Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Jennie @unabridgedopinions.com · 5h

I know we are a couple of weeks into term, but I went back to @jimdickinson.bsky.social ‘s recent wonkhe.com/blogs/for-st... because I think its message is even more important now our students are here. We have to keep asking what is being normalised, where we need to be calling attention.

That matters because normalisation is the enemy of change. If students "learn to love their limitations," policymakers have little incentive to do better. The lesson has always been that sometimes the most powerful intervention isn't a tidy solution or a polished set of recommendations, but the act of refusing to let the intolerable become invisible.

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Prisonculture @prisonculture.bsky.social · 6h

Knowing who to be mad at truly is praxis.

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ooOOOoona McCormack 🎃 @unamccormack.bsky.social · 8h

A privilege to speak about what “The Tombs of Atuan” means to me. Launch of “The Word for World” book and exhibition of the maps of Ursula Le Guin.

Architectural Association, Bedford Square, London: banners for The Word for World exhibition.

Architectural Association, Bedford Square, London: display for The Word for World exhibition.

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Matthew Noe @noethematt.bsky.social · 8h

A marketing email from McGraw Hill that sent me down a shallow rabbit hole:

tl;dr: this UNCITED claim about student AI use is from a survey conducted in 2024 by the Digital Education Council by an edtech accelerator and a bunch of business schools

I find this whole thing troubling.

Dear Matthew,

Did you know that 86% of students turn to AI for support, relying on unvetted content from large language models like ChatGPT? How is your institution handling AI?

Join our panel to learn about AI use in higher education, examine ways institutions can use AI responsibly, and explore Sharpen Advantage—McGraw Hill's responsible Al study and academic success app valued by institutions, trusted by educators, and loved by students.

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Vanessa is the name of the Doctor! @hpsvanessa.bsky.social · 8h

Checking my 'great ideas' notes from the pub last night and the one new item is "Dr Butter's Boardroom Bones" - a velvet bag of scrying bones, for you to throw on the table and consult yourself every time a colleague says they "asked chatGPT and..."

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Lauren MacIvor Thompson @lmacthompson1.bsky.social · 9h

I am writing this because it has swiftly become crystal clear to me that many people have no idea what is happening or how this works. Here is a thread for non-academics to put into context what just happened to Dr. Mark Bray, a fellow historian.

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Dr. Johnathan Flowers, Blade Wielding Bisexual (Lordean arc) @shengokai.blacksky.app · 9h

Since Link is banned, his mutual aid Fridays have gone with him. This was one of the most altruistic things I’ve seen anyone on this site do.

In light of this, I’m gonna try to fill the gap.

Drop your mutual aid requests under this thread and I will repost them for as long as I can.

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Ryan Cordell @ryancordell.org · 9h

Experimenting with a new concept using @queermedieval.bsky.social’s Portland Frog woodcut. Embracing goofiness as protest.

A poster in green ink on off white paper. In the center is a woodcut style illustration of a protester wearing an inflatable frog costume standing up against two ICE agents. The text above and below reads:

VIVE LA
RIBBITSTANCE

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Gwen Snyder is undead @gwensnyder.bsky.social · 10h

As a protest optics nerd love about the inflatables is how much they visually disrupt and pull focus from the fascist shock imagery Noem & Miller are trying to create.

So many of these photos now look like the world's silliest dance party, backgrounded by a bunch of guys in uniform looking awkward

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KEW @kidadaewilliams.com · 14h

Artist Michelle Browder’s 'Mothers of Gynecology' project is an act of resistance, challenging the silences around the ugly history of medical apartheid's impact on Black women. www.motherjones.com/politics/202...

One woman's quest to reclaim the ugly history of Black maternal health

Artist Michelle Browder's Mothers of Gynecology project is an act of resistance.

www.motherjones.com

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Matt Green @mattgreencomedy.com · 14h

The thing about AI is that although it looks like a bubble and is obviously a bubble and anyone who thinks about it for a moment knows it’s a bubble, unlike all other bubbles in the past I’m sure it will just be fine. I’m investing in tulips.

NightMar on Hicks Street, Part 4: The Rabbit’s Revenge @histoftech.bsky.social · 22h

“Concerns over an AI bubble bursting have grown lately, with analysts recently finding that it’s 17 times the size of the dotcom-era bubble and four times bigger than the 2008 financial crisis.”

Hang onto your butts. This “correction” is gonna hurt.
futurism.com/artificial-i...

Bank of England Warns of Impending AI Disaster

The Bank of England has sounded the alarm, warning of an intensifying risk of a "sudden correction" due to an AI spending frenzy.

futurism.com

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Jennie @unabridgedopinions.com · 11h

be a shame not to really.

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Chantal James @chantalalive.blacksky.app · 14h

Who Link was here & how he formed site culture, insisting on alt text & accessibility & disability justice, insisting on standing with trans people, mutual aid, irreverent shitposting, shows exactly that this culture of early bluesky that forged the platform is the opposite of what the team wants.

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🎃 a frightful hoxgoblin 🎃 @kellenhoxworth.bsky.social · 14h

Higher Ed in 2025 is opening your mailbox to see that your institution has sent you:

1. A Center for Teaching and Learning call to integrate AI into your classroom; and

2. An Office of Academic Integrity email encouraging you to crack down on students who use AI to cheat.

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Jennie @unabridgedopinions.com · 11h

Also most of the digital native stuff has also been…shown to be less than accurate. pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC...

