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Neil Selwyn

@neilselwyn.bsky.social

2K followers 150 following 110 posts

sociology of education + digital | Monash University | research interests: automation, AI, datafication, digital degrowth | host of 'Education Technology Society' podcast: https://www.buzzsprout.com/1301377

Videos

Education 38%

Political science 16%

Posts Media Videos Starter Packs

Reposted by Neil Selwyn

Ben Williamson @benpatrickwill.bsky.social · 8d

Cool parcel in the post of an "Ed-tech Agitprop Pack" unexpectedly sent by @neilselwyn.bsky.social

"The ed-tech that we're currently dealing with is not a done deal!" as the accompanying note says.

Photo of a tote bag with printed text "Distrusting educational technology" and stickers reading "Get AI out of education" and "Ed-tech is full of bullshit"

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Neil Selwyn @neilselwyn.bsky.social · 9d

Should teachers use AI to write emails to parents? ... listen to me talk with Brad Robinson about the rise of AI tools now offering to do teacher tasks, such as lesson planning, grading assignments and writing feedback. A way to 'work smarter' or a slippery slope?! www.buzzsprout.com/1301377/epis...

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Neil Selwyn @neilselwyn.bsky.social · 16d

For those who don't know, I produce a podcast featuring some of the latest thinking in the critical studies of education & tech.

We have just kicked off our third season with an episode on 'Technosolutionism' ... please take a listen & subscribe!

www.buzzsprout.com/1301377

A grey poster with black writing and a pixelated hand pointing to the text.

Season three now starting! Education Technology Society - a critical podcast about digital education.

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Reposted by Neil Selwyn

Benjamin Andrew @benfictional.bsky.social · 16d

Frankie Focus is New York's mascot for phone-free schools, which is incredible but I feel like the design could have been work shopped a bit more.

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Reposted by Neil Selwyn

Kate Mannell @katemannell.bsky.social · 18d

Are you a PhD student whose work investigates digital technology in contexts of teaching and learning? Apply for our symposium! We are primarily seeking in-person presenters but have limited online slots available if you can't make it to Melbourne. More info: redi.deakin.edu.au/2025/09/call...

Call for Papers – HDR Symposium on Digital Technology and Education | Centre for Research for Educational Impact

Digital Technology and Education: Approaches, Industries, Practices The Learners in a Digital World research group at the Centre for Research for Educational Impact (REDI) is hosting a Higher Degree by Research (HDR) Symposium on Friday 31 October 2025 at Deakin Downtown and online. The symposium aims to bring together PhD scholars whose research addresses digital […]

redi.deakin.edu.au

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Neil Selwyn @neilselwyn.bsky.social · 18d

technologically advance a band.

Rocket from the Crypto

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Reposted by Neil Selwyn

Civics of Technology @civicsoftech.bsky.social · 19d

Speaking of @neilselwyn.bsky.social, check out today's blog post with Adriana Szili sharing "New resources for teachers and student teachers: AI Dilemmas": www.civicsoftechnology.org/blog/2dp8ng2...

Materials include posters, handouts, & slides to help reflect on real-world dilemmas of AI in edu.

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Reposted by Neil Selwyn, Philip Bell

Charles Logan @charleswlogan.bsky.social · 23d

New @civicsoftech.bsky.social book club!

I'm leading a discussion of @neilselwyn.bsky.social's new book "Digital Degrowth: Radically Rethinking Our Digital Futures" on Tues, Nov 11, from 8-9pm ET. Dr. Selwyn will be joining us too.

Register at our events page: www.civicsoftechnology.org/events

A photograph of me holding the book "Digital Degrowth: Radically Rethinking Our Digital Futures" by Neil Selwyn.

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Neil Selwyn @neilselwyn.bsky.social · 29d

new podcast episode! Why does education keep falling for techno-solutionism, despite the fact that technology does not seem to drastically improve education? Listen to Dr. Ezechiel Thibaud talk through the perennial problem of 'techno-solutionism' in education ... www.buzzsprout.com/1301377/epis...

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Reposted by Neil Selwyn

Aparna Nair @disabilitystor1.bsky.social · Sep 9

Literally the entire point of a tattoo is the human element and interaction.
Working with your tattoo artist, personalizing your designs, its all so intimate and rightly so. Thats what its all about!
Why do techbros try to ruin EVERYTHING?

