Ben Williamson

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Margot Finn @eicathomefinn.bsky.social

15d

Two (or is it three?) steps back. 'It proposes moving from a position where assistive software is funded as standard, to one where it’ll only be funded where free alternatives can’t meet the student’s needs. For most software categories, funding would only continue “in exceptional circumstances.”'

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keep your electric eye on me @ubisurv.net

16d

I have another new piece just out, considering the intersection of #surveillance and #ScienceFiction, this time in the context of the the ideologies of tech oligarchs, in Science as Culture, edited by @keanbirch.bsky.social and Les Levidow...

www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/09505431.2026.2646894 href="/search?t=posts&q=d1e258">#d1e258

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Open Library of Humanities @openlibhums.org

16d

Infrastructure Landlords: The Rentier Capitalism of Commercial Academic Publishers

This piece explores how major academic publishers are becoming “infrastructure landlords”, not just publishing research, but owning the systems around it.

👉 www.openlibhums.org/news/931/

#OpenAccess #ScholComm

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Lilly Irani @gleemie.bsky.social

16d

Administrators spend $17 million of CSU money on ChatGPT while shuttering departments essential to the job of a university in developing, archiving, and teaching all kinds of knowledge

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Miriam Posner @miriamposner.com

16d

Great. Love that my students will have to actively decline this option.

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Karen Gregory @karengregory.bsky.social

16d

Edinburgh staff urge university to ditch OpenAI deal: www.timeshighereducation.com/news/edinburgh-staff-urge-university-ditch-openai-deal?ref=edinburghminute.com

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Academe @academemagazine.bsky.social

16d

The surprise rollout of ChatGPT Edu across the California State University system provoked outrage and opposition. The California Faculty Association @cfaunited.bsky.social is fighting the initiative “on every front,” Martha Lincoln @heavyredaction.bsky.social and Martha Kenney write in #Academe

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Academe @academemagazine.bsky.social

16d

At the bargaining table and in shared governance, faculty members must demand a meaningful role in decisions about the procurement and use of AI and other technology, @hellobrittparis.bsky.social and @rebeccareyn.bsky.social argue in a new #Academe article:

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The New York Times @nytimes.com

17d

Melania Trump on Wednesday appeared at the White House alongside a humanoid, A.I.-powered robot whose uses, according to the company that makes it, include carrying groceries and serving champagne. She told guests that she believes more children should be educated by "humanoid educators."

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Brenna Clarke Gray @brennacgray.bsky.social

17d

There's very little procurement research out there so I read a lot of conference proceedings and anyway this one is super fun because it reinforces that, at least in the US regulatory environment, universities can't confirm anything vendors promise about data privacy. Neat!

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Charles Logan @charleswlogan.bsky.social

18d

I spoke with @blockclubchi.bsky.social about Alpha School opening in Chicago and why Alpha School's approach to education is anti-student, anti-teacher, and anti-democratic.

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Matt Seybold @mattseybold.bsky.social

18d

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Annie Abrams @annieabrams.bsky.social

18d

"The guidance was written by the Ed Dept’s AI Task Force, and informed by the city’s external AI Advisory Council, which includes education technology partners from Google, OpenAI, and other companies hoping to contract with the city’s roughly 800,000 K12 students"

www.chalkbeat.org/newyork/2026/03/24/preliminary-ai-policy-nyc-schools/

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Inside Higher Ed @insidehighered.com

19d

Canvas Unrolls AI Teaching Agent

The new AI agent aims to save faculty time on “low-value tasks,” but stops short of fully automating grading. But some experts worry that the rise of agentic AI could lead to a dead classroom, where computers teach other computers. bit.ly/4rRXKei

#EDUSky

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nilay patel @reckless.bsky.social

19d

Here’s my interview with Shishir Mehotra, the CEO behind Grammarly’s “expert review” feature which attributed writing advice to people - including me lol - without permission. Or, as you will hear us talk about a lot, compensation. www.theverge.com/podcast/898715/superhuman-grammarly-expert-review-shishir-mehrotra-interview-ai-impersonation

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Postdigital Science and Education @pdse.bsky.social

20d

Today, we're not just presenting an article – we also present our provocation, and a call for chapters, for a forthcoming book on EdTech and the Environment. Read the paper, check the call – we do hope you’ll find yourself in this and contribute to this hugely important topic and collection!