Challenging the Myth of the Digital Native: A Narrative Review

Background and Aims: Nurses are increasingly engaging with digital technologies to enhance safe, evidence-based patient care. Digital literacy is now considered a foundational skill and an integral re...

pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov

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Prisonculture @prisonculture.bsky.social · 13h

I love this poem. It was the last poem from Carver's last book written while he was dying of cancer. It is the inscription on his tombstone apparently too.

Prisonculture @prisonculture.bsky.social · 13h

And did you get what
you wanted from this life, even so?
I did.
And what did you want?
To call myself beloved, to feel myself
beloved on the earth.

by Raymond Carver

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Chanda Prescod-Weinstein 🌌 @chanda.blacksky.app · 12h

MIT President Sally Kornbluth just issued a statement to the campus community saying NO to Trump’s authoritarian compact

“And fundamentally, the premise of the document is inconsistent with our core belief that scientific funding should be based on scientific merit alone.”

Dear Madam Secretary,
I write in response to your letter of October 1, inviting MIT to review a "Compact for Academic Excellence in Higher Education." I acknowledge the vital importance of these matters.
I appreciated the chance to meet with you earlier this year to discuss the priorities we share for American higher education.
As we discussed, the Institute's mission of service to the nation directs us to advance knowledge, educate students and bring knowledge to bear on the world's great challenges. We do that in line with a clear set of values, with excellence above all. Some practical examples:
• MIT prides itself on rewarding merit.
Students, faculty and staff succeed here based on the strength of their talent, ideas and hard work. For instance, the Institute
was the first to reinstate the SAT/ACT requirement after the pandemic. And MIT has never had legacy preferences in admissions.

• MIT opens its doors to the most talented students regardless of their family's finances. Admissions are need-blind. Incoming undergraduates whose families earn less than $200,000 a year pay no tuition. Nearly 88% of our last graduating class left MIT with no debt for their education. We make a wealth of free courses and low-cost certificates available
to any American with an internet
connection. Of the undergraduate degrees we award, 94% are in STEM fields. And in service to the nation, we cap enrollment of international undergraduates at roughly
10%.
• We value free expression, as clearly described in the MIT Statement on Freedom of Expression and Academic Freedom. We must hear facts and opinions we don't like - and engage respectfully with those with whom we disagree.

These values and other MIT practices meet or exceed many standards outlined in the document you sent. We freely choose these values because they're right, and we live by them because they support our mission - work of immense value to the prosperity, competitiveness, health and security of the United States. And of course, MIT abides by the law.
The document also includes principles with which we disagree, including those that would restrict freedom of expression and our independence as an institution. And fundamentally, the premise of the document is inconsistent with our core belief that scientific
funding should be based on scientific merit alone.
In our view, America's leadership in science and innovation depends on independent thinking and open competition for excellence. In that tree marketplace of ideas, the people of MIT gladly compete with the very best, without preferences.
Therefore, with respect, we cannot support the proposed approach to addressing the issues facing higher education.

As you know, MIT's record of service to the nation is long and enduring. Eight decades ago, MIT leaders helped invent a scientific partnership between America's research universities and the
U.S. government that has delivered extraordinary benefits for the American people.
We continue to believe in the power of this partnership to serve the nation.
Sincerely,
Sally Kornbluth
CC
Ms. May Mailman
Mr. Vincent Haley

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Miriam Posner @miriamposner.com · 12h

IDK, man. School started 2 weeks ago for us, and once again students remind me that they’re so curious and interested in the world and anxious to ask big questions. We hear that these questions are no longer useful or relevant, but wherever that’s coming from, it’s not what students believe.

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Keegan Lannon @keeganlannon.bsky.social · 11h

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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LIS Pedagogy Chat @lispedagogychat.bsky.social · 11h

What support do library workers need to successfully conduct and publish original research? Join next week’s chat, led by Hailley Fargo, Charissa Powell, Chelsea Heinbach, and Nimisha Bhat from LibParlor! Friday, October 17, 2 pm ET. Learn more at www.lispedagogychat.org/schedule-reg...

Schedule & Registration — LIS Pedagogy Chat

www.lispedagogychat.org

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Journal of Studies in International Education @jsinted.bsky.social · 14h

Upcoming #AIEC2025 session!

Research and practice: the Journal of Studies in International Education

Presented by Kirrilee Hughes, @bettyleask.bsky.social, Ren Yi and Elspeth Jones

Thursday, October 16 4:20pm

More info → www.xcdsystem.com/aiec/program...

@aieconf.bsky.social @ieaa.bsky.social

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Ned Potter @nedpotter.bsky.social · 12h

The 'you wouldn't steal a car' copyright theft meme, edited to say 'you wouldn't kill an industry'

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Jennie @unabridgedopinions.com · 11h

And if you are always asking the same questions, you are clearly ignoring what you might have learned from previous students? Knowledge moves! We collectively move it forward when we think about things. Assessments should reflect that.

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John Warner @biblioracle.bsky.social · 13h

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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Jennie @unabridgedopinions.com · 11h

One of my favourite bits of teaching is watching as a student begins to explore and then own their own voice and perspective. It’s incredible (also it often makes me cry!)

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