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Here are some of the other stories that were told about mindsets and emotions – stories I didn’t fit into part ten in my year-end-series:

Damn. There is a lot of bullshit attached to that word “mindset.” Improviser mindset. Innovators mindset. Gorilla mindset. Beloit mindset. R&D mindset.

“The Mindset Mindset: Passion and Grit as Emotional Labour” by Benjamin Doxtdator

Via The Verge: “Take a trip to Los Angeles’ new internet celebrity summer camp.” (I’m including this here because I think it’s worth thinking about how our emotional well-being is now deeply intertwined with online performances.)

Via The New York Times: “How Uber Uses Psychological Tricks to Push Its Drivers’ Buttons.”

Via The New York Times: “A New Way for Therapists to Get Inside Heads: Virtual Reality.”

From the Radiator blog: "‘If you walk in someone else’s shoes, then you’ve taken their shoes’: empathy machines as appropriation machines

“My Black Stepson Is Proof That Our Schools Put White Culture First” by Andre Perry

I would be remiss if I did not mention somewhere one of the most important “brain-based” stories of the year: Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy associated with head injuries (and sports). I have given up watching football, my favorite sport, this year. In part, I am boycotting the NFL to stand in solidarity with Colin Kaepernick. But I also just cannot watch any more. I cannot watch the game for fear that I’ll see someone die on the field. I cannot watch the game because I know that the ramifications of repetitive concussive injuries affect players off the field. Baltimore Ravens offensive lineman John Urschel retired abruptly this year, days after a medical study was released that found the degenerative CTE in 110 out of 111 brains it examined. (Urschel is also a PhD student at MIT.) After former Patriots and convicted murderer Aaron Hernandez killed himself this spring, his family donated his brain to research. He “suffered from most severe CTE ever found in a person his age,” The Washington Post reported.

Who’s brains really matter with all this interest in “brain-based education”? Whose brains. Whose bodies. Whose futures.

Audrey Watters


Published

The Stories We Were Told about Education Technology (2017)

A Hack Education Project

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