The story of ed tech is a repeated loop of massive hype and massive disappointment
See MOOCs, and now AI
Evidence can interrupt this unproductive cycle
The Stanford SCALE Initiative, led by rock star Prof Susanna Loeb, brings evidence to the conversation scale.stanford.edu/sites/defaul...
Why do I have to pretend that I'm going to print something in order to save it as a PDF. Why do I have to engage in a little ruse.
Thread
A really helpful thread …
I teach a history of antifascism course @ruhistorydept.bsky.social and figured I'd start an ongoing thread this semester to share some insights from course readings and recommend some great works on antifascism.
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I Want You to Understand Chicago Politics Chicago 2025-11-08 I want you to understand what it is like to live in Chicago during this time. Every day my phone buzzes. It is a neighborhood group: four people were kidnapped at the corner drugstore. A friend a mile away sends a Slack message: she was at the scene when masked men assaulted and abducted two people on the street. A plumber working on my pipes is distraught, and I find out that two of his employees were kidnapped that morning. A week later it happens again. An email arrives. Agents with guns have chased a teacher into the school where she works. They did not have a warrant. They dragged her away, ignoring her and her colleagues’ pleas to show proof of her documentation. That evening I stand a few feet from the parents of Rayito de Sol and listen to them describe, with anguish, how good Ms. Diana was to their children. What it is like to have strangers with guns traumatize your kids. For a teacher to hide a three-year-old child for fear they might be killed. How their relatives will no longer leave the house. I hear the pain and fury in their voices, and I wonder who will be next. Understand what it is to pray in Chicago. On September 19th, Reverend David Black, lead pastor at First Presbyterian Church of Chicago, was praying outside the ICE detention center in Broadview when a DHS agent shot him in the head with pepper balls. Pepper balls are never supposed to be fired at the head because they can seriously injure, or even kill. “We could hear them laughing as they were shooting us from the roof,” Black recalled. He is not the only member of the clergy ICE has assaulted. Methodist pastor Hannah Kardon was violently arrested on October 17th, and Baptist pastor Michael Woolf was shot with pepper balls on November 1st. Understand what it is to sleep in Chicago. On the night of September 30th, federal agents rappelled from a Black Hawk helicopter to execute a raid on an apartment building on the South Sho…
Kyle Kingsbury is not a journalist. He is not an op-ed writer.
He is a computer safety researcher.
And he has written one of the most compelling, comprehensive accounts of the ongoing hell in Chicago that you could possibly imagine.
In under 1600 words.
aphyr.com/posts/397-i-...
Thinking about science journalism as a career? Considering studying the craft?
Here’s a new video from my digs, on MIT’s Graduate Program in Science Writing (in which I teach a bit): www.youtube.com/watch?v=jXEd...
Why should I write better when a machine can do it for me? Because actually no one can do it for you, because your voice is unique among all the people on earth. Siri never petted a horse's neck. Alexa has never been ghosted by the captain of the football team. But you have lived, your heart is beating, you have suffered, and you have something important to say. It's a human's job, to use words, and whatever job you give to a machine, that part of your brain goes dark. Maybe it's worth it when it comes to remembering phone numbers and directions, but when that part of your brain that uses words goes dark, that's a vast area that's very close to your soul. Don't let some internet platform convince you that what you have to say and create isn't worthwhile. Words are the echo of your soul. Honing that echo matters.
this iconic advertising copywriter named Kathy Hepinstall Parks died over the weekend and I wanted to share something from her website I thought Bluesky would like
This is the key to understanding our very, very broken economy.
Chuck D taking a minute and then also bowing down makes this magical
Always good to read my friend’s writing. This is a personal and meaningful story for her. Much love to everyone in this story and to everyone affected by the storm and tornadoes. www.espn.com/college-spor...
Burnout also takes years to recover from, especially if you don't have the resources to prioritize rest, change jobs/spaces, and more.
YEARS.
📣 Calling all students and early-career scholars in public policy and public administration:
Together with Hannah Lebovits, we’ve put together a collaborative, evolving resource list to help you navigate the field, no matter where you're starting from.
"why does restaurant food taste better than food cooked at home"
The cook does not care if you live or die and uses salt and butter accordingly
…so great …
Thread.
For more on what quantitative scholars can learn from (and about) qualitative research, I'd recommend checking out Qualitative Literacy (coauthored with @marioluissmall.bsky.social).
www.ucpress.edu/books/qualit...
Higher Ed Fights Back Against Trump’s DEI Order
The American Association of University Professors and others argue in a new lawsuit that the executive orders violate the Constitution. #HigherEd #EDUSky #AcademicSky bit.ly/4aQLa8e
Ed Emberley's Little Drawing Book of Weirdos (1973)
Scanned in full here www.presentandcorrect.com/blogs/blog/e...
If you missed our session at #SciWri23 about investigative reporting as a science writer -- or if you attended but want to dig into the resources we discussed -- you can now check out our tipsheet here:
