Educators have three jobs—teacher, bureaucrat, and cop—that have always clashed with each other, and lockdowns only made this worse. The teacher’s job was often eschewed in favour of fulfilling the roles of bureaucrat and cop. The bureaucrat and cop roles—which valued fairness and order, respectively—worked hand-in-hand to make online classes easier for educators. Educators enforced rigidly objective class requirements with increased surveillance, like eye trackers, to ensure no cheating took place, at the cost of eroding student trust and engagement with the subject matter being taught. Read full article here
Societal Issues
To curb drug deaths, communities turn to Reddit, texts and wastewater
With drug overdose deaths on the rise, authorities are attempting to curb the epidemic by tracking and sharing information in real time. In one unique effort, a nonprofit in New York City is using drug-testing equipment and stamping or marking habits of dealers to identify drug batches that may endanger users. Other approaches are also being used, such as monitoring drug-related chatter on Reddit and analyzing local wastewater for opioid and other drug levels. With the combination of these efforts, researchers hope to put a dent in the opioid crisis and reduce overdose deaths. Read full article here
Merv
June 1, 2023
