Jordan H. Davis

Beloved friends and colleagues!
This week's article-about the over-professionalization of higher ed, and its impact on students—will be shared tomorrow (Thursday) morning. Subscribe today to make sure it lands in your inbox.
Sign up here: unteaching.substack.com

Read about how AI agents are already disrupting higher ed classrooms in my most recent piece: open.substack.com/pub/unteachi...

Your Students' Secret Agent Agentic AI browsers are yet another AI disruption, with immediate implications for online tests and quizzes

Students and instructors can now use agentic AI browsers like Perplexity’s Comet and ChatGPT’s Atlas to complete and grade online assignments respectively without even needing to log into their LMS. Read more below:

open.substack.com/pub/unteachi...

Good teaching is unconventional teaching. To teach well, you have to go against teaching traditions that have been around since the 13th century. It sometimes requires winning over students who expect an efficient yet disconnected learning experience that involves consumption and recitation.

This photo feels so refreshing, but I can’t put my finger on why.

For those looking for guidance on how to respond to students when their work appears to be AI generated.

Hint: Plagiarism checkers aren’t as helpful as you think they are.

Read more here: open.substack.com/pub/unteachi...

How to Respond to Cheating While Not Being A Jerk A playbook for navigating academic plagiarism

Because plagiarism checkers are so unreliable, and because it’s nearly impossible to definitively prove that a student quoted or paraphrased AI without attribution, I don’t even bother accusing or investigating AI misuse.

Here’s what I do instead: open.substack.com/pub/unteachi...

Read this week’s piece, “The Problem with Punisihing Plagiarism”, on Substack: open.substack.com/pub/unteachi...

Survey on Mobile Device Culture in Education: Classroom Smartphone Policies Thanks so much for your interest this survey. I'm Jordan H. Davis, Faculty Development Specialist and author of Unteaching on Substack. My solo work involves analyzing cultural trends in education. Sc...

I'm looking for insights on how educators manage smartphone use and the rationale and effectiveness of their policies. If you would like to contribute to an exploration of this topic, complete the short survey linked below:

docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1F...

How We Should Talk To Young People About Career Choices Podcast Episode · The Unteaching Podcast · 09/11/2025 · 54m

The most consequential talk I’ve given, for young people anxious, exhausted, and unsatisfied as they pursuit of their ideal careers.

Listen here: podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/t...

Are Teacherless Schools Good for Education? Parents pay Alpha Schools $65,000 for their kids to be taught by AI

This week, I wrote about Alpha School’s controversial AI-taught programs, and their implications for the future of K-12 education. ⬇️

open.substack.com/pub/unteachi...

A syllabus pro-tip from a student I just spoke with: if a student needs to complete an assignment or task, and that task is listed in the “Couse Overview” or “Assignments” section of the syllabus, put it in read so it sticks out among the rest of the text in the syllabus 🔴👍🏿

Small things! #learning

I’m writing to share a teaching methodology I’ve been tinkering with, a philosophy that undergirds all the approaches I’ve been encouraging instructors to adopt in their classrooms the past few years.

Learn more about unteaching and all it encompasses here: open.substack.com/pub/unteachi...

AI developers benefit from a mental health crisis in which apathy, exhaustion, and isolation are all rampant. When we turn to the robots, you can trace it back to one of these three reasons.

My most recent Substack post explains why the word “andragogy” is divisive, and how we can shift our thinking about the difference between adult and child education.

Read here: open.substack.com/pub/unteachi...

How I'm Responding to AI Misuse What should we do when students break our policies?

I think I figured out the AI academic integrity issue (well, at least in my courses…for now).

open.substack.com/pub/unteachi...

Students accounting grim stories about their schools' anti-Al culture.

Figured that would put a smile on your face 😂

A white background with text that reads, “When Students Create Their Own AI Policies: Eight high schoolers made their own rules for AI use. What they came up with might shock you.”

For any educator wanting to engage students in responsible AI use this coming school year: open.substack.com/pub/unteachi...

25 year old here 🙋🏿‍♂️ never used PFA before, because I don’t attach documents to emails (all share links to cloud-based files 😂)

I spoke to a professor last week who said, “We start all of our projects and assignments in class. Everyone one.”

His rationale: it avoids confusion about instructions and expectations, it supercharges the brainstorming process, and it reveals students’ task management and creative processes.

I see exhausted people doing their jobs—airport and post office workers, business people, etc.—and feel the strong urge to walk up to them and say, “you’re off today. You can go home now.”

If I could choose any superpower, it would be that.

Why College Faculty Should Never Grade Participation Participation is essential to learning, which is why you shouldn’t grade it

An argument for eliminating participation grades 📝:

If you believe that faculty should be assessing substantive work and measurable skills, then college instructors should focus on assessing the skills that students are practicing, not the mere fact that they practiced them.

Mmmmm, I knew France was known for their 2-hour lunch breaks, but I hadn’t heard about the coffee philosophy. I’ll continue to take cues from other nations on how to resist the US’ relentless grind culture.

Ah, yes, we are in alignment. Perhaps my miscomprehension is a sign that I’m moving too fast…

The pharmacy was busy, but humans just seem to be busy in general, too. That fact that she felt she had to habit stack just makes me think of how overworked everyone is

Resourceful, but makes me a little sad.

Dusting off the Bluesky cobwebs to share my substack article on why participation grades are a threat to academic rigor.

Like, comment, blow a gasket…whatever you need to do!

open.substack.com/pub/unteachi...

This is fascism.