We live immersed in technology, without a doubt. Our spaces are filled with devices and gadgets that encompass a wide range of functions and sophistication. Interpersonal relationships don’t just draw from the waters of the digital age; they are immersed in them. Digital technologies shorten geographical and temporal distances, shape consumption, work, study, and entertainment […] … learn more→
Author Archives: Kevin
Like a fish in water: friendship in the digital habitat
Decades of male‑focused medical research could bias healthcare A
Many people will learn CPR using a flat-chested manikin. A 2024 study of 20 models of CPR manikins sold worldwide found that three quarters were described as male or had no sex specified. Of the 20, only one offered a breast overlay. The manikins reflect a wider tendency in medical teaching and research to treat […] … learn more→
Towards “AI bilingualism”: learning to work with it and learning to work without it
Artificial intelligence (AI), and especially generative artificial intelligence, its most visible branch, is already widely used by students – from middle school to higher education in increasing proportions – and by teachers. Will AI help schools overcome their crises, or will it prevent young people from thinking for themselves and acquiring real skills, turning teachers […] … learn more→
AI can be more comforting than a person – our research shows why
Some of us now use generative artificial intelligence (gen AI) to talk through difficult feelings. We may ask a chatbot to write an email or plan a holiday, but we also tell it that we have had a rotten day or feel anxious about a presentation. A 2025 US survey of 1,058 people aged 12 […] … learn more→
What higher education keeps getting wrong about non-degree pathways
Ask most academics what a non-degree credential is and you will get a fairly consistent answer: something shorter, something narrower, something a student does when the degree is out of reach. The word that surfaces is usually “alternative,” and it is rarely meant as a compliment. That framing survives mostly because the sector has never […] … learn more→
Why making friends at university feels harder than it really is
The summer before starting university can be a time of multiple worries for students. Worry about obtaining a place on your desired course. Worry about navigating clearing to confirm your place. Worries about securing accommodation, sorting student finance, preparation for academic studies and even finding the right stationery are also common. Yet many students’ biggest […] … learn more→
No, AI systems don’t have a drive to survive – a developmental psychologist explains why it only looks that way
In controlled safety tests described earlier this year, researchers asked AI models to solve a series of simple math problems. Partway through the exercise, the instructors warned the bots that if they tried to solve the next problem, the computer environment they were operating in would be shut down. In some runs, the shutdown occurred […] … learn more→
Victims of discrimination choose AI-based recommendations over human advice
A study highlights that discriminated-against consumers are more inclined to turn to AI-based recommendations rather than human advice. The fear of being judged or experiencing a feeling of embarrassment can lead to the use of AI. If AI systems are themselves biased, they risk amplifying the discrimination that consumers were trying to escape. What should […] … learn more→
When you hit the page wall
Academic writers can spend a lot of time being stuck. Quite often they see stuckness as a thinking problem. So they go back to the sources, re-read the theory, work out what they could say next. And quite often that is exactly what is needed. But there is a different kind of stuck that more […] … learn more→
How did a school controversy about world maps end up at the United Nations?
In March 2017, a news story about school maps caught the attention of three cartographers . Boston public schools had announced they would be using the Gall-Peters equal-area projection . This would show the size of each continent in relation to the others. The media presented the change as a way to correct the world […] … learn more→
