Unexpected ways that individuals adapt technology to reclaim what matters to them, from working through conflict with smart lights to celebrating gender transition with selfies. We have been warned about the psychological perils of technology: distraction, difficulty empathizing, and loss of the ability (or desire) to carry on a conversation. But our devices and data are woven into our lives. We can't simply reject them. Instead, Margaret Morris argues, we need to adapt technology creatively to our needs and values. In Left to Our Own Devices, Morris offers examples of individuals applying technologies in unexpected ways—uses that go beyond those intended by developers and designers. Morris examines these kinds of personalized life hacks, chronicling the ways that people have adapted technology to strengthen social connection, enhance well-being, and affirm identity. Morris, a clinical psychologist and app creator, shows how people really use technology, drawing on interviews she has conducted as well as computer science and psychology research. She describes how a couple used smart lights to work through conflict; how a woman persuaded herself to eat healthier foods when her photographs of salads garnered “likes” on social media; how a trans woman celebrated her transition with selfies; and how, through augmented reality, a woman changed the way she saw her cancer and herself. These and the many other “off-label” adaptations described by Morris cast technology not just as a temptation that we struggle to resist but as a potential ally as we try to take care of ourselves and others. The stories Morris tells invite us to be more intentional and creative when left to our own devices.

"The Digital Hustle When we met in the middle of a rare snowstorm in Washington, DC, in January, Charlie was bundled up against the cold in his Carhartt jacket, thick socks, and sturdy work boots, with a knit cap pulled down over his ears. As he peeled off his many layers in our booth at a Dunkin' Donuts, he apologized for smelling like cigarette smoke, saying that bad winter weather always makes him think a little harder about quitting for good. Charlie explained that smoking was a small comfort in what he felt were uncertain times. "It's like, every day you just you walk out your door and you're already stressed. Because we never know, even these days, you never know what the next day is going to be like. You have no idea. I'm just trying to keep my guys busy." Charlie's "guys" are a small crew of two or three manual workers he tried to keep in regular work through a patchwork of contracting, demolition gigs, and moving jobs. Looking older than his forty-seven years, Charlie told me about how he came to start his own home contracting and moving business after he left his union construction job when his boss was replaced by someone much younger than him. He enjoyed the freedom and independence that came with "being his own boss": being my own boss, I don't have to deal with nobody. And for me, because I'm forty-seven, I can't deal with a twenty- or thirty-year-old, some young kid like you being my boss."--

This book is the result of five years of intensive dedication to teaching innovation and curriculum development and offers a series of studies exploring how mobile technologies in particular, and mobile learning in general, may be used for second language teaching and learning in a wide variety of environments. Although a strong emphasis is laid on issues to do with autonomy and independence in second language acquisition, the volume also examines the connections and interrelations of mobile learning and second language teaching and learning process on the whole, as well as the process of adoption of new, mobile technologies as teaching tools in various communities across the globe. The volume is targeted at a broad spectrum of readers including academics in the field of e-learning, online learning, and ICT-based learning, with an interest in exploring the possibilities of mobile-assisted learning and the new developments of ICT—in particular, portable devices—for the foreign language classroom. It is most attractive to those interested in the emerging field of mobile-assisted learning in general, and its potential for foreign language teaching and learning in particular.

This delightful and instructive history of invention shows why National Public Radio dubbed Tenner “the philosopher of everyday technology.” Looking at how our inventions have impacted our world in ways we never intended or imagined, he shows that the things we create have a tendency to bounce back and change us. The reclining chair, originally designed for brief, healthful relaxation, has become the very symbol of obesity. The helmet, invented for military purposes, has made possible new sports like mountain biking and rollerblading. The typewriter, created to make business run more smoothly, has resulted in wide-spread vision problems, which in turn have made people more reliant on another invention—eyeglasses. As he sheds light on the many ways inventions surprise and renew us, Tenner considers where technology will take us in the future, and what we can expect from the devices that we no longer seem able to live without.

Are spiritual parents uniquely ordained to lead a movement for wiser use of media and digital devices for our children? Gloria DeGaetano thinks so. In Left to Their Devices…What’s Left? you will find provocative poems and compelling prayers that capture the angst, fear, guilt, confusion, and frustration of parenting in today’s “screen machine world.” You will also find solace and wisdom, hope and inspiration. Use this book as a personal meditation. Discuss it at church. Share it with your book club or PTA. Show it to a relative whose child struggles with computer addiction. Give it to new parents, encouraging careful future decisions. Use this book to make a positive change in your life and in the lives of those you love. Left to Their Devices…What’s Left? is a spiritual call to action…from your heart. Heed the call. Take action.

In the author's words: "This book is an honest attempt to understand what it means to be educated in today's world." His argument is this: No matter how important science and technology seem to industry or government or indeed to the daily life of people, as a society we believe that those educated in literature, history, and other humanities are in some way better informed, more knowing, and somehow more worthy of the descriptor "well educated." This 19th-century conception of the educated mind weighs heavily on our notions on how we educate our young. When we focus on intellectual and scholarly issues in high school as opposed to issues, such as communications, basic psychology, or child raising, we are continuing to rely on outdated notions of the educated mind that come from elitist notions of who is to be educated and what that means. To accommodate the realities of today's world it is necessary to change these elitist notions. We need to rethink what it means to be educated and begin to focus on a new conception of the very idea of education. Students need to learn how to think, not how to accomplish tasks, such as passing standardized tests and reciting rote facts. In this engaging book, Roger C. Schank sets forth the premises of his argument, cites its foundations in the Great Books themselves, and illustrates it with examples from an experimental curriculum that has been used in graduate schools and with K-12 students. Making Minds Less Well Educated Than Our Own is essential reading for scholars and students in the learning sciences, instructional design, curriculum theory and planning, educational policy, school reform, philosophy of education, higher education, and anyone interested in what it means to be educated in today's world.