Jason Tham

Purpose Over Product The content discusses the impact of AI on communication design education, emphasizing the importance of understanding rhetorical purpose over product appearance to foster meaningful learning and cr…

Tensions and negotiations in AI’s interference with communication design.

jasontham.com/2026/01/02/p...

Unusual weather on Christmas Day calls for unusual activities.

Wednesday is for Faculty Mentor Orientation.

Today's bad UX writing example is brought to you by a job recommendation submission portal. Who doesn't love a double negative question?

"Design is not just what it looks like and feels like. Design is how it works." - Apple opened the 2025 event with a note from Steve Jobs, setting a tone for product experience from a functional perspective.

Learning from Information Design Experts As someone who teaches technical communication, I am interested in the stories behind the frameworks, methods, and best practices of information design. How did we get here? Who figured out what wo…

Learning from seasoned experts in information design. jasontham.com/2025/08/02/l...

Wednesday is for serving as dean’s rep to a media and comm PhD candidate defense. Learning all the things!

Why Design Thinking Needs a Social Justice Lens, and Vice Versa Reflecting on design thinking’s potential for social change, emphasizing the need for critical awareness, community engagement, and addressing power dynamics to enhance its effectiveness in e…

Design thinking has real potential for social change, but we need to be honest about the biases baked into the methodology. Small shifts in how we approach empathy, problem definition, and testing can make a big difference. jasontham.com/2025/06/09/w...

A grey binder next to a window

Book manuscript submitted. Cheers to official summertime!

Sano-Franchini asks us what if we tell it like it is—AI systems (LLMs) don’t “think” or “read” but instead “process” data; they don’t “hallucinate” but produce “inaccuracy” in output.

Jennifer Sano-Franchini asks us to consider what we mean by “critical” in critical thinking, critical literacy, etc. #cwcon

Some snapshots from the keynote lunch, featuring @jasontham.bsky.social's presentation, "Whose Time is it Anyway? Writing, Labor, and the Illusion of Efficiency." More photos to come!

Some advice. #HotelLincoln #Chicago

Friday morning is for learning with IBM.

Questions from the DRC panel that could benefit from continued discussion:
- what could transformative graduate collaboration & mentorship look like in the future?
- what skills are transferable and applicable to both Fellows & Grad Associates’ future careers?
- what do you want to see in DRC?
#4C25

Naomi Silver shared about the origin story of the Sweetland Digital Rhetoric Collaborative, the digital publishing space and scholarly network that is still going strong today. #4C25

We got to hear a lil bit about Kofi Adisa’s affinity with Computer Love at the #4C25 keynote.

Many caveats to be prefaced… but I can support this sentiment: The labor of writing can be a reward in itself. #4C25 keynote

To Free the Captives by Tracy K. Smith: 9780593467985 | PenguinRandomHouse.com: Books A TIME AND WASHINGTON POST BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR • The New York Times Book Review Editors' Choice • A stunning personal manifesto on memory, family, and history that explores how we in America...

Something we all could learn from Tracy Smith who wrote her book, To Free the Captives, “by ears.” We all need to listen more, listen more closely, and listen more closely with good intentions.

www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/706866...

Love is something that takes time to learn what it isn’t, and even longer to learn to practice it. — Tracy K. Smith at the #4C25 keynote

Sitting in a session on student recruitment, retention, & career readiness… one thing I wished we spent some time considering is relationship building. When people are connected, they’re more likely to enroll, stay, & go on to do things they enjoy. But we often overlook that relational piece. #4C25

Implications of AI for writing programs
• People stretched thin #deadlines
• The benefits are accruing, and outweighing the cost
• It's hard to stop using it #dependency
• Workplace writers are concerned about those in the next generation: how are people going to learn this job in the future? #4C25

Factors influencing the use of AI tools, according to Annette Vee in #A9:
- Prior media histories (personal, pop-cultural)
- Other people’s use of AI (coworkers, teachers)
- Concerns about what AI is doing to them (dependency, deskilling)
- Future of the profession (shifting expectations)
#4C25

Conference deja vu: am I imagining things or have I seen this presentation elsewhere? I’m not invested enough to find out. #4C25

When it comes to linguistic justice, our actions speak louder than words. — Jennifer Sano-Franchini, #4C25 Chair’s address.

Not gonna lie, seeing a fellow digital rhetorician, computers-and-writing scholar, and technical communication teacher at the helm of CCCC is inspiring as hell. Way to go, Jennifer! #4C25

Meeting authors & contributors of groundbreaking work in our field was a highlight of those early conference experiences, in the 1970s! — Anne Ruggles Gere, recipient of the 2025 CCCC Exemplar Award #4C25

Congratulations to all Scholars for the Dream award this year! #4C25

At the #4C25 opening session, Kofi Adisa calls writing teachers to lead amid chaos and tiredness.

Stop by the quilt maker space tomorrow starting 10:30 am! #FeministCaucus #4C25