Technolandy

Day 91 (of 2025/26) Three news stories for this third week back in school this calendar year! Looking at: regressions in youth; no jobs in the future; Canadian banning youth on socials…

1. Interesting regression(?)… UK finding teachers spending time changing diapers in ‘reception year’ (turned/turning 5 = starting primary school – aka kindergarten).  With the exception of chronic health (we’ve had some pull-ups) is this an issue in our area? https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2026/01/22/teachers-spend-hour-a-day-changing-pupils-nappies/#:~:text=Teachers%20are%20spending%20an%20hour,charity%20Kindred%20Squared%20has%20revealed.  And there is also a trend where teachers are finding kids trying to use paper tablets (aka books) much like their more interactive tablets – trying to zoom in and struggling with turning the page: https://www.wionews.com/trending/young-kids-in-uk-can-t-turn-pages-of-books-and-use-them-like-phones-survey-finds-1769162203421.  Which immediately reminds me of the great sketch about ‘the introduction of the book’ (that also had page-turning-issues) https://youtu.be/pQHX-SjgQvQ?si=EPog127NGG5dJdcc
2. Palantir CEO looking at the future of jobs: ““The revolution that’s coming is going to expose the actual market value of what you’re doing,” https://apple.news/AXWYz0ywyRKqQhcky8G7OQw but while he is focused on Humanities grads as being at more risk… I will still point out that there are not many jobs that I see as future-proof (which could actually be okay based on some utopia/dystopia reads I’ve done…) I also think that the fine arts are probably the safest, because those creating original content will be most able to compete with AI compositions – just gotta find the right audience… 
3. Canada next to ban youth on social media… https://apple.news/ADT_20heIR_WbgLp1rjqV5w… I’d hope that we shift to a readiness competency rather than a birthday to help ensure readiness to leverage a very powerful tool/medium of communication. Books, radios, movies, tvs, – new media always start with banning and a focus on the poorer habits…  and I do worry that the ‘enforcement of age verification’ has much more broad negative possibilities beyond keeping 12 year olds off TikTok – already a Canadian rule that you have to be 13+ (14 in Quebec) focused around (but not limited to) mass surveillance; exclusion practices; algorithmic bias; – the road to a dystopian future is paved with positive intentions!

Bonus! BC Teachers contract negotiations resume next week! https://apple.news/AvbYxYweyR4-VU4CyQ9NY7A wonder if we can tie it into Literacy Week…?!?