I STRONGLY encourage all educators to read this amazingly well-researched article from @themarkup.org about the issues of AI-detection software and who really benefits from it (spoiler: it is not our students): themarkup.org/artificial-i... #AI #GenAI #HigherEd HT @jessifer.bsky.social

“Turnitin monetizes student intellectual property and contributes to a culture of suspicion in education.” I’m quoted in a recent article from @themarkup.org @calmatters.org and @chronicle.com themarkup.org/artificial-i...

Just saw M3gan 2.0. Loved it. I was nervous about the shift from horror to spy thriller action, but it worked. Lots of genre winks, and I laughed until I cried at one point (which involved one of my favorite Kate Bush songs).

So far, my review of Bluesky is that it is everything that was unpleasant about 2015 Twitter and not much of what was truly great. I’m still not sure why it ever made sense to clone the structure of a platform that had so thoroughly combusted. I’m here for now, and will attempt to remain open.

“The work, though, is not to imagine that the hierarchy doesn't exist (it does), but to work together with students to dismantle it. That work starts by talking frankly about how these systems work and how the culture of grades impacts us.“

Can we do assessment differently, in ways that increase access, support greater inclusion, improve learning outcomes, and enhance the experience of teaching and learning?

A lovely read ahead of #TheGradingConference in a few weeks. I especially loved "a bunch of quantitative legalese masquerading as pedagogy" as a turn of phrase—perhaps because it so accurately describes where I, and probably many others, started.

It’s been almost two years since I’ve written something entirely new about ungrading. Really glad to have this out in the world. It’s a simple piece but it gets to some incredibly practical aspects of this work that I haven’t written about before.

"The work of ungrading is to push back on the culture of grades and quantitative assessment that reinforces hierarchies between students and teachers, while reducing both to a set of crude (often inscrutable) data points." www.jessestommel.com/the-practice...

There are no shortcuts, to learning or to digging ourselves out of what feels like a very deep hole. But there are small steps. We do have choices!

“If education is going to prevail in its mission, it will require those who teach to lead the way. And I believe it can start with small things, like the choices you make when designing your next class, or the sentences you write on your syllabus…” seanmichaelmorris.ghost.io/the-pedagogy...

Very excited that I was invited to contribute to the latest issue of Teaching Media from @jcmsjournal.bsky.social — edited by @lisawj.bsky.social and @jennblaylock.bsky.social and featuring pieces by @jeanketterling.bsky.social @briannajc.bsky.social and more. quod.lib.umich.edu/j/jcms/teach...

Part II of our JCMS teaching dossier on ungrading is here! Check out my intro, "Risky Business." Thanks, as ever, to my wonderful co-editor @jennblaylock.bsky.social! I'll shout out some of our terrific contributors in the comments below. quod.lib.umich.edu/j/jcms/teach... #ungrading #teaching

“Rather than focusing on financial education on the ‘Big Three,’ this study suggests improving financial well-being by helping students access public benefits and other material supports.” educationnorthwest.org/publications...

Letter to the editor in today's NY Times advocates for gradeless education! She even links to relevant articles and research, including posts by @jessifer.bsky.social and @alfiekohn.bsky.social #edusky #ungrading www.nytimes.com/2025/04/26/o...

When 30% of students have accommodations requests, I think: 1) why are disability services units so underfunded? 2) can we make radical decisions to reimagine the pedagogy of our courses to meet the needs of all students? 3) what funding can we advocate for to support faculty development efforts?

Super excited to be a part of this collection. Lots of amazing folks and perspectives represented. Thanks to @lisawj.bsky.social and @jennblaylock.bsky.social and many many others who contributed! (My own piece comes out soon in part two.) #ungrading

I am happy to announce the publication of the first part of a 2-part @jcmsjournal.bsky.social Teaching Media dossier on #ungrading that @lisawj.bsky.social and I co-edited. Please check out "Part I: Critical Reflections on Ungrading" here: quod.lib.umich.edu/j/jcms/teach... Part two coming soon!

Check out this dossier of reflections on #ungrading from a range of Film & Media Studies faculty (including me) - thanks to @jennblaylock.bsky.social for co-editing! quod.lib.umich.edu/j/jcms/teach...

The wonderful @jennblaylock.bsky.social and I co-edited a 2-part Teaching Media Dossier for @jcmsjournal.bsky.social on #ungrading. "Part I: Critical Reflections on Ungrading" is now live, and we couldn't be prouder. Huge thanks to our contributors and editors! Look out for Part II soon! #teaching

Academia's culture of competition breeds this kind of cruelty. Too often, faculty who've suffered in these systems believe that suffering is what made them successful. So, they perpetuate that suffering with their own students, rather than seeing that success doesn't have to be wrought that way.

Do not obey in advance.

