A must read! In this murk of AI+higher ed, this is a rare convo that felt clear and hopeful. open.substack.com/pub/derektho...
01.03.2026 18:12 — 👍 0 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0
A must read! In this murk of AI+higher ed, this is a rare convo that felt clear and hopeful. open.substack.com/pub/derektho...
01.03.2026 18:12 — 👍 0 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0
I found your analysis to be empirically sound, but it would be sharpened by two refinements. First, ed tech is treated primarily as instructional software, but much of the industry’s scale and profitability comes from platforms and hardware (such as Chromebooks, iPads, and operating systems) that erode attention and degrade classroom behaviour even when no instructional software is running. Second, educational apps may disappoint when they digitise tasks that are better done off-screen, especially for young children. By contrast, there are domains where computers are not optional but necessary, such as coding and data science. Separating infrastructure from instructional software, and distinguishing among different kinds of instructional goals, would clarify the economics of ed tech and the learning-science evidence.
It's no @mcsweeneys.net but I got a letter printed in @economist.com
www.economist.com/letters/2026...
We are 95% confident that the true state of the world lies between the end of scarcity and the end of humanity.
26.02.2026 16:08 — 👍 2 🔁 1 💬 1 📌 0
Some higher ed administrators might not think so... www.mcsweeneys.net/articles/the...
24.02.2026 03:00 — 👍 0 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0
I would like to thank Companion AI for helping promote my latest in @mcsweeneys.net. I had worried my satire was too dark. This Einstein product reassures me that it was optimistic sunshine.
www.mcsweeneys.net/articles/the...
"There is, of course, some risk of corroding the very foundations of our university’s mission. But institutional survival requires adaptation. Our graduates must become 'AI-resilient and future-ready members of the workforce'… whatever that means."
www.mcsweeneys.net/articles/the...
"In Vibe-Teaching™, faculty are no longer required to read the AI-generated slop that students themselves have not paused to read. "
Hilarious satire about what teaching in a time of AI might become.
(Also: excited that a friend got a piece into @mcsweeneys.net!)
"Rather than building courses through faculty expertise or disciplinary knowledge, faculty gather complaints from alums now trying to get real jobs, feed those complaints into AI, and allow the system to revise the course accordingly."
13.02.2026 03:00 — 👍 88 🔁 25 💬 3 📌 10This could be the next “Gourd Season”
13.02.2026 03:15 — 👍 11 🔁 3 💬 0 📌 0
I’ve officially made it as a humor writer! I’m in McSweeney’s today.
www.mcsweeneys.net/articles/the...
Ahem. Capitalism would like a word.
Specifically, it would like journalists to calm-the-f-down about love scams and recognize them for what they are: a wildly successful business model!
Check out my parody letter from Capitalism, out today in Jane Austen’s Wastebasket: medium.com/jane-austens...
Here's the question about #SquidGame I finally had the courage to ask: how are they funding that murder circus?
Turns out capitalism is the real bloodbath.
I wrote a romance novel called The Long Con… and then got actual romance scammers to promote it!
I wrote about what happened and what it says about the industrialization of modern love for Medium’s Human Parts: humanparts.medium.com/how-i-conned...
This piece does a great job explaining how hard it is on faculty with the lower pass rates that often come with corequisite (vs. prerequisite) remediation, even though more students total are passing. buff.ly/RKjrY2l #math #AcademicSky #highered @cogscimom.bsky.social
07.07.2025 15:54 — 👍 1 🔁 1 💬 0 📌 0
We discuss: What does the attention economy mean for education? Can we reclaim agency in a system designed to steal it? Have you seen changes in yourself, young people, or the systems we live in?
Let me know what you think!
🎙️ Full Episode: www.youtube.com/watch?v=bVD2...
/fin.
What happens when tech algorithms capture our attention so effectively that we lose agency over our mental lives?
On East LA's "Riding the Wave" podcast, I stepped outside my academic bubble for a convo about the deep things that affect us all!
🎥 Watch the clip: www.youtube.com/shorts/SPL90...
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Does it feel like the world is algorithmically engineered to stamp out reading--eroding focus and sustained attention to long complex ideas? blog.coursekata.org/teaching-rea...
22.11.2024 00:53 — 👍 1 🔁 0 💬 1 📌 0