Trust Requires Change Requires Trust #oldaily https://www.downes.ca/post/78588 Alex Usher tends to write from the government and university administration's point of view, and it makes sense, because that's where the money is.

Folks have asked me how to find and build community #oldaily https://www.downes.ca/post/78587 I've lost count of how many educators have asked about how to build community over the years.

52 things I learned in 2025 #oldaily https://www.downes.ca/post/78586 I have to say, I love this format, though it seems like a lot of work. David Hopkins introduces it as follows: "Inspired by Tom Whitwell's annual collection of things learned, here are my '52 things I learned in 2025'.

The End of Debugging #oldaily https://www.downes.ca/post/78585 OK, this would sound dangerous, right? "I asked Cursor: 'Take this React component, make the rows draggable, persist the order, and generate tests.' It did.

Autonomy and Interdependence #oldaily https://www.downes.ca/post/78584 This is a long discussion of something I don't think was an issue to begin with, but I could be wrong about that, so I'm passing it along.

Why RSS matters #oldaily https://www.downes.ca/post/78583 In 1998 or so my website was RSS feed number 31. That's the number it was assigned on the Netscape Netcenter, at the time the only platform for reading RSS feeds, where it sat alongside feeds for things like Wired and Dave Winer.

The Resonant Computing Manifesto #oldaily https://www.downes.ca/post/78582 This manifesto is based on what the authors call 'resonance'. "It's the experience of encountering something that speaks to our deeper values.

Twitter.new #oldaily https://www.downes.ca/post/78581 This organization is filing to have the Twitter trademark and logo revoked with the intention of reviving Twitter. You can apply for your (old?) username here. Though one wonders.

Fake Education Might Be the Best Teacher #oldaily https://www.downes.ca/post/78580 I think there's an interesting proposition in this paper, though implementation may be daunting and expensive and come with a surprise result.

Towards Critical Artificial Intelligence Literacies #oldaily https://www.downes.ca/post/78579

Comment #oldaily https://www.downes.ca/post/78578 This is from 2019 but Ethan Mollock posted it today and it's still true.

Effective harnesses for long-running agents #oldaily https://www.downes.ca/post/78577 So I learned today that if I instruct ChatGPT to 'stop guessing' (*) it gets really snippy and reminds me with every response that it's not guessing.

They Want to Become Trillionaires – by Destroying the Internet #oldaily https://www.downes.ca/post/78576 Aaron Bastani interviews Cory Doctorow in a video that is essentially a recital of Cory Doctorow's greatest hits.

The newsroom's AI has an agenda #oldaily https://www.downes.ca/post/78575

Exclusive: AI critics funded AI coverage at top newsrooms #oldaily https://www.downes.ca/post/78574

Taking Back Control: Why Digital Sovereignty Matters | Ian O'Byrne #oldaily https://www.downes.ca/post/78573 This article contains another iteration of the argument that 'If the product is free, then you are the product' (it's stated slightly differently in the article).

They have to be able to talk about us without us #oldaily https://www.downes.ca/post/78569 So I think everything Anil Dash says here is right, but it's wrong.

First Fish Chronicles: EdTech Companies are Surveillance Companies. (Guest Post by Andrew Liddell) #oldaily https://www.downes.ca/post/78568

AI is Destroying the University and Learning Itself #oldaily https://www.downes.ca/post/78567 I've written articles like this - the ones where I take a pile of notes (like, say, these OLDaily posts) from the last year or so, organize them into themes, and then build a narrative around them.

The Idealized Mind: From Model-Based Science to Cognitive Science #oldaily https://www.downes.ca/post/78566 This open access book (249 page PDF) has several themes. The main theme (as depicted by the author) is that 'scientific models are idealizations of the world'.

What does it mean to understand language? #oldaily https://www.downes.ca/post/78565 I have mixed feelings about this paper (17 page PDF).

The Q, K, V Matrices #oldaily https://www.downes.ca/post/78564 This is a useful reconstruction of the transformer architecture introduced in 2017 describing 'attention' and kicking off what would become the AI revolution stating in 2022.

Beyond Infographics: How to Use Nano Banana to *Actually* Support Learning #oldaily https://www.downes.ca/post/78563 This is quite a good discussion on how to use Nano Banana to support genuine learning activities.

James Marriott calls my critique “frustratingly naive.” #oldaily https://www.downes.ca/post/78562 I think this is well stated: "The cognitive impacts of smartphone adoption are documented...

Solving the Puzzle of Cheating in Video Games #oldaily https://www.downes.ca/post/78561 This article discusses the definition of cheating in video games, and in particular the question of whether it is possible to cheat in a single-player game. I think the considerations also apply to education.

