My thoughts on AI's intrusions in education, quoting @audreywatters.bsky.social & @biblioracle.bsky.social On resisting AI intrusions: buttondown.com/creativegood...

Albanese? Wong? Anything to say about anything? I know we just learned that AUKUS is beyond him, and I know we’re very keen to say we have no doubt they would defend us under ANZUS, but is this the moral quality of the ally we are choosing, or just the one we’re afraid of losing?

People who condemn well-intentioned approaches to diversity, equity, and inclusion out of hand are presuming their so-called "meritocracy" operates on a level playing-field. Such an argument entirely misses the point that prevailing sources of money, power, and privilege dominate.

So glad this morning to find @brigidrussell51.bsky.social and @charliepsych.bsky.social here. I’m still never quite sure what to say in this space so I’m really taken with the consistency of their reflections.

Australian universities need to be thinking seriously about this question of social license. It’s not new, it’s just got a new hat. And it’s going to pop up everywhere in the election year. A smart defense will need to go beyond stock images of sciencing. futurecampus.com.au/2025/01/23/h...

Okay friends, you know what to do. Welcome the formidable @louiseadler1.bsky.social to Bluesky. An *awkward gesture* has brought has brought her from X to greener pastures. Louise is brave, big-hearted, funny and smart. Publisher of my first book on Pell, Cardinal, now runs Adelaide Writers’ Week.

Revealing thread on the return of the barely repressed, edtech inevitabilism. Inevitabilistic projections are sparkly because they’re shallow. No one writing (or prompting) this kind of prose needs to trouble themselves with risk.

One of the early panel discussions I did on Generative AI turned to the question of labour saving for faculty. A big topic was taking on the writing that no one wants to do or read anyway. The specific example was reporting out on sabbaticals and grants. Why not automate that hoop with ChatGPT?

“The goal of this change, in Meta's words, was to "limit … the content [teenagers] see, and help ensure their time is well spent.” Something something footy netball swimming Aussie Aussie Aussie.

Introduce the clumsy obvious AI accounts first, then while people are distracted slip the far harder-to-spot version into the ecosystem

Overheard yesterday in small independent local bookstore. “My son told me the name of the book and I’ve forgotten it.” Long pause. All of us browsing held our breath. “Percy something?” “Oh yes, we have those, which one?” I’m surprised we didn’t all cheer, as we were thinking it.

Thinking hard about what Lorna is saying about the radical praxis of decelerating in the context of this beautiful writing from @agnesbosanquet.bsky.social: theslowacademic.com/2024/11/30/s...

The UK's HSE in its reply to the University of Birmingham SMT's response to Birmingham UCU's complaint: 'I do not consider that your reply provides sufficient assurance that work-related stress is being suitably managed by the University'. 'we will be inspecting the University [..] in the new year'

The name of this product is the red flag for the conversations higher education is failing to have about its own labour market. The business problem being solved here isn’t the workload of the privileged, that’s just bait. www.alldayta.com

As the remaining Bali 9 members return home, ALHR’s thoughts are with the loved ones of Andrew Chan & Myuran Sukumaran - young men who had been demonstrably rehabilitated after 10 years imprisonment but who were executed. We must continue to work towards the worldwide abolition of the death penalty

From Raymond Carver's book, All of Us: bookshop.org/a/862/978037... #poem #poetry #raymondcarver #writers #books

I dream of a world where instead of saying “hey, AI can write this grant exit report no one wants to read” we ask “what is a more meaningful way to report out about grants?” We automate busy work instead of abolishing it and boil the oceans in the process.

“professional incentives” is the thing to notice. Why have universities incentivised fast and frequent paywalled publication? What metrics of individual and institutional gain/game have made higher education so ripe for AI uplift? Looking forward to what Mark has to say.

1. It’s not possible to keep “AI” out of “the humanities” so long as the humanities inhabit an institution. 2. AI is first/foremost an amplification of—the operationalization of—long-standing forces acting on (within) that institution. 3. It’s not about the technology. It’s about the capital.

“High levels of internet usage and heavy media multitasking are associated with decreased grey matter in prefrontal regions” — the problem being this is overwhelmingly a description of work itself. Is there a work safety case being built here? Is work really rotting our brains? Is it?

