One day I wanted to engage students in my history class in a way that would make an impact. I wrote an article for this month’s issue of Perspectives on History (American Historical Association) that will blow you away about it! Read the pdf version here: www.historians.org/wp-content/u...
A pinkish background with a blurred smattering of color. Black text reads: “THE FOUR TENETS OF CONSENT BASED PEDAGOGY. THE THEATRE ARTIST'S GUIDE TO CONSENT-BASED PEDAGOGY BY AMANDA ROSE VILLARREAL AND KIM SHIVELY”
An illustrated icon meant to symbolize transparency features orange and blue overlapping circles and an eye. Text reads: TENET 1 RADICAL TEACHING TRANSPARENCY “RADICAL TEACHING TRANSPARENCY MEANS PRIORITIZING TRANSPARENT COMMUNICATION ABOUT THE HOW AND THE WHY OF LEARNING AND PERFORMING...” THE THEATRE ARTIST'S GUIDE TO CONSENT-BASED PEDAGOGY, PAGE 11
An illustrated icon meant to symbolize participatory agency: a circle with multiple hands reaching towards the center from different directions. Text reads: TENET 2 PARTICIPATORY AGENCY THIS MEANS THAT TEACHERS CREATE INVITATIONS, CHALLENGES, AND ACTMITIES THAT FOSTER EXPERIMENTATION, THEN SUPPORT STUDENTS THROUGH THEIR CREATIVE PROCESS... THE THEATRE ARTIST'S GUIDE TO CONSENT-BASED PEDAGOGY, PAGE 13
Given the news about interlochen and other arts schools, I think we really need to acknowledge that many teaching artists are not taught to teach. We’ve inherited an industry that uses shock and manipulation to direct performance, which trains young artists their boundaries are invalid. No more.
In 2026, colleges must teach students that this is not the end of the world. We must teach hope. Current undergraduates can barely remember a time before the threats of climate change and authoritarianism loomed to catastrophic scale. Since 2010, the future depicted in TV, books, and games has been dystopian or apocalyptic, so for our current students the end of the world feels more familiar and realistic than a future with hope. Now we are asking them to choose majors and life paths when the desirability, indeed the very existence, of whole sectors of employment are in question, due to the overwhelming promises of LLMs and machine learning. As young people hear daily that vocation after vocation may vanish into automation’s maw, and that democracy, liberty, land, sea, and sky are all in jeopardy, despair is growing. Despair is very emotionally tempting. It means freedom from the responsibility to shape the future. This is a terrifying turning point, but many generations before us have faced such turning points, and met them. We can offer our students perspective. Only a few dozen institutions on Earth are more than 900 years old, and the vast majority are universities. The university system is not a house of straw to buckle in this storm: We are the rocks that have sheltered the knowledge, hope, and truth through tumults which have toppled kingdoms while classrooms endured. We can endure this, and be a guiding light through it, but only by recentering, by teaching citizens, not workers; power, not PowerPoint; aspiration, not apocalypse. Despair is how we lose. The classroom is where we battle it. All other battles flow from here. Ada Palmer is an associate professor of history at the University of Chicago.
This, from Ada Palmer as part of The Chronicle's survey of 11 scholars on the future of higher ed, is what I needed to end the week.
Couple weeks ago circumstances led me to miss playing the day's Wordle, ending a 200+ day correct streak. I was pretty bummed and chastised myself for my failure. Next day I opened Worldle, saw my streak reset and was like "What's the point? I'll never make it that far again." I had an epiphany...
Last term I tried an experiment: I walked into my Tech and Design Ethics class, admitted that I had *no idea* what to do about ChatGPT - so I would let them figure it out.
As in: their first project was to decide and write the ChatGPT policy for the class.
Here's what happened:
"All things considered, Teaching with AI is not without value; it is a case study in how even well-meaning educators operating in good faith can become inadvertent agents of a pedagogical de-skilling and institutional dehumanization."
Perhaps. I remember hearing about things. I know that there are A LOT of leadership conferences aimed at that group that have several times a year meetings.
THIS THIS THIS. ALL OF THIS
THIS is why faculty resist technological strategies for teaching. There is no engaging with Edtech without this context
Certainly blows up… uhhh… a lot. Opens a ton of research doors at least? 😅
Maybe that’s why I got a few aggressive emails to renew my lapsed membership.
Is the point of mathematical research to know *what* is true or to know *why* it's true? Emily Riehl lays out a strong argument - and what it has to do with AI - along great advice for the field in @science.org
www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
Have you read Foucault’s thoughts on the matter? foucault.info/documents/fo...
I feel that if there’s paper talks about an instrument then it should provide said instrument within it. I typically won’t use those instruments if they’re secret.
I’ll hunt it down when I get back in the office! That’s hilarious and absolutely tracks for kids.
The quote made me immediately hunt this down in our library. The whole section is absolutely wonderful!
I think both are dismissing the whole endeavor from either side. Like a ungraded going “grades aren’t the purpose of education so everyone gets an A - worry about your work in the course.” And someone dismissing the grades as credentials ridiculing the removal of a differentiated credential.
Oh not quite. I’ve had numerous people say “just give all your students an A and be done with it” both seriously and jokingly.
“Just give everyone an A” is the classic I hear.
Since tomorrow is Labor Day and school is in session, I'd like to argue (again) that teaching about GenAI should include discussion of the extractive, exploitative labor conditions that make the technology possible. 🧵
The Center for Grading Reform has a bunch of STEM ones:
centerforgradingreform.org/resources/
Asao Inoue also has a bunch of labor-based grading contracts on his webpage and writings.
This from @tressiemcphd.bsky.social hit me over the head like a mallet of truth. This is the thing. This is what I’ve been trying to warn people about perfectly crystallized. www.nytimes.com/2025/08/12/o...
Are you seeing more Monarchs this year? My family in the Detroit area have identified 55 eggs on their milkweed!
I resonate with a lot in this thoughtful reflection from @tommullaney.bsky.social on his journey from self-proclaimed edtech fanboy to his "consideration of the gap between promises about technology and the often unpleasant reality." And I appreciate all the links to critical (ed)tech resources!
See this is why 2nd monitors are a workplace requirement.
I’m naming that one pippin on vibes.
Art is inefficient. Care is inefficient. Joy is inefficient. Humanity is inefficient. Don't let them take that away.
Definitely will! It’ll be interesting that’s for sure. I have found the “why does this course exits?” answer of “because the next course exists and needs it” to be unmotivating to students. It’s disconnected. I could probably rant more…
The assessments and experience in the class would be heavily influenced by such design choices. But it might be worth while.
I’ve been thinking of “what do I want you to take away from this class in 5 years?” as a design element. Often trig gets lost when students leave the stem curriculum. But my thought is, why not help them be able to tutor their family or friends as a takeaway?
Oh this is interesting. I am support to teach uni-level trig again this fall and have been toying with standards-based techniques with getting students involved with the pedagogy (teach each other). I might use some of your framing but blend in the transparent pedagogy.
