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Connected Learner: Promoting digital learning in the school environment

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The printing press changed the world, fueling a global renaissance in learning, art and science and upending historical power structures. The shift from print to digital is having an even more profound impact. It has taken hold in two decades rather than two centuries, transforming communication, democratizing learning and creating new markets.

Today we live, learn, work and play on digital platforms. The five largest companies are digital platforms (Alphabet, Amazon, Apple, Facebook and Microsoft). Most of us hop seamlessly from a communication screen to a production screen to a shared screen, and we often use several simultaneously.

Tremendous progress has been made in K-12 education in this country over the last 20 years, even in low-income communities. Most schools have broadband connections, devices for every student or two and practices that have begun to personalize student learning.

But challenges remain in these early days of developing new personalized learning models. These 10 strategies promote excellence and equity in elementary and secondary schools in the digital learning age. The first five are the basics of access, the second five are the basics of quality.

1. Support 1:1 Take-Home Technology

The combination of inexpensive devices (especially Chromebooks) and open education resources have made it cheaper to provide digital access to great instructional resources than textbooks. It also powers blended and anywhere anytime learning models. A few interesting facts around this:

Maine is the only state to provide 1:1 take-home technology to secondary students. Everywhere else, it's up to school districts.

The Mooresville Graded School District near Charlotte, North Carolina, was a 1:1 pioneer and demonstrated that in a low-spending district (relative to other North Carolina districts) it was possible to provide all students with a full-function laptop.

Beginning in 2012, Council Bluffs, Iowa; Leyden, Ill.; and the Richland Two schools in South Carolina, became early leaders in adopting Chromebooks.

A user fee of $25-$50 for take-home laptops has been adopted by some districts to cover insurance and can usually be paid in installments for those who need payment assistance. Some districts cover the cost for low-income families upon request.

Full 1:1 access makes possible the transition from textbooks to digital instructional materials, particularly open resources. Several school districts have partnerships with open educational resources:

The El Paso Independent School District in Texas worked with CK-12 Foundation to develop 30 open high school flexbooks. El Paso teachers adapted CK-12 content with their own touches and aligned the content with Texas standards. Savings from planned textbook adoptions helped pay for laptops for every high school student.

The Santa Ana Unified School District in California partners with Gooru for customized playlists of open content.

Schools in Atlanta, Los Angeles and New York use open digital playlists from PowerMyLearning.

Six districts are piloting comprehensive open math curriculum from nonprofit Open Up Resources.

Some 1:1 schools and districts are reluctant to allow students to bring devices home because of safety concerns, particularly if the students wear recognizable uniforms and walk in dangerous areas. This difficult choice puts more pressure on home and community connectivity solutions.

2. Support Community Broadband Access

Home connectivity is important to support extended learning opportunities and full digital equity. In a limited number of cases, school districts may provide a connected device (tablet or laptop with hotspot) to students lacking home access, but this quickly becomes cost prohibitive to do at scale. The most common effort to promote home connectivity are community partnerships including low-cost broadband services (about $10 per month) and encouraging and mapping community Wi-Fi hotspots.

Taking advantage of the urban density, the Santa Ana district made efforts to boost home internet access by boosting school signal strength to cover nearby apartment units and, in partnership with the city, increase access to Wi-Fi hotspots. Where that doesn't meet the need, school libraries check out filtered wireless hotspots for home use. One hot spot often covers multiple students.

Santa Ana's deputy superintendent, David Haglund, says home access is improving as families have found ways to access the internet. "The most recent technology survey in Santa Ana found that 85 percent of families have internet in the home. We use the hotspots as a strategy to solve for the remaining 15 percent." The district is also in talks with the city regarding a citywide broadband initiative.

In Alabama, the Huntsville City Schools put Wi-Fi on buses with extended travel time. In addition to more study time, the district experienced a big drop in discipline problems on the buses equipped with Wi-Fi.

Coachella Valley Unified Schools in California provides students with a mobile device and, according to superintendent Daryl Adams, "parks buses in isolated rural areas to provide access for students and families with no internet service."

3. Encourage BYOD

Because the vast majority of secondary school students nationwide today bring their own device to school, most districts have dropped their phone bans and allow teachers to decide when and how students can use phones in class.

