The AI Con: How to Fight Big Tech's Hype and Create the Future We Want - DTD Lab

"The #AI Con: How to Fight Big Tech’s Hype and Create the Future We Want"
Online event April 21
UVA Data Science, PIT-UN, and DTD Lab
dtdlab.virginia.edu/event/ai-con/

#democracy #publicinteresttechnology #publicinteresttech #artificialintelligence #AIethics #BigTech

"...We recommend that Yale affirmatively support a classroom environment conducive to full presence, focus, and interaction. That begins with a device-free policy—no phones, laptops, or tablets—as the default in classroom settings..."
president.yale.edu/sites/defaul...

#highereducation #highered

Creative Teaching Awards celebrate experiential learning, community connections | Cornell Chronicle This year’s Creative Teaching Awards faculty recipients have taken students for hands-on, local learning experiences well beyond the classroom walls.

#Highered #pedagogy for
"local learning experiences outside the classroom"
at Cornell
news.cornell.edu/stories/2026...

Note:
"Creative Teaching Case Studies"

#highereducation #experientiallearning #instructionaldesign

What AI Can’t Do AI may replace narrow technical skills, but the liberal arts equip students with the critical thinking employers increasingly demand.

#Highereducation, #liberalarts, & #AI –
"...the liberal arts...this centuries-old educational tradition is precisely what...[students] will need to thrive, personally & professionally, in the age of AI."
washingtonmonthly.com/2026/04/15/l...

#STEMeducation #artificialintelligence #futureofwork

AI Use Appears to Have a "Boiling Frog" Effect on Human Cognition, New Study Warns A new study claims to offer the first causal link between AI dependency and cognitive erosion. Researchers warn of long-term implications.

"We find that #AI assistance improves immediate performance, but it comes at a heavy cognitive cost."
(study findings)
futurism.com/artificial-i...

Multidisciplinary cohort of scientists from US & UK conducted the study.

#psychology #artificialintelligence #K12 #highereducation #highered #edtech

Alumnus hopes historical lessons boost civic engagement | Cornell Chronicle Fred Rubinstein ’52, LLB ’55, has honored his late wife’s dedication to civic engagement by endowing a professorship in the Department of Government in the College of Arts and Sciences.

#Highered and
#civicengagement:
Susan August Rubinstein Professorship
in Department of Government, College of Arts and Sciences,
at Cornell
news.cornell.edu/stories/2026...

#democracy #citizenship #civiceducation #civicseducation #highereducation

Harvard Business School Expands AI Integration Across MBA Curriculum | News | The Harvard Crimson Harvard Business School faculty are augmenting the school’s signature case method by integrating artificial intelligence simulations, avatars, and live exercises into its classrooms — an expansion of ...

#AI in #highered:
HBS
www.thecrimson.com/article/2026...

#highereducation #instructionaldesign #edtech #artificialintelligence #Harvard

Medical Students Share Joy, Meaning of Mentored Scholarly Projects 86th annual Soma Weiss Student Research Day spans medicine, science, humanities

"...The School’s policy of requiring all MD students to complete a scholarly project...
physician-scientists..."
hms.harvard.edu/news/medical...

#highereducation #medicaleducation #meded #medicalschool #medschool #instructionaldesign #reserarch #Harvard

#Civiceducation –
upcoming online event:
civic assemblies,
specifically CivicLex
events.newamerica.org/lexingtonsfi...

#democracy #citizenship #civicengagement #civicseducation #K12 #highereducation #instructionaldesign

An engineering school looks feasible as UNC prepares to lay Carolina North groundwork Though UNC has a joint biomedical engineering department with N.C. State, students and the state's workforce have called for more degree opportunities.

School of #engineering
at UNC?
dailytarheel.com/article/univ...

#highereducation #highered #STEM #STEMeducation #instructionaldesign #experientiallearning

#CivicEducation Research Lab (CERL)
at Georgetown University
on Substack
civiceducationresearchlab.substack.com

#democracy #citizenship #civicengagement #civicseducation #K12 #highereducation #highered #instructionaldesign

#Meded –
upcoming hybrid event
#Stanford #Medicine
medhub.stanford.edu/event/25bb26...

#highereducation #medicaleducation #medicalschool #medschool #instructionaldesign #healthcare #healthtech #medtech #artificialintelligence #AI

In Need of Civic Knowledge, Know-How, and Virtue It's not that Americans don't care about our country. It's that they don't know how to.

#Civiceducation –
"...we have to take civic formation seriously...."
chkbal.substack.com/p/in-need-of...

Note:
"...In classrooms...moving beyond textbook civics into applied learning...."

#democracy #citizenship #civicengagement #civicseducation #instructionaldesign #experientiallearning

Washington Customer Portal: A Digital Government Network Spotlight - Digital Government Hub

A #digitalgov spotlight
from Beeck Center
at Georgetown University
digitalgovernmenthub.org/publications...

#digitaltransformation #publicinteresttechnology #publicinteresttech #govtech #civictech

"...universities function as a fifth pillar of American #democracy..." –
upcoming event
Co-hosts:
• New America
• Alliance for #HigherEducation, "a new organization uniting the democracy and higher education spheres"
www.newamerica.org/events/the-f...

#highered #civiceducation #civicseducation

Digital heart replicas can guide a lifesaving procedure The "digital twins" helped doctors spot good targets for heart ablation in 10 patients. Months later, all of them are free of sustained faulty rhythms.

