Sam McCormick

& his birthday was actually 27th of April (OS) but he chose to celebrate on 23rd, (h/t R3).

I imagined I would learn to crochet sufficiently well to try that blanket.

Ran out of options after guess 3
Wordle 1,403 4/6

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AI risks undermining the heart of higher education If students don’t make the effort to comprehend, synthesise and relate ideas for themselves, they will miss out on meaningful academic growth, says Zahid Naz

'when AI generates summaries, students bypass the cognitive engagement required to actively interpret academic work.

It is precisely this engagement – the effort to comprehend, synthesise and relate ideas – that catalyses learning.' 1/3

Not mine specifically but I’ve used Psychopy before in lab. Online data collection DMDX (historical interest), Qualtrics & Gorilla for student projects. I’ve been to workshops where they demonstrate eye tracking uses, face stuff etc. moving a Gorilla thing to Pavlovia this summer.

I was surprised by the relatively reasonable looking pricing too. It was Wellcome (?) funded initially I think. Or perhaps EU.

I don’t find it that bad, but I find that most surveys are relatively alright and there are usually plenty of examples to follow online. Also the issue with all of them (bar none) are year on year changes.

🚨 We've had 300+ signatures in under 24 hours — incredible. 🙌Let’s try to get to 600 by tomorrow. Every signature helps build pressure for parliamentary scrutiny and media coverage. Please sign + RT if you can + send to channels this oldie doesn't understand. Thank you so, so much💥

Pavlovia?
pavlovia.org/store
No sure about the programming skills bit but you could use it for experiments too.

Is there any survey platforms besides Qualtrics that have the following qualities?
✅ Easy to use; doesn't require much programming skills
✅ Accommodate multiple users
✅ Cheaper than Qualtrics 😅
Please RT for reach. I am asking for alternatives that are more friendly to low/middle income countries.

A partial screenshot of a table from benefitsandwork.co.uk showing the number of claimants for different health conditions. The table includes: 1. Back pain – 194,000 claimants, 154,000 (next column not labelled) 2. Arthritis – 279,000 claimants, 214,000 3. Other Regional Musculoskeletal Diseases – 136,000 claimants, 97,000 4. Chronic pain syndromes – 173,000 claimants, 118,000 5. Cardiovascular diseases – 61,000 claimants, 38,000 6. Respiratory diseases – 83,000 claimants, 45,000 7. Anxiety and depression – 587,000 claimants, 282,000 8. Multiple sclerosis and neuropathic diseases – 80,000 claimants, 38,000 The webpage header shows the time as 21:12 and the domain as benefitsandwork.co.uk. A privacy and terms notice is partly visible at the bottom.

Excuse me for focusing on mental health claimants for a moment but 23% of PIP recipients with psychotic disorders as primary condition would lose eligibility if the evil 4+ rule goes through. This is incredibly dangerous.

Another important FOI, this time from Benefits & Work.

It is the week for "if only" after all. The music just distracts you.

The UK should be open for business to foreign students | Jonathan Portes Jonathan Portes: If education exports are worth £15bn to the economy, why is the government trying to shut the doors on overseas students?

I wrote this 12 years ago about the absurdity of the government *deliberately* seeking to reduce UK exports and growth.

After Brexit and Trump, it makes even less sense.

www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

I struggled with Iain M Banks / Feersum Endjinn (the language, the spelling etc) but it seems just like a prediction now.

Wordle 1,394 3/6

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Late today

“You will play golf and eat hot hors d’oeuvres”

The Cold Heart - Wikipedia

Like this one - en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Col...
Not a folk tale but great.

I got stopped at Minneapolis for 4 hrs (5 day conference; unusual parentage only excuse ;2nd visit to US) and thought never again even then.

🚨🚨 This is beyond-wit non-sensical horseshit from this Lab official proposing some conspiracy-like idea on the meaning of a #customsunion.

Another reminder why Labour has a very long way to travel on their thinking on #brexit which is getting increasingly disattached from their electorate.👇

Doch

One week to go until our Spring Concert! Tickets available on our website (linked in bio)
💐 🎶 ☀️

They look ripe for Dr Who (like a mini tardis).

A point not made enough: the UK runs a trade goods deficit with the US so shouldn’t be paying any tariffs at all based on the White House formula (10% is not a “win”).

doi.org/10.1016/j.ec...
Also this one

Research Fellow, National Institute of Teaching In this role you will work in the NIoT’s research team making a tangible and immediate impact on teaching practices.

Psychology and education-minded people in the UK!

We're hiring a Research Fellow to join my team at the NIoT. Looking for PhD grads with strong quant skills 📈, and an appetite for doing research with real impact for schools, teachers, and children 📚🧑🏽‍🏫. Deadline April 20.
niot.org.uk/careers/rese...

One of the biggest problems with this AI bullshit when it comes to education is how it makes people think the final output is the only thing that matters when in reality the actual work you input of reading, thinking, synthesizing ideas & writing the paper/taking the test is how you actually learn.

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The Living Lab The Living Lab is a network of volunteers from all around the UK, who help researchers understand how real people use energy in real-life settings.

Fancy getting a new efficient, heating system for free?

We're looking for homeowners with electric heating and smart meters to join our research project (note we are looking for quite a select target group - so please pass on to anyone you think might fit the bill/benefit).

Up there with 6 impossible things before breakfast

It is time to abandon student evaluations of teaching

Comment by Gordon Hodson (@gordonhodsonphd.bsky.social)

Web: go.nature.com/4jfAzXo
PDF: rdcu.be/ef9y5