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Contact tracing apps: Worth the hype?

Ed Butler

October 22, 2020 |

BBC |

Podcast |

Over 15 Minutes

Response Location: Switzerland

Contact tracing apps have received a lot of attention since the onset of the coronavirus pandemic, but researchers caution they should be used in conjunction with other tactics and not be relied on to help on their own. However, an early study has indicated that even when only fifteen percent of the population downloads a contact tracing app, infection rates are reduced by eight percent and deaths are reduced by six percent.

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Calls to action: How 211 became an instant link to health and social services during the pandemic

Marie Elizabeth Oliver

October 21, 2020 |

The Current (Louisiana) |

Text |

1500-3000 Words

Response Location: United States, Louisiana

In Louisiana, where many communities face barriers to health care access, the implementation of a 211 hotline during the coronavirus pandemic has helped residents access the information they need to make informed decisions. The system has received hundreds of thousands of calls and because of this, the live specialists have also been able to collect meaningful data that helps the state to assess where there are areas of unmet needs.

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EdNext Podcast: Teaching the Declaration of Independence with a Video Game

Marty West

October 21, 2020 |

Education Next |

Podcast |

Over 15 Minutes

Response Location: United States

Nationally, civic courses lack rigor, partly because few states require coursework in civics. A new video game called “Portrait of a Tyrant,” based on the Declaration of Independence, could change that. “Let’s gamify a story,” said Danielle S. Allen, director of the Democratic Knowledge Project. In this episode, the creators of the video game share the challenges that exist for creating civics curriculum and the way this game can bridge that game between students and history.

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Washington state's not new to voting by mail. Here's how we work to keep it safe

Robert Mittendorf

October 21, 2020 |

The Bellingham Herald |

Text |

1500-3000 Words

Response Location: United States, Washington

Since Washington made voting by mail mandatory in 2011, nonpartisan election officials have refined ballot-security procedures to achieve a smoothly run system in which suspected cheating or interference represents a tiny fraction of the millions of votes cast in each election. Those procedures include signature verification, ballot-box integrity, securely blocking Internet access to vote tabulations and voter registration, and other safeguards against electronic or in-person tampering with votes or registrations.

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Their App Sends Free Mail to Incarcerated People. Now They're Helping Prisoners Register to Vote

Emily Nonko

October 20, 2020 |

Next City |

Text |

800-1500 Words

Response Location: United States

Ameelio is a technology startup launched by Yale students to facilitate free communication between people who are incarcerated and loved ones. In their first six months, the group went from sending 300 to over 4,000 letters a week to facilities in the United States. Their initial goal was to provide a not-for-profit alternative to the oftentimes predatory prison telecommunications industry. Recently they began a voter registration initiative where they send registration instructions, a blank voter registration application, and ballot request form to people who are incarcerated and eligible to vote.

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The ambitious effort to piece together America's fragmented health data

Nicole Wetsman

October 19, 2020 |

The Verge |

Text |

1500-3000 Words

Response Location: United States

The uncertainty surrounding COVID-19 and the health impacts it may have for different people prompted doctors from across the U.S. to create a national patient database to better study and understand how the virus interacts with other underlying conditions. Although the database itself is adaptable and researchers hope it can also be used in the face of future pandemics, they also say "five years from now, the greatest value of this data set won’t be the data. It’ll have been the methods that we learned trying to get it working."

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Towson University professor aims to bolster local election security at voting sites

Taylor DeVille

October 16, 2020 |

The Baltimore Sun |

Text |

800-1500 Words

Response Location: United States, Annapolis, Maryland

More than 1,930 Maryland poll workers were trained to protect ballot integrity from security threats based on research about where those threats may come from. The program, one of the few in the country focused on election security at polling places themselves, was developed by a researcher inspired by reports of Russian interference with the 2016 election. The research showed Maryland's greatest vulnerabilities were electronic poll data and voter registration, the network connection between election officials and local election boards, and access to ballot scanners at voting sites.

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New app helps Inuit adapt to changing climate: ‘It's time for the harpoon and computer to work together'

Anna Kusmer

October 15, 2020 |

The World |

Text |

Under 800 Words

Response Location: Canada, Flaherty Island, Nunavut

The Arctic Eider Society, an environmental and social justice organization based in Nunavut, developed an app called SIKU that allows users to enter real-time data on conditions in the arctic. Inuktitut hunters use the app to alert others to hazardous ice conditions and observations about wildlife and vegetation. The app is funded by private foundations as well as federal and indigenous governments and has over 6,000 users. Users maintain intellectual property rights of their data and the app respects traditional knowledge by encouraging indigenous communities to merge old ways with new technologies.

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Even during pandemic, Tucson nonprofit advocates educational opportunities for undocumented students

Clara Migoya

October 14, 2020 |

Arizona Daily Star |

Text |

Under 800 Words

Response Location: United States, Tucson, Arizona

ScholarshipsA-Z in Tucson is helping DREAMers (undocumented students with DACA) with economic assistance during the pandemic. The organization has provided up to $45,000 to around 100 families and continues to help students find and apply for scholarships through its new virtual platform.

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This game can stop people from falling for COVID-19 conspiracies

Ruth Reader

October 13, 2020 |

FastCompany |

Text |

800-1500 Words

Response Location: United Kingdom, Cambridge, England

To combat the spread of conspiracy theories, researchers at Cambridge’s Social Decision Making Lab have created an interactive game that puts users in the shoes of "manipulators" to teach them how to "question social media posts that have the hallmarks of engineered virality." Although experts say playing the game just one time will likely not result in sustainable change, a similar game that focused on understanding how fake news was created found that users' beliefs in fake news decreased by an average of 21%.

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