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Children as customers
TL;DR #165 – 9/14/2018
TL;DR is a weekly look at the news in technology, education, and literacy. I’m seeking to keep you on top of the news so you can be the expert.
This week has been a jumble as we’ve been preparing for Hurricane Florence to head into the area. Classes were canceled starting on Tuesday and most people have heeded the evacuation warnings. My family has not heeded these warnings…and decided to stay at home. I’ve used this as an opportunity to start playing with my 360 camera again.
How to make someone remember you for a lifetime (11:49)
Great overview of the use of touch and eye contact by Oprah Winfrey. She uses these techniques to deeply connect with others and build audience.
I’ve wondered about new opportunities to connect and empathize with others in face-to-face meetings.
Thanks to Todd Finley and his Inside Todd’s Brain Newsletter for this link.
Why aren’t kids being taught to read?
Emily Hanford investigative report for American Public Media. Scientific research has shown how children learn to read and how they should be taught. But many educators don’t know the science and, in some cases, actively resist it. As a result, millions of kids are being set up to fail.
A very important report (IMHO) that leads to broader questions about the tension that exists between facts or science, and the experience of experts as they teach others.
‘It’s Like Amazon, But for Preschool’
This week, Amazon chief Jeff Bezos indicated that he’s launching a $2 billion fund to help homeless families and build a network of preschools, saying the “child will be the customer” in his philanthropy announcement.
“We’ll use the same set of principles that have driven Amazon. Most important among those will be genuine, intense customer obsession,” he wrote on Twitter. “The child will be the customer.” The connection between the “values of Amazon” and bringing this to the lives of children drew a lot of criticism immediately online.
The lead link above is from Audrey Watters and provides the best overview of the problems in this view of education reform.
How game apps that captivate kids have been collecting their data
I’ve talked about the challenges and concerns that exist as we allow children and young adults as they consume digital content. This may include viewing YouTube and trusting the videos shared by the algorithms. This also includes many of the free apps available in app stores that lure in and hook kids.
This investigative report details exactly how these companies target, track, and build databases of info about children. If you have a child, or work with children…please review this post before agreeing to hand over your mobile device to a child.
Teens are protesting in-class presentations
As an educator, mentor, or even parent/guardian, we often have to straddle a difficult balance as we push someone out of their comfort zone. But, when is this gentle nudge something a bit more of an unreasonable burden?
This week, a tweet posted by a 15-year-old high-school student declaring “Stop forcing students to present in front of the class and give them a choice not to” garnered more than 130,000 retweets and nearly half a million likes. A similar sentiment tweeted in January also racked up thousands of likes and retweets. And teachers are listening.
An urgency of teachers
This week Sean Michael Morris and Jesse Stommel release a book they’ve been working on for years. This text seeks to sketch out what critical pedagogy looks like in a digital context.
I believe that technology, and these new networked spaces should force us to problematize or reframe our thinking about most of our assumptions and perspectives. This book is a giant step forward as we examine what this means for teaching and learning.
Come join Weeks 1 & 2 of the Equity Unbound learning group
If you’re looking for a way to get involved and build your digital skillset, and possibly your digital identity through blogging…a MOOC is a great opportunity to write, share, connect, and play.
Equity Unbound was initiated by Maha Bali (American University in Cairo, Egypt), Catherine Cronin (National University of Ireland, Galway), & Mia Zamora (Kean University, NJ, USA) for use in their courses this term (September-December 2018), but it is open to all. It’s a powerful example of global and local nodes of learning. Come join us. 🙂
It is easier to build strong children than to repair broken men.
Frederick Douglass
TL;DR is a summary of all the great stuff from the Internet this week in technology, education, & literacy. Please subscribe to make sure this comes to your inbox each week. You can review archives of the newsletter here.
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