Another Think Coming

Relief that Makes You Weep

What relief I have as a parent that my children made it through college, one of them persevering through the COVID pandemic to graduate. Relief that makes you weep, especially when I read the following: Most students at colleges that close give up on their educations altogether. Fewer than half …

The Impediment: Where Your Heart is Set

Doesn’t this sound familiar? “Remember that it’s not only the desire for wealth and position that debases and subjugates us, but also the desire for peace, leisure, travel, and learning. It doesn’t matter what the external thing is, the value we place on it subjugates us to another . . . …

What Starts Here Changes the World #education #politics #protest

This image from by Michael Minasi of KUT Austin is an eye-opener. via Nerve Endings Firing Away

AI at Work

despite many generative AI tools being readily accessible, most people don’t know how to apply them to their work. (source) Interesting. Maybe folks don’t want to use AI because it will learn about their work from the questions and context data they train it on. I have found people love AI …

Banning LGBTQ+ Teachers #Texas

“…banning educators who fall under the umbrella of being trans, nonbinary, or gender nonconforming is not only a violation of their rights, but also, it would do a huge disservice to students across the state of Texas.” via KXAN Sigh. Texas. I so agree with statements like this one: “It goes …

Survivor's Guilt: How Do You Handle Coworkers' Layoffs?

In education, I’ve noticed how important is for people to always be upbeat and positive. It’s a bit of a strain having to endure people doing their best to avoid losing it. If something bad happens, it’s important to acknowledge it. “Big” Reasons for Layoffs. What do …

Dark Use of #AI in School Setting

What a shocker. The principal who was targeted actually got removed from work for a bit. Baltimore police have arrested Dazhon Leslie Darien, the former athletic director of Pikesville High School (PHS), for allegedly impersonating the school’s principal using AI software to make it seem as …

UNESCO released a 2023 Global Education Monitoring Report

UNESCO released a 2023 Global Education Monitoring Report. As you might suspect, the report makes these claims. The Fading Attraction of EdTech I had a laugh (then a cry) about this image: Image above via Larry Cuban on Technology in Schools as cited by Dr. Gary Ackerman (@garyackerman@qoto.org) …

Meta.ai Launches: Guardian of Privacy?

Ok, you’ve heard that Meta.ai is now available for free. The question is, “What features are in place to secure your data? Can you trust Meta/Facebook/Threads/Instagram/Whatsapp/Messenger?” Facebook, now Meta, has faced numerous privacy issues while maintaining its supremacy as the top social media …

Ruthlessly Evaluate Every Classroom Tech Tool

I love the title of this article by Jessica Grose: Every Tech Tool in the Classroom Should Be Ruthlessly Evaluated It makes me think of a gardener ruthlessly pruning roses in a garden, pulling out weeds, making space for growing things. Ok, that’s the extent of my gardening knowledge. …

Ads On My Windows 11 Machine?

To offset this foolish trend by Microsoft, I have been testing living 100% in Linux Mint on a Microsoft Surface (take that you ad-monger!). so far, not bad. Microsoft is starting to enable ads inside the Start menu on Windows 11 for all users. After testing these briefly with Windows Insiders …

The Budgetary Cliff: 2025

This has to be the scariest article ever…what will the impact be on all those professional learning facilitators, conferences, and more as the education budgets for countless districts implodes? How far will the shockwave reach as schools reduce in force? How will teachers caught in the mushroom …

AI: A Snake in the Academic Garden of Eden

That tempter of old has crept again into the garden offering forbidden knowledge, knowledge unearned and undeserved, once again. Tony Wan writes a wonderful article on the subject of AI, covering key points we must all remember as we rush to bite the apple from the tree of knowledge, forbidden …

All is Well

“All is well” by Henry Scott Holland

Reports of #AI Being Dumb Shouldn't Stop You

Image Source: Generated in Bing’s Image Creator AI, then modified with Sketch.io. Based on Craig Alanson’s Expeditionary Force series featuring the best AI of all, Skippy “Trust the Awesomeness.” Is AI dumb? If you read Seth Godin, "ChatGPT is dumber than it looks,” …

Inflammation and Long-Term Memory Connection

When your students say, learning hurts their brain, believe them… New research reveals that the process of remembering something long-term comes at a cost – specifically, inflammation in the brain and DNA damage in nerve cells, as the memories get ‘fused’ into neurons and stored. But …

HellDivers 2 Teaches Lessons

In the screenshot of above of my son and I, in transit to a mission, he’s the one determining which mission to go on, while I stand looking on off the left. “Get a cup of Liber-TEA,” yells a Helldiver as he flings a grenade into the oncoming horde of mechanicals. Yes, I have joined …

Drink and Eat for Life is Brief #Food #FriedEggs #SanAntonio #Texas

What a wonderful wall decoration featuring this saying, or “dicho:” It says, “Eat and drink for life is brief.” You could also say, “Eat, drink for life is short.” The food at El Catrin Mexican Restaurant was delicious. It consisted of: Huevos rancheros Huevos …

Books Unbanned: A Shameful Account of American Censorship

I don’t understand why some folks engage in censorship, especially here in America. When I read reports like Books Unbanned I reflect on my own experiences with reading. Werewolves and Cave Bears My first experience with books centered around exciting conventional reads, like Max Brand and Louis …

Moving Files Around

Interested in moving large files from one device to another? I know I was after setting up an obsolete Win10 machine with Linux Mint to give it new life. One of the things I want to do is quickly move files from one device to another. While I had experimented with Syncthing, I had failed utterly …

Converting RSS Feed to OPML with Claude.ai

Perhaps, I’m easily amazed at how AI makes hard things easy. I stumbled across a micro.blog RSS feed file earlier this morning, saved it to my phone, then, maybe, went back to sleep. Later this morning, I tried to import the micro.blog RSS file into Feedbro, a fantastic browser-based RSS feed …

Attitudes Towards Evolution, Evolve

Evolution is an old debate, and every year, I learn something new about it. I still remember studying this in my Catholic High School, explaining it at nineteen years of age to my girlfriend (later my wife). I can’t imagine how we would have continued if she had believed in the literal …

Reputable? Yes! National Center for Science Education

In an upcoming blog entry on evolution attitudes changing, I cite some info from the National Center for Science Education. I ran into the group on Facebook, so I was curious as to whether it was a reputable organization. You might enjoy their Misconception of the Month. Prompt to AI: Is the …

Burn It Down. Goodbye, Windows 10

Have a Windows 10 device in your life? Then it may be time to look for that exit strategy. Running a Surface Book laptop, I realized that I didn’t want to mess with Windows 10 craziness. So, I decided to trade it in for GNU/Linux machine. Of course, I decided that before finding out that the …

AI Creators Are Not Responsible for What Harm May Result #AI #mgshare

Leonardo da Vinci failed, if he hoped to keep men and women in ships safe: … I do not publish nor divulge [methods of building submarines] by reason of the evil nature of men who would use them as means of destruction at the bottom of the sea, by sending ships to the bottom, and sinking them …