Are the Kids Alright? Motivations, Decisions and Values Embedded in Educational and Consumer Technologies

In this episode Catherine Saldutti, founder of EduChange, an innovative EdTech firm that is re-engineering formal secondary academic systems for increased equity describes the values and motivations that drive her team's design of The Integrated Science Program. This program creates the conditions for expert STEM learning. She discusses the power of systems thinking, circular economic principles, sustainable practices and the value of the unknown, creativity and a focus on process. In this episode we philosophize about what technology is, how it is impacting us, we discuss its implications for teaching and learning and for adolescent development and we draw connections to psychoanalytic theory. For additional reading please see: Study on Social Media ad revenue earned from teens in 2022: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0295337 How to ban phones effectively [in schools]: https://fordhaminstitute.org/national/commentary/how-ban-phones-effectively The 2024 National Educational Technology Plan: https://tech.ed.gov/files/2024/01/NETP24.pdf By Sarah Lewis: The Rise: Creativity, The Gift of Failure and the Search for Mastery: https://www.amazon.com/Rise-Creativity-Failure-Search-Mastery/dp/1451629249 Common Sense Media’s Impact of AI on Kids: https://www.commonsensemedia.org/ai EDSAFE AI Alliance: https://www.edsafeai.org/ EduChange on Assessment https://educhange.com/functional-assessment/