James Damico

Short bio:
I am an educator. From my early years as an elementary and middle school teacher in New Jersey to my ongoing work as a professor at Indiana University, my mission has been to help students become better thinkers. I'm also the founder of Twella (a play on Think Well) an AI driven social impact ed tech startup that helps young people become more self-aware critical thinkers. We have a mobile and web-based platform that helps middle school through college students cultivate critical thinking skills as they determine, for themselves, who and what to trust online about consequential topics in their lives: health, nutrition, finance, technology, sports, the environment, culture, and careers.

More info:
Since 2004, I've been teaching and researching about how to successfully evaluate online information, and I have distilled some key things that I've learned in three authored books, several dozen research publications, and many presentations and workshops in the United States and around the world.

I co-founded Delve Learning in 2012 to expand the global reach of the Critical Web Reader (CWR), an online platform Dr. Mark Baildon and I designed and developed since 2004. The CWR has helped thousands of students become more skilled readers of online information. Our company subsequently licensed the CWR to the National Institute of Education in Singapore.

In late 2020, I sought to address the growing impact of online information overload, especially on young people. I aimed to help them navigate this noise and mitigate its negative effects on attention, mental health, and critical thinking.

I partnered with Yash Mittal, a talented interaction designer and experienced product leader, and we got to work.

While a range of experts and educators offered solutions to the problem of information overload, we found a lack of user-friendly tools that actually addressed the core challenge: our need to help young people develop core self-awareness and critical thinking skills.

To meet this challenge, we designed an interactive mobile and web app using social media content (Instagram, TikTok, X, YouTube Shorts) on key topics (health, finance, politics, environment, technology). Our goal was to help young people practice these skills without burdening educators.

We're now partnering with middle and high schools and colleges and universities to equip students with essential self-awareness and critical thinking skills. With the growing concern over the negative impact of information overload, particularly on social media, and the escalation of AI generated content, it's more important than ever to empower young people to navigate the digital world effectively.

Learn more at: https://www.twella.app