2 days to go before #LTHEchat this week! This week we will feature @oliviakellyou.bsky.social exploring “Algorithmic Bias of Social Media: Should Educators Teach Students How Social Media Bias Shapes Knowledge?” Check out the blog for more details: lthechat.com/2026/02/27/l...

Possible this gets some debate, but linked to several discussions had recently: The need to ensure we are supporting students to complete and progress (in inclusive ways, enabling where issues) vs supporting them to avoid things (often until too late, after main support) wonkhe.com/blogs/stop-l...

I feel like more ethical review processes need the equivalent of copy-left (vs copyright). In the rules what you *can* do, and what's not needed, as much as what you can etc. Usually some attempt, but then processes and policies are one thing, people trying to apply them are another.

Your feet are younger than your head (by fractions of a second) ⏱️ Vlatko Vedral explains how gravity slows time, ever so slightly, closer to Earth’s centre. With today’s atomic clocks, even a few centimetres in height reveals the effect. 🧪 Watch the full talk: youtube.com/watch?v=TKBqNHEHgj0

Adding to my quick tips for presenting, based on common issues observed that can lead to panic. This is less well known and does mean installing PowerToys first, but when trying to present on laptop and with second big (class) screen, often I lose the cursor! Tap CTRL x2 bsky.app/profile/gile...

Much innovative work in teaching is not the big flashy new platform but 'frugal' iterative changes, against constraints. This blog post (see also linked article) notes this type of innovation is often invisible and not celebrated. teachinginhighereducation.wordpress.com/2026/02/24/f...

Join us on Bluesky for #LTHEchat on Wednesday 25th February at 8pm GMT with guest Samantha Ahern @2standandstare.bsky.social to discuss “Shifting sands and professional identities in Higher Education”. lthechat.com/2026/02/20/l...

Grad premium discussions are often focussed on wage differences. Recently considering also the number of “grad jobs”. I’ve seen less on the last 10-15 years of management holding down grad like role’s salaries, squeezing eg the £30-40k ish roles with steady decrease in real terms pay.

A good set of discussions with this lovely bunch of people this morning, all ultimately aiming to support other ed devs and institutions develop and run educational CPD for staff: www.seda.ac.uk/about-seda/h...

Academics putting prompt injections in their VLE course in 3...2...1... "Meet Einstein. Einstein is an AI with a computer. He logs into Canvas every day, watches lectures, reads essays, writes papers, participates in discussions, and submits your homework — automatically." companion.ai/einstein

Adobe/Accessibility news - Adobe Express now has tools for captions within the main editor. Recently added as quick action, now in main editor. Apps like express are better for many staff for most work (lacking skills/need for full fat video apps). Captions are a vital tool, so good to see.

Next Tuesday is our first BSU HE Reading Group discussion meeting of the new year, looking at something that's come up in different conversations recently. @carlhendrick.substack.com's post is our starting point to inform the group and explore and worth a read anyway.

Join us for this week’s #LTHEchat which will explore ‘Its not just about belonging, it is also about mattering’ with @jacquithijm.bsky.social on Wednesday 8-9pm BST. Read the blog post at: lthechat.com/2026/02/13/l...

Many systems (e.g. BSky) have ability to have different log-ins, n effect, for APIs and different 3rd party platforms. I'd guess we're going to need versions of this with different permissions/roles (e.g. read only!) for agents to enable any form of safer utility.

JISC's primer on Agentic AI, from the perspective of higher ed. Useful to read through in particular if not following closely recently or looking at possibilities in future. Particularly as for most this a not a safe area to just play in. nationalcentreforai.jiscinvolve.org/wp/2026/01/2...

Interesting way to visualise and explore the developing BlueSky community(ies?). Also shows (roughly left vs right end ish?) perhaps different types of community - professional, social vs political/news orientated? We're down in the bottom left, "UK HE Commons" people!

Strolling around Istanbul is like scrolling my bsky feed: History Cat Nice view Cat Culture Cat Cat Food Books Cat

New U.K. HE Bingo game just launched.

I get the feeling I'm going to learn more (and have more fun) reading through all these live-blog-reviews than taking any of the actual "courses". Wonderful list of all the basics they've got wrong (before you even get to the course!). Someone chucked a few £m at a consultancy firm didn't they?

Welcome to our new cohort on our PGCHE today!

Spring's HE Reading group discussion topics at Bath Spa University will look at thinking, feedback (tutor and student end) and evaluative judgement in light of genAI. BSU staff not members of the group, contact me/hep if interested in a particular topic. Our reading groups are informal.

The great immediate problem for new grads is less what AI can do, but what managers *think* AI can do (see also people losing jobs and work)

REMINDER: SEDA’s Spring Conference 'Collaborative futures – sustainable, equitable and compassionate educational change’ is on 21 & 22 May 2026. The deadline for proposals is MONDAY 26 JANUARY. See www.seda.ac.uk/seda-events/... for more details, including ticket & booking information.

