Mary Burns

‘People Are Going to Die’: A Malnutrition Crisis Looms in the Wake of USAID Cuts Warehouses in the US are full of foods that fight malnutrition, while kids go hungry in places like South Sudan.

Tragic: Food rots in US warehouses while children in Africa go hungry. Musk, Trump and Rubio's cruelty: www.wired.com/story/usaid-...

Senator Blackburn Pulls Support for AI Moratorium in Trump’s ‘Big Beautiful Bill’ Amid Backlash After critics called the bill a “get-out-of-jail-free card” for Big Tech that could make it nearly impossible to rein in social media platforms, Senator Marsha Blackburn killed her own compromise.

Looks like the 10 year proposed moratorium on #AI regulation is gone from #OBBA-- the result of a lot of push back. Last month, 40 Republican and Democratic attorneys general sent a letter to members of Congress calling for them to kill the ban on AI state laws.

www.wired.com/story/ai-mor...

Opinion | The Education Department is paying us millions not to work Education staff are eager to serve the public. The Trump administration’s layoffs put us in a legal limbo that helps nobody.

So much for the " waste" part of WF&A: wapo.st/4ehb7zt

#NoKings in #Boston. Since today was also the #Pride parade, it was more #NoKings only Queens!

Opinion | Elon Musk’s Legacy Is Disease, Starvation and Death

As Elon Musk leaves US government work ( good riddance) his legacy is the death of 300,000 people ( so far) -- and a savings that is less than @USAID's total budget www.nytimes.com/2025/05/30/o...

Inside the Big Story: Reporting on the U.S. Agency for International Development Join us for Inside the Big Story, a quarterly event series that delves into recent investigations and gives ProPublica members an exclusive look at our newsroom’s unique approach to reporting and stor...

If you're interested in/affected by the elimination of US #foreignaid, particularly #USAIS 's gutting, check out this @propublica.org webinar tomorrow, April 23 #MillenniumChallengeCorporation
www.propublica.org/events/insid...

The City On The Hills Trail — Walking City Trail Find maps, directions, and transit connections for your adventure on Boston's City On The Hills Trail.

Today—Earth Day 2025—a new urban trail across Boston green spaces is born. The City On The Hills Trail, which runs 31.1 miles from Millennium Park in West Roxbury to Castle Island is officially open to the walking public!
www.bostontrails.org/cityonthehil...

Snapchat is Harming Children at an Industrial Scale In their own words, we see that Snap Inc’s design choices expose millions of kids to harm

Snapchat’s #AI isn’t just a chatbot—it’s a vector for industrial-scale adolescent exploitation. Jonathan Haidt unpacks how it monetizes teen vulnerability at scale. A must for those who care about youth, #tech & ill effects of # #socialmedia
open.substack.com/pub/jonathan... #Snapchat #EdTech

Pt 4- In God, Human, Animal, Machine, Meghan O’Gieblyn traces how #AI has inherited the metaphysical longings of religion, encoding spiritual hopes into this tech.

Interesting perspectives. For these authors, we reify technology in our own images to attain consciousness, eternal life, omniscience.

Pt 3- Ann Foerst calls this a dehumanizing turn: if we assume we can build intelligent machines in our image, we risk reducing ourselves to mere mechanisms—“bags of skin that can be rebuilt.”

Pt 2-Jaron Lanier writes that the dream of uploading ourselves into machines is a kind of new religion—one that treats information as real and alive. In this worldview, humans become fleeting fragments while digital bits are granted vitality.Ann Foerst calls out this dehumanization...

Pt 1- Lately I’ve been reading authors who explore the intersection of #technology and religion—how visions of #AI and #transhumanism ( the underlying foundation of Neuralink) often mirror spiritual narratives. For many techies, belief in technology approaches religious fervor and is very doctrinal.

(PDF) Eyes Wide Open: What We Lose from Generative Artificial Intelligence in Education 1 PDF | The chapter discusses what educators stand to lose--not gain--from the use of Artificial Intelligence in Education. | Find, read and cite all the research you need on ResearchGate

#AIED poses risks for #teachers AND #students--alienation, dependence, loss of confidence, creativity & fraying of #teaching identity. We need to keep #eyeswideopen to this threat.

#AIinEducation #TeachingMatters #EthicalEdTech

www.researchgate.net/publication/...

