Tim Talks To: Merve Lapus of Common Sense Education

As Senior Director of Education and Outreach, Merve leads Common Sense Education's efforts to improve digital citizenship for students in the tens of thousands of schools they serve. He describes the resources that Common Sense provides to support educators in this area and others, including a robust set of edtech reviews. On a personal note, Merve shares the story of this father's entrepreneurial journey which inspired him while also developing his work ethic. Enjoy!

Details:

0:00~1:27 Introduction 1:27~2:17 Merve’s role at Common Sense Media 2:17~7:14 Early money lessons 7:14~10:34 What Common Sense Education does 10:34~15:56 Approach to teaching digital citizenship 15:56~18:00 Who uses the curriculum? 18:00~21:30 Algorithms behind what we see online 21:30~24:03 Media and the brain 24:03~24:26 A word from NGPF 24:26~26:43 The feeling of “FOMO” 26:43~30:22 What is Digital Bytes? 30:22~36:15 EdTech reviews and resources 36:15~43:51 How Common Sense Education helps teachers 43:51~46:14 Why digital citizenship matters 46:14~47:31 Conclusion  

Resources:

Common Sense Media Common Sense Education Truth About Tech Digital Bytes EdTech Reviews and Resources Firefox Lightbeam

Quotes:

“Media and technology are not going anywhere so demonizing it is not going to reach the ears of our kids because our kids are growing up with it. So we take a very balanced approach at the way that we look at media and technology. We are really about sanity not censorship and it’s not about making a ban but making a plan.” “Digital citizenship might not be core content but it is core to content especially in this day in age where media and technology are playing a huge role in not just the lives of our kids but in the way we are instructing and the way kids are learning.”