The 2023 season of the UnschoolingFuture Podcast was devoted to children on the internet, their digital rights and access to information.
It's because I’m writing and illustrating FREE TO BROWSE, a comics journalism project in progress about coming of age online.
It delves into the stories of vulnerable teens, including my transgender son, for whom the internet has served as a crucial lifeline.
Expected in 2025!
Free to Browse with Ben Draper
When we talk about self-directed learning, we always talk about it in terms of educational experiences, how life learning can be very educationally enriching and how it prepares kids for the future. Is that really what is most important about self-directed education? Why do we feel the need to try to sell young people’s formative experiences as “academic” or “educational”?
Ben Draper, a former MIT fellow and the founder/ executive director of the Macomber Center in Framingham, MA, a self-directed learning community for ages 5 to 18, believes that children who grow up with their basic needs being met will have the tools they need when they get older to figure out how to continue to create the kind of life they want to live. In this episode, Ben and I tried to come to the core of how self-directed learning unfolds today and the role digital technology plays in that delicate process.
Free to Browse with Peter Gray
What are the actual reasons why children and teens are so stressed out? By controlling their online lives, are we taking the last vestige of freedom that children and teens had? What is the tipping point theory of social change and when can we expect a wider acceptance of children’s ability to self-direct their learning and possibly less discrimination of youngsters as a minority?
For this episode, I had the honor to sit down with my long time hero Peter Gray, research professor at Boston College, famous for his studies of children’s play and self-directed learning. Professor Gray is also the author of Psychology, an introductory textbook that has survived many editions, and of the hugely popular book Free to Learn: Why Unleashing the Instinct to Play Will Make Our Children Happier, More Self-Reliant, and Better Students for Life.