(PDF) Olhos Bem Abertos: o que perdemos com a Inteligência Artificial Generativa na Educação PDF | Este capítulo, fundamentado em uma abordagem crítica inspirada por Neil Postman e Hubert Dreyfus, examina os efeitos colaterais da adoção acrítica... | Find, read and cite all the research you n...

Meu capítulo sobre os riscos da IA generativa na educação. Não são só os alunos que perdem—nos professores também podemos perder autonomia, propósito e conexão com nosso trabalho se nāo mantermos #OlhosBemAbertos #IAnaEducação #EducaçãoHumanizada #Docência

www.researchgate.net/publication/...

Trump officials ask Supreme Court to allow canceling of teacher grants Lower courts said the Trump administration cannot cancel up to $65 million in grants for teacher training and professional development while litigation continues.

Of course! Why would we even WANT to train teachers??? Trump officials ask Supreme Court to allow canceling of teacher grants www.washingtonpost.com/politics/202...

YouTube video by Jeff Douglas We Are Canadian

Go #Canada: youtu.be/_OzbmriDgQc?...

The snitch state is upon us. In Texas you can report women you suspect of having an abortion and now @usedgov.bsky.social has launched a website where you can report anyone teaching DEI. Stalin and Castro would be proud.

I have never been as ashamed to be an American as I am today. The president of an allied nation attacked n
by our historic enemy, was bullied, berated and lied to by two quislings and Putin puppets, Agent Orange & JD Vance (who is even our despicable because he's cynical). Call your senators!

Allston-Brighton Community Plan update - stay tuned and let's shape a better future for AB! mailchi.mp/boston/allst...

Europe Needs to Rise Swiftly to Counter Trump's Predatory Imperialism A new geopolitical alliance is taking shape in which America is leading an exploitative and authoritarian axis

www.theunpopulist.net/p/europe-nee...

From @timothysnyder.bsky.social The United States cannot deal with adversaries without qualified civil servants in the departments of government that deal with money, weapons, and intelligence. All of these are being gutted and/or run by people who lack anything vaguely resembling competence.

I've always believed that #foreignaid lacked a narrative and that this would ultimately hurt those of us who work in the field plus places we work. This is a much better argument for #aid than anything I've read thus far: www.persuasion.community/p/trumps-wre...

Imagining failure to attain success: The art and science of pre-mortems Rebecca Winthrop and Mary Burns discuss how a pre-mortem can be used to identify and mitigate risks that generative AI presents to education.

What's a pre-mortem & how can it help us understand the benefits & risks of #AI? Read more in this @brookings.edu article www.brookings.edu/articles/the...

Gracias Telefónica por publicar este artículo de reflexión basada en mi capítulo sobre #IA en la #educación! You can find the English - language chapter here: www.researchgate.net/publication/...

I hope you find this examination of how #AI poses risks to #teachers and #teaching to be useful.

How does foreign aid work? And no, Elon, they are not radicals. They follow government accountability rules

medium.com/@mcburns/why...

The Young, Inexperienced Engineers Aiding Elon Musk’s Government Takeover Engineers between 19 and 24, most linked to Musk’s companies, are playing a key role as he seizes control of federal infrastructure.

Well, this is horrifying: www.wired.com/story/elon-m...

As 2024 closes, thanks to SilverLiningforLearning, Indiana U, U of Lisbon, IREX, Conselho Nacional de Educação (Portugal) International School of Science Education, Ecuador Min of Ed, U.S. State Dep for inviting me to share insights on teacher quality, technology, online learning & edtech research.

The top 15 Education For All blogs of 2024 | Global Partnership for Education GPE published 179 new blogs over the past 12 months, gathering hundreds of thousands of views. See which ones were the most popular and rediscover our thematic series.

Honored that both my posts from this year were featured among GPE's top 15 blogs of the year. What an honor to have the opportunity to contribute to the greater conversation on #education. Thank you GPE readers and Global Partnership for Education for this www.globalpartnership.org/blog/top-15-...

The top 15 Education For All blogs of 2024 | Global Partnership for Education GPE published 179 new blogs over the past 12 months, gathering hundreds of thousands of views. See which ones were the most popular and rediscover our thematic series.

How fun to have my two blogs from this year be in Global Partnership for Education's top 15 blogs! www.globalpartnership.org/blog/top-15-...

2/2 If you are interested in participating in this study, contact me here! #GAIED #AIED #GenAI #AI #Education