For decades, the conversation around youth and technology has been dominated by powerful voices—media, researchers, and word-of-mouth warnings—painting a picture of digital tools as the looming threat to young people’s well-being. But what if that narrative isn’t the whole story? What if, instead, we favored the spectrum of possibilities in the digital present and future, instead of a good or evil binary. It would take a a vibrant counter-movement, led by passionate advocates and young people themselves, determined to reclaim the digital world for good. And good news, there is one.

This episode was recorded live at Sesame Workshop, bringing together a true who's who of leaders and do-ers in the world of “Digital Wellness for Young People.” At the heart of our conversation is Young Futures—a startup initiative funding projects through the crucial lens of digital wellness. Young Futures is empowering the next generation to create, innovate, and advocate for a healthier digital landscape, supporting ideas that prioritize well-being over profit.

Joining us are visionaries from the Scratch Foundation, the organization behind the world’s largest free creative coding platform for kids, empowering millions to express themselves and solve problems through technology. We’re also honored to welcome leaders from the Joan Ganz Cooney Center, a research and innovation lab that advances learning in a digital age, inspired by the pioneering spirit of Sesame Street.

Links:

https://www.youngfutures.org/

https://joanganzcooneycenter.org/initiative/ritec/

https://www.scratchfoundation.org/

https://joanganzcooneycenter.org/initiative/well-being-by-design-fellowship/

https://www.gamesforchange.org/

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Roderic Crooks is an associate professor in the Department of Informatics at the University of California, Irvine. His research examines how the use of digital technology by public institutions contributes to the minoritization of working-class communities of color. His current project explores how community organizers in working-class communities of color use data for activist projects, even as they dispute the proliferation of data-intensive technologies in education, law enforcement, financial services, and other vital sites of public life. He has published extensively in HCI, STS, and social science venues on topics including political theories of online participation, equity of access to information and media technologies, and document theory. He is the author Access Is Capture: How Edtech Reproduces Racial Inequality, published in 2024 by the University of California Press (https://www.ucpress.edu/books/access-is-capture/paper).

Access is Capture

Racially and economically segregated schools across the United States have hosted many interventions from commercial digital education technology (edtech) companies who promise their products will rectify the failures of public education. Edtech's benefits are not only trumpeted by industry promoters and evangelists but also vigorously pursued by experts, educators, students, and teachers. Why, then, has edtech yet to make good on its promises? In Access Is Capture, Roderic N. Crooks investigates how edtech functions in Los Angeles public schools that exclusively serve Latinx and Black communities. These so-called urban schools are sites of intense, ongoing technological transformation, where the tantalizing possibilities of access to computing meet the realities of structural inequality. Crooks shows how data-intensive edtech delivers value to privileged individuals and commercial organizations but never to the communities that hope to share in the benefits. He persuasively argues that data-drivenness ultimately enjoins the public to participate in a racial project marked by the extraction of capital from minoritized communities to enrich the tech sector.

Links:

1. Amazon listing for Access Is Capture
2. University of California Press page for Access Is Capture
3. Author's personal website
4. Talks and events from Civics of Technology featuring Roderic N. Crooks
5. Article co-authored by Crooks discussing intersectional themes in feminist formations

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Sylvia Martinez was an aerospace engineer before becoming an educational software producer and vice president of a video game company. She spent a decade as the President of Generation YES, the groundbreaking non-profit that provides educators with the tools necessary to place students in leadership roles in their schools and communities. In addition to leading workshops, Sylvia delights and challenges audiences as a keynote speaker at major conferences around the world. She brings her real-world experience in highly innovative work environments to learning organizations that wish to change STEM education to be more inclusive, effective, and engaging.

Sylvia is co-author of Invent To Learn: Making, Tinkering, and Engineering in the Classroom, often called the “bible” of the classroom maker movement. She runs the book publishing arm of CMK Futures, Constructing Modern Knowledge Press, to continue to publish books about creative education by educators.

Ken Kahn has been interested in Al and education for 50 years. His 1977 paper "Three interactions between Al and education" In E. Elcock and D. Michie, editors, Machine Intelligence 8: Machine Representations of Knowledge may be among the first publications on the topic. He received his doctorate from the MIT Al Lab in 1979. He designed and implemented ToonTalk, a programming language for children that looks and feels like a video game. He has developed a large collection of Al programming resources for school students (https://ecraft2learn.github.io/ai/). He recently retired as a senior researcher from the University of Oxford.

Links

1. https://constructingmodernknowledge.com/about-the-cmk-hosts/
2. https://sylviamartinez.com
3. https://www.linkedin.com/posts/garystager_ken-kahn-speaks-with-sylvia-martinez-about-activity-7303865110035341313-BcUl
4. https://uk.linkedin.com/in/ken-kahn-997a225

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Dave Edwards, PhD (ABD), MAT, is a queer person and career educator who has served in almost every role in preK-12th grade school communities.

