It's Mark Sandman's birthday. I wish we could hear what kind of songs he'd be writing today. Here's my @lightintheattic.bsky.social liner notes for Morphine's 2 final LP's that were reissued in 2023, now online. morphineband.com/pages/like-s... morphineband.com/pages/the-ni...

Once & for all, let's specify what "poptimism" was & wasn't, and why many people can't stop blaming it for every cultural change of the past 20 years. Most recently the esteemed Kelefa Sanneh, who's often (wrongly) said to have started it! Today in @slate.com slate.com/culture/2025...

why would I guess “donut” after confirming the first two letters are “BL”, you chaotic and likely AI-augmented Wordle bot

"Decision making, or action, is important in part because a stated commitment to antiracist values alone—what Ahmed (2006) calls “nonperformativity”—is too often seen as sufficient action, even though a commitment to antiracism alone still enables racism to persist."

Lots of attention will likely be paid to the need to explain core textual elements like epigraphs, quotes, and indexes to undergrads. A need definitely exacerbated by recent literacy data trends but also a long overdue point of emphasis in college instruction. www.insidehighered.com/news/student...

"Rather than acting as a substitution for books, AI could do more to encourage the full reading of texts written by humans." Cool to see a piece by @dancohen.org on AI in my inbox this morning (via @chronicle.com): www.chronicle.com/article/what...

I wrote a little bit about blue books, technology, and higher ed: jimmcgrath.us/teaching/blu...

Does anyone have any readings on when "evidence-based learning" emerged as an assessment framework in education? Interested in digging back into the original conversations and arguments there.

The Ed Department announced its intention Wednesday to end grant funding for minority-serving institutions, a move affecting hundreds of colleges that serve a disproportionate number of students from underrepresented racial and ethnic groups.

feels significant that mass-market LLMs like ChatGPT are now capable of generating extensive natural-language dossiers about a given user's interests, location, preferences, identifying information, and more simonwillison.net/2025/May/21/...

The world’s largest encyclopedia became the factual foundation of the web, but now it’s under attack. Read more from @joshdzieza.bsky.social: www.theverge.com/cs/features/...

meetings at the start of a new semester provide me with an annual opportunity to remember that I do not like that ice water with the limes floating in it at all. tastes like dishwasher soap tbh

search engines have entered the “self checkout” era apparently. what are we doing here folks

I'm excited to share that the @sharpnews.bsky.social LGBTQIA+ Book History Bibliography is live! I learned so much from @bibliowingate.bsky.social (and fellow project contributors) throughout the compilation process. Please use and share! (And there's a fab zine, which merits its own post...)

I really hope more higher ed teachers start remembering their Foucault and Freire (among many others!) before pivoting to teaching practices that emphasize control, discipline, and punishment to help them navigate contemporary teaching challenges.

Charles does not care about the start of the fall semester or how busy today has been, he just wants some damn dinner

Very cool to see my pal Mary Isbell's work on student-selected readings highlighted in this week's "On Teaching" newsletter over at The Chronicle of Higher Ed: www.chronicle.com/newsletter/t...

Plato is referenced but there’s no mention of accessibility, prior handwriting instruction, languages besides Standard English. I am begging educators who are sympathetic to this vibes-based return to blue books to think more about the implications of this decision beyond the desire for control.

gave my new doctor permission to not read any more Faulkner at my physical today. doctors helping doctors.

this summer i wrote an article that discusses the fragility of web platforms and they keep proving my point

nice thread (as usual!). One thing I would note in response to this comment though is that I do think digital literacy is a job that historians or likeminded folks are particularly well suited to, given that "digital literacy" methods and perceptions benefit from knowing historical contingencies.

We're going to need journalists to stop talking about synthetic text extruding machines as if they have *thoughts* or *stances* that they are *trying* to *communicate*. ChatGPT can't *admit* anything, nor *self-report*. Gah. www.wsj.com/tech/ai/chat...

If you are bogged down in fall semester preparations and you like indie Switch games, this showcase might give you some fun stuff to play when you are not staring at Canvas pages until your eyeballs fall out (particularly hyped for UFO50, available now for download!)

Excited to see that my proposal for the 2025 POD Conference was accepted! Long-time listserver, first time attendee. Hope to connect with some cool folks out in San Diego this November! podnetwork.org/annual-confe...

I tend to review most AI-related stuff put out by the big higher ed publications and I would love to see more filtering, weeding out, and ignoring of well-designed press releases. I wonder how many folks review the report fueling this provocative headline: www.insidehighered.com/news/tech-in...

very cool to see my "Insufficient Memories" project from my Brown University public humanities days referenced in Critical Making in The Age of AI (by @anasalter.bsky.social and @ekj.bsky.social). Also love that this book is OA! www.fulcrum.org/concern/mono...