#Medtech –
#digitaltwins:
"heart models may be just the leading edge"
www.sciencenews.org/article/digi...

Note term "biomedical engineer".

"...pre-procedural planning...you treat the #digitaltwin before you treat the patient."

#health #healthcare #healthtech #physiology #cardiology

#Civiceducation in #highered –
"Unfurling the Flag: Reflections on American #Patriotism"
Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library exhibit
Yale
yaledailynews.com/articles/bei...

Includes an original copy of Declaration of Independence.

#democracy #civicengagement #civicseducation #highereducation

California announces nation's largest public broadband network The network will serve disconnected rural and indigenous communities.

California's
Middle-Mile #Broadband Initiative and Broadband for All pledge
mashable.com/article/cali...

#digitaldivide #digitalinclusion #California

New
Center for #Law and #Economy
at Columbia University
Led by:
Lina M. Khan and Lev Menand,
Associate Professors of Law
law-and-economy.law.columbia.edu

#democracy #civiceducation #highereducation #highered #legaleducation #legaled #lawschool #monopoly #antitrust

Making Apprenticeships Part of Civic Infrastructure The erosion of early work experience is widening inequality. A modern apprenticeship system could rebuild the first rung of the career ladder.

The #apprenticeship and
#civicengagement
washingtonmonthly.com/2026/04/06/m...

"None of this diminishes academics. It depends on them."

#K12 #instructionaldesign #experientiallearning #apprenticeships #democracy #civiceducation #civicseducation

We the People: National Symposium on #CivicEducation Research
Center for Civic Education & Civic Education Research Lab
From the event:
• Recordings (videos)
• Final research report
• Photos
civiced.org/we-the-peopl...

#democracy #citizenship #civicengagement #civicseducation #instructionaldesign

We all need to become better science storytellers. Here’s why and how. Last week, in a lovely New Haven bar, six people gathered in front of a crowd to tell stories that were somehow related to science and public health.

#Sciencecommunication –
recent
#Science and #Storytelling event
Yale School of #PublicHealth w/Your Local Epidemiologist
yourlocalepidemiologist.substack.com/p/we-all-nee...

#STEM #communication #scicomm

The hidden costs of ‘helpful’ AI Even when artificial-intelligence tools aid individuals’ decision-making, they can quietly de-skill whole professions by narrowing how uncertainties and values are debated.

#AI design &
interpretability –
"designed for both:
• individual use &
• promoting collective refinement over time"
www.nature.com/articles/d41...

Note:
"two forms of AI-induced de-skilling to worry about:
• individual
• collective"

#artificialintelligence #futureofwork

$50 million gift to advance UChicago research and support faculty in AI Gift from Rika and Joe Mansueto launches a nearly $200 million initiative to recruit and retain leading scholars across disciplines

#AI at
UChicago
news.uchicago.edu/story/50-mil...

"...how #intelligence works, how humans and machines interact, and how innovation can serve society responsibly."

Note #interdisciplinarity.

#highereducation #highered #research #instructionaldesign #edtech #artificialintelligence #AIethics

Grad student ignites a passion for science in Angolan youth | Cornell Chronicle Doctoral student Cátia Dombaxe is bringing badly needed practical science education to impoverished areas of Angola through the STEAMpact Foundation, a nonprofit she founded in 2024.

With STEAMpact Foundation,
"...she is committed to helping young people connect to...STEM education."
news.cornell.edu/stories/2026...

#STEM #science #STEMeducation #instructionaldesign #activelearning #experientiallearning #K12 #Africa #Angola #womeninSTEM #womeninscience #highereducation #Cornell

What’s in a Name? Unpacking Definitions of “Degree Apprenticeship” and “Apprenticeship Degree” We explain how the terms “degree apprenticeship” and “apprenticeship degree” differ—and what they have in common.

#Highered &
the #apprenticeship
www.newamerica.org/insights/wha...

Note:
Figure 1 - Apprenticeship Models

#highereducation #instructionaldesign #experientiallearning #apprenticeships

Letters to America - Youth250 The largest youth generation in U.S. history, making their voices heard, at this moment and beyond.

#Civicengagement
& #GenZ –
Youth250
Letters to America
historymadebyus.org/youth250/let...

#democracy #citizenship #civiceducation #civicseducation #GeneratioinZ #Zoomers #K12 #highereducaton #highered

#AI in #highered –
upcoming conference
AAC&U
www.aacu.org/event/confer...

#academia #highereducation #instructionaldesign #edtech #artificialintelligence

This AI expert says the job apocalypse isn't coming, even if you're a coder - here's why AI will either substitute or supplement our work. Too many people are focused on the substitute side, argues Stanford's Erik Brynjolfsson.

#Futureofwork and #AI –
• "...humans w/machines can do things that no human could have done, or no machine could have done on their own"
• "It's not just for computer science"
(Stanford professor)
www.zdnet.com/article/ai-j...

#techjobs #softwaredevelopment #coding #artificialintellgence #agenticAI

Suproteem Sarkar: AI Agents and Higher-Order Work - Stanford Digital Economy Lab

#AgenticAI and knowledge work –
hybrid event
April 6
(in-person at #Stanford)
digitaleconomy.stanford.edu/event/suprot...

Note:
"...complementarity between #AI agents and #expertise..."

#highereducation #highered #STEMeducaton #artificialintelligence #futureofwork