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Margot Finn @eicathomefinn.bsky.social

20d

'The findings are uncomfortable. Students are submitting work they cannot fully explain, facing AI policies that do not function in practice, and responding strategically to assessment systems that reward production over understanding.' 1/3

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Dr Lauren Fraser @walkyouhome.bsky.social

21d

Controversial but - students *perceive* they have been failed when what has happened is they have failed to understand information retrieval is a skill requiring effort. I don't believe a zero friction experience is realistic or desirable in learning, actually.

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Jerry Neumann @ganeumann.bsky.social

21d

I have heard through the grapevine that my latest essay is pissing off the powers-that-be in silicon valley so, to stay in their good graces, don't read it colossus.com/article/we-have-learned-nothing-startup-pundits/

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Jane Rosenzweig @janerosenzweig.bsky.social

22d

I published this in the Boston Globe in November 2022, right before ChatGPT was released which I didn't know was coming that next week and had no idea this conversation would be where it is three years later.

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Margot Finn @eicathomefinn.bsky.social

22d

Strong statement from UCU on principles for implementing AI in teaching, research and administration. This is much more reflective and comprehensive than the pervasive catch-all of 'responsible AI'.

www.ucu.org.uk/media/15656/Principles-for-use-of-artificial-intelligence/pdf/UCU_AI_principles_March_26.pdf

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James Galbraith @gulbruth.bsky.social

22d

As one of the authors of this thought I’d share a bit about how we got here and how you can do what we’ve done at you institution.

Over the two years I’ve been at the University of Edinburgh I’ve grown increasingly concerned by fellow academics uncritically using LLMs, especially OpenAIs’s ChatGPT.

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Ben Williamson @benpatrickwill.bsky.social

22d

"In the name of the University's final AI principle - responsiveness to the stakeholders involved (i.e. all of us ...) - we ask that the University of Edinburgh not renew its contract with OpenAI and stop using OpenAI as a supplier."
docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSdYyMMyQOdelZWm7RBApNfNT5a56ee_OkvVyQ2PdYibRjqbYQ/viewform

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Brian Merchant @bcmerchant.bsky.social

22d

Three years into the AI era, educators say they face a major crisis. Bosses and clients replacing tutoring jobs with AI. Replacing *athletic coaching* with AI. Many students now cannot grasp why they would *not* use AI for schoolwork. And worse.

The 5th installment of AI Killed My Job—educators:

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Glen O'Hara @gsoh31.bsky.social

23d

As we survey the wreckage of many university futures amid the sector's downward spiral, this seems good. Covers the key role played by off-the-shelf 'advice' packages sold by management consultants to unis, mostly to their ruin:
tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/09540962.2024.2364284 href="/search?t=posts&q=abstract">#abstract

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ETUI @etui.bsky.social

24d

🌐🏫 #AI is rapidly transforming #HigherEducation, but who governs it?

📚 At last week's joint ETUI-ETUCE book launch, scholars, researchers and trade unionists explored how artificial intelligence is reshaping universities.

🔗 Access the new book here: etui.org/437
@etuce.bsky.social

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erin rose glass @glass.bsky.social

24d

long story but i just founded an AI education platform. if you want to join the board or contribute to the blog, hit me up. just submitted a conference talk on "surveillance as care" to ELO. wish me luck!!!! puregenius.education/

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SocArXiv @socarxiv.bsky.social

26d

Someone went to the trouble of creating 5 fake OSF accounts today, linking to 5 fake ORCID accounts, and generating 5 fake papers to submit to SocArXiv, with fake author and emails. Dude, if you are reading this, I hope you get the help you need (or a better job).

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Miriam Posner @miriamposner.com

27d

Yes, that’s the issue. I’ve been trying to find a way to articulate this: to the extent that LLMs serve a purpose in education, it’s an indictment of the education system, not a praiseworthy feature of LLMs.

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Sonja Drimmer @sonjadrimmer.bsky.social

28d

Note there is nothing in this piece about the benefit to students. "Success" is defined in this piece as capacity to further the program of commercial capture of education & revenue-generation through distance-learning. An example here and then a laughable follow-up in my next post.

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