@dankrutka.bsky.social

🫠

Introducing Digital Civics Club — Civics of Technology Civics of Tech Announcements Conference Recordings: Missed a session at our 2025 conference? Head to our conference page to see if a recording is available. Please note that not all sessions wer...

What does it look like to do critical tech studies with high school students?

@alliethrall.bsky.social, @philnichols.bsky.social, and Kevin Magill share their exciting project in today's Newsletter.

www.civicsoftechnology.org/blog/introdu...

Our next Tech Talk is this Tuesday, from 8-9 PM Eastern. Share what you learned at our conference! (Or lament that you had to miss it)

You can register using the link below.

oklahoma.zoom.us/meeting/regi...

Metal sided building with Thank You painted on the side in blue paint.

Thank you, @civicsoftech.bsky.social conference organizers @mariekheath.bsky.social, @jbpleasa.bsky.social, and @dankrutka.bsky.social, for two days of centering students and equity! And for having @shanavwhite.bsky.social on the panel. She rocked! #EduSky

Photo by Kevin Butzon on Unsplash.

Loved that both your sessions praised each other! That’s the community resistance the conference was hoping for!

Carrying @hypervisible.bsky.social's words at #CivicsOfTech25 with me today and into the future: “Part of resistance is realizing you are not alone in this thing.”

Yes.

Did you like learning from board member @charleswlogan.bsky.social during the "Theorizing Caregiver Resistance to EdTech" panel & wonder where to learn more? Check out his appearance w/ ‪@emilymbender.bsky.social‬ & @alexhanna.bsky.social on the Mystery AI Hype Theater 3000 podcast! #CivicsOfTech25

Well, everything. The death of art. [Laughs.] A thing that I’ve been struck by in the last year of tech development around art is that what makes us human is making art, even if you’re not a professional artist. This is kind of corny, but I think about cavemen, right? One of the first things we ever did as a species was put our handprints on a wall, and it’s just this drive that has always been there. It’ll always be there. And I think it’s preposterous that these people are suggesting that they develop this technology, and the first thing they want to eliminate is art, so you have more time to…what, email? I don’t know what they think I’m going to do with my fucking day. Most of the population is not artists, but a lot of the population has artistic hobbies, and if you replace that with a computer doing it for you or whatever, it’s just pointless. I think there’s a death drive in these people, almost, and an actual hatred of artists; they are jealous of people with imagination because they don’t have one, and they almost consciously want to eliminate it.

My wife is in Vogue shitting on your AI-generated "art" 💜 www.vogue.com/article/matt...

🔥

#CivicsOfTech25 folks see below 🤩

Added!

Thanks for all the new follows during our #CivicsofTech25 conference! Keep interacting with our content and we'll eventually get you all followed back! Also, message @dankrutka.bsky.social to be added to our Starter Pack: bsky.app/starter-pack...

If you, like me, happen to be OG #edtech person and are looking for a group of activist educators, this starter pack has lots of inspiring people: bsky.app/starter-pack...

So grateful to @audreywatters.bsky.social and her #CivicsOfTech25 keynote, where she encouraged us to fight for education that is slow, common, shared, caring, meaningful, brave, and truly in love with the world and the future.

And, always:

“The way to get to know a student is to talk with them.”

If they message me then I'll add people! :)

@dankrutka.bsky.social Hey you’ll need to let #CivicsOfTech25 folks know how to join your starter pack. Can’t DM you here! Thanks

DOJ Investigation into George Mason Faculty Senate Sparks Academic Freedom Concerns AAUP President calls federal probe "gross misuse of power" as university faces fifth inquiry in five weeks.

“If the DOJ can investigate faculty governance bodies for citing a university's own strategic plan, then no campus is safe.

"Let's call this what it is: a gross misuse of federal power to chill speech, silence faculty, & undermine shared governance.”