New podcast klaxon! I'm launching a podcast called Under Review that explores academia's wicked problems. My esteemed guests are going to get the chance to turn academia off and back on again as well as decide what goes into the Under Review waste paper bin. www.youtube.com/watch?v=anuj...

In any other context, requiring a high-productivity sector to offshore the production of its highest value-added exports would be seen as the economic illiteracy it so obviously is... www.ft.com/content/a23c...

Apropos of no gifting news whatsoever, I'm reminded of this interesting bit of history. Early RFID like spying 'thing': en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Thi...

Hoping marking being in many #academicsky and #LTHEChat minds right now, may hear a few more suggestions for new lecturers on tips/practical approaches you all take. Yes, I'm supposed to be marking right now.

Our upcoming MA module on digital learning and higher education is a good follow on for the final project on the PGCHE, partnering more academic study and personal exploration with the previous practical teaching work. Alternatively, as a standalone micro credential. Free for Bath Spa staff.

Blackboard ultra has updated navigation and some look (mostly good, some tweaks needed already noted and planned). The new banner image set up however is erm, not going down well, with it labelled "Dystopian Banner Image Mode" on the official feedback forum/site. Links to a common VLE problem 1/3

This definitely falls into the TIL category - would not have guessed this young and back formation *after* escalator! Side note: Merriam-Webster account is good fun to follow.

So... I've created a starter pack of UK government organisations currently on Bluesky: go.bsky.app/JHsY1Wz (Currently includes all those listed under ministerial and non-ministerial departments here www.gov.uk/government/o... - let me know any I've missed, or got wrong)

Latest Ed Devs dropped this week.

UG physics: learn SI units; memorise a bunch of constants. PG physics: let’s just make them all 1. Frees up time to think of more silly names for things.

Bath Spa staff who are mentoring are welcome to join our L7 module on mentoring and coaching in HE. First session is open to all as a stand alone intro - Mon 19th Jan. Good option post PGCHE or FHEA, supportive for future SFHEA applications, or just as CPD and a supportive cohort.

Yesterday we had one of our regular teaching advice sessions with guests and new uni teachers. One question was around marking - managing workload, challenges. Something still primarily a very solo activity, so, dear bsky hive mind: What are your practical tips/approaches/advice for new markers?

Since Jan 1 2025, which feels like four trillion years ago, research has been shared on here 5 million whole-ass times. Bluesky recently passed 2 billion posts IN TOTAL. So 0.25% of the entire site's traffic was citations to research. That is actually massively high. Is it? Yes. Here's why.

Join us for #LTHEchat Wednesday 7th January at 8pm GMT to discuss Navigating the New OfS Quality Era: What It Means for Students, Staff and the Sector with guests @puiyin.bsky.social @katharinehubbard.bsky.social Kevin Campbell-Karn, David Webster and Paula Han lthechat.com/2026/01/05/l...

Why yes, I'd love to use 2FA 15 times just for the same IT system before I can do any work in 2026, how kind to oblige. I am however disappointed by the lack of the usual forced update that normally starts the working week.

Useful recorded version of the keynote for those of us who missed it. Some handy graphs and data, but also some things to think about re: future of academic social media.

Your regular reminder that 'Digital Native' is both wrong but also damaging. A lot of the frustrations here I've heard from staff recently. One of the approaches around some issues is also mentioned - a focus on professionalism. Several departments are making this more explicit now, expectations.

Negative examples chat on Tea for Teaching podcast. Useful to consider different types of examples you (can) use in teaching, and their purpose. teaforteaching.com/422-negative...

Re the AI fake paper citations: As I found It amusingly circular, I put one of the lists of references identified in a reply into copilot and asked it to check them, doi, say if not exist or think typos etc. It returned them as not existing (along with suggesting what might be based on).

Closing out my year with a journal editor shocker 🧵 Checking new manuscripts today I reviewed a paper attributing 2 papers to me I did not write. A daft thing for an author to do of course. But intrigued I web searched up one of the titles and that's when it got real weird...

Maybe it's just me, but if you have to apply an URGENT UPDATE to my computer and software pretty much every day, disrupting work with annoying pop ups, stopping work entirely, every day, then.... I maybe don't have the greatest confidence in the security and stability of the system.

New REF categories just dropped

Ed Devs and similar on BSky, do join in and keep things running for the weekly chats. Another good way for connections and working with people for a brief period.

Our last reading group of the year, on Monday, takes a look at this year's iteration of the annual student academic experience survey. Hoping for some useful discussions around trends, observations from different departments, and more. (Get in touch with suggested papers for next year!)

Good turn out in town for our colleague Prof Sarah Hayes’ lecture From hand to screen to cloud - what is your postdigital positionality? at the BRLSI (and then the pub). Discussing themes from her book and debated and issues since. brill.com/display/titl...

I suppose ads in AI systems seem like an appropriate marriage. Two things companies try to shove everywhere to the extent they really annoy people. Next gen equivalent of SEO is going to be weird.

I wonder what proportion of academics believe they’d be promoted on the basis of their teaching impact.