Underlining what matters in higher ed and ed tech: news, vendor updates, and commentary from across the field, in one place.https://theunderline.netlify.app/source/audreywatters/https://2ndbreakfast.audreywatters.com/the-people-in-your-neighborhood/https://2ndbreakfast.audreywatters.com/the-people-in-your-neighborhood/Fri, 09 Oct 2026 20:33:00 GMTAudrey WattersVoiceshttps://2ndbreakfast.audreywatters.com/the-house-that-turnitin-built/https://2ndbreakfast.audreywatters.com/the-house-that-turnitin-built/I gave this talk this afternoon at Concordia University, as part of the SkepTech series questioning education technology. Today's bird, which does not appear anywhere in the talk, is the house sparrow, which along with the pigeon is one of the most widely distributed wild birds, thanks inTue, 06 Oct 2026 22:00:58 GMTAudrey WattersVoiceshttps://2ndbreakfast.audreywatters.com/present-company-excepted/https://2ndbreakfast.audreywatters.com/present-company-excepted/“Generative 'AI' is here to stay." We hear this a lot. But a reminder: this is not a statement of fact. It is an assertion, but it is merely speculation. The future is unwritten – much to the consternation of those who’d like veryFri, 02 Oct 2026 19:00:40 GMTAudrey WattersVoiceshttps://2ndbreakfast.audreywatters.com/autumn/https://2ndbreakfast.audreywatters.com/autumn/Mon, 28 Sep 2026 09:00:31 GMTAudrey WattersVoiceshttps://2ndbreakfast.audreywatters.com/to-dismantle-democracy-you-subvert-public-schools/https://2ndbreakfast.audreywatters.com/to-dismantle-democracy-you-subvert-public-schools/For at least the past fifty years*, conservatives have made substantial efforts to dismantle public education, through a variety of policies, practices, and story-lines: budget cuts, vouchers, charter schools, anti-tax measures, anti-union initiatives, “free to choose” and “failing school” narratives. And of course,Fri, 25 Sep 2026 18:45:59 GMTAudrey WattersVoiceshttps://2ndbreakfast.audreywatters.com/what-does-defiance-taste-like/https://2ndbreakfast.audreywatters.com/what-does-defiance-taste-like/Mon, 21 Sep 2026 09:00:47 GMTAudrey WattersVoiceshttps://2ndbreakfast.audreywatters.com/caching-behavior/https://2ndbreakfast.audreywatters.com/caching-behavior/Mon, 14 Sep 2026 09:00:26 GMTAudrey WattersVoiceshttps://2ndbreakfast.audreywatters.com/click-here-to-comply/https://2ndbreakfast.audreywatters.com/click-here-to-comply/Perhaps you’ve read Ben Riley’s exposé on AlphaSchool’s “boot camp” -- along with his follow-up in which the school provides even more creepy details on the bizarre eight-week training program that high school students enrolled in the private school mustSat, 12 Sep 2026 20:00:34 GMTAudrey WattersVoiceshttps://2ndbreakfast.audreywatters.com/move-slow-remake-things/https://2ndbreakfast.audreywatters.com/move-slow-remake-things/In the prologue to their book Tinkering Toward Utopia, historians David Tyack and Larry Cuban highlight the tensions in how Americans think about schooling: we have, almost since the nation’s outset, believed in the transformative power of education; and yet, despite the importance we grant to education andSat, 05 Sep 2026 19:00:56 GMTAudrey WattersVoiceshttps://2ndbreakfast.audreywatters.com/this-might-save-a-life/https://2ndbreakfast.audreywatters.com/this-might-save-a-life/Mon, 31 Aug 2026 09:00:46 GMTAudrey WattersVoiceshttps://2ndbreakfast.audreywatters.com/come-up-to-the-lab-and-see-whats-on-the-slab/https://2ndbreakfast.audreywatters.com/come-up-to-the-lab-and-see-whats-on-the-slab/You could argue, I suppose, that recent chatter in and around the field of education technology is only reliant on cliches because it’s the summer (in the northern hemisphere, at least), and everyone’s brain is in some sort of low-engagement rest-mode. I’mSat, 29 Aug 2026 19:55:24 GMTAudrey WattersVoiceshttps://2ndbreakfast.audreywatters.com/take-the-cannoli/https://2ndbreakfast.audreywatters.com/take-the-cannoli/Mon, 24 Aug 2026 09:00:18 GMTAudrey WattersVoiceshttps://2ndbreakfast.audreywatters.com/a-technology-of-unlearning/https://2ndbreakfast.audreywatters.com/a-technology-of-unlearning/It's a saying that appears in multiple iterations across multiple slide decks and cited in multiple books, all extolling some sort of highly technological future of education: something about the need to constantly be learning, relearning, unlearning. I roll my eyes whenever I see this, particularly when it&Sat, 22 Aug 2026 19:30:13 GMTAudrey WattersVoiceshttps://2ndbreakfast.audreywatters.com/reading-notes/https://2ndbreakfast.audreywatters.com/reading-notes/Mon, 17 Aug 2026 09:00:48 GMTAudrey WattersVoiceshttps://2ndbreakfast.audreywatters.com/not-everything-changes/https://2ndbreakfast.audreywatters.com/not-everything-changes/"This changes everything." I find this cliche about technology to be so exhausting, in no small part because I've heard it over and over and over again. Every new product release, a revolution. After a while, you have to decide whether you're going toFri, 14 Aug 2026 09:00:56 GMTAudrey WattersVoices