Critical Technology Folgen

Originally aired on April 11, 2022: Although computing technologies are now ubiquitous in much of the West and other parts of the world, there are still significant inequalities when it comes to who has access to computer science education. Powerful cultural stereotypes about who is or can become a coder persist, leading to the underrepresentation of girls and children of colour from a crucial form of digital literacy. In this episode, Dr. Sara Grimes chats with Dr. Deborah Fields, Associate Research Professor in the Instructional Technology and Learning Sciences Department at Utah State University, about her research on the relationship between identity, motivation and learning how to code among tweens and teens, and how to break down stereotypes about who can code and how. The discussion is focused on Dr. Fields’s 2021 article in the British Journal of Educational Technology: “Debugging by design: A constructionist approach to high school students' crafting and coding of electronic textiles as failure artefacts,” co-authored with Dr. Yasmin B. Kafai, Luis Morales-Novarro, and Justice T. Walker.Type of research discussed in this episode: education research; pedagogy design and innovation; workshops; computer science education; participatory research; action research.Keywords for this episode: constructionism; software bug; computer coding; e(lectronic)-textiles; equity in education; STEM (science technology engineering math); mischievousness; socially meaningful failure artifacts; productive failure; creativity; aesthetics first.

How, where, and what kids and teens learn about safe sex, substance use, and other health-related topics is incredibly important. Especially for young people who are already dealing with higher risk factors, such as neighbourhood poverty and violence--a  disproportionate number of whom are young people of colour, specifically Black, Latinx or Indigenous youth.  In this episode, Dr. Sara M. Grimes chats with Dr. Robin Stevens, Associate Professor at University of Southern California (USC) Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism, and the Director and founder of the Health Equity and Media Collab, about her research on Black, Latinx and LGBTQ+ youth's use of social media, and the implications for their health and well-being. The discussion is focused on two of Dr. Stevens's articles: “The digital hood: Social media use among youth in disadvantaged neighborhoods,”  published in 2017 in New Media and Society; and “#digitalhood: Engagement with risk content in Social Media among Black and Hispanic Youth,” published in the Journal of Urban Health in 2019.Type of research discussed in today's episode: health communication; digital epidemiology; community-engaged research; interdisciplinary research; youth studies; qualitative research.Keywords for today's episode: digital neighbourhood/hood; risk-related content; Black youth culture; Latinx youth culture; technological determinism; content creation; invisible visibility. 

Originally aired on February 14, 2022: As smart toys, virtual assistants, and machine learning apps spread across our homes and schools, an increasing number of children are now living, learning, and growing up around artificial intelligence or “AI”. Yet, we still know very little about children’s relationship with AI, how they feel about the seemingly knowledgeable voices coming out of their electronic devices, or how AI responds to children’s feelings. In this episode, Dr. Sara Grimes chats with Dr. Andrew McStay, Professor of Digital Life at Bangor University (Wales, UK) and Director of the Emotional AI Lab about the ethics and impacts of AI technologies designed to read and respond to our emotions, and their growing presence in children’s lives.  The discussion is focused on two of Dr. McStay’s articles published in the journal Big Data & Society: “Emotional artificial intelligence in children’s toys and devices: Ethics, governance and practical remedies,” co-authored with Dr. Gilad Rosner (2021), and “Emotional AI, soft biometrics and the surveillance of emotional life: An unusual consensus on privacy” (2020).Please Note: The news story described in the intro happened in late 2021, not 2020. With apologies for the error and any resulting confusion!Type of research discussed in today’s episode: mixed-method research; social science; media/communication studies; philosophy of technology; ethics; law/policy research.Keywords for today’s episode: artificial intelligence (AI); emotion; empathy; feeling into; soft biometrics; emotoys; generational unfairness; technological ambivalence; governance; data protection and privacy; children’s rights.