One of the last places we might expect artificial intelligence to show up is the tattoo parlor, with its mix of artistry, personal expression and permanent ink. But a high-end ink shop in New York City is now taking appointments for an AI-driven tattoo robot.

The technology is the product of Blackdot, an Austin, Texas-based startup that has been pursuing a vision of autonomous, AI-fueled tattooing since 2019.

Blackdot—which has raised roughly $7 million from a combination of strategic and angel investors, crowdfunding and venture capital—says its device’s precision boosts predictability and reduces pain.

“There are people that are wondering if technology should make its way into the tattoo industry,” said founder Joel Pennington. “But that was what happened when Gutenberg came out with a printing press, and everyone thought that books should be handwritten.”

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Neil Selwyn @neilselwyn.bsky.social · Sep 5

🎙️ one of the great things about public broadcaster is having a half-hour radio program on the topics of "existential hope" & "digital degrowth" - very happy to have been involved!

Listen here: www.abc.net.au/listen/progr...

Existential hope vs Existential Fear - ABC listen

Existential risks to human life abound, from the threat of nuclear Armageddon; to an uninhabitable planet; or an AI-induced apocalypse. Understanding such risks and how we can best respond to them is ...

www.abc.net.au

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Neil Selwyn @neilselwyn.bsky.social · Sep 1

new blog post: Thinking differently – rather than dismissively – about AI and education.

... excerpt from the final chapter of my still-being-written book on AI & Education (out late 2026?) ... criticaledtech.com/2025/09/02/t...

full quote: "perhaps the most disheartening aspect of the recent push for AI is how it devalues and debases the status of schools, teachers, students and everyone else involved in education. Any insistence that current forms of AI can improve education is an insistence that we accept a hollowed-out version of education that is routine, formulaic and utterly mindless. Seen in these terms, then, good teachers and students are those who always maximise their time, diligently respond to feedback and can be nudged to make correct decisions. Good education is simply a matter of repeatedly and efficiently doing the same things ‘at scale’. This is a robotic version of education that appeals to managerialists, consultants and tech-bros with little experience and/or interest in the unavoidable messiness of schools and classrooms. Much of the enthusiasm for ‘transforming education through AI’ is rooted in thinly-veiled contempt for the forms of education that we currently have. As Anthony Moser (2025) put it, “the makers of AI aren’t damned by their failures, they’re damned by their goals”."

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Reposted by Neil Selwyn, Jacob T. Levy, Erol Akçay

Anthony Moser @anthonymoser.com · Aug 27

I considered writing a long carefully constructed argument laying out the harms and limitations of AI, but instead I wrote about being a hater. Only humans can be haters.

I Am An AI Hater

I am an AI hater. This is considered rude, but I do not care, because I am a hater.

anthonymoser.github.io

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Neil Selwyn @neilselwyn.bsky.social · Aug 26

"De onderzoekers formuleren het scherp: AI kan rekenen, maar geen oordelen vellen. Waar AI enkel rekent, brengen leerkrachten redeneren, reflecteren, verbeelden en empathie" - lerenhoezo.be/2025/08/21/w...

Wanneer de belofte van AI stopt: wat leerkrachten écht ervaren met generatieve AI

Leren.Hoe?Zo! wil jongeren, ouders en onderwijsprofessionals ondersteunen en inspireren om leren thuis en in de klas te versterken. Dit doen we door onze publicaties (boek voor leerkrachten en toolbox...

lerenhoezo.be

Reposted by Neil Selwyn

Ketan Joshi @ketanjoshi.co · Jan 30

The people at CBECI were kind enough to send me a copy of their updated Bitcoin power consumption data

At the end of 2024, Bitcoin's total consumption for 2024 *did* end up matching that of Pakistan. 2024 saw the biggest jump in power consumption ever. Absolutely wild stuff ->

ccaf.io/cbnsi/cbeci

Global Bitcoin power consumption
120
2004
2023
3:14
Day of yuat

a chart showing Bitcoin's rising power consumption

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Neil Selwyn @neilselwyn.bsky.social · Aug 21

AI Dilemmas for Teachers - *free resources & posters* ... a set of high-def colour resources featuring real-life examples from our research on teachers' experiences of AI ...

