Weekly Web Harvest for 2016-05-15

  • How Technology Hijacks People’s Minds — from a Magician and Google’s Design Ethicist — Medium

    This is far more than “technology” . . .

    The “most empowering” menu is different than the menu that has the most choices. But when we blindly surrender to the menus we’re given, it’s easy to lose track of the difference:

  • growth & development – gangster disciples

    12. HOW MANY STEPS TO GANGSTA CITY? 63
    13. HOW MANY BACK? 36 WHY? YOU ARE LOOKING IN A MIRROR.
    14. WHAT’S UNDER THE DRAGON’S RIGHT FOOT? A 6-POINT STAR
    15. HOW DO YOU KILL THE DRAGON? WITH A BLUE SWORD
    16. WHERE IS GANGSTA CITY LOCATED? IN THE SKY BEYOND THE NORTH STAR
    17. WHATCHA CLAIMING? 63 IGD OR 63 BGD

  • Programming Doesn’t Require Talent or Even Passion — Medium

    * I actually hate programming, but I love solving problems.
    * There are people who actually like programming. I don’t understand why they like programming.
    * I’m not a real programmer. I throw together things until it works then I move on. The real programmers will say “Yeah it works but you’re leaking memory everywhere. Perhaps we should fix that.” I’ll just restart Apache every 10 requests.

  • To train future ed-tech leaders, higher ed needs new discipline, some say

    “The report also called for colleges to train a new kind of professional: learning engineers. A cross between a faculty member and an instructional designer, the learning engineer would combine subject area expertise with technical know-how.
    The response to that idea has been mixed . . .”

    h/t David C.

  • Encouraging the Impulse to Annotate – Todd’s Brain

    Glossing with social media involves the creation of conversational “layers” which adhere to the original text and produce a richer cultural artifact so that the original text is not obscured, but enhanced. Gloss suggests the multiple veneers that adolescents create to make texts their own. Glossing also denotes the slipperiness of the online world—the Internet being a frictionless distribution system.