Category: disruptive-technology

  • Generative AI and Media Tips (Oct 2023)

    One of the advantages of sharing ideas and links on your own website, like this WordPress website I’ve maintained since 2005, is that social media and technology companies are less able to restrict the links you can share. In June of 2023, both Facebook and Instagram started blocking access to some news websites and stopping…

  • Disruptive Decentralization in Social Media and AI

    Centralization and decentralization both have their pros and cons. In this post, I want to explore the opportunities and challenges posed by these two paradigms in two contemporary technological contexts: Social media and Artificial Intelligence (AI). In the realm of social media, Twitter has become a hotbed of controversy for numerous reasons, primarily due to…

  • Media Consumption Boundaries

    What boundaries do you have for media consumption in your life? We’ve heard a lot about “screen time” in the past few years, as both Apple and Google / Android have added built-in tools for tracking screentime. But what comprises your “media consumption” or “media diet” within your weekly screentime? The channels you watch and…

  • The Council of Constance and Modern Web

    I’m re-reading for the 3rd or 4th time Toby Lester’s (@tobylester4) magnificent book, “The Fourth Part of the World: The Race to the Ends of the Earth, and the Epic Story of the Map That Gave America Its Name.” I just finished chapter 9 last night, which (among other things) discusses the very important “Council…

  • Behold: The Power of the Spotify Playlist During COVID-19

    We’ve been in “remote learning” mode for about four weeks now at our school, as we “shelter in place” because of the neo-coronavirus / COVID-19 global pandemic. I’m sure I’m not the only one that has had some trouble falling asleep some nights, as I’ve adjusted to a ‘new normal’ of working entirely from home…

  • The Tyranny of Current Events

    A few weeks ago, I shared and led a lesson at our church which included discussion about the famous Apollo 8 mission to the moon in December 1968. Apollo 8 was: the first crewed spacecraft to leave low Earth orbit and the first to reach the Moon, orbit it, and return. Its three-astronaut crew—Frank Borman,…

  • What Paperless Debate Can Teach Us About the Classroom of the Future

    This weekend I had the privilege and opportunity to fully experience “paperless debate” at the UT Austin Longhorn Classic Debate Tournament, as an adult chaperone for our high school debate team at Casady School. In this post, I’d like to reflect on what these experiences suggest, reveal and invite when it comes to student learning,…

  • Schools Blocking YouTube and Digital Citizenship

    Content filtering in schools has always been contentious since students and teachers first gained access to the World Wide Web and the Internet in the 1990s. Today in 2019, however, many people might be surprised that “draconian content filtering policies” (at least in the opinion of this author) are still in place in some schools.…

  • Adult Identity and the “I Can’t Use Technology Well” Introduction

    Last Friday evening before turning in for the night, I shared a six part, threaded series of thoughts on Twitter based on frequent conversations I have with technology-fearful adults. Before reflecting a bit more on these ideas, as well as sharing some of the responses these tweets invited from others, I’ll share this series of…

  • Glimpse the Future with Amy Webb @amywebb (Thanks @TWiT)

    The last couple days I’ve been listening to the latest TWiT podcast, hosted by Leo LaPorte (@leolaporte) and featuring guests Amy Webb (@amywebb) and Greg Ferro (@etherealmind). Wow have I ever loved their conversation and the insights they shared on a variety of topics including AI, the ascendency of China, Amazon, EU anti-trust law, and…