Category Archives: education
FDR on Security
A good deal of my dissertation is concerned with notions of security, and insecurity, in informational environments. While my primary concern is with young people’s experiences and understandings of cyber(in)security, I’ve also taken an interest in contemporary and historical discourses of security (e.g. Seven Takes on Security). So, I was excited to see Michael Moore [...]
the great irony of informationalism
On May 29, 2009, Obama announced his intention to appoint a “cyber czar” to coordinate cybersecurity policy for private and government computer networks in the US. Obama also argued the importance of educating the public about cybersecurity while highlighting the dialectical reality of cyberspace: Cyberspace is real and so are the risks that come with [...]
Cookie Monsters published in CYE
Cindi Katz and I just published an article in a special issue of Children, Youth and Environments that focuses on Children and Technological Environments. CYE is an open access journal so you can read our article for free through their website (FYI – they ask you to create an account before providing access to the [...]
Also posted in censorship, commodification, informationalism, participation, play, property, security, surveillance, youth Tagged AriX, article, hacking, iphone, OLPC Leave a comment
ACLU: YouAreBeingWatched.US
You ARE being watched, US. Since 9/11 Homeland Security has pumped an enormous amount of money into public surveillance technologies (online and off). Yet, as most recent studies are showing, the presence of this surveillance does nothing to reduce crime or make people more safe. So, what is this surveillance being funded for? To help [...]
goodbye learning, hello workforce training
Some sad news regarding the One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) project: Microsoft has joined forces with the developers of the “$100 laptop” to make Windows available on the machines. According to Wired, Microsoft has had their sights on emerging markets in developing countries for a while now and have viewed low-cost children’s laptops as ideal [...]
Also posted in commodification, informationalism, play, quotes, work, youth Tagged CD, Krstić, Microsoft, Negroponte, OLPC Leave a comment
information assimilation and the life of the child
From Dewey’s The School and Society, p100: It was forgotten that the maximum appeal, and the full meaning in the life of the child, could be secured only when the studies were presented, not as bare external studies, but from the standpoint of the relation they bear to the life of society. It was forgotten [...]
Also posted in informationalism, quotes, youth Tagged assimilation, Dewey, experience, pedagogy, school Leave a comment
division of action
I was just reading through the Wired article on Facebook’s role in the Burma protests. The marches, organized at a lightning pace by volunteers using Facebook, show the increasing power and reach of a social-networking site originally designed to help college students find drinking buddies. An interesting theme which runs through the article is that [...]
Space-Time: Affect, Struggle…Everyday
CALL FOR PAPERS: Space-Time: Affect, Struggle…Everyday Annual Conference of the AAG, Boston, Massachusetts April 15-19, 2008 Organizer: The Spatial Scholars Group of the CUNY Graduate Center
mesh-networking
After reading David Pogue’s review of the XO – a $200 laptop created by One Laptop Per Child (O.L.P.C.) – and spending time on O.L.P.C.’s website, I’m absolutely fixated on the mesh-networking feature of this computer (check out the “mesh demo” here). While the XO is light, durable and energy efficient – all features that [...]
AAG Session: Democracy and the Public Sphere In a Web 2.0 World