Head in the Cloud

In my last post I wrote about how I was spent quite a lot of time over the last couple of months reading up and listening to podcasts on AI, digital surveillance and disruption caused to society by new digital products. Initially this interest was triggered by my own concerns over how attached to my smartphone I had become, or perhaps I should say, to certain apps on my smartphone. Twitter being a particular addiction of mine, or a quick browse through Facebook or Instagram. Perhaps it was just me, but increasingly I was finding that after a session of browsing on these platforms I was feeling annoyed or frustrated and that this really wasn't good for my own well being. My 'filter bubble' was reinforcing the things that could make me cross (politics, education) or increasingly I was seeing things being posted on platforms by friends and relatives and found myself starting to dislike them, which was a reaction I was then disliking in myself and a person I didn't want to

So we're coming to the end of 2019 and this is as good a time as any to take a brief look back on my year. I could spend the time talking about the draft framework for the Science & Technology AoLE. Spent much of the autumn term talking to schools about this and getting myself up to speed on what the framework could possibly look like in the primary classroom. But I won't waste time here talking about it, let's see what is dropped on our desks when the final version is released sometime in January 2020. Much of my spare time over the second half of 2019 was spent reading up on issues around artificial intelligence and  'big tech' and privacy. This interest was sparked by my own questioning of how I personally use technology (in particular mobile technologies and social media). Like many of you I'm sure, I use Facebook, Twitter and Instagram, along with using Google applications and platforms such as Netflix and Amazon. As much as these applications radical