Friday, October 28, 2016

LEAPING INTO 2016

As I start to look across time from inception of the idea of this commentary, we are in an era that began as Web 3.0---an interval when the Internet emerged with social media and the concept of facilitating and networking...moving away from teaching and programmed instruction. This process has led to the evolution of a true environment of on-line learning. Individuals have been growing up in the midst of a media feast, in which the medium is indeed the message. Content is shifting from facts to process.
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When Is a Theory Superficial?
Saturday, May 3, 2025

Jeremy Pober , Eric Schwitzgebel , The Splintered Mind , May 02, 2025 According to Google , I'm the first to say this: classes aren't causes. Let me explain what I mean. This article asks what makes a theory 'deep', as opposed to superficial. The authors suggest, "superficial theories have minima... .. read more..

slop capitalism
Saturday, May 3, 2025

Aidan Walker , How To Do Things With Memes How To Do Things With Memes , May 02, 2025 This is an interesting article, though I resist its central argument. It is, in a nutshell: "The problem with slop capitalism, in my view, is its attempt to... replace the 'jungle of functionalist rationality' w... .. read more..

Google search’s made-up AI explanations for sayings no one ever said, explained
Saturday, May 3, 2025

Kyle Orland , Ars Technica , May 02, 2025 I first encountered the phrase on TWIT Sunday. "Last week, the phrase 'You can't lick a badger twice' unexpectedly went viral on social media. The nonsense sentence - which was likely never uttered by a human before last week - had become the poster child... .. read more..

What Would “Good” AI Look Like?
Saturday, May 3, 2025

Anil Dash , May 02, 2025 This is an interesting question that could probably have received a more thorough treatment than it receives here. Some of the qualities are uncontroversial - they describe AI that is green, error-free, open source, based on consent, etc. But what about things like govern... .. read more..

Connectomics 2.0: Simulating the brain
Saturday, May 3, 2025

Laura Dattaro , The Transmitter: Neuroscience News and Perspectives , May 02, 2025 It's one thing to build a complete connectome of a fly brain. It's quite another to understand how that brain works. "E ven if you could incorporate every detail about the imaged neurons and their interactions with... .. read more..

Trend Alert: The girls are making office fashion sexy again
Wednesday, April 30, 2025

Pencil skirt. Kitten heels. Tiny glasses. And a little dark edge. These are just some of the elements of one of the most enduring fashion trends of the past couple of years: the office siren. But we're not just seeing this twist on office norms in fashion: we're also seeing it in TV shows like Se... .. read more..

Baked, fried or fileted: Fish dishes can link us to our histories
Tuesday, April 29, 2025

The food we grow up with says a lot about our heritage and community. Researchers are on a mission to connect people to local fishers — and introduce more Americans to a more diverse array of seafood. .. read more..

The Mellon Foundation announces 'emergency funding' for humanities councils
Tuesday, April 29, 2025

The Mellon Foundation has announced $15 million in "emergency funding" for 56 humanities councils across the country. The government recently eliminated $65 million in support. .. read more..

A 20-year-old Portland tradition serves coffee and doughnuts to bikers on bri...
Tuesday, April 29, 2025

On the last Friday of each month in Portland, Ore., volunteers pass out breakfast items to bike commuters in an event called "Breakfast on the Bridges." .. read more..

A world soccer tournament made for grandmothers
Tuesday, April 29, 2025

A world soccer tournament for 'grannies' has wrapped up. The annual event allows women from all over the world to show off and be appreciated for their athleticism. .. read more..

Ada Limón reflects on her tenure as the poet laureate and bringing us back to...
Tuesday, April 29, 2025

US Poet Laureate Ada Limon reflects on her term and the urgency of connecting to nature through poetry .. read more..

A new documentary checks out the many ways libraries are a 'Free For All'
Tuesday, April 29, 2025

By examining the value of libraries in the distant and recent past, this PBS film makes a compelling case for the importance of the American public library system today. .. read more..

