Charlotte Shane explores the phenomenon of audio memes on TikTok. She argues that these memes are more than just a trend, but rather a new form of communication that allows users to “riff” off of each other’s ideas in a way that is both creative and collaborative. Shane also considers what makes a sound compelling beyond its musical qualities or linguistic meaning, and suggests that the “brainfeel” of an audio meme is what ultimately makes it so popular.

Before social media, Gleason’s “Nobody’s gonna know” might have been called a catchphrase: a banal word combination animated by unique context and delivery. “Did I Do That?” “I’ll Be Back” and “How You Doin’?” would mean nothing if not for the precise tones and cadences with which their originators (Jaleel White as Steve Urkel, Arnold Schwarzenegger as the Terminator and Wendy Williams as herself) so reliably rendered them. In a phone call, the linguist Molly Babel mentioned Alicia Silverstone’s “As if,” from the movie “Clueless”: Taken altogether, Silverstone’s iconic phrasing, intonation and cadence are the sound. Like earworms, these quips are so mentally sticky that it takes just a few listens for your mind to latch onto them and never let go. Try reading them without hearing their corresponding acoustic signatures in your head: “Here’s Johnny!” “You talkin’ to me?” “Damn, Daniel!”

“Memes are often symbols,” says Don Caldwell, editor in chief of the dizzyingly comprehensive website Know Your Meme, and exceptionally viral memes tend to be “very novel or very catchy or just very, very striking emotionally.” Even when they’re estranged from their origins — i.e. taken out of context — they’re funny or moving or both. He mentions “sad trombone” as a pre-internet audio meme, and it occurs to me that the song “Yakety Sax” counts, too. Both musical cues evoke an unmistakable mood in and of themselves, but after decades of application to that effect, their deployment adds another layer of information to whatever scene they orchestrate. It’s a wink to the audience that positions the moment within a cultural continuum. The famous Wilhelm scream, a histrionic stock effect taken from a 1951 film, has since appeared in more than 100 movies, where it has become an inside joke for sound engineers and film fans. An audio meme’s most crucial quality, though, is the ability to instantly excite us, to make us think, upon the first listen: I need to hear that again.

When used effectively, memes can be a valuable tool to engage students and assess student understanding.

Yuvraj Chandra at MakeUseOf shared a cheat sheet of Google search operators that can be used to narrow down search results. It includes commands to help users filter results by site, timelines, and context. The cheat sheet is available as a downloadable PDF from the webpage.

I use the following search operators on a daily basis:

Students who know how to use search engine operators can save time and find the information they need more quickly. For example, a student who is looking for information about the American Revolution can use the site: operator to limit their search to results from the History Channel website. Or, a student who is looking for a specific file type, such as a PDF, can use the filetype: operator to find only results that match that file type. Learning how to use search engine operators is a valuable skill for students of all ages. It can help them find the information they need more quickly and easily, which can save them time and frustration.

Fergus O’Sullivan writes about a growing community of people who are creating new games for retro consoles like the NES, SNES, and Sega Genesis. These hobbyist game developers are passionate about creating games for consoles from the golden age of gaming. O’Sullivan highlights the challenges and rewards of making retro games, and it provides a glimpse into a fascinating and growing community:

Noll also points out that many games are made by people that have an idea for a game but may not have the graphical skills to make their dream a reality. Retro games, in this case, are a great solution as you don’t need the same skill set as you would if you tried to use a game development platform like Unity or Unreal Engine. There are some specialized platforms like NES Maker that will let you make games on older consoles—or you could, if you have the chops, program them yourself.

Noll showed us several games at his exhibit that were made by people with little to no programming experience who just wanted to try and put something together. Examples include a platformer game called Doodle World put together by a father and his toddler, or some simple shoot-em-ups. As basic as they are, they still drew interest from passersby.

Educators can teach computer coding and game design by having students create games for retro consoles. This is a great way to engage students who are interested in gaming, and it can help them learn valuable skills in both coding and game design. When students create games for retro consoles, they are often faced with challenges that require them to think critically and solve problems. This can help them develop these important skills, which are essential for success in school and in the workplace.

