A teenager joins an online video chat. Within seconds, artificial intelligence analyses their face and gives them a score out of ten for “attractiveness”. They are compared in real time with another user who scores higher and is declared the winner. The game is live-streamed, and the audience ridicule the loser in the chat. This […] … learn more→
Author Archives: Kevin
‘You’re a 4 out of 10’: the troubling rise of AI appearance ratings
Class, let’s watch a short video – more than 75% of teachers say they use YouTube in the classroom
Approximately three-quarters of 393 preschool and K-12 teachers in the U.S. say they use YouTube for instructional purposes, with roughly half using it on a daily or weekly basis, according to our new nationally representative survey. Those findings come from our new research, published in June 2026 in Educational Researcher, an academic journal. Our sample included […] … learn more→
Muscle strength: the health indicator that almost no one talks about
Standing up from a chair five times in a row without using your arms for support seems like a simple task. However, the ease or difficulty with which you can do it, or the inability to complete it at all, can reveal a great deal about muscle strength and functional capacity. In just 30 seconds, […] … learn more→
What is emotional regulation? A child psychologist explains
If you’ve followed mental health topics on TikTok or Instagram lately, you have probably heard the term emotional regulation. But emotional regulation isn’t just a trendy buzzword. It’s a nuanced concept that psychologists like me have been studying for decades. At its core, emotional regulation is how well someone can manage their emotions – whether positive ones like […] … learn more→
Why geopolitics is deciding the future of universities today
For decades, educational institutions benefited from a rarely questioned notion: the world was moving toward greater integration and cooperation. International student mobility was growing, research collaboration was flourishing across borders, and academia was operating within a global marketplace of talent and ideas. Even as governments vied for economic and political influence, higher education was considered […] … learn more→
In the United States, universities are struggling to reverse the decline in reading.
Anyone who has recently spent any time on an American college campus has probably heard professors lamenting their students’ reading habits—or rather, the fact that they hardly read at all anymore. And these complaints aren’t simply nostalgia for a bygone golden age. Reading—not just any kind of reading, but reading long, complex, and demanding books— is rapidly disappearing from […] … learn more→
Students are anxious – and it’s no surprise, since we are teaching them to be that way
Temporary anxiety can often surface before the first day of school. Sometimes, that can help kids get in the right mindset for a big day. But when anxiety becomes a constant feature of children’s and teenagers’ days, that stress doesn’t switch off when they leave the classroom or finish an exam. It can become the body’s […] … learn more→
The special nature of research projects
Research projects come in many forms – applied, developmental, evaluative or data-driven inquiries – but regardless of type, they often operate in what might be called discovery mode. This mode is defined by open-ended exploration and inherently fuzzy deliverables. In discovery-oriented work, uncertainty isn’t an obstacle to be eliminated but a condition to be navigated. […] … learn more→
How to achieve a truly restorative vacation for our brain
Summer means vacation and a break for many workers: we turn off our computers, forget about email, meetings disappear, the boss vanishes, and, with a bit of luck, even that voice that tells us, “You should be productive.” We put our bodies on pause and go in search of relaxation and fun in generous doses. […] … learn more→
Schools are rethinking whether every student needs a laptop
When the COVID-19 pandemic forced in-person classroom instruction to go virtual, students suddenly needed to have their own laptops or tablets in order to interact with teachers and complete assignments. Most states used federal pandemic funding to address the digital divide. This refers to the gap between students and families who had their own tablets, computers and high-speed internet, and those who did not. […] … learn more→
