Voices
Bloggers, newsletters, and podcasts from people in the field
Monday, October 12
TopSciNet Tools
DATAMETA LAB, TopSciNet, Oct 12, 2026 This looks like a really useful set of tools: "Free online tools with no signup: line counter, image resizer, compressor, PDF converter, QR generator, percentage calculator and more. Everything runs in your browser, so your files never leave your device." What's funny is that I…
downes.caA Small Boat Facing New Horizons
Yaretzy Gabriela Calamaco Munguia, unitwin-unoe, Oct 12, 2026 This post from a primary school teacher and Master's student from the Benemérita Escuela Normal de Coahuila (BENC) in Mexico recounts her experience attending the UNESCO's Digital Learning Week 2026 in France. "It was not a feeling of smallness as a synonym…
downes.caMedia helped create the crisis it finds itself in
Michał "rysiek" Woźniak, Songs on the Security of Networks, Oct 12, 2026 This article is much too long and has a but of a tone, but it is chock full of evidence to back up what it says, and what it says is important: the media itself is responsible for the near total control of the tech industry over its…
downes.caAcademic urban legends
Ole Bjørn Rekdal, Social Studies of Science, Oct 12, 2026 Via a Mastodon post from Alfie Kohn posted today I encountered this great 2014 article on how urban legends are perpetuated in academic writing. The article looks at the chain of commentary around the idea that spinach is a great source of iron (it isn't). You…
downes.caWhy Leaving Academia Feels Like Withdrawal
Claudio Cinà, Inside Higher Ed | Higher Education News, Events and Jobs, Oct 12, 2026 "Many who succeed in academia become reliant on the recognition of its gatekeepers - tenure committees, journal editors, prize juries—until that recognition becomes the currency of existence." See also: qualifications and brain…
downes.caUser-Driven UI
Brad Woods, Brad Woods Digital Garden, Oct 12, 2026 The is the approach I'm trying to take with CList: "With the capabilities of natural language processors, we can create a new approach to teaching UIs. User-driven UI. Instead of pushing features onto the user, the user pulls them in when needed. The software always…
downes.ca
Sunday, October 11
Discernment in the Age of Agents
Calls to pace the frontier and slow AI development for safety miss the very real changes ubiquitous AI brings to our professional and personal lives.
marcwatkins.substack.com
Saturday, October 10
Don’t throw away your rationales!
Or how I built 46,000 description cards that still reflect my months-long journey
mikecaulfield.substack.comCan you ace schools and systems?
Charters, districts, and one-room schoolhouses.
michaelbhorn.substack.com
Friday, October 9
In the world of LLMs, the description is the hyperlink
The Memex has arrived, for anyone with the sense to see it.
mikecaulfield.substack.comHow Much Is My Network Like Me? A Mapping Activity
In week one of Harold Jarche’s Personal Knowledge Mastery workshop, I mapped my network and asked how much it looks like me. The answer: not much, and that’s what enriches my sensemaking. I also reflect on collaboration versus cooperation, and what a recent reorganization at work has taught me about both.
teachinginhighered.comWhat’s the point of an assignment?
This week included a quick trip to New York City to share a few thoughts on AI-aware teaching with the editors at W. W. Norton. During their annual editors retreat, they spent some time thinking about AI, how its changing higher education, and what that means for a textbook publisher …
derekbruff.orgThe People in Your Neighborhood
2ndbreakfast.audreywatters.com
Thursday, October 8
Beginning Again: Making Time for Sensemaking
I’m returning to Harold Jarche’s Personal Knowledge Mastery workshop. Here’s how I’m making time for sensemaking, plus PKM resources to get you started.
teachinginhighered.comBeyond Chatbots: The Convenient Costume of AI Agents
The chatbot interface barely scratches the surface of what AI can do. It is also being used to hide genuinely harmful and even criminal activities.
leonfurze.com
Wednesday, October 7
CList at FediForum
Slides and video of my session at FediForum - thanks Mark for being the only one to join me (we're not the cool kids :p ) which introduces CList and offers an alternative way to look at (and build) the open social web, The usual live demo glitches, but I think we made the point. I didn't actually show the slides, just…
downes.caBuilding the Post-Industrial Core
Many people talk about transforming “factory-model schools” to “learner-centered” models.
michaelbhorn.substack.comWhen Teachers Answer Their Own Questions
And what to do instead.
danmeyer.substack.comDon’t Make Muse Do It
Not because of what it will do to Muse, but because of what it will do to you
joshbrake.substack.com
Tuesday, October 6
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 in
2ndbreakfast.audreywatters.comNew Publication: AI + OER Case Studies: A DOERS Project
And now, a word from some authors...
aiedusimplified.substack.com
Monday, October 5
The Existential Grinth for the Ninth (month of daily photos in 2026)
Indeed with a lack of real words to rhyme with ninth, needing to keep the patterns for this year’s posts, I resorted to a chap who just cheerfully makes stuff up to define “grinth” as “the peculiar little feeling of having noticed something nobody else did.” Clever? More importantly after last month thrashing through…
cogdogblog.comPriority 2: Revise Requirements to Recognize Learning Across Contexts
Two weeks ago, Angela Jackson (the CEO of Future Forward Strategies), Mallory Dwinal-Palisch (the President of Craft Education, a WGU company and nonprofit data platform that enables apprenticeship degrees), Danny Curtis, and I published a series of six papers
michaelbhorn.substack.com
Sunday, October 4
Yes, AI can watch a dramatic film and fully explain its motives, relationships, and mechanisms.