Bring your own device policies should be used to create a high-access environment - a three-screen day that includes a mobile device, a production device and a large sharing/editing screen. BYOD doesn't replace a school district's commitment to 1:1 access. Rather, it augments this commitment and creates a three-screen day with extended learning opportunities.

4. Support Digital Literacy

"Digital learning is mission-critical because digital literacy and digital collaboration don't come naturally," says Jan Rashid, assistant superintendent of Des Plaines School District 62, located in a Chicago suburb. "Writing digitally is not the same as using Facebook or Snapchat."

To prepare students for middle school, high school, college and beyond, the district uses a digital literacy curriculum. Students have 24/7 access to the content, so they can work in class, at home or on the bus.

Santa Ana dropped its ban on cell phones and encouraged students to bring their own device and use their own network. While that makes other administrators nervous, Haglund thinks locked-down networks are like teaching young people to drive on a Disney amusement park ride. Instead, he believes we should teach students to become responsible digital citizens.

Common Sense Media provides a free comprehensive curriculum designed to help students to think critically, behave safely and participate responsibly online.

Districts serving diverse and low-income communities are finding very high smartphone penetration rates. Highline Public Schools, near Seattle, uses the SchoolWires mobile application to connect with parents and share assignments, contacts and calendar events.

Coding as Digital Equity?

Schools are rapidly adding coding to the curriculum as an important career skill. Web developers without a college degree can earn good money. Coding in high school can expose students to careers in computer science.

When coding is taught with robotics, problem-solving and maker experiences, it encourages computational thinking. At Olin College, a next-generation engineering school west of Boston, just-in-time computing is taught across the curriculum. Students learn the programming skills they need to solve the problem they are working on.

While valuable, these "add coding to the curriculum" instincts miss the broader implication - artificial intelligence is rapidly impacting lives and livelihoods.

We used to code algorithms to perform specific tasks. Now we can code them to learn, and the more data the algorithms are exposed to, the smarter they get. Artificial intelligence (and its subsets, machine learning, neural nets, and natural language processing) currently results in narrow forms of machine intelligence - programs that are very good at specific tasks.

A recent Stanford study noted numerous ways that artificial intelligence is transforming social media, healthcare, retail, transportation and the employment landscape. Over the next decade, machine intelligence will broaden in capability rivaling humans in increasing respects. The report suggests that, in addition to in introducing coding and computational thinking, school communities should discuss the emerging ethical and economic questions implications of artificial intelligence.

6. Adopt Broader Aims

Houston ISD and Marion City Schools in Ohio hosted community conversations about what graduates should know and be able to do. AASA calls it Redefining Ready .

In addition to traditional measures, these districts built a graduate profile embracing broader aims including growth mindset, collaboration and critical thinking. Districts benefiting from Next Generation Learning Challenges grants use the NGLC MyWays outcome framework that add workplace success skills and "wayfinding" or navigational and decision making skills.

7. Support High-Quality Personalized Learning

Developing a blended and personalized learning environment is complicated. Districts including Washington D.C. have in-house experts that help school staffs make good decisions about building, adopting or adapting a learning model. Some D.C. schools have partnered with NewClassrooms and others have adopted the Summit Public Schools personalized learning plan. Over 100 schools districts nationwide have formed a partnership with nonprofit New Tech Network and benefit from their personalized project-based learning model, platform, and support services.

8. Support Access to Rich Curriculum Options

Houston ISD uses digital curriculum to support 10 different deployment models to extend access and student learning options. Online learning, with a teacher at a distance, provides and expanded list of electives and world languages. Blended learning provides personalized attention and supports tailored approaches to credit recovery. Digital curriculum supports Advanced Placement courses as well as career and technical education.

9. Support Teacher Development

Like students, teachers deserve access to blended, personalized and competency-based learning experience. Fulton County, Georgia identified and trained 400 Vanguard Teachers, about four per school. These teachers provide support and lead conversations about new learning models. Schools received technical assistance specific to their plans when they were ready to move-a great example of supporting teacher leadership and providing the right professional development at the right time.

10. Support Parent Guidance

As the digital divide narrows, a new divide of concern is the quality of guidance regarding screen time and learning opportunities. Technology is an amplifier and can accelerate the development of 21st-century skills or be unproductive (or even dangerous). Districts should support robust parent communication (No. 5) and education to ensure that all students have access to quality formal and informal learning experiences.

