Digital Culture and Learning

                                                   Photo: Maxim Ilyahov Over the past few days, I chose to try a digital well-being practice from the Center for Humane Technology . It’s the practice of turning off notifications and alerts. I picked this specific practice because notifications constantly interrupt my day, and I wanted to see what would happen if I took back control instead of letting my phone control my attention. At first, I underestimated how often my phone actually pulls me away from what I’m doing. I turned off non-essential notifications like social media, emails, and app alerts, leaving only calls and a few important messages on. The first challenge was purely habit-based. Even without the notifications, I still found myself reaching for my phone out of instinct. I would unlock it without thinking, expecting some...

                                                                 Photo: Brands&People As I work on my final project, I am not just completing an assignment, but I am creating something that will exist on the internet, available to everyone to see. Because of this, I have started to think more carefully about what it means to create content for a real audience instead of just turning in work for a grade. It changes how I approach both what I say and how I share information. The main topics I am exploring are media literacy, learning with AI, and online versus offline identity. These are all connected through how people interact with digital spaces. My intended audience is college students and young adults who regularly use social media and digital tools. These are people who are constantly co...

                                                                                                                                                                                                        Photo: Chris Linnett I explored the idea of how powerful crowd dynamics can be, more deeply through The Wisdom and/or Madness of C...

                                                                                                                      Photo:  Hartono Creative Studio In a digital world filled with constant information, learning how to tell what’s true from what’s misleading is more important than ever. This week, I used the SIFT method , developed by Mike Caulfield, to evaluate a real news article. SIFT stands for Stop , Investigate the source , Find better coverage , and Look for Trusted Work . Instead of carefully analyzing just one page, SIFT encourages “lateral reading,” where you leave the page and check other sources. This matters today becaus...

                                                                                                                                 Picture: steveriot1 In today’s world, learning is no longer confined to classrooms or face-to-face interactions. Digital technologies, like online communities and AI chatbots, are reshaping not only what we learn but how we relate to each other in the process. The readings that I had this week challenge us to consider what is gained and lost when care and connection move online, and what this means for anyone working with learners, clients, or communities in digital spaces.  ...

                                                                             Picture:   Steve Johnson          Is generative AI helping students learn or just helping them finish assignments faster? That question gained national attention after MIT researchers released a study nicknamed “Your Brain on ChatGPT,” which found lower neural connectivity among students who used ChatGPT while writing essays. As reported in The Chronicle of Higher Education’s article The Student Brain on AI , the findings sparked fears that AI might be damaging students’ thinking. But the researchers themselves cautioned against that conclusion. Their study does not show that AI makes us less intelligent. It shows that our brains operate differently when ...