Parents and teachers who allow the children in their care to use Android devices are paying closer attention to content Google thinks they want. The cause for the scrutiny is a series of dubious recommendations when users search GooglePlay for the Disney app "Where's My Mickey." The results include the popular Disney app, and what are described as gay erotic literature.
With titles like "Boys Caught in the Act," "Pretty Boys and Roughnecks," and "Boys Will be Boys," the books are clearly not intended for younger eyes. The reason they appear as recommended reading for those searching for "Where's My Mickey" seems to come from the fact that their author's name is Mickey Erlach.
This isn't the first time GooglePlay has shot back questionable search results. When attempting to browse though the educational apps (a category generally accepted to mean intended for K-12 education) in the store, users often find apps to help truck drivers attain their CDL and other apps that technically educational, but decidedly not what the user wants.
Author note: The following is a series of blogs featuring excerpts and concepts from my upcoming book, tentatively titled: The Awakened Supervisor: Embedding Mindfulness-based Practices in Instructional Supervision (Rowman & Littlefield).
Supervising Teachers in the Age of Distraction
We are a severely distracted society. We are constantly bombarded by information as part of a new capital system equipped with new technology. This information...
“The preliminary results show that a purposefully designed VR environment can significantly improve dyslexic children’s’ reading experience.” – Serdar Ferit and Katri Meriläinen
According to more and more studies, one of the biggest strengths of augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR) is their ability to...
“We are confident that the graduates that leave us are well placed to enter into highly paid, highly skilled jobs that employers are looking to fill.” – Audrey Cheng
Audrey Cheng, the co-founder and CEO of Moringa School, was working for a venture capital firm investing in local tech funds in Kenya when she observed a...
“We added “Artificial Intelligence” to “Robotics & STEM” this year because it is an important and timely topic for young people to learn about.” – Theresa Richards
Prior to joining the Girls of Steel Robotics Program...
The first time my students saw a big name author come to our school, even the most reluctant readers charged through their reading, scribbled questions on scraps of paper, and clamored for front-row seats. Somehow, the in-person star power of an impressive author drew them into the pages of a book and had them bubbling about literary possibilities.
In the last few years, I’ve organized in-person author visits with several New York Times bestselling authors and a Pulitzer prize...
The Dalai Lama, Tibet’s spiritual leader, has said that the key to transforming the world for the better would be to teach compassion in the classroom. I couldn’t agree more.
When considering many of society’s problems, they often stem from a lack of having the ability to care for each other, to understand each other, to accept that we have different views, and to empathize with each other’s situation (if you doubt my words, watch the next presidential race).
Academic content...