iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Nathan Holbert @snowdaylearninglab.org · 1h

No I wouldn’t eat the mold. Unless it’s as tasty as it smells. #CONTROLResonant

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Chris Geidner @chrisgeidner.bsky.social · 4h

ICYMI:

State
Date of Secession
South Carolina
December 20, 1860
Mississippi
January 9, 1861
Florida
January 10, 1861
Alabama
January 11, 1861
Georgia
January 19,1861
Louisiana
January 26, 1861
Texas
February 1, 1861
Virginia
April 17, 1861
Arkansas
May 6, 1861
North Carolina
May 20, 1861
Tennessee
June 8, 1861

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Nathan Holbert @snowdaylearninglab.org · 8h

I still frequently say “ I learned it by watching.” So maybe not as famous, but more useful!

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Nathan Holbert @snowdaylearninglab.org · 11h

What is the Bone Temple Express?

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Nathan Holbert @snowdaylearninglab.org · 14h

I found this part of the explainer a bit confusing. Asked AI, it told me I’d look good in polka dots.

An ad, right in the middle of a scrolling explainer

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Nathan Holbert @snowdaylearninglab.org · 14h

I’ve played enough horror video games and watched enough horror movies to recognize the concerned scientist that created the monster, raised alarms the monster might be dangerous, and was ignored by corporate. They usually make a big thing of repenting, but get eaten anyway.

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Nathan Holbert @snowdaylearninglab.org · 14h

Exactly. And it’s not just observing what people actually do, it’s also building theories about WHY and (for better or worse) creating systems that nudge users towards optimal behaviors. They’ve skipped the needs analysis entirely!

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Nathan Holbert @snowdaylearninglab.org · 29/09/2026

Fun to be back in the studio recording episodes for the next season of Pop & Play! We're tackling big and small questions about play, pop culture, and learning this season so if you've got some send them our way (a reply here works!). In the meantime, check out S6 tc.edu/popandplay

tc.edu

Pop and Play | Media | Digital Futures Institute (DFI) | Teachers College, Columbia University

Teachers College Digital Futures Institute (DFI) is an interdisciplinary hub for digital innovation, with a mission to advance more just social futures that is driven by research, pedagogy, and public engagement.

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Nathan Holbert @snowdaylearninglab.org · 29/09/2026

How to Learn Anything isn't focused on schools (though they do make a regular appearance), but this article captures one reason most of us struggle with the theories and practices of learning: In public conversations, learning is instrumentalized as a means of improving test scores.

nytimes.com

30 Ideas for Fixing U.S. Schools, Ranked by Experts (Gift Article)

Math and reading scores are in a decade-long slump. We asked three dozen experts: What could turn things around?

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Nathan Holbert @snowdaylearninglab.org · 29/09/2026

nytimes.com

30 Ideas for Fixing U.S. Schools, Ranked by Experts (Gift Article)

Math and reading scores are in a decade-long slump. We asked three dozen experts: What could turn things around?

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Nathan Holbert @snowdaylearninglab.org · 29/09/2026

The gods really do not want me eating salad this year

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Kai Ryssdal @kairyssdal.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

If a sentence in your newscast starts with “President Trump says…” you’re failing your audience.

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Nathan Holbert @snowdaylearninglab.org · 29/09/2026

“Zoey…there’s something wrong…I see a computer but…no keyboard!”

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Nathan Holbert @snowdaylearninglab.org · 29/09/2026

Running around on the Inceptioned Manhattan buildings in Control Resonant is a ton of fun, but disappointed to discover my apartment was lost in the pattern

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Nathan Holbert @snowdaylearninglab.org · 28/09/2026

Watched Mole People with Mike, Crow, and Tom Servo. "Oh, these are the people who make that nice Mexican sauce!"

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Nathan Holbert @snowdaylearninglab.org · 28/09/2026

Whoa I hadn’t seen this was out! Super pumped to check it out. Congrats Aaron!

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Aaron Trammell @aarontram.bsky.social · 13/09/2026

♥️🔥♥️🔥♥️🔥♥️🔥♥️🔥♥️🔥♥️ ITS HERE!!!!! This book is about how game design on a whole, counterintuitively, became less imaginative because of Dungeons & Dragons. We often talk about Dungeons & Dragons as the ultimate fantasy. A pure domain of imagination where absolutely anything is possible.

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Nathan Holbert @snowdaylearninglab.org · 28/09/2026

Seems like every day there’s a new video of grandpa snoozing during meetings in the oval.

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Nathan Holbert @snowdaylearninglab.org · 28/09/2026

The biggest driver of educational misinformation today is the EdTech industry. If you believe learning is memorization and recall AI is a thrilling innovation. Our book pushes back against those that want to mechanize learning offering methods to find meaning and community in your learning journey.

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Nathan Holbert @snowdaylearninglab.org · 28/09/2026

Title of your next book of poetry?

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Nathan Holbert @snowdaylearninglab.org · 28/09/2026

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Nathan Holbert @snowdaylearninglab.org · 28/09/2026

You don’t know what they put in those needles!? Probably gay stuff. Or math.

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Nathan Holbert @snowdaylearninglab.org · 28/09/2026

What is the Erfurt Latrine Disaster of 1184?

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Nathan Holbert @snowdaylearninglab.org · 27/09/2026

Every time I walk by Popeyes I think, I should grab a spicy while I’m here right?

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Nathan Holbert @snowdaylearninglab.org · 27/09/2026

We're writing a book revisiting these ideas (slow going...). Doing some very cool interviews with folks from a range of professions about how they found and use computing. As others have noted, the pipeline metaphor is shit!

