I wish I could properly convey how boring Portland is right now. Like, there’s nothing going on.

MIT rejects the compact! 👏👏👏👏

💔💔A powerful + heartbreaking summary of the attacks on student services, shared governance, teaching, learning + more from Prof. Lisa Moore who has taught @UTAustin more than three decades. It is not too late to reverse these changes and #SaveUT! www.statesman.com/opinion/colu...

Who was president in 2020? Senate Rs spent hours Wed insisting a Biden Censorship Regime was in power. It’s ridiculous on its face—but dangerous in its purpose. If you can convince people of that lie, you can justify what Trump is doing now. It’s “just payback”. open.substack.com/pub/agentsof...

“That was ... the point of the whole arrest – just to harass me + to send a message to other people around the state and especially faculty," Heyman said, "that we should not protest + we should not object to the abuse of our First Amendment rights by militarized troops on our college campuses."

“Who was president in 2020?” is the question of our time

“The Luddite Club, a nonprofit group that supports taking smartphone breaks, has 26 chapters, nearly all of them at high schools or colleges.”

NO LOYALTY OATHS IN HIGHER ED! Trump's attacks on our universities are an attempt to consolidate power. This loyalty oath directly undermines our right to academic freedom & goes against every democratic principle our country should uphold. Please click below, sign, & share. #DefendHigherEd

You can sort of see the asymmetry in media today -- when the Republicans shut down the government Republican media springs into propaganda mode, when the Democrats do it supposedly left media debates whether its the right fight.

Let's be clear a what's happening here: the "censorship" and "bias" narrative is being extended to Wikipedia bc the far right knows that getting bullshit into LLMs is how to shape reality as "answer engines" replace search engines. Wikipedia is core to that fight so the grievance blitz is here.

BREAKING: WE WON!!! 💥 💥 💥 Federal Judge William G. Young ruled today in our lawsuit against the Trump administration that the policy of arresting, detaining, & deporting noncitizen students & faculty members for their pro-Palestinian advocacy violates the 1st Amendment. Full ruling here:

Quiet part deafeningly loud right here. These are bribes, not settlements. You don’t have to keep paying for YouTube Premium. 🤷🏻‍♀️

Today for the CoT blog, Julie Smith shares a truly fascinating resource. Full of interviews and case studies that show how teachers are thinking about and wrestling with AI technologies in schools. Read the blog post to learn more! www.civicsoftechnology.org/blog/announc...

this exists it is called thinking

🚨🚨🚨 www.texastribune.org/2025/09/26/t...

“I’m emotionally shellshocked right now,” said one professor in the Texas Tech system. “What does it say about academic freedom? It says we don’t have it.” The professor spoke by phone from the inside of a car to avoid being overheard by colleagues. www.nytimes.com/2025/09/26/u...

Edtech platforms "are not neutral 'tools' but complex ecosystems shaped by technical architectures, commercial imperatives, and political-economic interests." Excellent new policy brief on edtech platforms from @nepc.bsky.social and @philnichols.bsky.social

Out today: Students went on strike, and 8,000 of them marched in a mock funeral procession carrying a coffin with a banner that read “academic freedom” from campus to the Capitol and the governor’s mansion.

🟨 New Publication in #LMT 🟪 In this paper Corser, Manolev & Danby argue that ClassDojo is attempting to govern how teachers give uncontextualised feedback to students about their behaviour that becomes data points of managing discipline and control. Read more (🔓): tinyurl.com/d7k2racy

Speaking of @neilselwyn.bsky.social, check out today's blog post with Adriana Szili sharing "New resources for teachers and student teachers: AI Dilemmas": www.civicsoftechnology.org/blog/2dp8ng2... Materials include posters, handouts, & slides to help reflect on real-world dilemmas of AI in edu.

“We will not allow authoritarians to dismantle higher education. We will not allow billionaires to profit while communities suffer. And we will not allow fear to silence students and workers who speak out.” — Todd Wolfson, AAUP President #DefendHigherEd #HigherEdBenefitsEveryone @aft.org

luddite pope

I don’t know when it’s going to pop for a lot of normies that they are living under an authoritarian regime, but the cancellation of popular TV shows that make fun of the administration might do it www.vulture.com/article/abc-...

Today, @olivia.science and her colleagues speak about their efforts to resist the uncritical adoption of AI in academia. Read all about it in today's blog, and see their open letter below: openletter.earth/open-letter-... www.civicsoftechnology.org/blog/no-ai-g...

"[N]o matter what we will continue to fight for space for students to hone their skills — think, write, program, research — unimpeded and independently," write @olivia.science, @irisvanrooij.bsky.social, Barbara Müller, and @marentierra.bsky.social.