Ian Byrd has developed an interactive tool to help educators create clear and measurable lesson objectives called The Differentiator:

The Differentiator is based on Bloom’s Taxonomy, Kaplan and Gould’s Depth and Complexity, and David Chung’s product menu.

Angela Watson talked with Monica Burns on the Truth for Teachers podcast about how teachers can use ChatGPT to increase their productivity:

Like, I need to write a reminder email for a field trip and tell parents not to forget this, and I can put that in ChatGPT because I’ve tried that already, you know? And that has worked really well to generate an email. Or, I wrote a sentence and I don’t love how it sounds and I’m going to plug it into an email, but I don’t love this. I might ask ChatGPT to rewrite this sentence in a more friendly way. Or, you know, the same way we use the thesaurus when we’re stuck on a word. We can do that with a whole sentence to paraphrase or rewrite it.

I’ve even used it for resource searches — I made a list for a blog post of tools for video essays that I love. Am I forgetting any? And I put that in ChatGPT and it gave me a couple more ideas and I’m like, yeah, I don’t know about that one. Or ooh, I totally forgot about that one. And then I added it in and I write my own paragraph description.

If you are a teacher who makes videos for your flipped classroom and you just want a quicker way to make video descriptions before you plug it onto YouTube, that’s one great thing. If you want to take something that you’ve written and simplify the vocabulary, maybe differentiate a prompt for a different group of students, so those creative teacher uses that are time-saving.

For more ideas on how to accelerate your workflows check out Angela Watson’s additional tips on how teachers are using ChatGPT.

Padlet is a powerful digital tool that can be used for a wide range of activities, including collaborative brainstorming, group discussions, interactive presentations, and multimedia projects. It also allows students to engage with each other and with the material in new and dynamic ways, by enabling them to share their thoughts, ideas, and perspectives in real-time. Recently Padlet released a new feature that allows users to create presentations from the Padlet boards they create.

Max Evans on the Padlet Blog explains how the new slideshow feature works:

You add your content to a padlet, and you click the [slideshow] button. Like magic, you have a beautiful presentation. Every post becomes a slide. The fonts are sized automatically. The colors are determined by your chosen wallpaper. You can navigate with your cursor or your keyboard. The presentation will be updated live when you edit the padlet it references.

To learn more about how to use the Padlet slideshow feature check out Padlet’s slideshow support page.

From Emma Roth at The Verge:

The Internet Archive calls this new collection the Calculator Drawer. There are 14 calculators to choose from, including the HP 48GX, TI-82, TI-83 Plus, and even the Electronic Number Muncher, which is an 80s-era toy calculator. The Internet Archive doesn’t just emulate the interface of each device, either; it incorporates their physical design and buttons, making it feel like you have the actual device right in front of you.

Authentic audiences are crucial for student projects because they provide a sense of purpose and relevance beyond just completing an assignment for a grade. When students know that their work will be seen and potentially used by a real-world audience, they are more motivated to put effort and thought into their project. Authentic audiences also give students the opportunity to practice communication and collaboration skills as they tailor their work to meet the needs and expectations of a specific group.

If you are looking for an authentic audience for a student project NPR has just announced the 2023 Student Podcast Challenge. The content will start on January 6, 2023 and close on April 28. The focus of the challenge is for students to create a podcast about any topic they wish to explore. Visit the NPR Student Podcast Challenge page for more details.

Alexander King at Edutopia explains how she adapted a math meme contest for her high school calculus class:

[S]tudents can participate in the same activity that organizers of the Southeastern Section of the Mathematical Association of America annual meeting in March 2020 created to preserve community spirit when their in-person meeting was canceled because of Covid restrictions: Make a math cartoon/meme contest.

The rules were simple: Create a fun mathematical image. The task was introduced by Ben Orlin of the Math with Bad Drawings blog. In short, it required creating a playful image that had to do with mathematics—research, teaching, concepts, culture, ideas, applications, etc.—without worrying about being side-splitting funny. After all, Orlin explained, the audience was an audience of mathematicians, who share similar sensibilities.

The students’ memes and cartoons can be seen here.

Vergecast just finished a series on artificial intelligence (AI) and how it is having a significant impact on the way content is being created for voice, video, writing, and taste.