Done!

And thank you.

Ah yes, you’re right. Very different requirement there.

There’s still a very similar Virginia deadline of this month, right?

Yes very good. My daughter in law, a web developer, says her job has changed beyond recognition in the past 3 months- but: there are still key organisational bottlenecks

A city park named after an ornithologist? I couldn’t resist. I birded this morning at the George Sutton Wilderness Trail Park. Got a lifer—Lincoln’s Sparrow—who posed for me. Great way to start my morning. #birding

A city park named after an ornithologist? I couldn’t resist. I birded this morning at the George Sutton Wilderness Trail Park. Got a lifer—Lincoln’s Sparrow—who posed for me. Great way to start my morning. #birding

Higher Ed Has a Trust Problem. Yale Thinks It Has Solutions. A group convened by the university’s president cited three main factors fueling the loss of public support: cost, admissions, and speech. It proposed reforms in each category.

Yale has decided to one-up Harvard in its "solution" to "grade inflation." Rather than cap A's, as Harvard is likely to do, Yale is going to force a 3.0 mean average in courses. Grades can't bear the weight people try to put on them. They're not scientific measures. www.chronicle.com/article/high...

DUET Fellows The University of Oklahoma

I’m speaking at the University of Oklahoma tomorrow, courtesy of the Center for Faculty Excellence. Their students as partners program might have the best acronym of any CTL program I’ve seen yet! DUET, Developing Understanding and Engagement Together. www.ou.edu/cfe/teaching...

Listening now. A bunch of flat earthers are using shortwave radio?! That’s ironic.

Trump has been badmouthing anyone who differs from him on this, even MAGA stalwarts. There’s no room for differences of opinion in Trump’s mind. You’re either with him or against him.

Which is a trait of several personality disorders.

Of course, I am not a lawyer and the law doesn’t always make sense.

Seems like a pretty clear First Amendment violation

Good questions to ask! I interact pretty regularly with ITS staff who seem to be very mindful of data privacy and security in the enterprise agreements that get signed, so I have a little more confidence when I see some tool get rolled out.

Yes, I didn't expect you to represent any of all of your colleagues! I'm just trying to figure out where the pitchfork and torches mood comes from--and if well intentioned support resources are actually making things worse.

Do faculty look at a page like this - digitalaccessibility.virginia.edu/faculty - and think mandates and surveillance? Does the list of tools you can use yourself to check accessibility (Microsoft's checker, Canvas' checker, UDOIT) look like a red flag of some kind?

In this case, the requirements are external to the university (the 2024 DOJ ruling on Title II), and all the accessibility staff I've interacted with have steered well away of any compliance-oriented framing of this--even though that's part of the work.

I wonder where the sense of a coming mandate (and possible surveillance) is coming from. That's not a vibe I'm getting from my corner of the university. For what that's worth.

If you’re following politics, you should also be following religion reporter @jackjenkins.me.

Awww! That’s awesome! And yes, living in TN, working remotely for UVA.

Eastern Bluebird, looking very blue

American Goldfinch, looking very gold

Blue-gray Gnatcatcher, looking blue gray? They were all over the park this morning.

Eastern Phoebe, one of our first spring arrivals

Met up with some friends and went birding in Warner Parks today. The spring migrants are just arriving, and the locals are showing off their colors. A very nice way to spend a Saturday morning. #birding

Pope Leo XIV has urged priests to not to use artificial intelligence to write their homilies or to seek "likes" on social media platforms like TikTok. In a question-and-answer session with clergy from the Diocese of Rome, the pope said priests should resist "the temptation to prepare homilies with artificial intelligence." "Like all the muscles in the body, if we do not use them, if we do not move them, they die. The brain needs to be used, so our intelligence must also be exercised a little so as not to lose this capacity," Leo said in the closed door meeting, according to a report by Vatican News on Feb. 20. "To give a true homily is to share faith," and artificial intelligence "will never be able to share faith," the pope added.

I'm deeply against using AI to grade. But y'all, the Pope has asked priests to stop using AI in homilies. Do you really think that if THE POPE has to tell priests to stop using AI for intrinsically personal and spiritual matters that telling a teacher "just don't use AI to grade" is going to work?

I’m not sure what you mean by mandate here. Most faculty already use the LMS, and they put some but not all of their instructor-authored course materials there. Would a mandate mean not being allowed to, say, set up a Wordpress site for one’s course? Or being required to post *all* materials?

I think it’s important to address certain concerns @mkirschenbaum.bsky.social raises in this thread regarding #TitleII and digital #accessibility. 1/16

Could you include a link to the poll in posts like this? That would help with general information literacy on social networks.

@billchilds.bsky.social I’m happy to report that the 4yo shouted “Are you prepared to rock?” at the appropriate time today. I’ve been working on him to do so since we started our new preschool commute in August. Props to your oldest for excellent coaching.

There's some irony in the fact that the website I want to visit to learn about a topic isn't immediately accessible (because it wants me to verify my humanity) but the Google AI Overview of the topic is immediately accessible.

Looking forward to this! I’ve been trying to find departments that are responding to AI at the curricular level.

Today I visited the former airport turned green space that’s part of Shelby Park in Nashville. The birding was excellent. Warblers, swallows, meadowlarks, and—just to mix it up—a deer on the run! #birding #whiletheworldburns

The program faculty design and share peer-reviewed, openly licensed teaching materials (lesson plans, assignments, activities) for teaching civic engagement and voting rights, all of which can be found here, thx to the Clemson U. library: open.clemson.edu/teacher-scho...

Announcing...LIVE LAUGH LOVE At long last...available for preorder!

Thrilled to finally be at this point—LIVE LAUGH LOVE releases in September and it’s now available for preorder!

Live Laugh Love is about exactly what you think it is…

open.substack.com/pub/kristind...