repost | Chris Aldrich

Reposted a post by

Ryan Randall (hcommons.social)

Earnest but still solidifying #pkm take:
The ever-rising popularity of personal knowledge management tools indexes the need for liberal arts approaches. Particularly, but not exclusively, in STEM education.
When people widely reinvent the concept/practice of commonplace books without building on centuries of prior knowledge (currently institutionalized in fields like library & information studies, English, rhetoric & composition, or media & communication studies), that's not "innovation."
Instead, we're seeing some unfortunate combination of lost knowledge, missed opportunities, and capitalism selectively forgetting in order to manufacture a market.

Reposted a post by

Geoff Cain (@[email protected]) (Mastodon)

The Handbook of Open, Distance and Digital Education, a great (1400+ pages!) resource on elearning has been released as an openly licensed book. Great essays in here on learning theories - I will write more as I get through this, but it looks some of the most interesting writers/researchers on elearning are well represented here. Pay a lot for the print copy or download it free as a pdf. https://link.springer.com/referencework/10.1007/978-981-19-2080-6

Reposted Thinking About Tools For Thought: Episode 005 – Interview with Chris Aldrich by Andy Sylvester (thinkingabouttoolsforthought.com)

Links from today’s episode:

Chris Aldrich web site

Gardens & Streams II (Indieweb pop-up event) on September 25, 2021 https://events.indieweb.org/2021/09/gardens-and-streams-ii-pPUbyYME33V4

Obsidian (https://obsidian.md/)

Hypothesis (https://web.hypothes.is/)

Knowledge and Power in Prehistoric Societies: Orality, Memory, and the Transmission of Culture by Lynne Kelly (Cambridge, 2015)

Memory Craft by Lynne Kelly (Pegasus, 2019)

Anthropology: Why it Matters by Tim Ingold (Polity Press, 2018)

How to Take Smart Notes: One Simple Technique to Boost Writing, Learning and Thinking – for Students, Academics and Nonfiction Book Writers by Sönke Ahrens (Create Space, 2017)

And for the crazy rhetoric and note taking nerds:

Early Philosophical Texts

Aristotle, Topica, written about 350 BCE Venice, 1495.

Aristotle, Rhetorica, written about 350 BCE. Basel, 1529.

Cicero, De Oratore, written about 46 BCE. Northern Italian manuscript about 1450.

Cicero, Topica, written about 44 BCE. Florentine manuscript, about 1425-30.

Seneca the Younger, Epistulae morales, written 62-65 CE. French manuscript, about 1175.

Quintilian, Institutio oratoria, written about 100 CE. Paris, 1542.

Macrobius, Saturnalia, written about 430 CE. Central Italian manuscript, about 1475.

Boethius, De topicis differentiis, written about 480-526 CD. English manuscript, about 1275.

Renaissance Handbooks

Rodolphus Agricola, De formando studio. Antwerp, 1532; composed 1484.

Desiderius Erasmus, De ratione studii et instituendi pueros comentarii totidem. [Paris, 1512].

Philip Melanchthon, Institutiones rhetoricae. Wittenberg [1536].

Philip Melanchthon, Rhetorices elementa. Lyon, 1537.

Desiderius Erasmus, De duplici copia verborum ac rerum. Cologne, 1540.

Petrus Mosellanus, Tabulae de schematibus et tropis…. In Rhetroica Philippi Melanchthonis. In Erasmi Roterdami libellum De duplici copia. Paris, 1542.

Joachim Camerarius, Elementa rhetoricae. Basel, [1545].

Henry Peacham, The garden of eloquence: conteyning the figures of grammar and rhetorick. London, 1577.

One of the first handbooks in English

Philip Melanchthon, De locis communibus ratio. Augsburg [1593].

John Brinsley, Ludus literarius: or, The grammar schoole; shewing how to proceede from the first entrance into learning, to the highest perfection. London, 1612.

[Obadiah Walker], Of education: especially of young gentlemen. Oxford, 1673.

I may have broadened the discussion that some of the intended audience on tools for thought may be showing up for, but I can never resist introducing people to mnemnotechniques and research on orality, anthropology, or the history of commonplaces.

I provocatively (with only a modest amount of wickedness) put forward the idea that a rock is as good a tool for thought as Obsidian.md or Roam Research.

Reposted a post by

Altadena Library District (Facebook.com)

A top priority for the Altadena Libraries is to reach populations that are historically underserved and increase access to library services and resources. A multitude of issues can limit people from accessing literacy tools, so homegrown, community-driven initiatives like Little Free Libraries (LFL) are ideal channels through which to provide access to books and other literacy tools. Chris Aldrich is a steward of his own LFL #8424, and as a champion for Little Free Libraries in Altadena, he keeps books in his car to "pollinate" other libraries he sees. Talking with library staff, he noted that throughout the pandemic, he has been surprised and encouraged to see people walking to LFLs with their children and reading books on the spot, transforming LFLs from just quick pick-up locations to actual reading destinations.

After learning about the Altadena Zine Library, Chris decided to create a zine listing all Little Free Libraries in Altadena, both those officially registered with LittleFreeLibrary.org and not, with photos and locations for Altadenans to explore! As the Altadena Library District and the Friends of the Altadena Library work together to steward surplus book donations and as the District’s mobile library program gets rolling, library staff will draw on on Chris’ vast knowledge and passion about the Little Free Library movement to support the inventories of Altadena LFLs, reach underserved communities, and potentially even build new LFLs! #NationalLibraryWeek2021 #NationalLibraryWeekinAltadena

PICTURED:
- Chris’ very own Little Free Library
- Chris (left) and founder of the Little Free Library movement Todd Bol (right)

I suspected they were going to do something, but just hadn’t seen it yet. The Altadena Libraries have featured me in their newsletter this past month for some of my Little Free Library work.