DL 299
Digital Robber Barons
This week I published the following:
- Create a Personal Webpage Using GitHub Pages & Jekyll – A breakout session during our professional development on computational thinking focused on building simple webpages.
- What will digital life be like in 2035? – Reflections on the evolution of digital spaces and their societal impact, written as part of a Pew Research Center survey.
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🔖 Key Takeaways
- Spyware’s Reach: Pegasus spyware raises alarms about privacy breaches targeting journalists, activists, and global leaders.
- School Surveillance: Proposals for teacher bodycams highlight broader issues of invasive monitoring in education.
- Feedback in Open Projects: Transparent processes for managing feedback can enhance collaborative development.
📚 This Week’s Highlights
1. ** Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger - Daft Punk**
I don't know how the YouTube algorithm took this long to bring me the Scary Pockets YouTube Channel...but I am thankful.
I watched almost all of the videos on the channel with the family this week.
2. Pegasus Spyware Exposed
Human rights activists, journalists, and lawyers across the world have been targeted by authoritarian governments using hacking software sold by the Israeli surveillance company NSO Group.
Pegasus is malware that infects iPhones and Android devices to enable operators of the tool to extract messages, photos and emails, record calls, and secretly activate microphones.
The leak contains a list of more than 50,000 phone numbers that, it is believed, have been identified as those of people of interest by clients of NSO since 2016.
Why this matters: This revelation underscores the urgent need for stronger global privacy protections and accountability in surveillance technologies.
Check your phone for Pegasus spyware.
2. Bodycams for Teachers?
The idea to monitor educators so they don't teach critical race theory seems ridiculous. But schools are already rife with invasive surveillance.
As outlandish as the body camera proposal is, we’ve already spent years shifting the Overton Window of acceptability in favor of more invasive surveillance in schools.
The proposal is insulting, exhausting, and un-American, but it is not impossible. One Texas school district's facial recognition system is capable of capturing a single student's image more than 1000 times a week.
Why this matters: While extreme, the idea reflects a disturbing trend toward normalizing surveillance in schools, as seen with facial recognition systems.
3. Tech’s Pandemic Boom
Tech giants profited immensely during the pandemic, shaping how we live and work.
Why this matters: These companies now hold unprecedented influence, raising questions about equity, privacy, and long-term societal impacts.
4. Managing Feedback on Open Projects
When you post content openly online and ask for feedback...you just may get it.
The brilliant Laura Hilliger and her team are working on a definition for open leadership.
The team is using a Google Doc to keep track of comments and identify how they've addressed changes. I value how the team has developed and documented their process openly.
Why this matters: Open documentation of feedback processes fosters trust and collaboration in team projects.
5. The Neuroscience of Conversation
Research in birds suggests that when one partner speaks, the other partner’s brain is inhibited from talking over them.
Findings also suggest that when individuals are interacting in a shared behavior they act as a single entity. This concept is important for any group of organisms cooperating to produce a shared behavior that is more than the sum of its parts; for example, people dancing the tango, or several people playing in band. To coordinate behavior, the brains of all participants must link together to become a single unit.
Why this matters: Understanding these dynamics can improve teamwork, teaching, and even AI-human interactions.
🛠️ DO: Explore YouTube Shorts
YouTube Shorts is a new short-form video platform designed to compete with TikTok.
Try it out: Experiment with creating quick, engaging videos using your mobile phone. Learn more here.
🌟 Closing Reflection
Think outside the box, collapse the box, and take a sharp knife to it.
— Banksy
Reflect and Engage
- What ethical boundaries should we establish for surveillance in schools? Explore more in The Ethics of Surveillance in Schools.
- How can transparent feedback processes improve collaboration? Join the discussion in Open Leadership and Feedback Management.
- What role should tech giants play in rebuilding post-pandemic society? Share thoughts in Technology’s Role in Pandemic Recovery.
Thank you for reading Digitally Literate. Connect with me at hello@digitallyliterate.net or explore Newsletter Index for all past issues.
Before getting off of the bus, this little girl told the bus driver that "Shake It Off" was her favorite song, so he stopped everything he was doing, turned the radio up, and preceded to absolutely jam out with her.