I often have difficulty describing the relationships that have formed as a result of the past 12 years of airing a podcast episode each week. This is particularly the case when one of the people I have met crosses over into being best thought of in my mind as a friend versus an acquaintance I know through having interviewed them.
I'm grateful to Peter Felten, who introduced us all to more ways of thinking about friendships by recommending Janice McCabe's How College Students Make, Keep, and Lose Friends. Not only that, but he introduced me to her and she was this past week's guest on Teaching in Higher Ed episode 627.
This week in the Field Journal, I also share an incredible read from Maha Bali that is bound to get you thinking, as it did me. That, plus I ask you about your favorite writing implement and share another fantastic Tiny Desk concert.
Listened
Episode 627
How College Students Make, Keep, and Lose Friends with Janice McCabe
On the latest Teaching in Higher Ed, episode 627, Janice McCabe shared her research on campus loneliness and college friendship networks. Janice described the ways student preferences sometimes go against what might ultimately better help them flourish. She shared:
Students often say they don't really like group projects, but then, that was a place that many of the friendships that formed in classes emerged.
This isn't the first time, nor will it be the last, that Maha Bali put into words, ideas I've been wrestling with for a long while. In AI is Not a Tool: It's a Medium-Institution, Maha pushes back on the metaphor by contrasting AI as tool with how a hammer works. If we use one to put a nail in the wall, we can expect that the nail is going to go in the direction that we started hammering. Such is not the case with AI, she asserts.
In AI is Not a Tool, Maha suggests we read an article by Abi Awomosu and subscribe to her newsletter, so we can keep benefitting from her wisdom.
After reflecting on Abi's words, Maha decides to extend some previous writing she's done to articulate her position on AI. Maha writes (emphasis is hers, below):
Somewhere between techno-pessimism and techno-optimism is the position this piece is arguing for. Not refusal. Not uncritical adoption. Literacy. Sovereignty. The capacity to engage deliberately with a medium you are already inside. To understand its grain, its tendencies, what it does to you when you engage without awareness. Rather than being used by it in either direction: enchanted into dependency or shamed into secret use.
Individual abstention inside a society already saturated with AI infrastructure functions more symbolically than structurally. The medium is infrastructural now. People are already inside AI-mediated systems whether they consciously use AI or not. The struggle shifts from avoid all contact to preserve agency under conditions of contact.
That is why literacy is resistance.
Maha also links to Taz Daniels' Faculty Critical Engagement with AI Pyramid. Taz describes the benefit of the framework as "[recognizing] that meaningful engagement with AI does not look the same for everyone and that both thoughtful use and thoughtful abstention are valid, ethical, and necessary contributions to higher education."
I'm working on a new course and community experience and am including some digital drawings in the various lessons and projects. It is fascinating to me how the experience of creating art shifts when I am aware that others will likely see what I draw vs when I'm solely doing it for enjoyment.
As in it is not anywhere near as fun. That said, sharing this one with you today is my attempt to inoculate myself against this phenomenon.
#LearningOutLoud
Wondered
About a Tool or Habit You've Adopted
Obsidian unlocks the daily note
Last week, I wondered about a tool or habit you've adopted in the last year that's changed how you work?
Bonni
The Obsidian note-taking application continues to delight me. At first, I thought that plain text would be too boring for me, particularly given how much I loved Craft.
Obsidian daily note using custom call-outs
However, Obsidian offers a myriad of ways to customize it. I've added custom emoji on all my folders, as well as using custom call outs on my daily notes, along with a random nature-themed photo and a random quote from my ever-growing list I keep in Obsidian.
If you would be interested in learning more about how to create a daily note (in Obsidian, or another note-taking system you already use), reply to this email and let me know. I'm exploring a possible workshop, but want to gauge interest, first.
This week, I'm wondering:
What is your go-to writing implement?
Hit reply to share. If no one writes me back, I'll be forced to include my super boring answer next week. And I think we can collectively do better than that. :-)
Noted
A New Twist on a Song
Sting and Shaggy
If you've been listening to the podcast for a while, you know that I'm a huge fan of NPR's Tiny Desk Concerts. This one does not disappoint, especially the way that it has new takes on familiar melodies. An Englishman in New York is joined by a Jamaican in New York. The harmonies on their mashup of Shape of My Heart/Lucid Dreams are breathtaking.
Remi Kalir shares about the Fair Feedback Project. If you have time, take a peek before the episode airs, and bring your curiosity to the conversation.
Teaching in Higher Ed Podcast
Listen with us each week.
The Teaching in Higher Ed podcast brings together over 25,000 followers to conversations about the art and science of facilitating learning.
Get your ears on for the conversation. Listen through to the recommendations.
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Trouble viewing? Read this issue in your browser. It has been a week of creativity and intentionality. That, plus a bunch of opportunities to learn and reflect. Whatever state the Field Journal finds you in this week, may it bring some nourishment. You can access past issues and encourage colleagues to subscribe. Listened Episode 624 How to Engage Learners in Online Courses On the latest episode of Teaching in Higher Ed, Denise Maduli-Williams helped us discover how to engage people in online...
