Alabama's Morning News with JT
Jim Keyes Blockbuster CEO on kids and cellphones in schools
5280 Exterior's James Hardy sighting is a low-maintenance sighting made primarily of cement that resists flame spread and repels wood-borne insects and woodpeckers. Through the month of July, you'll receive free, rigid foam installation with the purchase of whole-house sighting. That's installing additional insulation behind your sighting, or free, but only for the month of July. Call today for more details or visit 5280exterior's.com. 5280exterior's.com, a James Hardy preferred contractor, 5280 Exterior's, the altitude of quality. And welcome back to Alabama's Morning News, my name is John Mounts. I'm filling in for JT today. Kids these days, they all have cell phones. We tried to stop it, but it's here. And the kids are taking these phones to school, and they're getting themselves in trouble. A lot of schools are actually trying to ban cell phones. And so joining me now to talk about this is Jim Keys. You wrote a new book, "Education is freedom, the future is in your hands." But Jim also is notable because he's the former CEO of Blockbuster, and so he knows better than anyone what happens when a new technology comes about, and everyone chooses to ignore. Remember when we would rent VHS tapes all the time, and then DVDs all the time. Then this company, Netflix, came along and everyone said, "Movies over the internet, well, that'll never take off," as you can clearly tell. It did, and he is no longer the CEO of Blockbuster because it doesn't really exist. Jim, what are your thoughts about the schools trying to stand in the way of students using cell phone technology? No, banning is the easy answer. It's very easy to just say, "Well, let's just get rid of it and push it away." Think about the history of banning things. We're talking about banning social media, banning books, banning this and banning that. The better answer, I think, is let's find a way to manage the situation. It's kind of hard to put the cell phone genie back in the bottle, or the technology genie, but how do we use that device in a more productive way in the classroom, and then try to engage the students, use it as a tool for engagement rather than something that we fear the use of? A lot of schools are already using cell phones as a communication method for the students where they're able to distribute assignments, or they're able to use it to actually connect with the school rather than to distract themselves. I think that might be the direction that more schools should go. Exactly. Let's face it, almost all the kids have their own access to it. They don't all have computers. They don't all have iPads, and a teacher can light up their engagement. Let's say you're in a history class, and the teacher actively proactively encourages the children to reach out to a YouTube channel and look up a World War Two video if they're studying World War Two. That topic now comes to life in such an exciting way versus a static picture in a textbook. Those are the kinds of things that are possible to be able to get the young people more actively engaged in the class with the tools that they're used to using. Let's face it, they're on their phone a lot more than their head is in their book, so use that phone as you would use a book in a creative way. Maybe the idea here is responsible usage and also having consequences if a student uses a phone irresponsibly. Another thing that they can get into I've heard of is sometimes they use the camera portion of their phone to take pictures they shouldn't take and then circulate those pictures. That should have consequences attached to it, right? You hit the nail on the head. It's the responsible use and carry it off to other technologies, chat GPT, everybody's afraid, oh my gosh, they're going to cheat with chat GPT. They can also learn a lot through chat GPT through AI. They can social media, people are worried that they're rotting their brain looking at pictures of cats on social media. Well, they're also learning from social media. I have a video out now with 40 million views. I listened to some old guy talk about the importance of embracing change, but these are young people learning, 40 million young people learning from social media from my experience as a former CEO about how important it is to embrace change. The point is technology can either be good or bad and it's about the responsible use of that technology and as adults we should be rather than taking away the technology. We should be finding more responsible ways to use these technologies to reach the young people where they live. That's a great idea, Jim, and you probably, as I mentioned earlier, know better than anyone what happens when a new technology comes about as is the case with streaming and Blockbuster trying to stay ahead of Netflix, but in the end Netflix won out because Blockbuster didn't have the streaming platform that Netflix did and in the end, as you know, Blockbuster is no more. Exactly right, you know, taking on the challenge of leading Blockbuster during a time of transition and change, my objective was to bring it to the digital world and all of a sudden people forget that in 2008 the financial markets collapsed and I had to pivot from a transformation of Blockbuster to the survival of Blockbuster at the time. So it is about change and it's about embracing the technologies that are available to be able to help you achieve that change and Blockbuster is a good case study and that need to be able to be responsive. Well, Jim, for whatever it's worth, thank you for all the memories you gave me in the 90s and I still carry my Blockbuster card in my wallet. Just in case I'm ever in, where is it, BEMD, Oregon where there's still one Blockbuster in existence? I love it. You know, I have people, I speak all over the world that have been out promoting the book education is freedom and I have people you can't imagine in Australia, walk up to me and hold up their block, proudly hold up their Blockbuster card that's still in their wallet so you're not alone and I'll tell you what, since you've still got your Blockbuster card, any late fees are now absolved. Alright, that is good, that is great news, Jim. Jim Casey is the former CEO of Blockbuster and 7-Eleven and the author of the new book Education Is Freedom. The future is in your hands. Thank you so much for joining me this morning on Alabama's Morning News. I appreciate the opportunity. Talk soon. 50 to 80 exteriors James Hardy's sighting is a low maintenance sighting made primarily of cement that resists flame spread and repels woodborne insects and woodpeckers. Through the month of July, you'll receive free rigid foam installation with the purchase of Whole House sighting. That's installing additional insulation behind your sighting for free, but only for the month of July. Call today for more details or visit 5280 exteriors.com, 5280 exteriors.com, a James Hardy preferred contractor, 5280 exteriors, the altitude of quality.