It's time to push for full digital equity - take-home technology, engaging learning models, quality learning opportunities, well-supported teachers and parents.

For more, see:
A version of this article originally ran in the March edition of the AASA School Administrator magazine. Stay in-the-know with all things EdTech and innovations in learning by signing up to receive the weekly Smart Update . This post includes mentions of a Getting Smart partner. For a full list of partners, affiliate organizations and all other disclosures please see our Partner page

Tom Vander Ark is author of Difference Making at the Heart of Learning, The Power of Place, Better Together, Smart Parents, Smart Cities and Getting Smart. He is co-founder of Getting Smart and Learn Capital and serves on the boards of Education Board Partners, 4.0 Schools, Digital Learning Institute, Latinx Education Collaborative, Mastery Transcript Consortium and eduInnovation. Follow Tom on Twitter, @tvanderark.

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10 Strategies Promoting Digital Access and Equity | Getting Smart

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The printing press changed the world, fueling a global renaissance in learning, art and science and upending historical power structures. The shift from print to digital is having an even more profound impact. It has taken hold in two decades rather than two centuries, transforming communication, democratizing learning and creating new markets.

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Empowering Leader: Accountable view of students progress in real-time

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Contact US Digital Literacy Today

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US Digital Literacy. Digital Literacy is important in education, the work force and generally for every internet user. While this site focuses on the educational side of Digital Literacy , it also provides many resources in an all in one website to help you tap into the exponential amount of resources available via the internet. At the bottom of each page you will find a slider of corresponding links to our favorite sites categorized by each page. We put our favorite top 20 sites at the bottom of this HOME page, so scroll through them at the bottom to bookmark your favorites too! Most of all, you should know that this website is a work in progress. We are adding to and modifying it every day. If you would like to subscribe for free to our blog posts and updates click this link now. Thanks again for supporting this site by sharing it with your friends! Digital Literacy and Media Literacy for Today's Learners
The definition of literacy has evolved in the 21st century. The basic definition of literacy means to be able to read and write. To be successful in today's digital world, literacy goes far beyond being able to read and write. What it means to be digitally literate has reflected the change in how information is processed, delivered, and received in today's highly connected world. The University Library of The University of Illinois defines digital literacy as:

The ability to use digital technology, communication tools or networks to locate, evaluate, use and create information.¹
The ability to understand and use information in multiple formats from a wide range of sources when it is presented via computers. ²
A person's ability to perform tasks effectively in a digital environment... Literacy includes the ability to read and interpret media, to reproduce data and images through digital manipulation, and to evaluate and apply new knowledge gained from digital environments. ³

US Digital Literacy believes in supporting Instructional Technologists in every school to facilitate digital and media literacy instruction for all children and all teachers and staff. School systems should make provisions for a certified Instructional Technologist in every school to truly embrace 21st century education in their schools. All districts need to look forward to what will continue to transform education and what has only been a taste of the evolution of technology in the lives of our children.

While in her blog article "14 things that are obsolete in 21st Century Schools", Ingvi Hrannar Ómarsson states "The idea of taking a whole class to a computer room with outdated equipment, once a week to practice their typewriting skills and sending them back to the classroom 40 minutes later, is obsolete. Computers or technology should not just be a specific subject, that's not sufficient anymore but rather it should be an integral part of all the subjects and built into the curriculum." But be careful in your plans for that old computer lab, it does NOT have to be removed from the building, it simply needs a visionary at your school to help repurpose it. Regenerating a computer lab into a Maker Space, Reading Lab with devices, a SMART lab or other 21st Century space will help teachers understand the need to step out of dated practice.

"Technology must be like oxygen: ubiquitous, necessary, and invisible."

-Chris Lehmann, Principal of Science Leadership Academy

US Digital Literacy is dedicated to providing many resources for learners, teachers, principals, parents, and ALL education stakeholders to become better equipped in today's digital world. Please check back often for updates and new information about digital literacy.

