September 2020 archive

Sep 24

Using the details element via a Gutenberg block

As I wrote about last year, the HTML5 “details” element is a very useful and lightweight way to create a collapsed list of questions or other content. Investigating possible options, these kind of parts of a web page seem to be often called an “accordion”. There are a number of accordion plugins, but almost all the ones I could find use some kind of additional JavaScript scripts to make the accordion.

Why do I want to use the <details> element vs JavaScript?

Because the native HTML element is already known to browsers. The extra JavaScript is not needed.

Should this be faster?

I would expect so, because there is no need to load additional JavaScript

What WordPress plugin provides this capability?

I found the “Lightweight Accordion” plugin found in the WordPress plugin directory.

Now, obviously I would need to style it a bit more to have it fit in here well, but it’s very easy to add in Gutenberg. It also has the ability to be added in the Classic Editor, too.

Sep 06

TDYR 398 – COVID-19, online learning, and… the END OF SNOW DAYS??

What??? With schools moving to online learning, are we really seeing the end of *snow days*? In this episode, I talk about the long tradition of "snow days" in the northern US, and how the COVID-19 pandemic is changing the way we learn... and removing the need to have a day off for snowstorms! If you are in areas with snow, are you hearing something similar? (no snow days) What do you think about all of this?

Sep 04

TDYR 397 – COVID-19: Have we depleted our brain’s surge capacity?

In this pandemic with its ongoing and never-ending uncertainty, is part of our challenge that we have depleted our brain's "surge capacity"? Following on to the last episode 396 where I talked about the "Pandemic Productivity Plunge," in this episode I discuss an article I found very helpful in thinking about how to *think about* our response to the pandemic. The article is "Your ‘Surge Capacity’ Is Depleted — It’s Why You Feel Awful" by science journalist Tara Haelle. I would encourage everyone to read it at: https://elemental.medium.com/your-surge-capacity-is-depleted-it-s-why-you-feel-awful-de285d542f4c (If you cannot view it there, I have also found it at https://outline.com/GwHDSf ) What do you think about this article and the ideas? Are they helpful to you? What are YOU doing to renew your capacity to respond? Please do leave comments either here on SoundCloud or wherever this is posted on social media. FYI, you can follow the article author on Twitter at https://twitter.com/tarahaelle