Chris McKenzie

I hadn't heard of this project before, and I just checked it out. This will be very useful indeed. Thank you!

You Can Stop Making Practice Apps Now Stop guessing-and-checking kids into oblivion. Start teaching them.

"You Can Stop Making Practice Apps Now" by @mrzachg.bsky.social does an amazing job of explaining exactly what has been bothering me for so long with "educational games" and "educational apps". The majority of them aren't designed to actually teach.

mrzachg.substack.com/p/you-can-st...

Child-Centered Digital Environments To Support Rights, Agency, and Well-Being - Cyberbullying Research Center Discusses new key takeaways to inform child online safety practices for schools, families, communities, and society at large.

Brand new report just released! A product of our international working group's focus on optimal online safety approaches that support children's rights, agency, and well-being! I share my key takeaways in a new piece here: cyberbullying.org/child-center... #FrontiersinDigitalChildSafety

And for good reason! I really enjoyed listening to it. Congratulations on getting out the first episode. I'm looking forward to the next ones.

I also find that they are so used to having assumptions made about their tech use that they can be quite receptive to that approach. It opens up great conversations with them.

And they also appreciate helping to come up with other ways of finding what they need, rather than being told what to do.

🎙️Screen Sense - new podcast with me and @shuhbillskee.bsky.social, is launching next week! Two psychologists (and dads) talking honestly about what it means to raise a family in a screen-filled world - with science, real stories and zero guilt. Launching 13th June. screensensepodcast.substack.com

This is such a great book - it’s the one I recommend to everyone interested in how tech affects our lives. No scaremongering, cherrypicking evidence, or other nonsense. Just really good nuanced and evidence based discussions of the core issues with tech. Easy to read & I loved the audiobook!

The yellow paperback edition of Unlocked is out today! It’s been a whirlwind of a first year, but I’m so glad that it’s out there. If you’ve read it, I hope you’ve found something reassuring and useful in it.

Use our "X Misleading and Manipulated Media Dashboard" to see other examples of fake Mark Carney pics. (Just type Carney or Grok into the search bar.) cn.deepfakestracker.org

How to identify misinformation, disinformation, and malinformation (ITSAP.00.300) - Canadian Centre for Cyber Security How to identify misinformation, disinformation, and malinformation (ITSAP.00.300)

🇨🇦 Canada & beyond

How to identify #misinformation, #disinformation, and #malinformation

www.cyber.gc.ca/en/guidance/...

“when WaPo’s opinion pages are being gutted and tech CEOs are seeking pre-approval from authoritarians, the line between “tech coverage” and “saving democracy” has basically disappeared. It’s all the same thing.”

Well said.

Why Techdirt Is Now A Democracy Blog (Whether We Like It Or Not) While political reporters are still doing their view-from-nowhere “Democrats say this, Republicans say that” dance, tech and legal journalists have been watching an unfortunately recogn…

Wrote up something about Techdirt's recent coverage, and why (whether we like it or not) we need to be a "democracy blog" now, rather than just a "tech" blog (not that we've ever been just a tech blog).

This story is *the* story and it impacts everything else.

www.techdirt.com/2025/03/04/w...

Trudeau: "I want to speak first directly to the American people. We don't want this. We want to work with you as a friend and ally. We don't want to see you hurt either. But your government has chosen to do this to you. As of this morning, markets are down and inflation is set to rise dramatically."

I get annoyed when Canadian news services publish news on their websites, and it's video only. I'm often not able to watch a video. For me a written article is much easier to access. Ideally both would be available. Or at least, if a video is up first, please add a short written piece later on.

“How do I use technology to bring out the best in these humans?”

My goodness this is missed so often.

In Edtech, You Either Bet On Teachers Or You Have To Build One No one has built one yet.

Dan Meyer understands tech, teaching, and kids' brains better than most people, including most teachers. Almost every student-facing AI tool in edtech sucks, and this post explains why. substack.com/home/post/p-...

I'll try this question with students soon to see how it works with them as well.

The great thing about the question is that it isn’t just flat out asking you to think about your emotional reaction. People can roll their eyes when asked to think about their emotions. It’s a more interesting way of getting at the same thing, and a more interesting way can have more uptake.

And it doesn’t mean I want awful things to be true. It’s about believing something or not because it makes me feel better. Maybe by justifying my current beliefs feel, maybe my making it seem like I can to take less responsibility than I should be, or maybe by making me less scared than I should be.

I have been asking myself this question lately as a way to check what my emotional response is to information, and by becoming more aware of my emotional reaction to information, I am interacting with that information in a new light, which has been a fascinating experience.

I was reading @garwboy.bsky.social Dean Burnett's book "Why Your Parents Are Hung-Up on Your Phone and What To Do About It". I read his tip to avoid misinformation online: "Ask yourself, 'Do I want this to be true?'"

And for the past couple of days, I have been thinking about this tip a lot.

New article in The Lancet Child & Adolescent Health!
We disentangle limitations in research on digital harms in youth to inform recommendations for studying impacts of rapid adoption of Artificial Intelligence.
Open link until 11th March:
authors.elsevier.com/a/1kTwe8Mut2...
🧵 Summary below
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Thank you for creating this starter pack! Apparently I'm seeing it two months after you created it, but today seems like the perfect day for it to come my way.

Here is a Canadian Poets Starter Pack! 🪶💐🩷

If you're a Canadian poet and I've missed you, comment below, and I'll add.

(Also, if I made a mistake in adding you to the list, let me know, and I'll remove you!)

Please share so folks coming to Bluesky can find their people!
go.bsky.app/JbjXoTN

I definitely value quality writing about these topics for exactly that reason, and for my own enjoyment too.

Oh. Fiction that helps spur ideas is also allowed.

And why wouldn’t my first ever BlueSky post have a basic spelling error that is just sitting there, glaring at me.

and a selection of essays and articles by @orbenamy.bsky.social, @candiceodgers.bsky.social and others.

What else should I add?

They have ideas already, and asked me to add more. I’m thinking Unlocked by @peteetchells.bsky.social, Why Your Parents are Hung Up on Your Phone by @garwboy.bsky.social, Behind their Screens by James and Weinstein, The Video Game Debate 2 by @thorstenquandt.bsky.social and @drkowert.bsky.social,

English teachers doing research essay with grade 12s. Topic is anything to do with tech, especially games, social media, AI, and other hot topics. Students are to choose a book or collection or shorter readings from which to inspire them to choose a more focused area to research.