Commitment to providing digital tools must come with a commitment to providing fidelity in instructional practice. US Digital Literacy focuses on Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge (TPACK). TPACK is a framework to understand and describe the kinds of knowledge needed by a teacher for effective technology integration in their teaching. Guests of US Digital Literacy will find significant digital resources in addition to resources for pedagogy and content throughout this site. This video is a quick introduction to the dynamic framework, TPACK (Mishra & Koehler, 2006). For more specific information on TPACK, please visit http://tpack.org/. Mishra, P., & Koehler, M. J. (2006). Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge: A framework for teacher knowledge. Teachers College Record, 108(6), 1017-1054. doi: 10.1111/j.1467-9620.2006.00684.x.

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US Digital Literacy is my number one resource for best practices in classroom instruction and assessment! A phenomenal resource for teachers to select from a menu of web apps for their teaching practice. Partnering with lynda.com for just in time professional growth needs for teachers. This site was created by a teacher for other teachers.

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We live in a digital age with an Internet economy that is growing exponentially. Close to 75% of Americans use the Internet as part of their daily jobs and careers. Our goal is to help educators teach students best and safe practices as they use the Internet and record their digital footprint. What you do on the Internet and think may have been deleted is still embedded in the social network DNA, so Internet users must think before they click! The best policy for protecting yourself is PRIVACY. Protecting your digital footprint is the most important thing you will learn using technology. THANK YOU again for visiting our site. Be safe and be smart!

Digital & Media Literacy

Technology in our daily lives

Most challenging in this millennium is our students know a lot more about technology than we do, and it is almost impossible to keep up with them! We are serving a new generation of students, often referred to as Digital Natives. They have grown up with technology and have been immersed in media rich resources. They are masters of multitasking. Today's students have revolutionized expectations in the classroom.

Digital Immigrants & Digital Natives

Digital Immigrants, that would be most of the teachers (but not all) do things like print our email, while the Digital Natives do not even use email any more! They use text AND Snapchat! We still get our news from the newspaper, and think a podcast is some kind of science fair project! Only a handful of teachers understand how technology is a not a subject to teach but rather a tool to use with a Digital Native to let them power up and apply real world problem solving to their curriculum. These teachers are often referred to as Digital Transients. Teachers must meet students where they are, they must aspire to use the language of technology to engage their digitized learner in our globally collaborative world. In doing so, teachers must help students become responsible digital citizens. Mike Ribble has two great books about this topic. Check out Raising a Digital Child and Digital Citizenship in Schools to learn more, both available at Amazon.com.

Media Literacy

According to The National Association for Media Literacy Education, media literacy is seen to consist of a series of communication competencies, including the ability to ACCESS, ANALYZE, EVALUATE, and COMMUNICATE information in a variety of forms, including print and non-print messages. Media literacy empowers people to be both critical thinkers and creative producers of an increasingly wide range of messages using image, language, and sound. It is the skillful application of literacy skills to media and technology messages.

Today's Students

Today's students must do more than memorize facts. Students must understand how to use digital tools to gather facts, interpret, analyze and create meaning, even create new meaning from the information they gather. Becoming truly literate means embracing a new framework of learning that layers core content into a world rich in digital and media literacies that will help students become future ready graduates in a globally collaborative world.

Highly Qualified Teacher Leaders

While using the digital tools is innate for most students, digital citizenship requires leadership and facilitation in our schools by highly qualified teachers. Unfortunately, many districts are resorting to untrained faculty, part-time assistants, and sometimes even no one to lead digital literacy at their schools. Schools must not turn their back on highly qualified teachers who are based in schools that are leading the digital transformation in education. Schools who use budget cuts as an excuse to cut these positions from their schools are doing a huge disservice to their students. Many systems have a team of highly qualified teachers in central office positions rather than working directly with students. This too is a disservice to our children. Educators qualified in Instructional Technology should be providing direct services in classrooms.

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Contact US Digital Literacy Today Our message: Thank you for visiting US Digital Literacy. Digital Literacy is important in education, the work force and generally for every internet user. While this site focuses on the educational side of Digital Literacy , it also provides many resources in an all in one website to help you tap into the exponential amount of resources available via the internet.

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Visionary Planner: Civil Discourse Online

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Civil Discourse Online: A Conversation With Cameron Kasky

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Equity and Citizenship Advocate

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14 min read

From push notifications and reminders to ratings and rewards programs, technology has the power to nudge you to think and act in specific ways at specific times.