Feel free to print off, share widely and use in your own professional learning sessions!

www.monash.edu/education/re...

blue poster with picture of robot teacher - title "AI dilemmas - real life examples from Australian teachers" - vignette and questions for use in professional learning sessions

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Reposted by Neil Selwyn, Michael A. Clemens, Elizabeth Stokoe , and 3 more Neil Selwyn, Michael A. Clemens, Elizabeth Stokoe, Philip Nel, Lisa Diedrich, Nikki Fairchild

Nick Sousanis @nsousanis.bsky.social · Aug 20

My drawn statement on Ai as standalone from my now finished minicomic as syllabus for new liberal studies class! As promised this is shareable, printable - all from my site, feel free to make use of it, cite me & let me know how it’s received. Share away all here! spinweaveandcut.com/fall-2025-sy...

a snippet of a mini-comic, at top - straight line stretches from point A to B. Immediately below, same dot at A, then becomes a curving, meandering line that winds through the page and ends at a point with rays and a question mark emanating from it. Text reads: "Nothing can do this for you - that robs you of experience and conflates answers with learning. Rather, it's all the decisions you make along the way, the mistakes, struggles, and surprises! These pathways you create - this is learning.

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Reposted by Neil Selwyn

Polity @politybooks.bsky.social · Aug 14

“How might we develop digital #technology that is better for people, communities and the planet?”

Find out in Neil Selwyn’s ‘Digital Degrowth’. Out now!

www.politybooks.com/bookdetail?b...

@neilselwyn.bsky.social

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Neil Selwyn @neilselwyn.bsky.social · Aug 13

We need to get more nuanced conversations going around AI and teaching ... as a start, we're producing a series of provocation posters featuring real-life examples that have cropped up in our ARC research on teachers' experiences of AI ... will post links to high-def downloadable versions soon!

bright red poster featuring an illustrated 'AI dilemma' for teachers - would you use GenAI to provide feedback on your students' work?

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Neil Selwyn @neilselwyn.bsky.social · Aug 8

We are now seeing the rise of AI-obfuscation apps ... such as this 'Don't Record Me' plug-in that injects your voice with random sounds to sabotage any AI-recording software that people might be using in the background ... who needs decent regulation, laws and public oversight! dontrecord.me

dontrecord.me

We don't like having our conversations recorded either. Here's a simple app to use during voice chat to stop recording and transcribing

dontrecord.me

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Reposted by Neil Selwyn

Clare Southerton @claresoutherton.bsky.social · Aug 7

Absolutely loved this paper from Tanja Bosch - "As a method, decolonisation demands more than critique. It requires a commitment to building alternative ways of knowing, citing, collaborating and theorising that do not extract from the margins to enrich the centre"

Decolonisation is not a vibe: On anti-capitalist praxis, citation politics and epistemic refusal - Tanja Bosch, 2025

This paper argues that decolonisation in media and communication studies must be rooted in anti-capitalist praxis, not just symbolic critique. While the field i...

journals.sagepub.com

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Neil Selwyn @neilselwyn.bsky.social · Aug 2

"What is most outstanding about frugal innovation is not just that its technologies are impressive, but that it might actually prompt systemic change by showing people that tech can be developed locally, and not just imported from Silicon Valley"
www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

Enough of the billionaires and their big tech. ‘Frugal tech’ will build us all a better world | Eleanor Drage

Titans like Musk would love us to believe innovation means top-down solutions that only enrich the wealthy. In fact, we all have the power, says Eleanor Drage, research fellow at Cambridge University

www.theguardian.com

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Reposted by Neil Selwyn

Nyheter från Sveriges Radio @psnyheter.bsky.social · Apr 22

SR Kulturnytt: Här får barn lära sig göra dataspel i kulturskolan

https://www.sverigesradio.se/artikel/8937033

Här får barn lära sig göra dataspel i kulturskolan - Kulturnytt

Spelutveckling blir allt vanligare på kulturskolor runt om i landet.I Hägerstensåsens medborgarhus i södra Stockholm får barn lära sig hur man gör dataspel.Hör ...

www.sverigesradio.se

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Reposted by Neil Selwyn

Neil Selwyn @neilselwyn.bsky.social · Apr 8

<> ... all-day conference in Copenhagen on May 23rd - travel scholarships available for early-career researchers - more details and how to register here:

comm.ku.dk/calendar/202...

