Carina van Rooyen

Are AI-driven EdTech developments improving learning in higher education? — Neil Mosley Consulting Are AI-driven EdTech developments really improving learning in higher education, or just focussed on boosting efficiency?

"A challenge..is the extent to which EdTech companies and their products can genuinely offer distinct benefits over general-purpose generative AI tools for many of the functions they are developing."

A sign saying "I'm not interested in competing with anyone. I hope we all make it."

*taps sign*

Fit for Purpose? How Today’s Commercial Digital Platforms Subvert Key Goals of Public Education Digital educational platforms have become ubiquitous in American classrooms, with tools like Google Workspace for Education, Kahoot!, Zearn, Khan Academy, and many others now structuring curriculum, i...

New policy brief: Educators should reassess the hidden impacts of ed tech ecosystems on teaching, learning, and student data. bit.ly/46C2JXT

"The future of teaching and learning is not about keeping up with machines, but about using them to become more deeply and distinctively human." The AI Tsunami Is Here: Reinventing Education for the Age of AI by Tanya Gamby, David Kil, Rachel Koblic, Paul LeBlanc, George Siemens and Mihnea Moldoveneau EDUCAUSE Review

In the age of AI, higher ed must move beyond content delivery toward interactionalism—a human-centered approach that fosters collaboration, creativity, adaptability, feedback, & well-being. This EDUCAUSE Review series will explore that in-depth, beginning with teaching & learning.

buff.ly/fBXGEjS

Beyond “Two Sides” and the “Middle Ground” in GenAI Discourse: The Affordances and Limits of Linear Reasoning Models Jennifer Sano-Franchini, West Virginia University Photo by Steve Johnson on Pexels.com Not long after my child started attending the childcare center near campus, another parent asked whether my sp…

Beyond ‘two sides’ and the ‘middle ground’ in GenAI discourse: The affordances and limits of linear reasoning models.
refusinggenai.wordpress.com/2025/09/17/b...

BREAKING: UN inquiry finds Israel’s war on Gaza to be genocide aje.io/2h84g2

“foundational to my very being: one in which, no matter the costs, principled integrity is a priority, taking a stand means standing fast, and contesting the predations of the powerful gives meaning to the lives we lead.”

Our open-access AIED commentary is out

"Artificial Intelligence in Educational Research and Scholarship: Seven Framings"

🙏 Goerge Veletsianos, Victoria I. Marín, Stefan Hrastinski, Ahmed Tlili, Henk Huijser, Sharon Altena, Giselle Ferreira and Jason McDonald

open-publishing.org/journals/ind...

Gen Z protestors have chosen next Nepal PM via vote on Discord, what is Discord and how it is used Nepal’s anti-corruption protests led by Gen Z activists toppled the KP Sharma Oli government. Now, Gen Z is using the US-based social media app Discord to decide on the country’s next leader.

3) Discord users drafted a digital manifesto. The movement spilled into physical rallies.

Nepal’s Army Chief met Discord moderators. Talks focused on transitional governance & youth demands.

Days later, Sushila Karki was appointed interim Prime Minister.

Starter Articles For posts and articles

In thinking through ed tech changes at my workplace we have to prep for, I’m reading Transformation Processes: From Collapse to Emergence again. I’m trying to use ‘emergence’ to help me think.
www.systemsinnovation.network/posts/starte...

Make Compassion Great Again

How rapidly our so called "leaders" are normalizing othering, hatred, racism, sexism, wars, and cruelty

We might just become so numb and accept these as just given

communities.springernature.com/posts/make-c...

Anthropic Agrees to Pay Authors at Least $1.5 Billion in AI Copyright Settlement Anthropic will pay at least $3000 for each copyrighted work that it pirated. The company downloaded unauthorized copies of books in early efforts to gather training data for its AI tools.

JUST IN: Anthropic has agreed to pay at least $1.5 billion to settle a lawsuit brought by a group of book authors alleging copyright infringement.

That’s at least $3,000 for each copyrighted work that it pirated—well below what Anthropic may have had to pay if it had lost the case at trial.

Read our blog to get an overview of the Anthropic settlement. There’s an FAQ for authors, too. We hope you find it helpful.

authorsguild.org/news/what-au...

“Empire of AI”: Karen Hao on How AI Is Threatening Democracy & Creating a New Colonial World In our July Fourth special broadcast, we revisit our interview with longtime technology reporter Karen Hao, author of the new book Empire of AI, which unveils the accruing political and economic power...

