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Jake Wright

@bcnjake.bsky.social

2K followers 320 following 850 posts

Philosopher, husband, dad, teacher, "leftist," potty-mouth, and pedagogical chaos agent. Aspiring to be the C.M. Punk of higher education. Distinguished, or so I'm told. he/him

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Jake Wright @bcnjake.bsky.social · 14d

"There's no ethical use case for AI in the classroom" has become my personal Carthago delenda est.

I even take time to explain to my students how we won't use it in class because it's dehumanizing. To their credit, they seem to get it.

CETERUM AUTEM CENSEO INTELLIGENTIA ARTIFICIALIS ESSE DELENDAM

AI is dehumanizing

I’ve saved the most important part for last. AI is dehumanizing. Using AI means saying that the people involved in what you’re trying to do don’t matter. Because AI platforms are built on theft, using AI says that the people whose work is being stolen don’t matter. If I used AI to grade your work, which is now possible with Canvas integrations, I would be saying your work is not worth taking seriously enough to read myself. It’s saying you don’t matter enough to take seriously. A world where AI grades AI generated submissions from an AI generated assignment is not a world where people and the work they do matters, and I refuse to live in that world.

The dehumanizing aspect of AI is even worse when you consider the effects of AI on you as a student. Using AI as a substitute for doing the work yourself robs you of your voice. It prevents you from developing your own sense of who you are, what you believe, and how you express that in your own unique way and replaces it with statistically generated slop literally incapable of forming a novel thought. In a world that works to dehumanize us every day—to say who we are and the relationships we form don’t matter—I don’t want to add to that work. I don’t want to do this because the relationships you form matter. Your voice matters. You matter.

In 19th Century England, a group of artisan weavers banded together to fight against mechanization. Tools like the water frame and spinning jenny allowed factory owners to produce a worse product at a price so low that the quality of the finished product didn’t matter. These artisans, the Luddites, weren’t opposed to technology. They were opposed to technology dehumanizing people and denying them dignity. Like the Luddites, I’m not opposed to technology and embrace it when it makes our lives better. But like the Luddites, I have an obligation to resist technology that dehumanizes people in my community, and I think AI does that. So, there’s no AI in this class.

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Jake Wright @bcnjake.bsky.social · 2h

I'm saying this as someone who genuinely *loved* Tron: Legacy. Ares underwhelming at the box office is simple.

It's a nostalgia play, but Ares is the third Tron movie. The THIRD.

If Tron was part of your childhood, you're pushing FIFTY. This is not a "blow the doors off the theater" demographic.

Charlie Jane "Lessons in Magic and Disaster" Anders 🏳️‍⚧ @charliejane.bsky.social · 4h

I'm perplexed at watching pundits in the trades struggling to explain Tron Ares' disappointing opening.

Was it covid? Do people just not like science fiction? etc. etc.

The main reason is pretty obvious: Tron isn't a popular franchise. Nobody's interested in nostalgia for a failed 1980s project.

Jake Wright @bcnjake.bsky.social · 2h

He's weirdly understated on 30 Rock. Like, so understated it's a bit unnerving.

Jake Wright @bcnjake.bsky.social · 3h

Humans go to the Grid: Dope AF

Programs come to the Real World: Dopey AF

Jake Wright @bcnjake.bsky.social · 3h

Also, the moral of every single Tron movie is "please be as precise as possible when giving programming instructions."

Jake Wright @bcnjake.bsky.social · 3h

Of all the movies I've ever seen, Tron: Ares was certainly one of them.

Jake Wright @bcnjake.bsky.social · 3h

Like Michael Sheen eating so much scenery in Legacy you'd think it was part of a balanced diet.

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Jake Wright @bcnjake.bsky.social · 3h

Of all the movies I've ever seen, Tron: Ares was certainly one of them.

Jake Wright @bcnjake.bsky.social · 11h

Were there any inflatable frogs?

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Jake Wright @bcnjake.bsky.social · 11h

Is that a baseball game or an anti-ICE protest?

