCS Learner Center" tab. Teachers and tutors also have access to resoruces on implementing educational technology for professional development and effective instruction. Rating 8/10

This website outlines Section 1.5 of Angelo State University's guide to instructional design and online teaching. Section 1.5 describes key characteristics of online learners, as well as the technology and computer skills that research has identified as being important for online learners. Successful online learners are described as self-directed, motivated, well-organized, and dedicated to their education. The article also notes that online learners should understand how to use technology such as multimedia tools, email, internet browsers. and LMS systems. This resource serves as a guide to effective online teaching. Rating 10/10

This website is the "Resources" archive for the IgniteED Labs at Arizona State University's Mary Lou Fulton Teachers College. The IgniteED Labs allow students, staff, and faculty to explore innovative and emerging learning technology such as virtual reality (VR), artifical intelligence (AI), 3-D printing, and robotics. The left side of this site provides several resources on understanding and effectively using various technologies available in the IgniteED labs. Each resources directs you to external websites, such as product tutorials on Youtube, setup guides, and the products' websites. The right column, "Tech Literacy Resources," contains a variety of guides on how students can effectively and strategically use different technologies. Resources include "how-to" user guides, online academic integrity policies, and technology support services. Rating: 9/10

A Brief History of Reading Instruction. Includes references to studies that support phonics as the best method for teaching reading and writing. Free textbook for phonics instruction: https://elink.io/p/free-phonics-books-98c2d4e

an appeal for open education

An online discussion about screen time and its connections with digital literacy and creativity. Hosted by Drs. W. Ian O'Byrne and Kristen Hawley Turner.

This was an excellent article Chen (2007) in defining and laying out how a blended learning approach of objectivist and constructivist instructional strategies work well in online instruction and the use of an actual online course as a study example.

RATING: 4/5 (rating based upon a score system 1 to 5, 1= lowest 5=highest in terms of content, veracity, easiness of use etc.)

Digital promise website serves millions of underserved adults in the United States by offering educational resources via technology. With personalized learning and individual pathways, they stand a chance to advance in their careers and lives.

The site has a network of educators and developers who contribute to the "Beacon Project". As part of this project, the site includes resources across the country that help with support and access to education.

RATING: 4/5 (rating based upon a score system 1 to 5, 1= lowest 5=highest in terms of content, veracity, easiness of use etc.)

This article explores the interaction of student based learner-centered used of technology tools such as wikis, blogs and podcasts as new and emerging technology tools. With distance learning programs becoming more and more popular, software applications such as Writeboard, InstaCol and Imeem may become less of the software of choice. The article looks closely at the influence of technology and outcomes.

RATING: 4/5 (rating based upon a score system 1 to 5, 1= lowest 5=highest in terms of content, veracity, easiness of use etc.)

The LINCS website has an abundance of information that can prove useful in the designing of adult educational materials which are technology based. The site includes courses, articles and links 743 research studies, materials and products. In addition there are State Resources for Adult Education and Literacy Professional Development. Overall I found the site to be a wonderful source of relevant information to tap into.

RATING: 5/5 (rating based upon a score system 1 to 5, 1= lowest 5=highest in terms of content, veracity, easiness of use etc.)

have to disagree here. Students can link, quote, summarize, paraphrase, and thus build or contribute to open resources from closed information

The basic assumption that underlies typical reading instruction in many schools is that learning to read is a natural process, much like learning to talk. But decades of scientific research has revealed that reading doesn't come naturally. The human brain isn't wired to read. Kids must be explicitly taught how to connect sounds with letters — phonics.

. . .

But this research hasn't made its way into many elementary school classrooms. The prevailing approaches to reading instruction in American schools are inconsistent with basic things scientists have discovered about how children learn to read. Many educators don't know the science, and in some cases actively resist it.

https://www.apmreports.org/story/2018/09/10/further-reading-hard-words

Access to books increases children’s future prospects and has a significant influence on the level of education they will attain, their productivity, their health, and their quality of life.

If we want kids to read more, and be better readers and writers, we need to give them access to lots of books, starting with ones they are most interested in. (This short article is specific about ways to improve book access for all kids.)

Page 15

Rockwell and Sinclair call for

a new kind of literacy that allows us to continue our pursuits as humanities scholars in the changing world we find ourselves in.

This is the heart of the open ed/info lit connection. If the perception is that students go to school to be taught, the more important goal of learning how to learn is so much more difficult to achieve. But fostering lifelong learning means ceding some control over what is to be learned to the learner.

The possibilities of digital writing, given the WYSIWYG interface above, allow for students to integrate a variety of media into their own annotation compositions. Moreover, this use of media is not simply illustrative but as an integral part of the overall argument.