First publication from the new job! This gathering is the beginning of more work to come from the Academy on cultural spaces and their communities.

CFP: New England Faculty Development Consortium (NEFDC) Fall 2025 Conference. Event is on 10/17 at Holy Cross (Worcester, MA). Formats include 50 minute Interactive sessions, 25 minute teaching tip sessions, and posters. CFP Deadline is August 15th: nefdc.org/upcoming-con...

"4 Steps to Help Your Students Read Like Scientists." Practical and concise advice for undergrad teachers from Kristi Rudenga (Notre Dame's Center for Teaching Excellence) over at @chronicle.com www.chronicle.com/article/4-st...

incredible, yet terrifying… this new AI chat program effortlessly simulates any animal… within a year it will replace all our barnyard creatures… I fear for the future and also need more money to develop it

is it like a thought experiment from Descartes or is it like when Wile E Coyote paints a tunnel on a wall and then convinces himself it’s a real tunnel

“Before Massachusetts attracts more data centers, other states sound a warning”: www.bostonglobe.com/2025/07/23/b...

The 90+ organizations supporting a People's AI Action Plan all have concrete, actionable ideas for an AI agenda that furthers the interests of everyday people and challenges the tech billionaire agenda we’ll see from the White House. Learn more about them: peoplesaiaction.com

Had to explain what a "blue book" was to some graduate students yesterday. Might be helpful for some folks insisting on a return to handwritten classwork to consider both the accessibility implications and the lack of handwriting experiences students have from K-12 learning contexts.

Cool to come across the Digital Documerica project (hi, @nolauren.bsky.social!), a digitized collection of 16,000 photos created by the EPA: digitaldocumerica.org

TIL Thomas Paine wrote Common Sense in a Chipotle

"In recent months [...] nine companies had applied to build data centers in Newton County, some asking for as much as six million gallons of water a day — more than the county’s entire daily use." www.nytimes.com/2025/07/14/t...

“Their business model is 100 percent predicated on not being regulated. [...] They don’t have survival plans without that.” Good news (for now) about that absurd attempt at an AI moratorium, which would prevent states from enforcing their own AI laws for ten years(!) www.politico.com/newsletters/...

I'm excited to share a CfP for a special issue, “Cultural Heritage in Crisis” that @asegerberg.bsky.social and I are guest editing for Library Trends. Proposals are due July 25, 2025. Share widely! Full details available at annakijas.com/news/cfp_202.... #culturalheritage #libraries #archives

Critical reporting here. I’d like to see the @bostonglobe.com quoting that #MAedu stands not to receive $107,694,933 in federal funds allocated to it by Congress.

ICYMI, this issue of American Literature on the epistemological turn in early American studies includes my article on the ecological & gendered history of the Ursuline convent in New Orleans, the oldest standing settler-built construction in the Mississippi Valley read.dukeupress.edu/american-lit...

“It’s probably better to invest in training for professors and teachers...and also creating some frameworks for universities to message to students how they can and can’t use AI, rather than trying to use a surveillance methodology to detect AI in student writing.” www.chronicle.com/article/the-...

We’re kicking off public feedback on CC signals, a new framework meant to help sustain the commons in the age of AI! Designed to build reciprocity, CC signals let data stewards express how content may be used and how AI systems should give back. Learn more: buff.ly/r4KBnRx #CCsignals

Big article on UMass Global in the Globe. It’s a shame because online learning can be done really well with the right motivations, scale, design, instructors, resources, and local knowledge. And students in the state are increasingly looking for online options www.bostonglobe.com/2025/06/24/b...

thank SCORM it’s Friday

Teachers and faculty support friends: does anyone have resources/case studies/guidance they use to help instructors think about the impact of Grammarly (or similar tools) on student writing? Tips for students, context for faculty, considerations of multilingual learning contexts, for example?

shifting my comics/wrestling/horror stuff to another account here to keep this one more focused on work stuff. if you follow me on Instagram it’s that name (DM if you don’t; also how dare you)

When LLM's commit "crimes," there's never a motive. Yet the press & industry assert the "black box" frame at the wrong level of AI: suggesting moral decision-making, rather than the hidden logic of flipping neurons. My latest in @techpolicypress.bsky.social: www.techpolicy.press/the-black-bo...

The DECK card/song dealer is here! Deal yourself random cards, assemble a playlist, and enjoy your own unique version of DECK! Watch the tutorial video below and start dealing your hands here: deck.hallelujahthehills.com

Happy Deck Day to all who celebrate! Congrats on this impressive achievement, HtH! Excited to hear Diamonds on vinyl soon!