Opal retweeted
Is it better to teach geography with an old-school globe or Google Maps? 🌍
Personally, I have a physical globe at home. It's how I show my 5-year-old where countries are, where we live, and where I'm traveling next.
I love Google Maps too, and I'm sure we'll use it together as now, I think the globe works better.
Sometimes the best tool for learning isn't the most technologically advanced one.
I think schools are starting to ask themselves the same question. I wrote an article below on the 5 emerging trends I see in Ed Tech and what this could mean for schools.
For years, we've been putting more screens in classrooms, assuming that more technology would lead to better learning. Now schools are pulling phones out while simultaneously trying to figure out how to introduce AI.
I had a fascinating conversation about this at EdTech Week with Catherine Price, New York Times bestselling author of How to Break Up With Your Phone, and Rachel Hanebutt, PhD, a developmental psychologist at Georgetown University who leads its Teens & Screens Co-Lab.
One thing Catherine said really stuck with me. A new drug needs years of testing before it reaches the public, yet we're introducing powerful technologies to children with very little testing or accountability.
Rachel shared a story that I found particularly interesting. A teenager asked her mom for help with math homework. Her mom immediately opened ChatGPT to find the answer. But the teenager could have done that herself. What she actually wanted was her mom.
I think this illustrates something important about how we learn. The process of figuring things out, struggling with a problem, or working through it with another person is often where the learning happens.
I'm optimistic about what technology can make possible in education but I also think we're only beginning to understand what happens when we make it effortless for kids to skip those experiences.
What's encouraging to me is that young people are already questioning their own relationship with technology. At Opal, roughly 75% of our users are under 25, and many come to us on their own because they want more control over their attention.
The next few years will bring some important changes in how schools approach technology. We'll need to get much more thoughtful about which tools genuinely help students learn, at what ages, and how we teach them to use those tools independently.
Personally, I have a physical globe at home. It's how I show my 5-year-old where countries are, where we live, and where I'm traveling next.
I love Google Maps too, and I'm sure we'll use it together as now, I think the globe works better.
Sometimes the best tool for learning isn't the most technologically advanced one.
I think schools are starting to ask themselves the same question. I wrote an article below on the 5 emerging trends I see in Ed Tech and what this could mean for schools.
For years, we've been putting more screens in classrooms, assuming that more technology would lead to better learning. Now schools are pulling phones out while simultaneously trying to figure out how to introduce AI.
I had a fascinating conversation about this at EdTech Week with Catherine Price, New York Times bestselling author of How to Break Up With Your Phone, and Rachel Hanebutt, PhD, a developmental psychologist at Georgetown University who leads its Teens & Screens Co-Lab.
One thing Catherine said really stuck with me. A new drug needs years of testing before it reaches the public, yet we're introducing powerful technologies to children with very little testing or accountability.
Rachel shared a story that I found particularly interesting. A teenager asked her mom for help with math homework. Her mom immediately opened ChatGPT to find the answer. But the teenager could have done that herself. What she actually wanted was her mom.
I think this illustrates something important about how we learn. The process of figuring things out, struggling with a problem, or working through it with another person is often where the learning happens.
I'm optimistic about what technology can make possible in education but I also think we're only beginning to understand what happens when we make it effortless for kids to skip those experiences.
What's encouraging to me is that young people are already questioning their own relationship with technology. At Opal, roughly 75% of our users are under 25, and many come to us on their own because they want more control over their attention.
The next few years will bring some important changes in how schools approach technology. We'll need to get much more thoughtful about which tools genuinely help students learn, at what ages, and how we teach them to use those tools independently.
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Opal retweeted
If you are an Android engineer that wants to change the world and can create iOS level craft - we'd love to hire you @opalapp. Apply here opalapp.com/careers
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Opal retweeted
On Japanese Trains, Everyone Looks Down.
And Keeps Looking Down Even After They Step Outside.
006: w/ @opalapp
And Keeps Looking Down Even After They Step Outside.
006: w/ @opalapp
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Opal retweeted
In 35 rich countries, a typical 15-year-old now reads no better than a 14-year-old did a decade ago. A slow-motion disaster is under way. We explain what must be done to stop it bit.ly/3SH47FM
Illustration: George Wylesol
Illustration: George Wylesol
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Opal retweeted
Meta will enforce a two-hour daily limit on Instagram and Facebook for children as part of a record $17.1B settlement with 29 states over social media addiction claims:
• The “Productive Pauses” for children include mandatory pauses after 15 minutes of continuous use and again interrupt endless scrolling
• “Nighttime blocks” restricting children’s access from 12:00 a.m. to 6:00 a.m.
• Limited school-time access for children, eliminating push notifications on weekdays from 8:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. during the school year
• Robust age assurance measures to more effectively verify the age of young users
• Safer, age-appropriate content controls, including stronger safeguards against bullying, content promoting eating disorders, and content related to suicide and self-harm
• Stronger, more user-friendly parental controls
• Limits on social comparison features, including beauty filters and visible “like” counts, that have been linked to poor mental health outcomes in kids and teens
• Both the implementation and effectiveness of the features will be regularly assessed by an independent auditor and the settling states
variety.com/2026/digital/n…
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