Back in 2012 ("the year of the MOOC"), when Sebastian Thrun told Wired that, in fifty years time there would only be ten universities left in the world and his startup Udacity had a chance to be one of them, I admit, I laughed. I laughed and laughed
(I'm interested in questions of agency, and how automation and artificial intelligence serve to undermine this – agents versus agency, I've previously argued. It's particularly striking that "agents" are being marketed as an easy way to optimize one's personal and professional
Political reporters love a Midwest diner. Even though most Americans live in urban areas, even though a third of Americans live in California, Texas, Florida, or New York, even though around 40% live on the coast (east or west), even though more than half are under age 40, the depiction
Yesterday marked my fifth Mother's Day without him. Tomorrow is the fifth anniversary of his passing. My beautiful boy, for whom I still grieve and will grieve every day forever; and despite his death, why I still fight. When I was a sophomore in college (about a year
There's a tendency to write about technological change as an "all of a sudden" occurrence – even if you try to offer some background, some precursors, some concurrent events, or a longer, broader perspective, people still often read "all of a sudden" into any discussion
What do folks mean when they talk about AI in education? Most of the time – and I'm certainly at fault here too – no definition or description of AI is even offered. You’re supposed to just known what AI means, what it does – or at the least, you’
On Sunday, Ben Smith published a lengthy investigation into what he describes as "The group chats that changed America" – the private, digital banter of venture capitalists, tech executives, and influencers/journalists that, according to Smith at least, have fostered the "intellectual counterculture" of the tech right
Tressie McMillan Cottom recently offered a neat little summary of how universities have responded to generative AI: "Academics initially lost our minds over the obvious threats to academic integrity. Then a mysterious thing happened. The typical higher education line on A.I. pivoted from alarm to augmentation. We need
On Wednesday, President Trump signed an executive order: "Advancing Artificial Intelligence Education for American Youth." You should approach this as a Rorschach Test, of sorts: use it to evaluate what others – particularly those who are trying to sell a vision of education's AI future (with a
I'm not sure if we can call it an official launch – there's no actual product yet – but a new education company Matter and Space unveiled its website last week. The company, co-founded by former SNHU president Paul LeBlanc, MOOC pioneer George Siemens, and clinical psychologist Tanya
I've always been deeply uncomfortable with the casual observation that "schools are prisons," even if there are undoubtedly schools that do almost everything in their power to circumscribe the freedom and mobility of their students. This assertion – "schools are prisons" – flattens the many important
