How can we direct students away from using AI on course assignments and activities? Here's a recap of a workshop I led in November on the topic of "avoiding" AI: cte.virginia.edu/news/avoidin.... We talked about oral exams, alternative grading, intrinsic motivation, and more.

Martin Peterson's creative response to being banned from teaching Plato (shared with his permission).

The Center for Academic Freedom has developed some recommendations and language around academic freedom that you can make part of your semester syllabus. Check out this post by CDAF director @isaackamola.bsky.social for details and links. open.substack.com/pub/academic...

How can we direct students away from using AI on course assignments and activities? Here's a recap of a workshop I led in November on the topic of "avoiding" AI: cte.virginia.edu/news/avoidin.... We talked about oral exams, alternative grading, intrinsic motivation, and more.

UVA business prof Scott Miller asked his students to debate a custom AI chatbot styled as Alexander Hamilton, then critique the chatbot. Miller: "The ability to identify where it is wrong is a good demonstration of how well students ‘know’ Hamilton himself." news.virginia.edu/content/ai-a...

I co-authored a post with @katiemattaini.bsky.social and Eden Tanner on @empittsdonahoe.bsky.social blog about Alternative Grading in Large Classes: emilypittsdonahoe.substack.com/p/alternativ...

Listening to this and realizing I don’t know anything about auto repair pedagogy.

Things are going great out here dailynous.com/2026/01/06/t...

I unfortunately engaged with a Facebook post about a fired professor getting his job back. I'm surprised at how many people think that the First Amendment only protects speech about or against the government, not all kinds of speech.

Gift link to my piece on January 6 last year with Charlie Warzel arguing that social media was most dangerous not because it changed minds but because it allowed people to discard and neutralize the compelling evidence in front of them www.theatlantic.com/technology/a...

The 2026 ABA Bird of the Year is the Horned Lark! Get ready for a great year of celebrating Horned Larks! www.aba.org/the-2026-aba...

I just remembered that there’s a new episode of New Year’s Day, the fiction podcast that comes out once a year! www.atypicalartists.co/newyearsday

Please can we have some Benny Hill music for that last play.

I finally got the sports reference from @artbutmakeitsports.bsky.social !

@josheyler.bsky.social Found a slow read of Les Mis! thebigread.substack.com/p/the-big-re...

Sweet

I’m pretty sure no one else has these top five podcasts for the year.

One reason I'm excited to see The Norton Guide to AI-Aware Teaching published next year is that @anetv.bsky.social and @thesteinline.bsky.social and I have manage to curate a robust set of example assignments and activities from around higher ed for teaching with, about, or against AI.

Ken Bain (_What the Best College Teachers Do_) passed away in October, and to honor his legacy I'm sharing in my podcast the full interview I conducted with Ken in 2023 for the oral history I produced of the Vanderbilt CFT, a center Ken founded. intentionalteaching.buzzsprout.com/2069949/epis...

Excited to share a guest post on my blog this week by Jayme Dyer, Katie Mattaini, and Eden Tanner about alt grading in large classes. This is something I get asked about all the time, so I'm glad to have an opportunity to share their work on the topic! emilypittsdonahoe.substack.com/p/alternativ...

UVA's McIntire School of Commerce has a fantastic toolkit for students aimed at helping them use AI intentionally and effectively in their learning, complete with key principles, strategies for different kinds of assignments, and sample prompts. myuva-my.sharepoint.com/:w:/g/person...

It took 11+ months but I finally saw the @aba.org Bird of the Year today! I spotted half a dozen Common Loons at Percy Priest Lake here in Nashville. #birding

I'm on the Grading Podcast this week talking about my history with alternative grading practices, faculty development, AI-aware teaching, and next week's Alternative Grading Institute! Thanks, @southbaysharona.bsky.social and Robert Bosley, for having me on! thegradingpod.com/episodes/126...

New on the UVA Center for Teaching Excellence website, a few recent experiments in teaching with and about AI, drawn from a reading group I ran this fall. cte.virginia.edu/news/experim...

No thank you. I have a blog for that.

What if your college or university decided that every undergraduate student there would be an entrepreneur, not just studying entrepreneurship but doing it? Paul Quinn College, a small HBCU in Dallas, decided to do just that. intentionalteaching.buzzsprout.com/2069949/epis...