Looking forward to being back in Vancouver for Digital Pedagogy Lab next week. I’m co-teaching about alternative assessment with the inimitable Martha Burtis. bccampus.ca/event/digita...

On Wall-E: It knows we're watching it now, 17 years later. It winks at our nostalgia. The movie knew it would become a relic of the past about the future. The cynicism and hopefulness remain intact. It still asks us to listen, even if we didn't the first time.

"It's not every day that you find out you're responsible for three billion deaths." ~ Sarah Connor

But, also, you don't have to be silent in the face of bullying. This is why I hate the phrase, "don't feed the trolls." Yes, you don't need to engage, and it's often not useful. But call it out. Point to the systemic shit that fuels and amplifies bullies.

Block and mute. Realizing I could just hit block is the best thing I've learned on social media. Bullies, bigots, people who make up shit, and people who incessantly shift goal posts just to incite you to engage. The algorithms on many platforms are tuned to rage-bait. We don't have to play along.

Criticism of technology has a history. We have to look back as we look forward. Our pushback on insidious tech (and especially edtech) has to be as nuanced as possible. 🧵

For folks who want it gathered in one place, a thread with links to (and excerpts from) my public writing on #ungrading…

Students at Santa Monica College need your help now! They have been seriously impacted and are raising money for emergency grants, food, and clothing to be delivered swiftly to those who need help now. Please join me & donate⬇️ foundation.smc.edu/areas-to-sup... #lafires

Just finished @jessifer.bsky.social’s book and it’s giving me life! #Ungraders if you haven’t read it yet, do yourself the favor and it will help you get inspired. Let your humanity be a counter friction against the mechanization of teaching and learning ✊ pressbooks.pub/thegrade/

According to Meta’s “Hateful Conduct” policy, it is fully acceptable for someone to call me mentally ill, because I’m gay. All transgender people can also be targeted. Because … “discourse.” The gist, I guess, is that if enough people hate us, Meta says it’s okay to publicly express that hatred.

Meta literally created a LGBTQ exception for calling someone mentally ill as an insult. You can't do it for any other group except LGBTQ people.

One of the biggest problems of grades is how they’ve been so thoroughly naturalized, as though they must continue existing because they already exist. This fails to recognize they are a recent technology (only popularized in the last 60 years). And that there is little research to support their use.

📣📣📣 Our ungrading paper is officially out. Check out this work w/ @j9love.bsky.social in @jsepajournal.bsky.social. We must match what we teach to how we teach it, sharing power with students & fostering participatory practices. 1/5 #ungradingchat #academicsky #pasky jsepajournal.org/index.php/js...

Discovered the strategies of Ungrading during the pandemic and BLM uprising, when it was devastatingly clear that assessment practices had to change. Changed my relationship w/my courses, allows students to meet the requirements of each project at their level. It is not “not grading.” #EduSky

Ungrading completely changed my courses. In the end, it resulted in me designing a pass/fail course on innovation that focuses on competencies and allows the students a lot of freedom on open-ended problems with minimal policing.

Great thread on ungrading. Unis are part of the industrial ecosystem. As credentials, they sell grades as much as they sell degrees. Grades are marketable and it’s rational for students to chase grades instead of learning. Unis facilitate this.

Excellent thread on ungrading. We desperately need it in schools if we want any learning to take place. And it will be a lot of work. The transactional nature of classes is deeply ingrained into the minds of both teachers and, which is worse, students

The word "ungrading" is an active present participle. It doesn't mean "not grading." Ungrading acknowledges the existence of grades and invites systemic critique, an undoing or thoughtful dismantling. Not best practices, but fluid, contextual practices to push against an insidious culture of grades.

Shocking discovery: if you try and teach responsibility to students by talking to them about the point of learning and how we honor our ideas, a lot of the need to control their every thought and action fades away.

I guess it’s that time of year when academics proudly share AI policies that demean, belittle, patronize, or otherwise make assumptions about students. My take: if you stop treating students like that, you won’t need the policy.

Want to make a big difference for kids? Invest in their parents. My latest #RealCollege read is a collab with Josh Williams. ⬇️ www.diverseeducation.com/opinion/arti...

"We don’t need AI to relieve us from the burden of grading, not when there are so many effective—and decidedly human—strategies available through ungrading." @seanmichaelmorris.bsky.social www.seanmichaelmorris.com/ungrading-ai...

we need professors that are not naturals at academic writing we need professors who didn’t have perfect grades we need professors that went to community college we need professors that went to non-selective institutions we need professors that have always struggled to belong

"When we take the time to write feedback, we connect our own thinking to a student’s thinking, thereby opening up the possibility for new knowledge and insight to develop." #ai #ungrading www.seanmichaelmorris.com/ungrading-ai...

"The classroom is a place for students and teachers to ask hard questions of one another, working together to reimagine the project of education, in order to help students (and teachers) become full agents in that education and in the broader culture in which they live."