Addictive design keeps you hooked, algorithms filter the ideas and options you're exposed to and the data trail you leave behind comes back to haunt (or target) you later. The virtual world is full of features and ads that may trick you to adopt beliefs, buy products or just stare at the screen longer.

These tricks can have good intentions: A fitness app might encourage you to run an extra mile, while a calendar alert might remind you of a big meeting. Other times, tech might distract you from important tasks, spending quality time with loved ones or activities that would serve your best interests.

Read on for 10 ways technology is hijacking your behavior, for better or for worse.

1. It beckons.
Anyone who has a smartphone knows that it can be difficult to ignore that buzzing, beeping, incessantly illuminated screen, even in situations when it detracts from your presence, such as in meetings or at the dinner table.

App makers push notifications to get users to engage. That's why, for instance, Instagram tells you when someone you follow has posted for the first time in a while, luring you to open the app and take a look.

One of today's most prominent activists working to raise awareness about tech's influence over our attention, behavior and overall well-being is Tristan Harris. He formerly served as product philosopher at Google, and he's the co-founder of the Center for Human Technology (and the Time Well Spent movement).

In one essay, Harris explains that smartphones and the apps that run on them resemble slot machines in their design. As a result, the average person checks their phone 150 times a day, often unconsciously, and that's because, when they do, they are setting themselves up to receive a "variable reward." They might get nothing -- no new notifications or messages -- or they might get a link to a funny meme from a friend, a photo of a baby or news of progress on a project they're working on.

There's also an obligation factor that drives the impulse to check personal devices: We might miss something important if we don't, or we might offend someone by not responding quickly enough or reciprocating a gesture.

2. It takes up mental space.
Even when we're not looking at our phones, and we've made a conscious effort to ignore them, such as turning off notifications and ringers or powering them off entirely, they still can distract us.

Researchers from the University of Texas at Austin, the University of California, San Diego and Disney Research recently conducted a study and found that when a person's smartphone is nearby -- on the table or even in the same room -- that person's performance on a cognitive task (requiring problem-solving and reasoning) will likely suffer.
Related: Why Just Having Your Phone Near You Messes With Your Brain
The diminished ability is akin to what sleep deprivation might cause, the researchers found, noting that people performed best on tasks when their phone was in another room and worst when their phone was on the table, whether the phone was on or off.

In a summary of their findings in Harvard Business Review, the researchers explain that "humans learn to automatically pay attention to things that are habitually relevant to them, even when they are focused on a different task." Ignoring something that's calling for your attention takes a lot of effort and consumes your attention. Just think of a time when you were working on something and someone called your name from across the room. Chances are, you lost focus.

3. It alters your perception of your options.
The internet opens up a whole new world. You might Google "cafes" and discover a new lunch spot that you otherwise might not have known about. You might need a new pair of shoes, and rather than being constricted to the options local brick-and-mortar retailers have to offer, you can pick from countless pairs and have one shipped to your door.

Even though we theoretically have access to what can seem like every product, place of business and source of information via the web, we often browse these options through platforms that filter them for us, to narrow down the seemingly infinite array. What we don't always think about, Harris explains, is that we might miss a great option if we only choose from what an algorithm serves up.

Harris provides the hypothetical scenario of a group of friends searching Yelp for a nearby bar to go to after dinner. "The group falls for the illusion that Yelp's menu represents a complete set of choices for where to go," he writes. "While looking down at their phones, they don't see the park across the street with a band playing live music. They miss the pop-up gallery on the other side of the street serving crepes and coffee."

4. It reinforces your beliefs.
The 2016 U.S. presidential election heightened public awareness of a concept known as the "filter bubble," coined by Upworthy co-founder Eli Pariser and explored in his 2011 book The Filter Bubble: How the New Personalized Web Is Changing What We Read and How We Think.

Simply put, the filter bubble is a phenomenon that occurs with users online. Of course, this dynamic exists offline, too -- we make friends who have similar interests and ideologies, for example. This might limit our thinking, but can it influence our behavior?