Thanks to the leadership of @alliethrall.bsky.social, we at Civics of Technology have developed resources for caregivers concerned about how technology mediates our children's experience at school:

Holy shit, no it is not. We *can* stop this, in fact, Rep Harris is among those who can make a real contribution to such an effort. Instead he shrugs and says it’s part of the job.

“As we consider how to ‘defend’ academic freedom, I think it is important to admit when it has been lost. Perhaps one day it may return, but at least for now, academic freedom is no longer present at one of the largest public institutions in the country.” ⬇️⬇️

YES. @bcmerchant.bsky.social features @olivia.science and co-authors' new paper: "an excellent resource for educators, administrators, and anyone concerned about AI...And it’s a fine arrow in the quiver for those educators already eager to stand up to AI-happy administrations or department heads."

I want to be this excited about something. 😂

They’re afraid to participate in the public square. They don’t know how to advocate for themselves or their value. They’ve been told by comms teams that boldness is all downside -that it will make them a target. There is no collective voice or network. They are utterly unprepared for modern comms.

How can we help young people (and adults) better understand the risks associated with biometric surveillance? @banvillemorgan.bsky.social explores this topic in today's blog post. (A good start: follow @hypervisible.blacksky.app!) www.civicsoftechnology.org/blog/your-he...

The fight is here, actually, so it’s time for people who believe in basic liberal values to stop being nice and patiently indulging bullshit. It’s time for belligerent normalcy & a simple message: vaccines work, and we want them. We want our kids protected from preventable diseases in school.

AI sucks, and cannot be trusted for basic news, Example 5,432: (h/t Kenny Beecham, who isn't on Bsky)

Preventing polio in schoolchildren is slavery. Florida parents, pushback is on you. Freedom measles. Freedom polio, now. Get mad — you don’t have to be polite with extremist nutjobs like this. www.washingtonpost.com/health/2025/...

I wrote a book ab this. It isn't evenly distributed. It happened gradually over a decade. Recommendation engines helped. But mostly it's the product of a propaganda campaign that made being anti-vax an article of *right wing identity*. 📖 Invisible Rulers: The People Who Turn Lies Into Reality.

Remember this: It was never about antisemitism. It has always been about taking control of higher ed institutions and bending them to the will of authoritarians. #DefendHigherEd

Great story by my colleagues on the constant political realignment of Grok, the generative AI chatbot over on the other site. This change to Grok’s answer about the greatest threat to Western civilization is particularly ironic/meta. Gift link: www.nytimes.com/2025/09/02/t...

What's on your mind? Read anything good? Bad? Thought-provoking? Had a good conversation? A head-scratching experience? Come to our Tech Talk today and join the community conversation. No agenda. Just humans. oklahoma.zoom.us/meeting/regi...

🚨Tae Heung “Will” Kim, a doctoral student at Texas A&M University and longtime US permanent resident, has been in ICE detention for over one month. The AAUP stands with the Texas AAUP state conference in demanding Mr. Kim’s release. ✊ www.aaup.org/news/aaup-st...

I've used a technoskeptical audit of ChatGPT to support both high school and college students in analyzing the political economy of AI technologies, including issues related to labor. This is the public-facing audit that I used with undergrads in the course AI, Equity, and Public Education.

It's almost comical (and depressing) to see media AI hype confronted by the actual reality of AI.

Loyalty over legitimacy in every agency

New curriculum resources from @jbpleasa.bsky.social just added to our site! Read about them here: www.civicsoftechnology.org/blog/new-cur...

This. This. This. We need a lot more faculty to take this step: prioritize organizing to defend higher ed. Higher ed isn't going to defend itself. Writing a really angry letter or signing a petition won't either. You need to join @aaup.org & start organizing w/ us to build political power.

“Advocates urge students to press their universities or colleges for more info + stay informed, especially since some students—like those with visas or shielded from deportation could still qualify for in-state tuition.” Many student resources cited. ⬇️ www.texastribune.org/2025/06/14/t...

Tae Heung “Will” Kim, a doctoral student at Texas A&M University and longtime US permanent resident, has been in ICE detention for over one month! The AAUP stands with the Texas AAUP state conference in demanding his release from ICE. Read full statement at link: @texasaaup.bsky.social

This is going to be such a profoundly destructive bit of quack theatre. It will give struggling people false hope. It will undermine confidence in research. Shameless propaganda from an utter bullshit artist that a lot of people are going to have to work very, very hard to contextualize or refute.

72% of adults surveyed in 25 countries see the spread of false information online as a major threat. Meanwhile the US is harassing the researchers and civil servants who studied the challenge and attempting to export that harassment campaign to other countries. 🙃 www.pewresearch.org/global/2025/...