After getting started as a special education paraprofessional in an Autism classroom in Saint Paul Public Schools, he served as a special education teacher, middle/high school classroom teacher, special education coordinator, Dean of Students, and Assistant Head of School. From 2015-2018, Dave made the jump to higher education as lead instructor for the nontraditional teacher licensure program in Emotional Behavior Disorders at the University of MN Twin Cities.

He was an undergraduate and graduate professor in the teacher preparation program at Hamline University from 2018 to 2020 before devoting his efforts full-time to Gender Inclusive Schools.

Dave is the proud parent to a transgender daughter, and his family's experience with the discrimination she experienced in kindergarten directly informs his vocation of helping school communities create safe learning environments.

Dave serves on the board of the Minnesota Transgender Health Coalition and his family is heavily involved with Transforming Families MN.

Gender Inclusive Schools provides parent and educator training to proactively create safe learning environments for LGBTQ+ young people. We specialize in facilitating full-staff professional development sessions on a variety of equity topics, providing small group consultations, collaborating on support for individual students, and school-board policy development.

During the 2023/2024 school year, Gender Inclusive Schools supported educators in over 75 different school communities across the United States, Canada, the UK, and Australia.

https://www.cultofpedagogy.com/gender-inclusive-school/

https://www.graduateprogram.org/2024/10/making-your-classroom-more-gender-inclusive/

https://www.genderinclusiveschools.org

https://www.mapresearch.org/news/policy-spotlight-conversion-therapy-bans-release

https://www.notion4teachers.com/blog/fostering-gender-inclusivity-educator-strategies

https://www.highereddive.com/news/trump-executive-order-diversity-equity-inclusion-colleges/738052/

https://www.genderinclusiveschools.org/educator-pd

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Moombix is an all-in-one solution for online music education that includes a vigorous marketplace with profiles for each teacher, a booking and payment system, a timeline that charts all communications and shared files, a calendar, lesson-planner and a learning platform that is tailored for the online lessons with all the basic tools within reach.

Margret Juliana is an Icelandic serial entrepreneur and the founder of Moombix. She is a professional musician herself, a singer, pianist and a composer with a varied experience that ranges from jazz to rock and classical music. Margret Juliana graduated with honours from the Royal Academy of Music in London where she performed and taught music after graduation. After returning to Iceland she made a swift change in her career and founded her first startup. Along with her team she created the award-winning application Mussila, a musical game that teaches children the basics of music. Margret has received many awards as an entrepreneur. She was the Founder of the Year in Iceland at the Nordic Startup Awards 2017 and she has been recognised by Forbes as one of Europe's most promising entrepreneurs. Moombix, her second tech startup, is aimed to provide tools, and a platform for personal, real-time music lessons.

Links:

Heyr himna smiður, þorkell Sigurbjornsson, Schola Cantorum Reykjavicensis, Hörður Askelsson https://open.spotify.com/track/7rAxhJu2iS9WyjWiCzk9EJ?si=5c3c6fab2fd7464c

https://techfundingnews.com/moombix-scores-1-9m-to-bring-online-music-learning-platform-to-the-uk/

https://www.boomplay.com/episode/8572218

https://www.eu-startups.com/2024/10/reykjavik-based-moombix-raises-e2-27-million-to-scale-its-online-music-learning-platform/

https://thefoundermedia.com/moombix-raises-2-46-million-in-seed-funding-to-revolutionise-music-education/

https://www.moombix.com/about-us

https://www.hugverk.is/en/newsroom/news/trademarks/moombix-a-mix-of-music-beat-and-a-bit-more

https://musically.com/2024/10/18/music-education-startup-moombix-raises-1-9m-seed-funding/

https://www.financial-news.co.uk/moombix-secures-1-9m-to-revolutionise-music-education-in-the-uk/

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Laylah Bulman (she/her)

Laylah Bulman is a passionate advocate for immersive, inclusive game-based learning for all students. As Executive Producer for Minecraft: Education Edition, she leads strategy and content for computer science, cybersecurity and esports, producing leading learning experiences for students around the world, such as Minecraft’s Hour of Code. Laylah spearheaded the creation of Minecraft Esports and Microsoft Esports Teacher Academy, building a community of thousands of credentialled esports educators across the globe. Prior to joining Microsoft, Laylah was enterprise director for LEGO Education and helped lead the North America Scholastic Esports Federation, where she was responsible for international expansion through partnerships with the US Department of State and global Minecraft-based challenges. Laylah hails from Miami, USA, where she was a STEM educator and school administrator for 16 years. As a parent and teacher of children with ASD, she promotes STEM+CS through a lens of equity and inclusion. She is a Woodrow Wilson Fellow and graduate of the University of Virginia.