How Project 2025 is shaping Trump's second term
Tuesday, April 29, 2025

Journalist David Graham says the aim of the creators of the conservative action plan Project 2025 is to push the federal government "as far to the right as they can." His new book is The Project. .. read more..

There's some Revolutionary reading coming your way this week
Tuesday, April 29, 2025

The second volume in Pulitzer-winning historian Rick Atkinson's planned trilogy on the American Revolution publishes Tuesday. Plus a graphic memoir, short fiction, and "the secret life" of a cemetery. .. read more..

An autopsy confirms Gene Hackman died from heart disease
Tuesday, April 29, 2025

Hackman was also in the advanced stages of Alzheimer's disease and likely had not eaten for a long time, according to the new report. The actor, 95, had been in poor health for some time. .. read more..

Call for papers: Media behavior and news consumption in the age of AI and dig...
Monday, April 28, 2025

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Inquiry into Media Literacy
Friday, April 25, 2025

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Recording: Disinformation and real estate exploitation: the case of Varosha
Thursday, April 24, 2025

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#Worldbookday
Wednesday, April 23, 2025

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Podcast: AI and information literacy
Tuesday, April 22, 2025

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Recent articles: high impact infolit; care-centred teaching; distance learnin...
Monday, April 21, 2025

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Gesellschaft für Informationskompetenz und Informationsinfrastruktur
Sunday, April 20, 2025

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Social listening in infodemic management for public health emergencies: Guida...
Saturday, April 19, 2025

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Second keynote from #LILAC25: Jane Secker Reflecting on Information Literacy:...
Thursday, April 17, 2025

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Information Literacy award winner: Rebecca Mogg #LILAC25
Thursday, April 17, 2025

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Final Keynote from #LILAC25- Elinor Carmi: Data Citizenship: Learning to take...
Thursday, April 17, 2025

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Nurturing the Next Generation of Professionals: Transformative Peer-Based Stu...
Thursday, April 17, 2025

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LILAC Stories: exploring the long-term impact of the LILAC Conference on the ...
Tuesday, April 15, 2025

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Informing bodies: embodied information literacy for conservatoire student sin...
Tuesday, April 15, 2025

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Day 2 #LILAC25: Reflection as a means to assess information literacy instruction
Tuesday, April 15, 2025

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#LILAC25: I I can show you the (life)world: Qualitative techniques to examine...
Tuesday, April 15, 2025

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Day 1, afternoon session #lilac25: The Role of Emotion in Access to Informati...
Tuesday, April 15, 2025

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#LILAC25 first keynote: Dr Stephen Thornton - Light at the end of the tunnel?...
Tuesday, April 15, 2025

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Live-blogging from #LILAC25! Darren Flynn: The information hinterland of UK a...
Monday, April 14, 2025

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Philosophy of information: articles and webinar on 17 April
Sunday, April 13, 2025

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Call for proposals: Information Science Trends (IST) 2025: Creativity, Transf...
Saturday, April 12, 2025

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A teaching librarian
Friday, April 11, 2025

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GenderEd Coalition MOOC: Towards a gender sensitive Media and Information Lit...
Thursday, April 10, 2025

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Recent articles: media & digital literacy; podcasting
Wednesday, April 9, 2025

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Survey for review of the ACRL Information Literacy Framework
Tuesday, April 8, 2025

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Media Kit Lesson
Wednesday, April 2, 2025

Today in my middle school web design class, we wrapped up a multi-week unit and project I call our “Image and Video Media Kit.” In this post I’ll summarize the unit and share the techniques I used for student presentations this semester, which went smoothly. You can access this ... .. read more..

Coding Mars
Tuesday, March 25, 2025

This is an audio recording and the presentation slides from “Coding Mars with Minecraft Makecode and Scratch,” my presentation on March 25, 2025 at the NCMLE ‘Middle School Matters’ Conference in Charlotte, North Carolina. The session description was: Build a Mars Colony In Minecraft ... .. read more..

