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finnegan

@[email protected]

Celebrator of little moments, lover of ferns and rain, I use paper to fashion unfolding stories.

Profile illustration by Lucie-Blaževská reads “Kia kaha (e hoa!)” New Zealand expression in the Maori language, meaning "Stay strong and kind, friend.” Header of a gift I made, wrapped inside a Dala horse shaped box, waiting to be opened.

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@ChrisMayLA6@zirk.us avatar ChrisMayLA6 , to random

Is there any point trying to figure out what the Tangerine Tyrant's (longest ever?) State of the Union address meant?

Perhaps to even do so is to 'sanewash' a speech that seemed to balance campaign rhetoric, misleading accounts of policy success & attacks on various groups inside & beyond US borders.....

If you picked up something you think might be useful to know please let me know but for me it comes under 'too long, didn't listen'.... TLDL

finnegan ,
@finnegan@sfba.social avatar

@ChrisMayLA6 I don’t think it was the intention of the speech writers, but by minimizing the pain of inflation, food costs and unemployment, while simultaneously describing (in truly gruesome detail,) the mortal sacrifices of families and first responders, one might think his interpretation of American “exceptional[ism]” is to sacrifice our livelihoods and health in transactional exchanges for his commendations. The other thing I noted was his glossing over Ukraine and uncharacteristically careful wording about Iran as contrasted by his salivating tone over Gaza.

@georgetakei@universeodon.com avatar georgetakei , to random
finnegan ,
@finnegan@sfba.social avatar

@georgetakei A “staff-level error” is the kind of chilling effect Monika Bauerlin was writing about when she said, “To feel grim in the face of all this is to be realistic. But to throw in the towel and declare the game over—that’s something else. Call it anticipatory defeat, the cousin of anticipatory obedience: settling into worst-case scenario, because it seems hard to imagine getting to somewhere better. But we need to be able to imagine getting to somewhere better”. (Jan/Feb Mother Jones) Perhaps the staff member in question would benefit from attending some of the gatherings associated with the flyer?

@stux@mstdn.social avatar stux , to random

These days when I write an email I explicitly add a note at the footer that says something like:

“This email is made and corrected without the use of LLM’s”

I just want people to know it’s me and not a bot

Sad it has come to this

finnegan ,
@finnegan@sfba.social avatar

@stux It’s also a step up from “sent from my …” Have you run across @georgepenney and their escapee typos? Delightful and self-effacing writing voice, the perfect antidote to llms.

@Daojoan@mastodon.social avatar Daojoan , to random

This is your regular reminder to carve out 30 minutes and actually read the articles you've been saving "for later"

finnegan ,
@finnegan@sfba.social avatar

@Daojoan I recently started carving out a half hour in the evenings for modeling reading a physical book, to encourage a family habit. I appreciated your comment a few months ago about not amassing a “to be read” pile. But some of your pieces, like Rebel Optimism, are things I purposely index and tag because I know I’ll encounter a student who needs to hear bits of it.

@gerrymcgovern@mastodon.green avatar gerrymcgovern , to random

"My main concern is that, by encouraging the adoption of GenAI, we in the educational field are directly undermining the principles we have been trying to instill in our students. On the one hand, we tell them that plagiarism is bad. On the other hand, we give them a plagiarism machine, which, as an aside, may reduce their chances of getting a job, damage the environment, and widen inequality gaps in the process."
Ulises A. Mejias

https://futureu.education/higher-ed/commentary-by-ulises-a-mejias-the-core-of-gen-ai-is-incompatible-with-academic-integrity/

finnegan ,
@finnegan@sfba.social avatar

@gerrymcgovern @socprof Dr. Mejias discussed an erosion of trust and I think this conversation may be missing some of that context. Trust for students looks like a relationship of respect and a camaraderie around a shared curiosity. The concurrent attack on Social Emotional Learning, Restorative Justice and DEI is eroding feelings of safety in classrooms. In a class discussion where other students are hiding behind AI generated crib notes, it can be additionally stressful to share what you really believe.

Students are sophisticated and self-interested enough to understand the arguments in this thread. They don’t want to be replaceable. They do want to be listened to without fear of having their ideas harshly judged. Yes, some AI use is because it is easy, or addictive, but some is due to a fear of not being good enough, after all, if you share an AI generated idea and it gets shot down, then at least you can kid yourself that it wasn’t your thinking that was faulty.

finnegan ,
@finnegan@sfba.social avatar

@gerrymcgovern @socprof I’m really hoping the unleashing of AI in the classroom will lead to changes in grading systems and a move toward something like Niall Ferguson’s “cloistered” classroom (not linking to Substack) where AI usage is fine—outside the classroom.

The final source of pressure comes from kids feeling like they’re in an arms race: if they don’t use an LLM but all their peers do, will their effort and loss of sleep be rewarded in a system which awards points?

vkc , to random

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    finnegan ,
    @finnegan@sfba.social avatar

    @vkc Yes, and your description of your experience and your term for it are so spot on I felt like it was a missing chapter/vocab for this book:

    https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Generation_X:_Tales_for_an_Accelerated_Culture