Year: 2023

Reconnecting with Voyager 2

Voyager 1 and 2 were launched in 1977 and have, by all expectations, exceeded their missions and then some. I was born in 1978, so I share some sentimental affinity with these two marvels of human engineering. Glad to see we reconnected with Voyager 2 after a few scary days there as it continues its incredible journey outside our solar system.

We’ll be in touch with the two Voyagers until they run out of their power reserves sometime in the 2030s. That will be a sad day. May we all contribute a verse to humanity’s story and the cosmos, much as these robots have done during their time!

I don’t think it’s a coincidence that my daughter was born on August 1, either 😉

NASA reestablishes full communications with Voyager 2:

Voyager 2 resumed communications with Earth after remaining silent for two weeks. At 12:29 a.m. EDT on Aug. 4, the spacecraft began returning science and telemetry data, indicating it is operating normally and remains on its expected trajectory, stated NASA.

Live in Your Moments Instead of Immediately Sharing

I decided to take agency and move on from social media this month after the birth of our daughter. It has been a humbling experience to live in these moments of new life made tangible by her awakening. To walk beside Merianna and be present there with her in these moments is something I never want to forget. 

Moving on from social media has already been an epiphany for me in so many ways. I’m sure I’ll be reflecting on that in the coming months here.

This post is worthy of your time to read and reflect as you contemplate your next IG Story or TikTok video…

The difference between creative & uncreative people:

When we satisfy our desire to certify the moment with a Tweet, or a Story, or a text to a friend, or a TikTok video, we sell it short. We reduce the experience to a single, throwaway-able moment, swiped by in a second, and we set the moment free. Even worse, we leave our experience (just born, fragile and fresh) in the hands of others who may not treat it with respect. They might perceive it differently than we do, mock it, minimize it, skew it in our memories, compare it to their own experience, taint it, steal it, rob it of the feelings it initially gave to us in that first, pure moment.

Significant Benefits of social and Emotional Learning for Students in Yale Research

If you ask almost any of us teachers what sort of skills or attitudes we’d love to see more developed in our students, you’d hear responses such as “resiliency” and “less anxiety.” In this first large-scale study of social and emotional learning approaches in k-12 education, Yale School of Medicine lays out some great findings (emphasis mine):

Research Finds Social and Emotional Learning Produces Significant Benefits for Students < Yale School of Medicine:

Students also showed improved social and emotional skills, attitudes, and behaviors, such as student self-efficacy, self-esteem, mindset, perseverance, and optimism, among others. Furthermore, the report confirmed that students who participate in SEL programs also feel better in school, reporting less anxiety, stress, depression, and suicidal thoughts. Students were also more connected and included and had better relationships with peers and teachers.

Welcome, Elizabeth Hope Harrelson

Elizabeth (Lily) was born this afternoon at 2:30 PM in Columbia, SC. She is 7lbs 6oz (I called it exactly) and 50cm (19.7 inches). She and Merianna are doing great and excited for walking this journey of life together with our family, friends, colleagues, and community!

As I always tell my students on Tuesdays, “It’s the Optimistic Day!”

Education Innovation and Cognitive Artifacts

Must read from Mr. Brent Kaneft (our Head of School at Wilson Hall, where I am a teacher)…

Wise Integration: Sea Squirts, Tech Bans, and Cognitive Artifacts (Summer Series) | Brent Kaneft – Intrepid ED News:

So the strange paradox of innovation is that every innovation has the potential to be an existential threat to the physical, social, spiritual, and cognitive development of humans. The allure is the convenience (our brains are always looking to save energy!) and the potentiality innovation offers, but the human cost can be staggering, either immediately or slowly, like the impact of mold secretly growing behind an attractive wallpaper. To return to Tristan Harris’s point: machines are improving as humans downgrade in various ways. As professional educators, we have to ask whether innovation will prove detrimental to the fundamental qualities we want to develop in our students.

The Digital Dark Age

Another reason you should be writing in your own space on your blog and notebooks…

Shining a Light on the Digital Dark Age – Long Now:

A false sense of security persists surrounding digitized documents: because an infinite number of identical copies can be made of any original, most of us believe that our electronic files have an indefinite shelf life and unlimited retrieval opportunities. In fact, preserving the world’s online content is an increasing concern, particularly as file formats (and the hardware and software used to run them) become scarce, inaccessible, or antiquated, technologies evolve, and data decays. Without constant maintenance and management, most digital information will be lost in just a few decades. Our modern records are far from permanent.

Arc 1.0

I’m excited to see the “1.0” launch of the browser Arc. I’ve been using Arc as my main browser (along with Safari and some Chrome sparingly) on my MacBook, and I have to say… it’s impressive.

Browsers seemingly slipped from the “wow” factor of the internet about 15 years ago after Google finally launched Chrome despite the best efforts of Firefox, Brave, Opera etc to get the mainstream about browsing again. Apps took their place as the way to access the web for most people, and as our main screen sizes shrunk, so did our attention for interesting browser features. 

However, I do think we’re at an inflection point and we’ll see interest around concepts such as Arc that will move us away from a centralized app-based future of the web towards further democratization and decentralization of what the internet should mean. 

Way to go, Browser Company!

Arc from The Browser Company:

A browser that doesn’t just meet your needs — it anticipates them.

Also, if you head over to the credits page, you can find me there as a long-time tester in the pre-launch phases!