About Minecraft

Minecraft: Education Edition is a groundbreaking educational platform that transforms traditional learning into an engaging, interactive experience. Designed specifically for classroom environments, it leverages the beloved Minecraft game to foster creativity, collaboration, and critical thinking among students. With over 600 pre-planned lessons across various subjects, educators can seamlessly integrate STEM concepts and digital citizenship into their curricula. The platform allows students to embark on virtual field trips, conduct science experiments, and even learn coding—all while working together in a safe and controlled environment. By combining play with education, Minecraft: Education Edition not only captivates students' imaginations but also equips them with essential skills for the future, making learning both fun and impactful.

Citations:

Links:

• https://www.edtechreview.in/trends-insights/trends/how-teachers-used-minecraft-for-education-during-covid-19/
• https://www.koreaherald.com/view.php?ud=20200512000954
• https://www.reddit.com/r/Minecraft/comments/ksjqnr/the_benefits_of_minecraft_in_schools/
• https://www.codemonkey.com/blog/what-is-minecraft-education/
• https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/minecraft-learning-tool-insights-from-year-under-covid-19-garrett
• https://iste.org/blog/minecraft-education-is-a-game-and-a-learning-tool
• https://education.minecraft.net/en-us/blog/five-social-benefits-of-introducing-minecraft-to-your-school
• https://codakid.com/is-minecraft-educational/
• https://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/01/books/01terkel.html

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After growing up with severe anxiety and firsthand experiencing the lack of mental health resources in schools, Tessa (she/her) founded Upstream Education to ensure teachers have the tools to help their students manage anxiety and foster well-being. She received a B.S. in Social Entrepreneurship from the Watson Institute at Lynn University. Tessa also holds a 200 hour yoga teacher certificate from Strala Yoga. In 2016, Tessa won the Denver Public Schools Imaginarium Innovation Lab's Design Challenge for her idea to create a program of bite-sized, Tier 1 Mental Health tools for high school students. The following year, her first book, I Am Tessa, was published by One Idea Press. She often speaks on the topics of adolescent mental health, social entrepreneurship, and teacher professional development for organizations including Teach For America, Denver Public Schools, the Council of School Supervisors and Administrators, and the University of Notre Dame. In 2021, Tessa delivered her first TEDx talk called “The Power of 5 Minutes for Youth Mental Health.” Tessa is a Forbes 30 Under 30 honoree and 2024 HopeLab Young Innovator in Behavioral Health awardee. In her spare time, Tessa loves to explore Colorado with her husband. She lives in Boulder.

About Upstream equips students with the ability to "name and tame" their stress. We start with the science of stress, specifically how our brains and bodies are biologically predisposed to respond to stress through the fight, flight, or freeze response. After students can "name" their stress, Upstream gives them a variety of concrete tools to "tame" that stress. Our tools are rooted in the practices of mindfulness, positive psychology, and positive self-talk.

Links:

https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes/73/su/su7304a6.htm

https://www.nimh.nih.gov/news/science-news/2024/cognitive-behavioral-therapy-alters-brain-activity-in-children-with-anxiety

https://ccf.georgetown.edu/2022/03/24/research-update-childrens-anxiety-and-depression-on-the-rise/

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9894765/

https://www.cdc.gov/childrensmentalhealth/features/anxiety-depression-children.html

https://www.cdc.gov/childrensmentalhealth/data.html

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EKB7GZ0KAwo

https://www.coursehero.com/file/194915685/RA-Final-Rough-Draft/

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Barry F. Malkin is the Chief Executive Officer of Carnegie Learning. An active operator, investor, and advisor to the educational services sector for over 25 years, Barry took on the role of CEO in 2015. Prior to Carnegie Learning, he was Head of Corporate Development and Strategy at Apollo Education Group, leading corporate development and strategy for one of the world’s largest educational services companies.

Carnegie Learning is the world’s leading edtech company using research and AI to dramatically improve learning outcomes for students. A pioneer in K-12 education for 26+ years, we provide award-winning math, literacy, world languages, professional learning, and high-dosage tutoring solutions to more than 5.5 million students and educators in all 50 states and Canada. Born out of Carnegie Mellon University, our company continues to conduct research with more than $90M in grant funding from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Walton Family Foundation, and U.S. Department of Education, among others.

Links:

• https://www.carnegielearning.com/blog/interview-with-ceo-barry-malkin/
• https://www.edsurge.com/news/2017-03-28-living-breathing-and-eating-math-an-interview-with-carnegie-learning-s-barry-malkin
• https://marketscale.com/industries/education-technology/to-improve-student-outcomes-teach-the-why-behind-every-subject/
• https://www.glassdoor.com/Overview/Working-at-Carnegie-Learning-EI_IE111117.11,28.htm
• https://www.glassdoor.com/Reviews/Carnegie-Learning-Reviews-E111117.htm
• https://www.comparably.com/companies/carnegie-learning/questions
• https://www.comparably.com/companies/carnegie-learning/questions/2102911/what-s-the-interview-process-like-at-carnegie-learning
• https://www.linkedin.com/posts/barrymalkin_longlivelearning-activity-7042261812364410880-5tq3

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