— Todd Wolfson, AAUP President

Same those late 80s, early 90s Cubs teams were a lot of my childhood.

Whose interests do teaching machines serve? — Civics of Technology In this blog post, Charles Logan shares his thoughts, a reading guide, and new inquiry design model (IDM) lesson based on Audrey Watters’ 2021 book, Teaching Machines: The History of Personalized Lear...

Since today the NY Times is profiling Alpha School and "MacKenzie Price, a podcaster and influencer who co-founded Alpha" 🤮, I'm resharing @civicsoftech.bsky.social's resources on Audrey Watters' book Teaching Machines that I helped to write, including a reading guide and inquiry-based lesson plan.

From Fanboying To Thinking - My Journey With EdTech — Civics of Technology **OUR CONFERENCE IS THIS WEEK** Join Us on July 31 & Aug 1 Are you registered yet? If not, use this link . On Wednesday (July 30) you’ll receive instructions on how to access the conferenc...

Today, @tommullaney.bsky.social shares his epic journey out from the edtech fold --- and gives some advice for others who might follow that path.

www.civicsoftechnology.org/blog/from-fa...

We're less than one week away from our 2025 conference! Are you registered yet?

Instructions on accessing the conference sessions will be sent to registrants on Wednesday, so make sure you're on the list!

www.civicsoftechnology.org/2025conference

From Fanboying To Thinking - My Journey With EdTech — Civics of Technology **OUR CONFERENCE IS THIS WEEK** Join Us on July 31 & Aug 1 Are you registered yet? If not, use this link . On Wednesday (July 30) you’ll receive instructions on how to access the conferenc...

I resonate with a lot in this thoughtful reflection from @tommullaney.bsky.social on his journey from self-proclaimed edtech fanboy to his "consideration of the gap between promises about technology and the often unpleasant reality." And I appreciate all the links to critical (ed)tech resources!

How big tech is force-feeding us AI Plus, OpenAI's absurd listening tour, top AI scientists say AI is evolving beyond our control, Facebook is putting data centers in tents, and the AI bubble question — answered?

Big tech promotes the story that since ChatGPT burst onto the scene, AI has been so popular it's rushed to meet the demand. The reality is different. A study by design scholars shows tech co's have had to push AI on its users with a variety of intrusive tactics.

How big tech is force-feeding us AI:

Trump announced its AI Action plan for American AI dominance. What we really need is a People's AI Action plan to ensure Trump + Silicon Valley don't weaponize AI against working people, exacerbate the climate crisis and fortify the surveillance state.

Proud to have signed on and endorsed this call

People's AI Action Plan

The White House released its AI Action plan this morning. We know where it came from: straight from Big Tech. But there’s another path available to us: we and over 100 other orgs called for a People’s AI Action Plan. Read it here: peoplesaiaction.com
apnews.com/article/trum...

Only if you post here more…

Trump appointees ran the government in 2020.

The Big Lie has expanded into a complete alternate reality.

A quote from The AI Con by Emily M. Bender and Alex Hanna; the quote reads, “But resisting hype can also be empowering, grounding, and even joyful. It is empowering to reaffirm the value of our skills and expertise. It is grounding to lean in to the value of human-to-human connection, of being human together. And it can be flat-out fun to find the silliest excesses of the hype machine and deflate it, with ridicule as praxis.”

Join us for some "empowering, grounding, and even joyful" AI hype resistance! Tomorrow, July 22, at 8pm ET, I'm hosting the virtual @civicsoftech.bsky.social book club for The AI Con by @emilymbender.bsky.social and @alexhanna.bsky.social . Registration details at: www.civicsoftechnology.org/events

I made a quick Russian interference explainer. When CIA director Ratcliffe started down this road, I wrote 3000 words about the Senate reports, the data sets from big tech, etc.

Now Tulsi’s doing her thing…so here’s a quick video about her “Obama treason” voting machine claims vs reality. 🤷🏻‍♀️