Recent Ideas from Twitter – Social Work Futures – April 2 , 2019

Mental Health Apps

This amazing Ph.D. student, Henry Willis, is developing a mental health app for Black youth. The app is specifically designed to move through stigma, educate youth about mental health, and link youth to resources. Inspiring! The world needs more of this – culturally relevant and tech-savvy!

Apps are an important set of future facing tools to connect with people in need as never before possible. That said, we have a long way to go to build a sound scientific base for widespread adoption/dissemination. This article discusses some of the limitations and encourages care in not overstating what a large percentage of apps are actually able to do.

Artificial Intelligence

Wonderful article about how to use a new ethical framework to build AI – insist on the engagement and direction of communities to be served to build tech solutions to real world problems.

Exciting work being done by a social work professor (Dr. Desmond Patton at Columbia University) to explain, encourage and promote why social workers as well as others from outside the typical “tech” crowd. Dr. Patton is doing important scholarship in the intersections of race, community, youth well being and equity.

Is it possible that eventually artificial intelligence will outsmart humans? Here’s a recent piece to explore this topic.

Exploring ethics in tech and artificial intelligence – this article describes the urgent challenge.

Robotics to Aid Humans

What if robots could help people with profound mobility challenges/limitations engage in the world, care for themselves and experience fuller lives as a result? Here’s a piece that explores and considers this possibility.

Equity and Oppression in Virtual Spaces

New article about the experiences of women of color in online gaming environments – exploring intersecting oppressions. This piece suggests that racism is easily displaced in online gaming spaces and that intentional and creative approaches are needed to address this emerging set of challenges.

Here’s an article covering a brief history of hate online in the wake of the New Zealand massacre.

Technology to Solve Global Challenges

MIT Press article exploring ways that new and emerging technology might help to address enduring challenges of the present and future. Thought provoking article!

Tech Industry and Activism

What if tech professionals were activists? It turns out – some of them are. This article describes who they are and what they are up to.

Universities and Education of the Future

What will the universities of the future look like? This article is from 2017, but is an interesting imagining of the built environment/architecture of universities of the future given a series of likely transitions in play.

What would high school look like if it were reimagined to prepare students for the most likely scenarios related to the future of work? This article considers this topic – with a few examples of innovative high schools experimenting with new approaches.

Creativity and the Future

In an article from a few years ago, Author Neil Gaiman suggests that our abilities to use our imaginations is among our most important skills for the future…and that our survival may depend on it.

A well-known futurist describes the ways in which futures-oriented foresight methods can move through and/or reveal creative limitations towards more innovative solutions.

This article considers the (essential) roles of creativity and intuition as skills of the future – necessary for success in a variety of sectors.

Learning About the Influence of “Big Tech”

A new book by futurist Amy Webb focuses on the influences and impact of the nine primary high tech corporations working in the world today. Her book “The Big Nine” is reviewed in this piece from Inside Higher Education. This is a book worthy of serious consideration by those of us in university environments.