Microaggressions in Middle School
Tuesday, March 25, 2025

These are my notes from Dr. Laurie A Ramirez’ presentation, “Microaggressions at the Middle – What are they and what do we do about them?“ at the March 25, 2025 NCMLE ‘Middle School Matters’ Conference MY THOUGHT AND REFLECTIONS ARE IN ALL CAPS. Presentation slides MICROAGGRESSIONS in Middl... .. read more..

Wisdom from Heather Smith
Monday, March 24, 2025

Heather Smith is the 2024 North Carolina Teacher of the Year! She teaches 8th grade math teacher at Waynesville Middle School in Haywood County Schools. These are my notes from her presentation, “Teachers: The Ultimate Influencers“ at the March 24, 2025 NCMLE ‘Middle School Matters’ C... .. read more..

Teaching Local History
Monday, March 24, 2025

These are my notes from Liz Davis’ presentation “Local History: Universal Truths – Exploring and enriching Hometowns at the March 24, 2025  NCMLE ‘Middle School Matters’ Conference. MY THOUGHT AND REFLECTIONS ARE IN ALL CAPS. Liz teaches at Pollard Middle School in Chatham Count... .. read more..

Road to Awesome
Monday, March 24, 2025

These are my notes from Darrin Peppard’s keynote at the March 24, 2025  NCMLE ‘Middle School Matters’ Conference. MY THOUGHT AND REFLECTIONS ARE IN ALL CAPS. Darrin’s books include: “The Road to Awesome: The Journey of a Leader”: roadtoawesome.net and roadtoawesome.net/books Darrin’s ... .. read more..

Why Regulate AI?
Friday, March 21, 2025

Why should we regulate artificial intelligence? This was the question we tackled at the Thursday evening discussion group at Meadowlark Hills Retirement Community in Manhattan, Kansas, on March 20, 2025. This presentation and conversation was shared by Wes Fryer of Charlotte, North Carolina, a 19... .. read more..

Reading Wish List
Monday, March 3, 2025

Long form reading may be a relic of the past for younger generations in US society and culture for a variety of reasons, but I still believe in both the power of reading and its importance in our shared civic culture. For a number of years now, I’ve maintained a public aspirational reading ... .. read more..

6 Things to Do
Thursday, February 6, 2025

In today’s fast-paced world, it feels almost impossible to tune into any news—whether it’s from broadcast television or social media—without feeling overwhelmed. As of early February 2025, the sheer volume and intensity of current events have many people feeling either elated or deepl... .. read more..

Sharing Mastodon Lists
Thursday, January 30, 2025

I am a BIG fan of the federated social media platform Mastodon, and this evening I used Claude.ai to generate code in an HTML file which allows me to quickly share my LISTS on Mastodon with others. Unlike Twitter, lists on Mastodon are PRIVATE and not directly sharable with others. I spent some t... .. read more..

NFC Sticker Automation
Tuesday, January 28, 2025

Here’s a geeky tale for you. We have an old Bluetooth stereo in our car that does not support CarPlay, and it irritatingly connects automatically to my iPhone in the mornings before school when I start the vehicle to warm it up. This evening I successfully configured a NFC sticker (37 cents... .. read more..

Dynamic Audio Waveform Videos
Sunday, January 26, 2025

Have you seen audio podcast “highlight videos” as reels on YouTube, Instagram, TikTok, or other social media websites which include an audio waveform animation that is synchronized to the podcast? Today I explored a few tools, with help from ChatGPT recommendations, to create my own &... .. read more..

NotebookLM Introduces Me
Thursday, January 23, 2025

Tonight’s Jason Neiffer #edtechSR inspired AI experiment: I asked Google’s NotebookLM AI model to take my bio, resume, vitae, portfolios, etc and create a “deep dive” podcast, sharing an audio introduction of me for a diverse audience. It’s 12.5 minutes long, and surprisingly insightful. I added ... .. read more..