Take Back Your Feed: A Simple Guide to Getting Started With RSS (Even If Tech Intimidates You) #oldaily https://www.downes.ca/post/78560 If you're reading this on LinkedIn, this article serves as a simple reminder that you don't have to live that way...

The Memory Paradox: Why Our Brains Need Knowledge in an Age of AI #oldaily https://www.downes.ca/post/78559

An Issue... #oldaily https://www.downes.ca/post/78558 Following from the 'future of university' posts here yesterday and today, we have this thread beginning with this post: "An issue we're seeing at all levels of university is that many students are simply refusing to do *anything*.

The résumé is dying, and AI is holding the smoking gun #oldaily https://www.downes.ca/post/78557 This is the sort of thing digital badges were supposed to manage, but really, there was never any hope. "Due to AI, the traditional hiring process has become overwhelmed with automated noise...

I Went All-In on AI. The MIT Study Is Right. #oldaily https://www.downes.ca/post/78556 So let's be clear about what was defined as 'failure' here: "I got the product launched. It worked (but) I needed to make a small change and realized I wasn’t confident I could do it.

5 tech predictions for 2026 and beyond, according to Amazon CTO Dr. Werner Vogels #oldaily https://www.downes.ca/post/78555 This article is attributed to Amazon's Chief Technology Officer (CTO) which makes it relevant to read. Other than that, it is laughably bad.

Major AI conference flooded with peer reviews written fully by AI #oldaily https://www.downes.ca/post/78554

A Critically Informed Conversation with Terry Anderson: Visions on the Next Generation of Online and Distance Education #oldaily https://www.downes.ca/post/78553

Is the future of education outside universities? #oldaily https://www.downes.ca/post/78552 This article feels a bit overly optimistic, but at the same time I am sympathetic with the core argument, which is that higher education is to be found increasingly outside academic institutions.

Generative AI has access to a small slice of human knowledge #oldaily https://www.downes.ca/post/78551 OK, to be clear, I don't believe that the author's father's tumour was cured by the traditional herbal concoction he was taking. My feeling is that, if this medicine really cured cancer, we'd know.

L’IA au cœur du nouvel écosystème de communication #oldaily https://www.downes.ca/post/78549 If you don't speak French you'll want to translate this item, but it's worth the effort. The headline says "AI at the heart of a new communications ecosystem".

Creating a Github-Based Webpage with AI #oldaily https://www.downes.ca/post/78548 This is an article that is at once practical and that offers food for thought.

Representational Realism and the Problem of Tacit Belief #oldaily https://www.downes.ca/post/78547 Does it make sense to treat our beliefs as though they were explicitly represented in the brain? Eric Schwitzgebel offers some arguments that show how this leads to confusion.

The end of pretend – AI and the case for universities of formation #oldaily https://www.downes.ca/post/78546

The art of reimagining universities: a vision for higher education #oldaily https://www.downes.ca/post/78545 According to this article, the problem with universities is that they're siloed. "This made sense when knowledge was more stable, and career paths were more predictable.

Looking for Root Causes is a False Path: A Conversation with David Blank-Edelman #oldaily https://www.downes.ca/post/78544

The Testing Effect: Why Retrieval Practice is Your Most Powerful Learning Tool #oldaily https://www.downes.ca/post/78543 The problem to my mind with an article like this is that it sets up a straw man in an attempt to bolster (political?) support for one specific practice.

Goodbye, ivory tower. Hello, inclusive communities #oldaily https://www.downes.ca/post/78542

Massification and its Unacknowledged Trade-offs | HESA #oldaily https://www.downes.ca/post/78541 Alex Usher gives the idea of 'massification' of university access a light overview, ending with a call to reconsider what we expected to get from it.

4 ways you can 'role play' with AI #oldaily https://www.downes.ca/post/78540 These are techniques trhat are used in design or development workshops to test ideas, and they can be used as well as a way to approach interacting with AI.

If You Want Skilled Workers, Stop Treating Them Like They’re Disposable #oldaily https://www.downes.ca/post/78539 I rarely agree with Forbes but they're on point here: "Companies that want skilled workers must fund training, reward mentorship, and support education.

Is language the same as intelligence? The AI industry desperately needs it to be #oldaily https://www.downes.ca/post/78538

Who's Grading You on Coursera? The Shift from Human Peers to AI #oldaily https://www.downes.ca/post/78537 Coursera has two problems. The first is that its peer assessment system is broken. The second is that it needs to continue to scale and attract investment.

Alchemy #oldaily https://www.downes.ca/post/78536

How citizen archivists in South Asia confront the online marginalization of oral cultures and languages #oldaily https://www.downes.ca/post/78535 One day I will wrestle with the idea of how there can be multiple knowledge communities, but for now, I wish only to emphasizethe need to preserve them.