A 2016 study published in the Croatian Medical Journal explored the effects of filter bubble on the personal health information people saw online. For example, if someone has a network of friends that don't believe in the effectiveness and safety of vaccinations, they might be more likely to search "vaccines and children" and receive search results that suggest vaccinations are dangerous. This also has the risk of reinforcing any preconceived notions, due to confirmation bias.

"The search history, social network, personal preferences, geography and a number of other factors influence the information found by the searcher," study author Harald Holone wrote in a summary of his findings.

Given the fact there is so much information online, we may have the illusion that we are exposed to a range of ideas when really we're building a virtual echo chamber for ourselves. And due to the addictive nature of technology, it's difficult to escape the filter bubble without a conscious effort. Some people have actively tried to counter it by collecting Facebook friends with opposing viewpoints and liking pages that don't interest them.

5. It collects information about you that can be used to influence you later.
Related to the filter bubble concept, all web and social platform users are familiar with how targeted advertising works. You Google something, look for a product on Amazon, put an item in your virtual shopping cart, browse flight booking options -- then, maybe hours or even weeks later, you see an ad for whatever you were eyeing earlier.
Related: The Shocking Lessons I Learned After I Quit My Social Media Addiction in 3 Days in the Desert
It's pretty clear what's happening here: Sellers are trying to influence your decision to buy. There are ways to get around this type of targeting, from adjusting your Facebook settings to clicking on individual ads and specifying that you wish not to see ads of that nature. Or, you can install an ad blocker to spare yourself all together.

Increasingly, people are worried that their information might be used for more than just selling them stuff. In March 2018, news surfaced of a data breach that resulted in data of about 50 million Facebook users getting into the hands of voter-targeting consultancy Cambridge Analytica. Because Cambridge Analytica had ties to the Trump campaign prior to the 2016 election, some suspect that data may have been harnessed to sway voters via targeted political messaging.

Regardless of how the data was used, the revelation has prompted Facebook to crack down on third-party developers' access to user data, clarify privacy settings and cut off the use of data from third-party aggregators to supplement its own ad targeting.

6. It keeps serving up the next thing.
Social media feeds allow users to scroll endlessly, but that's only one example of the never-ending waterfall of information that users encounter online. After watching a video on Netflix, Facebook or another site that hosts video content, you'll often see a countdown with a preview of another video that will autoplay after a few seconds. This tactic serves to keep you engaged and watching something new, even when you don't intend to.

Even Entrepreneur.com autoplays videos after one finishes. Content creators and distributors naturally want you to keep reading and watching. That's also why we have links to other stories on article pages.

Usually, these options are related to the first piece of content a user consumed, algorithmically generated or hand-picked because they are likely to be relevant to someone based on the content they selected initially.

Some content providers have learned over time that there is a limit to the effectiveness of autoplay, when it happens right out the gate. Overwhelmingly, users respond negatively when videos autoplay (especially with sound on) if they haven't yet opted in to watch on say, a page they've visited with the goal of reading an article. Many are moving away from this model, driven by video advertising, which bombards users and often drives them away.

7. It shortens your attention span.
"Ten years ago, before the iPad and iPhone were mainstream, the average person had an attention span of about 12 seconds," said Adam Alter, the author of Irresistible: The Rise of Addictive Technology and the Business of Keeping Us Hooked, in an interview with NPR's Fresh Air. "Research suggests that there's been a drop from 12 to eight seconds ... shorter than the attention of the average goldfish, which is nine seconds."

Alter is not the only one to observe this phenomenon. Nicholas Carr, author of The Shallows: What the Internet Is Doing to Our Brains, preceded his book with a 2008 Atlantic article in which he explained, "My mind now expects to take in information the way the net distributes it: in a swiftly moving stream of particles. Once I was a scuba diver in the sea of words. Now I zip along the surface like a guy on a Jet Ski."

Because there is so much to see online, with hyperlinks, notifications and the mere existence other sites and apps, distractions are hard to resist. Tweets, then a maximum of 140 characters (and today a still brief 280), are easily skimmable, and posts on other social media platforms are often equally digestible at first glance.

