Category: Critical Perspectives
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Another Bloody Otter Has Joined the Call
This post is a lament. I thought we were done with the 2023-2024 bad habit of every person attending an online meeting with their AI notetaking assistant in tow, but here we are, November 2025, and I have just attended not one but three meetings which gradually filled up with Otters, Fireflies, and other assorted…
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GenAI is Normal Edtech
What if AI is “normal” technology? If we don’t have to fear being “left behind”, and if AI will change education not in years, but in decades, how might we rethink our approaches, policies, and pedagogies?
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What Happens When the AI Bubble Bursts?
When the AI bubble bursts – and it will burst – CEOs will be dethroned. Companies will lose billions. The economy – particularly in the US – will take a catastrophic hit. Data centres will suddenly need to downsize their operations and close down entirely. And in education, we’ll need to take yet another long…
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Technology is Actually Pretty Great
Technology is great: it’s the tech industry that’s the problem. This post explores why we need to reject the Big Tech myth of inevitability.
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Digital Plastic as a framework for Critical AI Literacy
The concept of “digital plastic” in generative AI highlights its characteristics: cheap, malleable, ubiquitous, and persistent. This framework promotes critical AI literacy through classroom strategies, encouraging purposeful use, awareness of implications, and fostering critical judgement in synthetic media creation.
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OpenAI Has Come for Education
OpenAI’s recent partnership with Instructure’s Canvas Learning Management System furthers its aggressive entry into education. While claiming to support students and teachers, I’m worried about the effectiveness of its tools like study mode and Agents, which fail to remotely address pedagogical needs. OpenAI has come for education, and I think we should be concerned.
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The Right to Resist
A recent open letter calling for educators and academics to resist AI has divided the education community. But we should be directing our anger at the right people, and not at one another.
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Publish (on your) Own Site Syndicate Elsewhere
With growing dissatisfaction about the state of the internet, I spent a few months in 2025 digging into things like the fediverse (Mastodon etc.), self-hosting, and other ways of reclaiming the internet from companies like Google. On my travels, I came across the term POSSE, which stands for Publish (on your) Own Site Syndicate Elsewhere.…
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The Narrow Web
In 1989, Tim Berners-Lee created the World Wide Web at CERN, establishing principles like decentralisation, non-discrimination, and universality. However, by 2025, the internet has devolved into a “Narrow Web,” dominated by major platforms, characterised by centralisation and discrimination. To reclaim the open web, users should prioritise independent websites and open-source solutions.
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Digital Plastic: Miraculous substance or graceless slop?
Is GenAI a magical, miraculous substance that “democratises creativity”? Or is it just graceless slop? Developing Critical AI Literacy means interrogating the design of AI systems.