Digital Degrowth: Exploring Sustainable Technological Futures in Education

Conference organised by the Education Technology Collective (ETCo) led by Lucas Cone and Magda Pischetola.

comm.ku.dk

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Neil Selwyn @neilselwyn.bsky.social · Jul 24

new paper 🔓! Teachers are having to put *considerable* amounts of work into making GenAI outputs suitable for their classrooms ... amidst the going hype we need to talk more about what GenAI clearly *cannot* do, and the uniqueness of teacher expert knowledge: www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

When the prompting stops: exploring teachers’ work around the educational frailties of generative AI tools

Neil Selwyn, Marita Ljungqvist and Anders Sonesson [1]

Abstract: Teachers are now encouraged to use generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) tools to complete various school-related administrative tasks, with the promise of saving considerable amounts of time and effort. Drawing on interviews from 57 teachers across eight schools in Sweden and Australia, this paper explores teachers’ experiences when working with GenAI. In particular, it focuses on the large amounts of work that teachers put into reviewing, repairing and sometimes completely reworking AI-produced outputs that they perceive to be deficient. Rather than reflecting teachers’ lack of skill in prompting GenAI effectively, the paper shows how this work foregrounds the educational limitations and frailties of AI and other automated technologies – with teachers having to act on a wide range of complex professional judgements around pedagogical appropriateness, social relations and overall educational value to bear on AI-generated content. The paper concludes by considering the need to challenge ongoing industry and policy claims around the labour-saving benefits of artificial intelligence in education, and instead focus on the ways in which these technologies are dependent on the hidden labour of humans to co-produce the illusion of automation.

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Neil Selwyn @neilselwyn.bsky.social · Jul 22

We have a new paper coming out in the next few days about all of the work that teachers have to do around GenAI tools ... I'll post the abstract and link when it is out - for the time being, this quote from the article pretty much sums up our main conclusion!

quote from an article: "As the philosopher John Haugeland notably observed: "the trouble with AI is that computers don't give a damn". In theory, the value of teachers is that they do.

from a forthcoming paper published in Learning, Media & Technology - title: "When the prompting stops: exploring teachers' work around the educational frailties of GenAI" (Neil Selwyn, Marita Ljungqvist, Anders Sonesson 2025).

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Neil Selwyn @neilselwyn.bsky.social · Jul 15

A plea for the education community to "move beyond real ignorance in the face of the environmental impacts of artificial intelligence" ... www.bera.ac.uk/blog/the-env...

Blog post

The environmental ethics of Generative AI: Artificial intelligence or real ignorance?

Sarah Clayton, PhD Graduate at University of York
Lynda Dunlop, Senior Lecturer in Science Education at University of York
Elizabeth Rushton, Head of Education Division at University of Stirling

20 Jun 2025

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Neil Selwyn @neilselwyn.bsky.social · Jul 15

<> ... nuestro informe ha sido traducido al español, por favor léalo y distribúyalo a cualquier persona que crea que estará interesada

bridges.monash.edu/articles/rep...

cover page of the report: "Estudios críticos en educación y tecnología... ¿Razones para tener esperanza?"

Neil Selwyn @neilselwyn.bsky.social · Jul 14

Korean government looks set to give up on its much-heralded national 'AI textbook' policy after only a few months ... www.koreatimes.co.kr/southkorea/s...

AI textbooks targeted for phaseout under South Korea's new administration - The Korea Times

Following Korea’s presidential transition, significant changes are expected in education policy, as President Lee Jae-myung appears poised to halt the rollout of AI-powered digital textbooks. Once cha...

www.koreatimes.co.kr

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Neil Selwyn @neilselwyn.bsky.social · Jul 11

"The current AI hype bubble is being driven by little more than emotions. Instead of being awed by speculative promises around AI futures, we need to engage with current forms of AI in terms of their values and politics" ... criticaledtech.com/2025/07/12/w...

We need to talk about AI in terms of values, not vibes

The current AI hype bubble is being driven by little more than emotions. Instead of being awed by speculative promises around AI futures, we need to engage with current forms of AI in terms of thei…

criticaledtech.com

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