The Data Binge REFRESH

The Technology, The People, and The Ideas
 

Welcome to the REFRESH monthly update, where I鈥檓 sharing items strategically across areas focused on the human relationship with technology - WE, as humans, are the most important component in a technological future that will serve us ALL, equally and justly. Understanding our relationship with ourselves and how this relationship impacts the future of technology, is far more important than the actual tech we seek to create and accelerate - 馃實

Recent Episodes

This last month we really focused on the current social environment, namely the social unrest tied to the Black Lives Matter movement, innovations in education as the Fall season faster approaches us, and ideas behind teaching in a COVID world and how to change the frameworks of institutional capital to incentivize better technology innovations in ed-tech.

 

#45. Ian Connell | Re-imagining the K-12 Education Experience - Innovation, Tech, & Capital

What I learned

My biggest learning from this interview with Ian, was the big picture of how we as parents and contributors to the next generation of student populations, should be thinking about education - technology is just a means to an end, the end is the vision of what graduates of these early student institutions should be coming away with. Are our learning institutions honoring the technology, the curriculums, and the approaches that are targeted to the design of the school, and the outcomes envisioned by the the founders and institutions? Do you we ask the questions around what these institutions envision for our children?

We also talk about the implications to school openings around COVID in the fall.

Here鈥檚 a quick graphic from the Center of Reinventing Public Education, that shows how much this is changing.

Highlights from the discussion with Ian

鉁达笍 Organizational inertia, and why it is so hard for big systems and organizations to effectively tackle dynamically changing challenges - whether in education or in commercial applications, how the size and age of organizations can impact their ability to change strategy and direction.

鉁达笍 Effective teaching models, and the difference between teaching 5th grade math, and teaching 5th graders math, the disparity curve across different levels of learning maturity in the average classroom, and some trends and evolutions of thinking to tackle these types of typical educational challenges.

鉁达笍 How technology can be used to target specific educational outcomes, frameworks that support specific outcomes, mega trends in ed-tech, and big ideas on what school models may look like during COVID this coming fall.

鉁达笍 Ideas around how to make ed-tech more interesting to institutional capital, and why the current model of venture funding in ed-tech has some addressable gaps that could change the future of education for our youth.

Connect with Ian Connell via LinkedIn to learn more about his thoughts on ed-tech and venture funding frameworks that can change the impact of our educational systems.

Learn more
 

#43. Sonya Weaver-Johnson, Sean Bittner, Jason Bradley | **Happy Juneteenth** - Celebrating Freedom in 2020

Black's at Microsoft (BAM), is Microsoft's oldest employee resource group, dedicated to supporting the continued growth and development of black employees.

Organizations should be heavily investing in creating more representative work forces, and it starts at the top executive ranks .

There is good news at Microsoft! Under served and diverse employee populations increasing from 2016-2019, but there is much more work to be done.

Highlights from 2020 BAM Conference

馃専 These are highlights from BAM's annual conference, earlier this year in February, 2020 - from the eyes and experiences of several colleagues at Microsoft.

鉁达笍 Learn about the importance of BAM's mission from STEM education to employee mentoring

鉁达笍 The learnings and challenges of allyship, and how to be a better ally.

鉁达笍 How to better understand unconscious biases, and how to get closer to problems so that you take more empathic action.

Connect with Sonya Weaver-Johnson, Sean Bittner, and Jason Bradley via LinkedIn to learn more about BAM or what it鈥檚 like to be an ally.

Learn more
 

Simply Tech LIVE is a live video production hosted by Ali Mazaheri (Director of the Denver & Irvine Microsoft Technology Centers), and I, featuring discussions with Microsoft technologists, business practitioners, and academics about the evolving landscape of tech in the Microsoft ecosystem.

Exploring the Realities of Racism Through VR

What I learned

It鈥檚 not every day that you can get two top tier academics from different backgrounds, to collaborate on a technology experience targeted at anti-racism. Jeremy and Courtney co-created this VR experience with the goals of not only helping people get closer to the problem, empathy, but actually to come up with new approaches to get people to perceive these problems and target solutions to help overcome them.

They collaborated together, from opposite lines of thought and work, to create something new. Sometimes we should admit that we can鈥檛 be the expert on every topic, and truly step into trusting others to bring together the best of ourselves to innovate impactful solutions.

Have you experienced something that was unfair or unjust, that changed your perception of it? What was needed to inspire you to act? Did you act?

Highlights

Courtney D. Cogburn, Associate Professor of Social Work at Columbia University, and Jeremy Bailenson, Professor of Communication at Stanford, and founding director of Stanford University's Virtual Human Interaction Lab, join the Simply Tech LIVE broadcast to discuss their collaborations on an immersive VR experience "1000 Cut Journey", that helps to bridge the gap in understanding the complexities and realities of racism.

The discussion includes the following topics:

鉁达笍 The design and evolution of the "1000 Cut Journey" project, from idea, to storyboard, to experience.

鉁达笍 How interdisciplinary experiences and diverse backgrounds came together in collaboration to build something novel and very different.

鉁达笍 How anti-racism can be applied directly to technology, the introspective challenges and observations working on this project, and combating racism both in personal and external environments .

Contact Courtney D. Cogburn and Jeremy Bailenson

Learn more
 

Women as Highly Empowered Technical Leaders

What I learned

We often hear about the importance of bringing technology to early age girls and children of under served backgrounds, but it鈥檚 rare to learn the stories and get closer to the people who are investing here. We can each take a part in this journey, I know that after this discussion, I will do more to put mathematics and hard science related toys/ideas into my daughters life, she deserves to have better opportunities that have historically mostly been provided to men.

Some stats below taken from a host of different statistics, gathered by Leftronic.

Highlights from our discussion with CAT

CAT Susch, Principal Technical Architect at the Microsoft Technology Center in New York, is joining the Simply Tech LIVE broadcast to share her experiences as a highly technical leader in the tech industry, why there are so few women in technical roles, and the challenges and opportunities presented for the culture change that businesses need to make to build a more diverse and inclusive workforce.

Additional topics discussed:

鉁达笍 How businesses can increase female technical leadership to advance their products and capabilities.

鉁达笍 The opportunities and challenges for women striving toward excellence in highly technical roles in business.

鉁达笍 The importance of a "GIVE" culture, examples in how Microsoft is leading in these areas, and ways all of us can create deeper impact in under-served communities.

Connect with CAT

Learn more

Thank you for reading, I hope this has created some value for you in your journey, and I hope to continue making monthly contributions to ideas that help us better understand our relationship with technology.

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