Pete Evans

Learners and educators are AI’s new “super users” Google’s 2025 Our Life with AI survey found people are using AI tools to learn new things.

Google's annual AI survey with Ipsos indicates "learning" is the #1 use of AI, overtaking "entertainment."

But "learning" can mean *anything*. You can learn conspiracies, recipes, videogame cheats, whatever.

This is not "education" as it deliberately blurs it here
blog.google/products-and...

UK higher education student numbers fall for second year in a row | HESA

There has been a lot of talk about postdigital future classrooms, in and beyond the eponymous Special Issue published in PDSE last year. These insights have been masterfully curated and presented in a short encyclopedia entry by Ingrid Forsler :) Link in first comment

One of the cool things about organizing at a massive worksite like a university (or a hospital, or an advanced auto factory, or...) is that you get to meet people who have superpowers you do not understand in the slightest. Finished a walkthrough and a got a tour of the lasers.

What's on this month in ALDinHE. Image shows a clock face with the working cogs showing and the words Learning Development.

Here is your monthly guide to what's on in the Association for Learning Development in Higher Education this month. We look forward to seeing you at a future event. http://aldinhe.ac.uk/news/whats-on-this-month #LoveLD #LearningDevelopment #CPD #LearningDevelopers #ALDinHE

The Guardian view on universities: Labour needs a clearer plan | Editorial Editorial: Ministers promised a ‘change of approach’, but their new tax could tip weaker institutions over the edge

www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...
#highered

A great paper on the state of academic publishing that is intensified by the GenAI in exploiting content and the generating slop

UK to rejoin EU’s Erasmus student exchange programme Exclusive: British students will be able to participate in EU-wide scheme from January 2027, sources say

www.theguardian.com/world/2025/d...

Are you studying for a doctorate at a UK university via a programme that is wholly or mostly online? If so, please take part in an anonymous, 10 min survey about the impacts of online doctoral study on wellbeing and share the link lancasteruni.eu.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_....

The Marshall Islands Just Quietly Implemented the First National Universal Basic Income (UBI) How the Marshall Islands built the first nationwide universal basic income, funded by a US-capitalized Compact Trust Fund, and what it means for UBI everywhere.

The Marshall Islands Just Quietly Implemented the First National Universal Basic Income (UBI)
open.substack.com/pub/scottsan...

Algerian Studies Master's Dissertation Prize The LSE Middle East Centre and the Society for Algerian Studies run a UK-wide prize for Master's dissertations on Algeria.

Our annual Algerian Studies Master’s Dissertation Prize is now open for students at any UK university. If you get a high grade for a thesis related to #Algeria, apply & get your hard work recognised!

Deadline 30 November 2025, prizes announced January 2026, apply here: www.lse.ac.uk/middle-east-...

Call for Papers Open! Interdisciplinary Pathways: Engaging Learners and Creating Opportunities Call for papers  Edinburgh Futures Institute, University of Edinburgh 16 April 2026  This year’s Conference …

Call for papers for the 2026 #Interdisciplinary #Learning and Teaching Conference at #Edinburgh Future Institute. Closing date for submissions is 16 Jan 2026 See interdisciplinaryuk.net/future-event...

Universities must become more open to non-academic talent: Both within management and the professoriate, the need for a wider range of experience and skills is only getting stronger, says Marcus Munafò
https://ow.ly/O8yL50X9Fjp

Greenwich and Kent announce merger to form 'super-university' Universities are facing ongoing financial worries, with the regulator saying other mergers could follow.

And so it begins.

My prediction:

1) ‘back-office efficiencies’ (aka cull of professional services and academic-related staff inc programme admin, student support, teaching/learning support / digital learning support /libraries / professional development etc)

www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

The Guardian view on university finances: stop chipping away at a crumbling system | Editorial Editorial: Economic and academic activity are bound up together. Charging international students more for less will not fix deep-seated problems

www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

Strange piece on #ukhe finance. No mention of the tripling of fees by the coalition government, the removal of number caps nor the problems of focusing funding on HE rather than a coherent tertiary system

Nice trillions-dollar industry you got there. It would be a shame if anyone tested its claims empirically

Interesting summary of Skills England's latest report on priority #skills for 2030: especially that only 70% of computing graduates go on to #employment in IT. www.bcs.org/articles-opi... #employability #highered #tertiaryed #vocationaled

The AI Literacy Framework from @ec.europa.eu. @oecd-ocde.bsky.social, Code. org & others. Details key skills students need to navigate and shape a world with #AI.
The feedback survey is still open to help shape the final version.

👉See ailiteracyframework.org #AIEd #DigitalEducation

CfP for Nineteenth International Conference on e-Learning & Innovative Pedagogies at Rhodes. Proposals due by 16 September on the theme of human-centred AI transformations. See cgscholar.com/cg_event/eve... #DigitalEducation #elearning #AIED #higherEd #education

"By positing superintelligence as the future goal, and in repeating over and over again that it will absolutely, positively be here almost immediately, Altman and Zuckerberg can then just take it as read that what we are dealing with today is 'AI', artificial intelligence."

More college students now learn entirely online than completely in-person This year is the first time that more U.S. college students will learn entirely online compared to being fully in-person. And research shows most online programs cost as much or more than in-person.Th...

For the USA, it looks like students studying wholly online will outnumber on-campus students www.npr.org/2025/07/11/n... #highered #digitaleducation

Sage Journals: Discover world-class research Subscription and open access journals from Sage, the world's leading independent academic publisher.

Special issue of New Media & Society on digital twinning at journals.sagepub.com/toc/nmsa/27/8 #digitalTwinning

Edinburgh Critical AI in Education Network The event is aimed at creating a space for critical discussion of AI across our universities in Edinburgh

#Edinburgh Critical AI in Education Network event on 1 September, 1 - 4 pm, to organise for a more critical voice on AI-adoption within #HigherEd. Book a seat at www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/edinburgh-... #AIEd #UKHE

Feminist Pedagogy for Teaching Online - Athabasca University Press Instructors across higher education require inspiring and practical resources for creating, adapting to, and enhancing, online teaching and learning spaces. Faculty need to build collaborative, equita...

New #open access book on Feminist Pedagogy for Teaching Online available as part of the excellent Issues in Distance Education services from @aupress.bsky.social at www.aupress.ca/books/120334... #pedagogy #DigitalEducation

Yes, a techno-optimism combined with a large dollop of naivety

He not we doh!
The key point on what the report findings mean for the perceived integrity and value of degree is key but a return to exams seems a backward step for many disciplined

And yet two of the references cited conclude ai detection tools are neither accurate nor reliable and cannot be recommended. The other states that a minority of detection tools are accurate. Did the author hallucinate what we wanted these references to argue?

University of Edinburgh launching learning and teaching strategy 2030 @ the learning and teaching conference #highered

Yes, a great question. it’s as if universities as institutions ignore all their academics warning them of the risks and costs of big tech, data extractivism etc