"Those who work at centers for teaching and learning are, in a sense, professional shapeshifters... We could readily adapt our expertise in course design, educational technology, the scholarship of teaching and other areas to the work of supporting faculty exploration of AI."

I just learned that the first Nancy Drew books enter the public domain next year. That reminds me that in the first one, a girl's parents are mentioned as having died in a boat explosion, with no other explanation, as if boat explosions were common and unmarkable. 1930 was a different time.

Jessica Taggart, Andrew Kennedy, and I have a new piece out that's about UVA's Faculty AI Guides program, but it's really about how centers for teaching and learning can be key players in an institution's response to disruption. www.insidehighered.com/opinion/colu...

“This is by far the most divisive technology of my adult life. I would’ve thought nuclear power.” @edufuturist.bsky.social on generative AI, on the latest Learning Curve podcast episode

i’m not crying you’re crying xkcd: Fifteen Years

I went to Radnor Lake here in Nashville to see some waterfowl and I wasn’t disappointed! Sunshine + these migrants = an hour well spent. #birding

I did it, I wrote it. The thing I think (?) some educators have been waiting for for quite a while. mikecaulfield.substack.com/p/sift-for-a...

After a brief hiatus from the top spot in my most-used emojis, 😳 is back on top.

Pretty sure I did that thing where I show my presenter view instead of my slides on Zoom. 🤦🏻‍♂️

I hosted a workshop earlier today called "Avoiding AI: Strategies for Keeping AI (Mostly) Out of Your Course." In an hour, I'm hosting one about teaching with AI chatbots. It's a bit of whiplash!

This is not a great use case for AI.

Today on the podcast, I share a "Take It or Leave It" panel on the role of generative AI in online learning! The panel features Michelle Beavers (education), Sara McClellan (public policy), and Leo Lo (@uvalibrary.bsky.social), all from UVA! intentionalteaching.buzzsprout.com/2069949/epis...

Update: My podcast host Buzzsprout confirmed that this problem was caused by the Cloudflare outage, not any shenanigans from Apple. Sorry, Apple.

Passed a car with a license plate that said “NOCOLON” and I can’t decide if they have a GI problem or just strong opinions about academic book titles.

Today on the podcast, I share a "Take It or Leave It" panel on the role of generative AI in online learning! The panel features Michelle Beavers (education), Sara McClellan (public policy), and Leo Lo (@uvalibrary.bsky.social), all from UVA! intentionalteaching.buzzsprout.com/2069949/epis...

I got an email earlier this month from Apple Podcasts asking me to accept their new terms and conditions. There was no mention of a problem if I failed to do so, so I didn't rush. But today my new episode is getting 0 plays via Apple Podcasts. Not cool, Apple, not cool.

Hopping on the Cogniti mini-symposium for a spell to support my UVA colleague Spyros Simotas, who is presenting about his current AI chatbot experiments. There are 78 folks on the Zoom call, and this is one of three concurrent sessions! Also, I think it's already tomorrow in Australia.

Surveillance of students is problematic. Close observation of student learning is good teaching. Online learning is powerful. Online assessment is forever broken. Lots of wisdom in the interview about AI with @tbertramgallant.bsky.social and David Rettinger. pca.st/episode/4f66...

For anyone following the dueling revelations out of UVA over the last 24 hours—perhaps the fullest picture yet of the extent of the Trump administration’s coordinated assault on higher ed—the Cavalier Daily has a side by side walkthrough of the claims. www.cavalierdaily.com/article/2025...

I have no insider info, but Jim's account plus the recent agreement that DOJ signed w/ UVA suggests, to me, the following theory: - Key folks at Board of Visitors and/or DOJ (at least two of whom UVA alums) wanted Jim out immediately in Summer '25. 1/

Former UVA president Jim Ryan, who resigned over the summer due to pressure from the Trump Administration, just shared this 12-page letter with the Faculty Senate, detailing his experience with the Board of Visitors and DOJ. It's a surreal--and troubling--read. drive.google.com/file/d/1Is6x...

We're talking about trust at our staff retreat, and I'm reminded of @liznorell.bsky.social's lovely piece about the role of reflective writing in building psychological safety on a team: www.insidehighered.com/opinion/colu...

Two days at UVA means a morning bird walk at Ivy Creek Natural Area. Beautiful weather and excellent birding this morning. The highlight was a Northen Flicker who posed for me. I don’t get to photograph Flickers very often! #birding

Does your staff retreat include Lego? No? It should.