Packet Defender 1.0
Thursday, January 9, 2025

Today was the first day of our spring semester, and I’m teaching middle school web design again. As part of our introductory class, we watched the video, “The Internet: IP Addresses & DNS” from Code.org and then played a Kahoot I made with AI about it, using the video transc... .. read more..

TIP Teachers: Jan 2025
Tuesday, January 7, 2025

This evening I was able to join the monthly evening Zoom meeting of TIP Teachers, which is “Teachers for an Informed Public” in the state of Washington. As usual, a wealth of helpful media literacy resources were shared in the session, and I’ll attempt to highlight several of th... .. read more..

Multi-dimensional Digital Identity
Sunday, January 5, 2025

This is a comment and reflection I shared on this blog post by Allysia Doratti, one of Dean Shareski‘s EC&I 832 graduate students in fall 2024: Mirror, Mirror, On My Feed: Exploring Identity in a Digital World. Hi Allysia- Thanks so much for this thoughtful post and especially for the reflect... .. read more..

AI Created Video Clips
Saturday, December 14, 2024

One of the powerful ways artificial intelligence (AI) algorithms can be used by media creators is to identify short clips in longer videos which are potentially engaging for audience members, and then facilitating the process of making those clips into shorter videos that can be shared on social ... .. read more..

Facebook Friend Safety Tips
Monday, December 2, 2024

I’m on Facebook frequently, and I’ve noticed it’s become a REAL MESS because of poor account security and rampant cybercrime. I have multiple relatives and friends now who have lost control over their Facebook accounts. Sometimes these individuals have created another Facebook a... .. read more..

NotebookLM on Project 2025
Thursday, November 28, 2024

At the risk of ruining your Thanksgiving holiday and throwing us further into a “psychological funk” as we approach the political uncertainties of 2025, I’d like to share a brief (and successful) experiment I conducted yesterday using the full PDF of Project 2025 and the artific... .. read more..

ALT Text for Web Accessibility
Thursday, November 21, 2024

In the semester web design course I teach for middle school students, I share a series of videos and activities in a lesson series on web accessibility. I first became aware of the importance of web accessibility when I served as the first “Director of Distance Learning” for the Colle... .. read more..

Froot Loop Conspiracy Theories
Monday, November 11, 2024

Hello, Providence Day parents and others who may be watching this video. This is Dr. Wes Fryer. Today is November 11, 2024, and this week we’re starting our “Froot Loop Conspiracy Theories” unit. This is an engaging, exciting, and highly relevant topic today because there are many wild and mislea... .. read more..

Ending Christian Nationalism
Thursday, October 24, 2024

These are my notes from Amanda Tyler’s presentation about her book, “How to End Christian Nationalism” on October 22, 2024, at First Baptist Church in Charlotte, North Carolina. This was a conversation facilitated by Jennifer Roberts, former mayor of Charlotte. MY THOUGHTS ARE IN ALL CAPS. IF YOU... .. read more..

Remove Background in Adobe Express
Sunday, October 13, 2024

I LOVE creating and sharing InfoPics. My favorite iOS app for creating InfoPIcs has (for years now) been Adobe Express for iOS. The app has updated in many ways, but it still retains its core features and UI for quickly adding readable, contrasting text to an image. This morning as I created a &#... .. read more..

Scratch Coding Resources
Wednesday, October 9, 2024

I received an email earlier this year from a teacher in South Africa who is interested in starting a school and including coding in the curriculum. I finally responded to that message (yikes!) asking for links to CODING RESOURCES I use and have shared, including resources for using Scratch coding... .. read more..

Beware of Hurricane Helene Fundraising Scams
Monday, September 30, 2024

Today in my middle school web design class, we took some time at the start to “think / pair / share” about the past weekend’s dramatic and even traumatic events caused by Hurricane Helene. Several teachers in our department did not have electricity at their houses for three days... .. read more..