We're neurologically programmed to seek the pleasure or reward of new bite-sized pieces of content provide, which causes us to enter a "dopamine loop," behavioral psychologist Susan Weinschenk explains in Psychology Today. "When you bring up the feed on one of your favorite apps the dopamine loop has become engaged," Weinschenk writes. "With every photo you scroll through, headline you read or link you go to, you are feeding the loop which just makes you want more. It takes a lot to reach satiation, and in fact you might never be satisfied. Chances are what makes you stop is that someone interrupts you."
Related: Future Technology Will Bring Terrifying Prospects You Can Innovate Against
8. It can trick you into thinking it's something more.
In the movie Her, Joaquin Phoenix's character, Theodore, falls in love with his virtual assistant, Samantha. But this phenomenon isn't confined to science fiction. Humans have the potential to form relationships with artificially intelligent personas. Even if we know we're not talking to a real person when we're typing back and forth with a chatbot, for example, if the AI seems sophisticated or real enough, our minds might get tricked into interacting with it as if it were.

Liesl Yearsley sold her machine-learned powered virtual assistant startup Cognea to IBM Watson in 2014. As she writes for MIT Technology Review, because of the always-on, helpful nature of AI, people tend to perceive assistants as loyal and trusted companions, engaging in lengthy conversations and sharing personal details. She and her team built assistants with different objectives coded into their interactions with humans, e.g. boosting sales.

"The giant companies at the forefront of AI -- across social media, search, and ecommerce -- drive the value of their shares by increasing traffic, consumption and addiction to their technology," Yearsley writes. "They do not have bad intentions, but the nature of capital markets may push us toward AI hell-bent on influencing our behavior toward these goals."

Speaking of the blurry line between humans and AI, ethicists have explored questions such as whether it's OK to inflict violence on robots.

9. It turns everyday actions into games.
Gamifying certain behaviors is a powerful way to incentivize people to engage in them. Think of how fitness apps encourage you to set goals, compare your performance to other users and congratulate you when you hit milestones. Or, how brands you shop with remind you about the number of loyalty points you've accumulated and entice you with the next reward you're eligible to unlock.

Then, there's gamification as it pertains to work. For example, ride-hailing apps such as Uber manipulate drivers, who are independent contractors and don't have scheduled shifts, to stay on the road longer. When a driver is about to log off, Uber will sometimes push them a notification that they may be eligible for a pay bonus if they continue shepherding customers for a bit longer. In the past, it's offered tiered bonuses to drivers who complete a certain number of rides on busy nights such as Halloween or New Year's Eve.

Uber also issues praise such as "Above and Beyond" to drivers who perform well based on rider feedback, according to The New York Times. The Times also reported that Uber has "experimented with video game techniques, graphics and non-cash rewards of little value that can prod drivers into working longer and harder -- and sometimes at hours and locations that are less lucrative for them."

Uber is just one gig worker platform that uses gamification tactics to incentivize its workers. Instacart, Postmates and DoorDash -- other platforms that rely on gig workers -- offer performance metrics and other information designed to incentivize output.
Related video: How This Entrepreneur Uses Technology to Stay on Top of Things
10. It changes how we communicate.
Technology is a double-edged sword, in many ways. It distracts us, but it also gives us access to information and allows us to communicate globally and efficiently. The same goes for its implications for how we communicate. The ability to type quickly and distribute our ideas via the web makes mass communication possible to any individual with an internet connection. Social media helps us maintain communication with friends and family who live far away, or helps us establish relationships with people with common interests or potential collaborators we wouldn't otherwise know.

But some research has shown that the more a person uses technology to communicate, the greater anxiety they experience when it's time for a face-to-face interaction. Some parents raising children in the smartphone and tablet era limit their kids' " screen time," because they believe emerging research that shows that speech and language development hinges on everyday human interactions.

Then there's the concept of "phubbing" -- snubbing an in-person companion by looking at your phone. A 2016 study published in Computers in Human Behavior found that 17 percent of smartphone users "phub" four times a day. More recently, a 2018 Journal of Applied Social Psychology study revealed that when people get phubbed, they perceived the quality of their communication and relationship with the phubber to be negatively affected. This was because getting phubbed reduced their sense of belonging.

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10 Ways Technology Hijacks Your Behavior

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14 min read From push notifications and reminders to ratings and rewards programs, technology has the power to nudge you to think and act in specific ways at specific times. Addictive design keeps you hooked, algorithms filter the ideas and options you're exposed to and the data trail you leave behind comes back to haunt (or target) you later.