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Jake Wright @bcnjake.bsky.social · 11h

Or anything, really. Passing your grading off to AI is simply deciding that your students’ work isn’t worth engaging with. And if that’s how you feel, why on Earth are you in a classroom?

John Warner @biblioracle.bsky.social · 1d

I strongly urge everyone to not just read this warning from @marcwatkins.bsky.social, but heed it, and be vocal and forceful pushing back against using AI to grade student writing. This must be anathema if we're going to have a world where learning means something. substack.com/inbox/post/1...

The Dangers of using AI to Grade

Nobody Learns, Nobody Gains

substack.com

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Jake Wright @bcnjake.bsky.social · 11h

My 5YO was playing Minecraft on the Xbox, casually pulled up Spotify, threw on some music, and went back to Minecraft like it was second nature. FIVE.

Jake Wright @bcnjake.bsky.social · 1d

Can I add to this quickly as an NTT?

Yes it’s scary and everything being described in thread is real. BUT MANY OF US ARE OUT HERE DOING THE WORK ANYWAY because it’s the right thing to do. The fact that we, the least protected, are showing this kind of bravery while many admins don’t is infuriating.

Jake Wright @bcnjake.bsky.social · 1d

Pull up your pants.

Reposted by Jake Wright

Lauren MacIvor Thompson @lmacthompson1.bsky.social · 1d

Our classrooms are not safe for us or regular students. Our universities canot be relied upon to protect us. You have to keep speaking up about this. Faculty already are, but we need folks who aren’t in academia raising the alarm for everyone else. The End.

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Jake Wright @bcnjake.bsky.social · 1d

I want whatever the columnist who thought “The man who wrote ‘The Ballad of Ira Hayes’ and made the video for ‘Hurt’ was deeply square and never countercultural” is smoking.

Jake Wright @bcnjake.bsky.social · 1d

Hezbollantifa

Jake Wright @bcnjake.bsky.social · 1d

Found a customer for Dennis Leary’s Coffee-Flavored Coffee!

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Reposted by Jake Wright

Keegan Lannon @keeganlannon.bsky.social · 1d

It’s up! @biblioracle.bsky.social asked me to contribute a guest column to Inside Higher Education on alternative grading and studying it’s efficacy.

How Will We Know Alternative Grading Reduces Harm?

A guest post from University of Illinois at Chicago lecturer Keegan Lannon on wrestling with alternative grading.

www.insidehighered.com

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Reposted by Jake Wright

Dave Itzkoff @ditzkoff.bsky.social · 1d

Donald trump can still win the Nobel Peace prize if Mike Pence has the courage

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Reposted by Jake Wright

Dave Levitan @davelevitan.bsky.social · 1d

This morning there is one Nobel Peace Prize winner, 8.1 billion or so people who did not win the Nobel Peace Prize, and one Nobel Peace Prize loser.

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Reposted by Jake Wright

spooky mental haunted house @jesseltaylor.bsky.social · 1d

donning the armor of god to face the forces of hell

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Jake Wright @bcnjake.bsky.social · 1d

Romo calls the hallucinations before they happen.

"Now if *I* were on acid, I'd expect an iridescent zebra to unfold from the left upright as the World Tree flowers at midfield."

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Reposted by Jake Wright

The Daily Show @thedailyshow.com · 2d

The following is REAL footage from Portland, 2025. Viewer discretion is advised.

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Jake Wright @bcnjake.bsky.social · 1d

Why are Travis Kelce's hands so big? He's got hands like Mickey Mouse! Time loops around itself, and there's 42:SteveEight left in the second period. The play clock is down to cheese.

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Jake Wright @bcnjake.bsky.social · 1d

Unfortunately for many of us, Funky Rococo Pirate is an aesthetic that will be forever out of reach. Majestic if you can pull it off like Prince. But if I tried that, I'd look like I bought my wardrobe at a Spirit Halloween.

Jake Wright @bcnjake.bsky.social · 1d

Even better, games give a window into these things by doing something graphic novels, films, and TV cant: providing agency.