The next thing for Australia’s attempts to decide who uses social media in this country and the circumstances in which they do, is that we’re on about being first (see also: sport) but we’re far from alone. Changes in the US will continue to change things here. Either way. All ways.

Thing I’m still stuck on: the legislative focus is logically Australians under 16, but the legislative target is the media platforms they can access. This means platforms will have to take reasonable steps to check citizenship as well. And that’s going to need govt ID, surely.

I can’t believe I never thought about this before 🤦‍♀️ Because of the differences in average graduate earnings across states and territories - the time taken to pay off student loans is worsening the inequality between the states - The Australia Institute australiainstitute.org.au/post/the-inc...

Trans youth are already among Australia’s most marginalised people. The social media ban could make this worse theconversation.com/trans-youth-...

Meanwhile, in Qld, they will be sentenced as adults.

As “under 16” is being encoded into social media policy as “childhood”, take a look at the Australian children serving your takeaway and packing your groceries. They’re being paid 36.8% of the adult minimum wage, and very big businesses depend on them. www.theguardian.com/australia-ne...

Enjoying listening to a “voice from home” at #ascilite2024 @czernie.bsky.social talking about Higher Education for Good and @helenbeetham.bsky.social conversation around what a Good University could/should be. More from Laura here czernie.weebly.com

Hey hey @rosieandrew.bsky.social, one for us.

I think it says something about how third space staff work that the tech people thought the lapel mic was missing after the last session but we had actually just put it back on the charger and that is so rarely done that they didn't think to look there #3SS

Yes. However the implementation of this works out, Australian parents are being stirred up to block future expert input on means and risks. “Let's go back to old-school days where kids communicated, played outdoors, just had the childhood that we had.” www.abc.net.au/news/2024-11...

On online age assurance risks to LGBTIQA+ teens: techpolicy.press/age-verifica...

Australia will (checks notes) require all social media platforms to take reasonable steps to prove all adult account holders are not children under 16 using methods such as (checks notes) er (flips page) well, not yet sure about that actually. Good grief.

Don't often hear a pollie say this; "I have a confession to make. ... I’ve realised I was wrong and changed my mind." www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

We also underestimate how much parents when polled want to be able to control or prevent many different things and are prepared for now to call them all “social media”. Phones, group chats, unknown friends, poor sleep habits, stress. All these worrying things are now Social Media.

US colleges cutting majors to manage the education market they’ve created. This is becoming familiar in Australia where we’re stuck between full marketisation and curriculum by government design, and somehow also responsible for migration and housing supply. www.cbsnews.com/news/us-coll...

First rate. Behind the tech and justice challenges of the bill itself is this nostalgia for a golden past when Aussie kids played footy with their real mates. Whose memory is this? Whose childhood are we trying to reclaim? Who does all this sporty storytelling leave out?

Despite three dissenting reports from different points of the political compass, malarkey looks set to continue, committing all Australians (and likely quite a few non Australians)* to proving their age by unspecified means. *international students, for instance

Worthing reading this very balanced report from the SA Commissioner for Children & Young People especially what teens have to say about “The Worst Things About Sport.” www.ccyp.com.au/wp-content/u...

and are these world leaders in the room with us now?

“The ABC spoke with year seven students at Damascus College, a co-educational school in Ballarat, to hear what they thought about the proposed ban.” Interesting demographic. Young people in school uniforms are the overrepresented obviousness in all this, but even so this is a niche.

At last. www.scmp.com/week-asia/po...

Unis don’t have an international student problem, they have a funding and governance problem. Rather than address this, Labor’s targeting of international students opens up a bidding war with the Coalition for loudest dog whistler while uni bosses recklessly take the axe to staff

“the obligation will require platforms to implement some form of age assurance, as a means of identifying whether a prospective or existing account holder is an Australian child under the age of 16 years.” In other words, also if a person is NOT an Australian child under 16. That’s a lot of proving.

labor over the years

On the proposed social media ban for under 16s, Australians are placing too much faith in either “it won’t happen” or “it can’t work” or “kids will get around it”. The populist urge to push on with it anyway is the problem to notice. That’s already happened.