Michel Estefan
@mestefan.bsky.social
730 followers 160 following 990 posts
Associate Professor of Teaching & Director of Undergraduate Studies, Dept. of Sociology, University of California, San Diego. Views are my own.
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Reposted by Michel Estefan
pardoguerra.bsky.social
Essential reading by @sivav.bsky.social
dem8z.bsky.social
“Any university leader who signs on to this compact wld betray everything good and solid about the university & would do deep and permanent harm to the United States & the world.”

Why This Essay Could Cause the University of Virginia to Shut Down newrepublic.com/article/2013... via @newrepublic.com
Why This Essay Could Cause the University of Virginia to Shut Down
How Linda McMahon’s latest “compact” would do deep and permanent harm to American higher education
newrepublic.com
mestefan.bsky.social
Videos on Sora 2 of Bob Ross playing Call of Duty… Ai is definitely going to destroy the world, but at least we’ll all go in a total ASMR lull. 😴
Reposted by Michel Estefan
pardoguerra.bsky.social
The argument presented by Allen is both politically naive and historically erroneous. Accepting a compact *for higher education at this point in time* is suicidal. A 🧵
profmarylewis.bsky.social
Danielle Allen has proposed many good things for Harvard, so I’m puzzled by her reading of the word “compact” here, as if this would be an agreement freely entered into. She rightly says that, as written, this shouldn’t be agreed to. Maybe leave it there? therenovator.substack.com/p/why-im-exc...
Why I’m Excited About the White House’s Proposal for a Higher Ed Compact
Now we have a chance for collective action
therenovator.substack.com
mestefan.bsky.social
Operation: “Logic is Classified” — authorized by the Committee on Unquestionable Decisions.
mestefan.bsky.social
The classroom can be an energizing, dynamic space when you cultivate it as a moral community—one bound by shared commitments and incentives. (And yes—accessibility is always built in. My students with disabilities thrive under these same principles.)

#LoveMyStudents #UCSD #HigherEd #Harvard
mestefan.bsky.social
Apparently, that’s radical these days.
The result? They read, think, and learn—together.
mestefan.bsky.social
While Harvard debates why students won’t come to class, my UCSD students fill the room.
I grade attendance. I don’t podcast. Laptops stay closed. We do pen-and-paper quizzes every week.
Harvard Students Skip Class and Still Get High Grades, Faculty Say
www.nytimes.com
Reposted by Michel Estefan
firstpublics.bsky.social
Looking for a guide to teaching theory? See @mestefan.bsky.social's newest Reflection with First Publics, where he introduces 7 principles that you can adopt in any classroom.
Reposted by Michel Estefan
pardoguerra.bsky.social
🚨🚨red alert, UC colleagues🚨🚨

President Milliken is telegraphing the university’s surrender to the administration’s demands. “Ensuring that UC remains” is administrativeese for “we are giving them all they want”
mestefan.bsky.social
Social theory is as hard to teach as it is to learn.

The hardest part? When students do everything right—read every page, show up every time—and still feel theory won’t open up for them.
Seven Principles for Teaching Social Theory - First Publics
The Society Pages (TSP) is an open-access social science project headquartered in the Department of Sociology at the University of Minnesota
thesocietypages.org
mestefan.bsky.social
Every recipe: “Only 20 minutes!”

Me: “Cool, so… two hours then.”
mestefan.bsky.social
This is a really interesting take by a scholar of religion on the religious rather than scientific character of RFK Jr’s take on health.
mestefan.bsky.social
Nice summary and conversation about the MIT Media Lab study on Ai, students, cognitive-offloading, and learning.

#Ai #Pedagogy #HigherEd #Learning
Your Brain on ChatGPT with Nataliya Kosmyna
open.spotify.com
mestefan.bsky.social
As a sociologist, I see even more at work in his example: competencies the social sciences and humanities uniquely foster when done well.

Definitely worth your time.

#LiberalArts #HigherEd #TeachingExcellence
mestefan.bsky.social
In this speech, he makes a charismatic case for the value of a liberal arts education. His focus is on cultivating the capacity to give reasons for persuasion.
mestefan.bsky.social
and over time they proved to be right on the mark, well ahead of what the teaching-and-learning literature was recognizing back then.
mestefan.bsky.social
I worked with Jeffrey a bit back when we were grad student teaching consultants at UC Berkeley’s GSR Teaching and Resource Center. Even then, he stood out as a brilliant instructor—his views on teaching struck me as unorthodox and incredibly creative,
The most important skill college students should learn
YouTube video by Jeffrey Kaplan
youtu.be
mestefan.bsky.social
AI cooling plants can have serious negative effects on local communities—something we should worry about and address. But at a broader scale, the total water they consume is minuscule and environmentally negligible.
mestefan.bsky.social
The descriptions of mid-level DHS staff during the trial alone make this worth listening to. #HigherEd #HigherEdUnderAttack #WhoseAfraidOfHigherEd

open.spotify.com/episode/0PhV...
AAUP v. Rubio: The AAUP Takes the Trump Administration to Court
open.spotify.com
mestefan.bsky.social
Missing in this equation is you. What kind of education do you want?"
mestefan.bsky.social
If you want these conditions to change, you will have to act. Faculty are afraid to carry out their jobs faithfully in what they view to be your interest, and there is little evidence that the administration will shield them from outside pressures that run contrary to this goal.