POWs and NotebookLM
Friday, September 20, 2024

In December of 1991 as a senior at the US Air Force Academy, I wrote “American POWs in Southeast Asia and the Violation of a National Ethic” as my final research paper in my “History of Military Thought” class taught by visiting Colorado College professor, Dennis Showalter... .. read more..

Boeing 737 Max Whistleblowers
Thursday, August 29, 2024

I started a Wakelet collection of video and article links on “Boeing 737 Max Whistleblowers.” Those links are embedded at the bottom of this post. I highly recommend watching the Netflix documentary, “Downfall: The Case Against Boeing.” The merger of Boeing with McDonnell Douglas was ... .. read more..

Priceless Media Hostages
Tuesday, August 27, 2024

This evening I looked through an old box of media tapes and CDs which managed to survive our 1000+ mile move from Oklahoma to North Carolina two years ago. There are some priceless artifacts here. Basically all the Digital 8 and MiniDV video tapes which I recorded of our kids and family growing u... .. read more..

Preparing for “Peer War” with China
Sunday, August 25, 2024

It is important for us, as citizens of the United States and our planet, to know of the growing hostilities which continue to build between China and the United States, and the likelihood of a “peer war” including both kinetic and cyber operations which could negatively impact all aspects of our ... .. read more..

Enchanted Christmas Chapel Memories
Friday, August 9, 2024

I love listening to Christmas music year round. This is my favorite instrumental Christmas music playlist on Spotify: “Back in the day” this was a Pandora playlist called, “Peaceful Holidays.” Those were the years (starting in 2015) when I was the Director of Technology at Casady School in OKC. L... .. read more..

Favorite Digital Utilities
Thursday, August 8, 2024

What are the websites, web services, and software applications you use regularly and can’t imagine doing without? I call these my “favorite digital utilities,” and today I created a specific webpage for them on my curriculum / lesson sharing website which is built with Google Si... .. read more..

Remembering Emergency Remote Learning (April 2020)
Tuesday, August 6, 2024

Were you teaching during the COVID-19 lock downs in April and May 2020? My wife and I were. This week a colleague asked me to find some photos we took at the time of Shelly teaching her third graders at Casady School online from our house in The Village in Oklahoma City, and I found […] .. read more..

Dehumunization is Wrong
Tuesday, August 6, 2024

Dehumanizing other human beings: Denying the essential humanity of other people, is ethically wrong and immoral at a basic level. It is also dangerous, because people who view other human beings as sub-human or “inhuman” are capable of horrific atrocities. The Universal Declaration of Human Right... .. read more..

Remembering TxTIP in Floydada and Post, Texas (2004-05)
Friday, July 12, 2024

Once upon a time in the late 1990s, there was a teacher in Lubbock, Texas, who had a dream. He dreamed that all the students in our schools could have their own personal computers to access information, communicate with others, and complete both assignments and projects required for classes at sc... .. read more..

Oral History Workshops (July 2024)
Tuesday, July 9, 2024

 I’m sharing a 2 part, free oral history workshop series for the Mint Hill Historical Society this coming Saturday, July 13 and the next Saturday, July 20. These will each be an hour and a half long, from 9 to 10:30am, and held in “The Barn” at the Historical Society: 4311 HILLS... .. read more..

Host an Astronomy Night
Wednesday, June 26, 2024

These are my notes from the SPACE 2024 presentation, “How to Host an Astronomy Night: Astronomy in Elementary and Middle School Classrooms” by Peter Tlusty (Mr. T) NASA/JPL Solar System Ambassador / Richmond Astronomical Society Member. Links about Peter: https://solarsystem.nasa.gov/ambassadors/... .. read more..

Plants in Space
Wednesday, June 26, 2024

These are my notes from the SPACE 2024 presentation, “Planting Other Worlds” by Melissa Sleeper and Lisa Dupuy. The session description is: Tired of the same old plant growth lessons? Help spark student interest in agriculture using Space as the hook. When humans go to settle the Moon and Mars, t... .. read more..

