Stepping On People

Hi all, welcome to issue #242 of Digitally Literate.

I helped post the following this week:

• Has Screentime “Won”? – In this episode of the Technopanic Podcast, Kristen and I talk about the recent news suggesting that screentime is no longer a problem during social distancing.
• Teacher Mom, Mom Teacher – As part of the Literacy in the Disciplines research group, we’ve started up a blog feed. This post by Elinor Lister considers the challenges as we juggle the role of parent and educator.

If you haven’t already, please subscribe if you would like this newsletter to show up in your inbox. Feel free to reach out and let me know what you think of this work at hello@digitallyliterate.net.

Netflix added much of their educational library to Youtube to make it easier to share online

Kudos to Netflix!!! They’ve moved many of their documentaries and educational programming to a YouTube channel to make it easier to share in online learning environments. Read the announcement here.

What a Global Pandemic Reveals About Inequity In Education

There are things we can do as we attempt to move through a global pandemic in an unjust world.

• Be kind to our students
• Don’t fall into a deficit mindset
• Also, be kind to ourselves
• Remember what this outbreak revealed when things go back to normal.

COVID-19 and children’s digital privacy

The unprecedented scope of current digital measures, however, is pushing the limits of privacy. How do we balance children’s right to privacy with their right to health, both enshrined in the Convention on the Rights of the Child?

How do we use the technology and data available to combat the outbreak now, without creating a ‘new normal’ where children’s privacy is under constant threat?”

Screen Time Is Replacing Playtime — and That’s Changing Kids’ Brains

This post in Discover Magazine has a clickbait title that does little assuage parental fears about screentime during current times. If you click through and actually read the piece, it is a bit more measured as it considers how we’re still trying to figure out the ultimate effects.

The guidance buried at the end:

• Remember toddlers are not small grown-ups
• Go slow
• Help children choose their own content
• Keep devices in a central location
• Don’t lose sight of real-world experiences

In this same vein, perhaps the focus should be on child, content, and context. Research suggests that time on screens may have little impact on kids’ social skills.

Social-media companies must flatten the curve of misinformation

Joan Donovan with a piece in Nature looking at how the pandemic lays bare the failure to quarantine online scams, hoaxes & lies amid political battles.

This week showed evidence of these challenges as Facebook says it will begin to alert users after they’ve been exposed to misinformation about the coronavirus. We don’t know if this will happen. I’m also interested in why some misinformation is better or worse than others. I guess it matters who is paying for it.

We also see some of this information in social spaces being picked up in online extremist communities.

What Does Digital Civic Engagement Mean in the Era of COVID-19

There is a large corpus of existing research that can help us think through this current moment with regard to the relationship between the civic, the digital, and (not exclusively) youth.

This policy brief synthesizes key trends with an aim to present them in a useful and accessible way for policy makers, administrators, and anyone else interested in this topic.

Two of the highlights:

1. Let’s work beyond critiques of “clicktivism” and instead apply useful, research-backed frameworks for analysis and scope.
2. It’s incredibly important to heed equity issues and local context.

How to Create a Looping Video of Yourself for Your Virtual Meetings

Perfect for those times you are supposed to be in the meeting but really don’t want to be in the meeting.

If you’re looking for different backgrounds for meetings, Unsplash is developing a curated collection.

If you step on people in this life, you’re going to come back as a cockroach.

Willie Davis

Digitally Literate is a weekly review of the news, notes, tips, and tricks from the week that resonated with me. I leave a trail of digital breadcrumbs. Feel free to pay attention if you’d like to check my notes. 🙂

Explaining the pandemic to my past self. Yeap. Awesome.

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