The gap between what people think AI’s capabilities are and what they actually are continues to widen.
mikecaulfield.substack.com
Saturday, October 3
How well do you know the history of standardized testing?
The SAT, the ACT, and everything in between.
michaelbhorn.substack.com
Friday, October 2
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 very
2ndbreakfast.audreywatters.comScaling AI-Aware Teaching from Course to Campus (or, What I Thought About That MIT Report)
What does it take to help the entire faculty of a college or university learn and adopt new teaching practices? This is a question I’ve had to grapple with twice in my career. The first time was during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020. I was serving as the director of …
derekbruff.orgAmerican views of higher ed decline, once again
Quick post today, as I travel across several American cities: United States attitudes towards higher education soured yet again, according to a new Gallup poll. The main question asked this time was “How important is a college education today — … Continue reading →
bryanalexander.orgMore Campuses, New Models: Can Universities Reinvent Themselves?
While much of higher ed is retrenching and struggling, other schools are making big bets on having multiple locations.
michaelbhorn.substack.com
Thursday, October 1
The Dot and the Swarm
Benefitting from the Bitter Lesson
oneusefulthing.org
Wednesday, September 30
Fact-checking a film summary by having your computer watch the film
My fact-checking AI agent now can stream public domain films, make contact sheets, pair that with transcribed dialogue from the audio stream, and fact-check the film summary.
mikecaulfield.substack.comHow to Say Thank You
A moment for all of you.
aiedusimplified.substack.comSept 26 Round-up
Despite being retired, September still has a back-to-school feel about it. After an enjoyable (but hot) summer it was good to get back to my desk again (and to wear jumpers). Things I enjoyed this month: The massive facepalm of the republicans thinking they had a gotcha moment over Jack Smith; watching The Office; Fat…
blog.edtechie.netCould Alpha School disrupt K–12 education?
This is the second of two posts that Thomas Arnett of the Christensen Institute and I coauthored about Alpha School.
michaelbhorn.substack.comSix Important Findings from the AI in Action Learning Tour
This study is four years overdue.
danmeyer.substack.comHard Rain Falling
Post by @jimgroom@social.ds106.us View on Mastodon I had a lot of emotions while I was helping to settle my daughter in for her first year of college in Michigan a couple of weeks ago. I couldn’t help but … Continue reading →
bavatuesdays.comUse AI to Build Fireplaces
Some reflections on how AI is enabling me to make more engaging learning experiences for my students this semester.
joshbrake.substack.com
Monday, September 28
Yes, when LLMs don’t use tools they still suck at niche questions
And that’s important for nonobvious reasons
mikecaulfield.substack.comHealth Care Nation, a 2026 update
Greetings from late September. I’m writing this from several different airplanes and airports, traveling back from the University of Alaska’s second AI Symposium. Aircraft wifi has been uneven, dropping in and out, and once tried to double charge me. Another … Continue reading →
bryanalexander.orgPriority 1: Getting a View and Setting a Vision Across Systems
A week ago, Angela Jackson (the CEO of Future Forward Strategies), Mallory Dwinal-Palisch (the President of Craft Education, a WGU company and nonprofit data platform that enables apprenticeship degrees), Danny Curtis, and I published a series of six papers
michaelbhorn.substack.comAutumn
2ndbreakfast.audreywatters.com
Sunday, September 27
Victory Laps All the Way Down
I have yet to post about my talk and subsequent podcast interview with Jöran Muuß-Merholz at the end of June. It’s been quite a summer, and I kept waiting for the perfect time to blog, but there’s no perfect time. … Continue reading →
bavatuesdays.com
Saturday, September 26
Blue 3DS XL Version 2
A post from the blaugust26 hootenany —now lost to the sands of bad search and rusty bookmarking skills— inspired me to re-visit my random desire to replace the Blue 3DS XL my kids used to play with. I already blogged … Continue reading →
bavatuesdays.comCan you ace the ideas that changed schools?
Kindergarten.
michaelbhorn.substack.com
Friday, September 25
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,
2ndbreakfast.audreywatters.com
Thursday, September 24
Couch to Family Pictures Podcasts
I don’t know if you know this about me, but I am a content producer! So much so I can’t even keep up with it on this blog. It is serious. Michael Branson Smith and I are approaching our 80th … Continue reading →
bavatuesdays.com
Wednesday, September 23
Flow vs Grind
No, this is not a comparison of dating sites, but rather a reflection on recent writing experience. I’ve published my second novel (I know, why haven’t mentioned this before?), and the writing of that came pretty easily. The characters led the plot and it flowed fairly quickly, in comparison with my first novel. I’ve…
blog.edtechie.netIf you don’t like Alpha, it’s probably not for you. That should be OK
This is the first of two posts about Alpha School coauthored with Thomas Arnett of the Christensen Institute.
michaelbhorn.substack.comThe Incommunicable Past
I’m binding together a beat-up copy of Willa Cather’s My Ántonia. I read it my freshman year of college—something that hits differently now as Tess starts hers in the US—and it was part of a Modernist American literature class at … Continue reading →
bavatuesdays.com
Tuesday, September 22
A sample Jev-based classroom activity: Applying Northrop Frye’s mythoi to films of the 2000s
A step-by-step guide.
mikecaulfield.substack.com