"Empire of AI": Karen Hao on How AI Is Threatening Democracy & Creating a New Colonial World

BREAKING: Zeteo has released, globally, the film the BBC so controversially refused to air.

"Gaza: Doctors Under Attack" is now available to watch in full at gazadoctors.film and zeteo.com.

Here's the trailer:

"The Hard Work of Hope," new from Cornell University Press A Q&A with author Michael Ansara

Books take years to write. Peer review makes the process even longer.

So it is uncanny how often university presses publish books that are so timely—like the forthcoming "The Hard Work of Hope" from @cornellupress.bsky.social

Here is an interview with Michael Ansara by @derekkrissoff.bsky.social

Swords into Plowshares Yesterday marked my fifth Mother's Day without him. Tomorrow is the fifth anniversary of his passing. My beautiful boy, for whom I still grieve and will grieve every day forever; and despite his death...

On an intellectual diet of weaponry, and on resisting the computational machinery of war.

*For Isaiah*

2ndbreakfast.audreywatters.com/swords-into-...

how we talk about digital practices in education. a caveat, a relic, a reckoning, and a rant walk into a bar...

thinking aloud. how do YOUR experiences of digital practice/discourse align? with so much appreciation to Donna Haraway & Ursula Franklin.

bonstewart.com/belonging/po...

#blogging4life

What does it mean for a professor to be present for students?

Here's our full conversation with Dr. Liz Norell:
youtu.be/Xv6Y7tyHxH0
@liznorell.bsky.social

It is a must-read.

I am delighted to be able to say that the special issue of the @jldhe.bsky.social 'Liberating Learning' has been published today!

39 Papers
99 authors

journal.aldinhe.ac.uk/index.php/jl...

Mythbusting, compassion, care, joy and more.

It doesn't have to be THAT way; it can be THIS way

Make Compassion Great Again

Make Compassion Great Again

Some ramblings on how we might survive the current wave of despair & darkness

communities.springernature.com/posts/make-c...

New Book Out Today: The Portable Feminist Reader An anthology of feminist thought across centuries, edited and introduced by me

I have a new book out today, the Portable Feminist Reader. I hope you check it out. audacity.substack.com/p/new-book-o...

Really powerful and moving words from Audrey about grief and what it means to be human. Something AI can never replicate.

"Grief — one of the most powerful and harrowing experiences of humanity — mere artifice, embraced as artifice, auto-performed for admiration."

MYFest25 Expression of Interest Hello :) Welcome, and thank you for your interest in #MYFest25 The "Mid-Year Festival" (MYFest) will be a “recharge and renewal experience” exploring community building, critical pedagogy, socially j...

Want to learn in community over 3 months June, July and August about topics like AI in education, social justice in education, wellbeing, and imagination?

Express interest in #MYFest25 to let us know how to make this a good experience for you: bit.ly/myfest25inte...
via @equityunbound.bsky.social

Agents versus Agency There's an argument I make in Teaching Machines that I'd like to repeat here – a setup to this first of many essays in which I work through some ideas about AI, agents, and agency: In 1971 the psycho...

AI agents vs agency 2ndbreakfast.audreywatters.com/agents-versu...

dear academics, in these trying times (powered by AI & totalitarianism), let your intellectual integrity be your north star. fuck respectability politics & “neutrality”. if you can’t actively call out nazism, injustice & general toxicity, what really is the point of your privilege?

Beyond blended: rethinking curriculum and learning design - Jisc

#InstructionalDesign #LearningDesign #CurriculumDesign folks: What resources do you recommend for established programmes that are looking to 'convert' to hybrid/online?

e.g. @jisc.bsky.social's "Beyond blended" guide is substantive, practical, and very accessible.

www.jisc.ac.uk/guides/beyon...

What is ‘critical’ in critical studies of edtech? - Education Technology Society There is growing interest in critical studies of education and technology. But what does it mean to be ‘critical’ of edtech, and how can this work genuinely make a difference in the world? Felici...

Criticality. What is that anyway? Warming up for the #cset2025 meet-up in Oldenburg on Friday! And it was a great warm-up to chat with @neilselwyn.bsky.social about what “critical” is doing in these kinds of phrases: critical studies of education and technology.

www.buzzsprout.com/1301377/epis...