Communists and Conspiracies
Saturday, June 8, 2024

One thing that has surprised and even confused me in recent months has been the assertion that our U.S. schools and mainstream, progressive political parties / leadership circles are “filled with  communists.” This “fringe argument” has sadly become more mainstream. It is instructive as well as s... .. read more..

AI and Cheating
Thursday, May 30, 2024

One of the most common concerns many teachers and parents have today regarding generative AI / artificial intelligence tools is that students are using and will use them “to cheat.” While students have used and will continue to use a variety of tools and strategies to cheat during exa... .. read more..

I Am Healed
Monday, April 29, 2024

I am healed, I know who I am, and I know the work God has called me to do. This is a big deal. I have spent the past three decades as a largely broken and wounded human being. I have been a person who was seeking healing, and finding healing, but just taking baby […] .. read more..

Visualizing Off-Planet Habitats
Friday, April 12, 2024

My middle school computer programming students are continuing to work on our “Coding Mars” unit, in which they are using Minecraft MakeCode to simulate the 3D printing of structures and habitats which Icon of Austin, Texas, is under contract with NASA to do first on the moon / the lun... .. read more..

SIFTing our Sources
Tuesday, April 2, 2024

So many things have been going well in my media literacy, computer programming and engineering middle school courses this semester I should be blogging about our classroom learning every day! In this post I’d like to briefly reflect and share about an InfoPics lesson we are doing today as p... .. read more..

Internet Radio Dreams
Saturday, March 30, 2024

This morning I’m dreaming of Internet Radio: My OWN Internet radio station patterned after the amazing example of ds106 Radio. Let me explain. In December 2012, I published the 3 minute photo story, “Live Internet Radio Broadcasting from a Bus.” In it, I shared “a story ab... .. read more..

War Over TikTok
Friday, March 8, 2024

The article caught my eye this morning: “US lawmakers vote 50-0 to force sale of TikTok despite angry calls from users” (ArsTechnica, 7 Mar 2024.). It highlights a proposed bill in the US House of Representatives which would require the Chinese government to entirely DIVEST (sell off)... .. read more..

Trust Me Documentary
Tuesday, March 5, 2024

This evening I attended “most” of the March 2024 meeting of “TIP Teachers,” which is “Teachers for an Informed Public.” I’ve been a participant of TIP Teachers for over a year now, although I’m in North Carolina and the majority of the educators inv... .. read more..

Teaching the Conspiracies
Sunday, January 28, 2024

This week on January 31, 2024, I’m excited to start facilitating a six week online course for educators titled, “Teaching the Conspiracies.” This “anytime learning course” is offered as part of the 2024 MediaED Institute by the Media Education Lab, with whom I’... .. read more..

Beware of Facebook Event Bad Actors
Sunday, January 28, 2024

Scammers and bad actors are not new. The methods which con artists use to try and trick people into giving away their money or sharing private, personal information continue to evolve, however. It can be valuable to learn about some of these new scam techniques, especially in our increasingly DIG... .. read more..

Social Media Text Prepper
Sunday, January 28, 2024

It is now possible to use generative AI / artificial intelligence platforms, like ChatGPT 4, to create simple to relatively complex web applications without knowing the precise syntax of programming languages. By formulating detailed prompts for the AI chatbot, it is possible to create code in va... .. read more..

Full Text RSS Feeds from Mastodon
Sunday, January 28, 2024

Prepare for a “geekier than normal” post: I want to share about a custom GPT I’m trying to build that will extract article link titles, website sources, article dates, and article hyperlinks from a Mastodon account’s RSS feed, and specifically an RSS feed which includes a ... .. read more..

Engaging with the Duke Polarization Lab
Sunday, January 28, 2024

This morning I submitted the “Get Involved Form” shared by the Polarization Lab at Duke University. This two minute video (shared in November 2019) from the Duke University Department of Political Science provides a concise overview of the Lab’s focus and mission. The “Mis... .. read more..

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