83. Growing Digitally Savvy and Questioning Kids with Amy Jussel

It’s impossible to get around media these days. We’re constantly inundated with images and content on social media, in our search browsers, on television, and even walking or driving down the street.

As adults, we know that looking critically at the media is important, as is asking questions about what we see. Our children are often the target of that media, though they don’t have that same insight. It’s time we teach them--starting from a very young age.

This week on the podcast, guest Amy Jussel shares how to use counter-marketing to help kids be more media savvy. We talk about the importance of asking questions about what’s being marketed to us and to our children so they can develop into critical thinkers.

Our kids are consuming media from the moment they’re aware of it, and the sooner we make them aware of it the better. Thankfully, we have incredible resources like Amy and her initiative to help us.

Listen in!

Amy Jussel is the founder of ShapingYouth.org, tapping the same persuasive tools & techniques of industry insiders to flip media and marketing messages in a healthier direction by educating with a "behind the scenes" lens to deconstruct data from all walks of life. As a former ad agency writer/producer and journalist, Amy has over 30 years of experience in applied science in this realm. Using entertainment as a conduit for media literacy and health sciences, she's created hands-on games, learning tools and children's books for critical thinking in the digital space that have been a hit with adults and children alike to "m-power" learning. 

• [1:44] How Amy got on this path
• [3:28] Using counter-marketing to help kids with digital savvy
• [5:44] How to develop critical thinking in learners
• [7:47] Shaping children’s future
• [13:23] Making the learning relevant
• [15:55] Biggest challenges to online literacy
• [19:15] Changing the school landscape
• [20:15] “Anonymous” doesn’t really mean anonymous
• [22:58] Turbo Time
• [29:27] How to create savvy consumers
• [32:01] Amy’s Magic Wand
• [33:58] Maureen’s Takeaways

• Shaping Youth
• The Secret of the Vanishing Bones: Tracking the Data Trail by Amy Jussel
• Digital Dogs Book
• Remember: The Science of Memory and the Art of Forgetting
• Catch and Kill by investigative reporter Ronan Farrow
• Amy’s LinkedIn Profile
• Dylan Mahalingam
• Erik N. Martin
• What adults can learn from kids by Adora Svitak
• A Promising Test for Pancreatic Cancer… From a Teenager by Jack Andraka
• Deterring Vaping blog
• NAMLE
• Why CyberSecurity in Schools Matters
• Email Maureen
• Maureen’s TEDx: Changing My Mind to Change Our Schools
• The Education Evolution
• Facebook: Follow Education Evolution
• Twitter: Follow Education Evolution
• LinkedIn: Follow Education Evolution
• EdActive Collective
• Maureen’s book: Creating Micro-Schools for Colorful Mismatched Kids
• Micro-school feature on Good Morning America
• The Micro-School Coalition
• Facebook: The Micro-School Coalition
• LEADPrep