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We’ve collectively reached the point where most of us don’t want to take calls from people we know , let alone the scammers, hucksters, and ne’er-do-wells who bombard our phone numbers. Here’s a short list of tools and techniques to keep phony calls from interrupting your day. Add yourself to the registry It’s not perfect. Bogus calls still slip through Read More …
Some Facebook users who had enabled dark mode in their app received an eye-searing surprise on Wednesday when the setting disappeared on both the iPhone and Android phones. While Facebook says the issue has been resolved, according to Tom’s Guide , you may still need to force-quit the app to bring back the setting. This was my experience on both iOS and Android on Thursday morning. Normally, you can find Facebook’s Dark Mode by hitting the “hamburger” menu button (in the top-right corner on Android, or the bottom-right corner on iOS), then tapping on “Settings & Privacy.” The option for Dark Mode should appear in the expanded set of options. View image larger here . [Screenshots: Facebook] If Dark Mode doesn’t show up there, force-closing and restarting the app should do the trick. On the iPhone, swipe up and hold until you see the app switching menu. Then, swipe the Facebook app up and away. On Android, long-press the Facebook icon on your home screen and select “App Info,” then hit “Force stop” on the next page. Once you restart the app, you should see Dark Mode in its usual place under the “Settings & Privacy” menu. Turning it on will make the app display light text on a dark background. You can also choose “Automatic” if your phone is set to switch between light and dark modes based on the time of day. Read More …
Teaching to the middle has historically been the approach taken by many schools nationwide, where a one-size-fits-all model is the norm and students must figure out how to fit in or fail. When COVID-19 hit and schools quickly pivoted to distance learning, challenges and disparities—many already present but ignored—were revealed for teachers, parents, and students. Yet, as the pandemic raged on, some students actually thrived in this at-home learning environment. Who are these students, and why are they flourishing? What can we learn from them? One lesson is that many students experience stress due to daily instances of racism. This occurs especially when they do not feel a strong sense of belonging in their school setting, which research shows can lead to reduced academic confidence and performance. Taking classes online eased some of the pressure that students, including Black, immigrant and indigenous kids, felt to assimilate in classrooms and schools. Distance learning has also benefited students who may struggle with anxiety, are uncomfortable with social interactions, have learning differences, or are bullied in school. Presenting material in various formats remotely can allow more students to access information they need to fully participate in class, and the flexibility to learn on their own can give students with unique interests time to explore their passions in the arts, writing and other endeavors, while empowering them to choose how to best schedule their work. Two key principles of learning highlighted in The End of Average by Todd Rose, former Harvard professor and cofounder of the Populace think tank, are at the core of what’s happening. First, the concept of variability, which states that every learner varies across many dimensions—executive function, emotional regulation, primary language, and mental health among them. Nobody is average across every dimension, and these differences impact how we learn best. The Learner Variability Project at Digital Promise has mapped these dimensions of variability so that educators, school system leaders and product developers can understand and design for them. The second principle is that context impacts learning—how a learner learns best can change based on what the subject is. For example, a child who practices hard to get better at soccer or music has a growth mindset, but that same child can have a fixed mindset when it comes to math, not believing there is any point to trying to improve through hard work. It’s the same child with the same abilities, but changing the context alters how that child thinks and learns. As students and teachers return to school buildings, they need not boomerang back to the traditional, one-size-fits-all environment, where everyone is expected to learn the same content, the same way, at the same time, in the same context. Instead, they should strive to better understand the “why” behind a student’s behavior , and to design practice and contexts around each learner’s variability, whether in school or online Read More …
One of the Pentagon’s primary jobs is anticipating what the wars of the future will look like so that it can allocate the resources necessary to make sure the U.S. has the edge in those battles. When people in the defense industry talk about the tools of future war, they usually mention applications of AI, autonomous weaponry, and a very different role for warm-blooded human beings during battle. These technologies are in their early stages of maturity; defense forces don’t yet understand the best ways to deploy them in battle. Military leaders in other wealthy countries, including China and Russia , are also talking about such matters, though we don’t know where they’re placing their bets. For a number of reasons—some old, some new—the U.S. could easily get pulled into a race to develop and use autonomous weapons before it understands how to use them predictably, effectively, and ethically. Cold War 2.o We may enter a period of escalation that recalls the nuclear arms race between the U.S. and the former Soviet Union during the Cold War. “There’s an AI arms race where I’m worried about your development of this technology and you’re worried about my development of this technology, and neither of us communicates that we’re aware of the limitations,” said Chris Meserole, director of research and policy for the Artificial Intelligence and Emerging Technology Initiative at the Brookings Institution. Read More …
In Tuesday’s announcement of Amazon’s $8.5 billion acquisition of MGM—the historic film studio behind the Rocky , Legally Blonde , and James Bond franchises—Mike Hopkins, senior vice president of Prime Video and Amazon Studios, naturally dropped two major Hollywood buzzwords. “The real financial value behind this deal,” Hopkins said, “is the treasure trove of” —ding-ding-ding— “ IP in the deep catalog that we plan to reimagine and develop together with MGM’s talented team. It’s very exciting and provides so many opportunities for high-quality” —ding-ding-ding— “ storytelling .” Yes, in the latest proposed media merger, intellectual property will be married with innovative storytelling to create a company like no other. This has never been done before . . . if you don’t count Disney, Comcast, Sony, ViacomCBS, or the 10-day-old prospective merger of Warner-Discovery. Indeed, just as Marvel and Star Wars spin-off TV shows now populate Disney Plus, prepare yourself for a Rocky -themed reality-TV show (with real boxers!) and as many Bond prequels as Barbara Broccoli and Michael G. Wilson (the highly protective producers of the franchise) will allow for, to roll out on Amazon Prime Video. What is more worrisome, though, is the even greater monopolistic foothold that this deal gives one of the world’s richest and most powerful companies, one whose market cap is not in the billions but trillions. Now, beyond just selling its own products, like baby oils, in its own marketplace and thus edging out smaller, independent businesses, Amazon will be doing the same thing with movies and TV shows at a scale of 10 times what it’s currently been doing in entertainment. Read More …