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Nathan Holbert @snowdaylearninglab.org · 27/09/2026

Been saying for years our values drive how we define and build these “movements.” Too often we let corporations define the values based on their needs (why? Funding). Tissenbaum, Weintrop, Clegg and I proposed an alternate path: start with diverse endpoints society values and build backwards.

bera-journals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com

<em>British Journal of Educational Technology</em> | BERA Journal | Wiley Online Library

This paper argues for a re-examination of the nature and goals of broad computing education initiatives. Instead of starting with specific values or goals, we instead begin by considering various de...

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Brendan Davey @brendandavey.bsky.social · 11/09/2025

I find myself thinking about this 1941 Harper's magazine article a lot. Point being, good, happy people don't turn into Nazis. Also, @cuny.edu (represent!) students seldom turn into Nazis. But the "scared spectator" and the "spoiled sons" often do. 🗃️ Archive Link below 👇

Kind, good, happy, gentlemanly, secure people never go Nazi. They may be the gentle philosopher whose name is in the Blue Book, or Bill from City College to whom democracy gave a chance to design airplanes—you’ll never make Nazis out of them. But the frustrated and humiliated intellectual, the rich and scared speculator, the spoiled son, the labor tyrant, the fellow who has achieved success by smelling out the wind of success—they would all go Nazi in a crisis.
Believe me, nice people don’t go Nazi. Their race, color, creed, or social condition is not the criterion. It is something in them.
Those who haven’t anything in them to tell them what they like and what they don’t, whether it is breeding, or happiness, or wisdom, or a code, however old-fashioned or however modern, go Nazi. It’s an amusing game. Try it at the next big party you go to.

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Nathan Holbert @snowdaylearninglab.org · 24/09/2026

New book incoming! Everybody has ideas about learning, but much of it is confusing, demoralizing, and flat out wrong. In How to Learn Anything we pull together research on cognition, play, and design to share how we can all create powerful, more meaningful spaces for learning. Coming soooon (ish)!

Publishers Marketplace
Deal Report
Category: Non-fiction: Science/Technology
September 23, 2026
HOW TO LEARN ANYTHING By Matthew Berland, Nathan Holbert
Imprint: Basic, John Murray, NHK
Professors of the learning sciences Matthew Berland and Nathan Holbert's HOW TO LEARN ANYTHING, which translates the latest scientific research on learning into an approachable guide to grappling with new ideas and creating habits that stick, showing that doing, playing, and even failing in community with others can teach us far more than solitary study of any kind, to Brandon Proia at Basic, by Jay Mandel and Dara Kaye at WME (NA).
Rights also to John Murray (UK); and to NHK (Japan).
Translation: Alex Levenberg

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Nathan Holbert @snowdaylearninglab.org · 25/09/2026

Was already in, but Infamous-like is making me consider getting it at full price

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Nathan Holbert @snowdaylearninglab.org · 24/09/2026

Nothing funnier than haltingly reading a joke from a sheet of paper

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Nathan Holbert @snowdaylearninglab.org · 24/09/2026

.@matthewberland.bsky.social and I have been tinkering on this project for about two years and have produced many ideas, many words, and many drafts. Excited to be working with @brndnpr.bsky.social and Basic Books to create an accessible, useful, and fun book for learning about learning!

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Nathan Holbert @snowdaylearninglab.org · 24/09/2026

Being too lazy to know your own zip code or phone number (famously designed to be easy to remember) is not like forgetting long division. And your super duper plagiarism machines (famously crap at math) are not a calculator.

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Nathan Holbert @snowdaylearninglab.org · 24/09/2026

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Nathan Holbert @snowdaylearninglab.org · 24/09/2026

Kids repurposing tech to meet their extremely unique needs leaving adults baffled is one of my absolute favorite reoccurring stories

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Nathan Holbert @snowdaylearninglab.org · 23/09/2026

“Of prices!”

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Nathan Holbert @snowdaylearninglab.org · 23/09/2026

Be right back. SEO’ing my journal articles

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Renee DiResta @noupside.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

New work featured in New Public!: There is no neutral feed algorithm. Each one makes source, ranking, & content diversity choices. @jonathanstray.com & I started MySky so you can see - and change! - these settings. Check it out here on Bluesky, in "Feeds" # newpublic.substack.com/p/meet-the-a...

newpublic.substack.com

🎛️📲 Meet the algorithm you can actually control and understand

Jonathan Stray and Renée DiResta introduce MySky, a feed that shows its work

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Nathan Holbert @snowdaylearninglab.org · 23/09/2026

First poutine, universal healthcare, and now this!?

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Nathan Holbert @snowdaylearninglab.org · 23/09/2026

Huge payday coming for Big Bulletin Board.

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Nathan Holbert @snowdaylearninglab.org · 23/09/2026

So they’re learning cursive again in New Jersey… [looks around at world burning and crumbling] Sure.

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Nathan Holbert @snowdaylearninglab.org · 22/09/2026

Yeah my first reaction to that was Jiang has 100% gotten this feedback from others (very possibly a partner) and ignored them

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Prisonculture @prisonculture.bsky.social · 22/09/2026

Let's hire teens in the city and put them to work reaching out to various local cultural organizations to advise them how they can create actual teen friendly spaces at their organizations. The city has a department of youth services. Let the youth lead.

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Nathan Holbert @snowdaylearninglab.org · 22/09/2026

AlwaysHasBeen.jpg (complementary)

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