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David Buck

@dbuckedu.bsky.social

Professor of English at a community college. Teaching composition (online & hybrid). #TempleMade. Interested in #SDGs, #pedagogy, #ungrading, #AIResistance, & #OER. Ungrading.weebly.com

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John Warner@biblioracle.bsky.social · 8mo ago

"I refuse." This is it. There's no reason we should accept a narrative of an already settled future which marginalizes humans and individual agency. No one wants this. No one asked for it.

Shane Anderson 🏳️‍🌈@shaneanderson.bsky.social · 8mo ago

"This promise of an AI future, is really just a collective anxiety that wealthy people have about how well they're gonna be able to control us in the future." - @tressiemcphd.bsky.social with an absolute mic drop moment about AI bullshit. Incredible words. Listen to all of it!

Solastalgic@my-solastalgia.bsky.social · 9mo ago

A terrific starter pack that’s making the rounds again; proud to be on the roster #AIresistance #resistAI

David Buck@dbuckedu.bsky.social · 2y ago

Here is the growing "AI Resisters/Refusers in Academia" starter pack! If you are a resister/refuser & wish to be added to this list, please respond w/ a 👍🏽 or a ✔, and I'll add you in. Please share with friends & colleagues interested in learning more about the AI resistance! go.bsky.app/DVvnBGh

David Buck@dbuckedu.bsky.social · 12mo ago

Another argument for resisting the myth held by many in higher education that if we don’t teach “AI literacy,” our students will be left behind. When the ultimate goal of our labor should be encouraging our students to develop their critical thinking and learning abilities—basically, being humans.

The New Yorker@newyorker.com · 12mo ago

An M.I.T. study found that 95% of companies that had invested in A.I. tools were seeing zero return. It jibes with the emerging idea that generative A.I., “in its current incarnation, simply isn’t all it’s been cracked up to be,” johncassidysays.bsky.social writes.

David Buck@dbuckedu.bsky.social · last yr.

My community college was one of the 1st institutions to adopt Canvas in 2012. We were very early adopters. It was pitched as a pedagogical-focused system designed to “get out of the way” of an instructor’s teaching approach. Never imagined that it now is set up to REPLACE that instructor!

Shannon Mattern@shannonmattern.bsky.social · last yr.

“…faculty members will be able to click an icon that connects them with various AI features…, like a grading tool, a discussion-post summarizer… Canvas’s parent company, Instructure, is also in partnership w/ OpenAI… so instructors can use generative-AI technology as part of their assignments.”

Jeffrey Austin@jaustinedu.bsky.social · last yr.

Since the SAT essay became optional + scored by AI, I can't begin to tell you the number of people who have asked me why they should still teach writing, as if the only reason for kids to write is to score well on a standardized test. Also, this reveals how much College Board impacts practice.

choo choo choose anger@ralphtheewiggum.bsky.social · last yr.

One time, teaching middle school English, we had a consultant tell us that students don’t need writing instruction and for a year we did no writing whatsoever. It was ridiculous.

Katie Mack@astrokatie.com · last yr.

Chatbots — LLMs — do not know facts and are not designed to be able to accurately answer factual questions. They are designed to find and mimic patterns of words, probabilistically. When they’re “right” it’s because correct things are often written down, so those patterns are frequent. That’s all.

John Warner@biblioracle.bsky.social · last yr.

Today's complaint about the AI in education discourse: Too much of it is framed around a future that is going to happen to us, as opposed to seeing the future as something we may have some agency to shape. I reject the deterministic view of AI, particularly genAI. It's a tool, not our master.

Dr. Liz Norell@liznorell.bsky.social · last yr.

The ungrading book club (organized by the indefatiguable @dbuckedu.bsky.social) is reading @biblioracle.bsky.social's fantastic book, More than Words, about exactly why we should be helping students understand the value of critical thinking and other challenging cognitive work.

Patrick Hausammann@phausedu.com · last yr.

'Metacognitive Laziness': How AI Helps Students Offload Critical Thinking, Other Hard Work https://www.kqed.org/mindshift/65511/university-students-offload-critical-thinking-other-hard-work-to-ai via @KQED

David Buck@dbuckedu.bsky.social · last yr.

Had a great session of the #MoreThanWords virtual book club yesterday! A wonderful group of caring, compassionate educators hoping to guide their students through the ubiquitous sludge of GenAI. We focused on writing as thinking, a uniquely human endeavor rather than a transactional experience.

Image of a brain merged with a computer chip. Under the image are the words: More Than Words Virtual Book Club
David Buck@dbuckedu.bsky.social · last yr.

An idea from The AI Con that has really helped me answer the Q: Why do some surrender voice, agency, & trust to a GenAI tool? — the human tendency when processing language to engage w/ “the mind behind the text.” When there’s no human behind the probability/plagiarism machine, we tend to invent one!

Though the most basic and fundamental use of language is in face-to-face communication, once we have acquired a linguistic system, we can use it to understand linguistic artitacts even in the absence of co-situatedness, at a distance of space and even time. But we still apply the same techniques of imagining the mind behind the text, constructing a model of common ground with the author, and seeking to guess what the author might have been using the words to get their audience to understand. Language models, problematically, have no subjectivity with which to perform intersubjectivity. Despite the frequent claims of Al researchers, these models do not learn "just like children do." Simply modeling the distribution of words in text provides no access to meaning, nothing from which to deduce communicative intent. Language models thus represent nothing more than exttensive information about what sets of words are similar and what words are likely to appear in what contexts. While this isn't meaning or understanding, it is enough to produce plausible synthetic text, on just about any topic imaginable, which turns out to be quite dangerous: we encounter text that looks just like something a person might have said and reflexively interpret it, through our usual process of imagining a mind behind the text. But there is no mind there, and we need to be conscientious to let go of that imaginary mind we have constructed.
David Buck@dbuckedu.bsky.social · last yr.

This “capitulation to inevitability” is certainly real, especially when FOMO and the press for innovative “AI literacy” is constantly in teachers’ faces. Been enjoying The AI Con by Bender & Hanna. The hype around AI serves those in power, not Ss & teachers. The VCs need a return on investment!

Jeffrey Austin@jaustinedu.bsky.social · last yr.

In my work with teachers, two beliefs about AI are becoming "common sense:" 1. AI is inevitable, resistance is futile. 2. Not including AI in a teaching + learning will hold students back in terms of career + college. Building permission structures for #AIResistance is urgent + critical.

Jeffrey Austin@jaustinedu.bsky.social · last yr.

In my work with teachers, two beliefs about AI are becoming "common sense:" 1. AI is inevitable, resistance is futile. 2. Not including AI in a teaching + learning will hold students back in terms of career + college. Building permission structures for #AIResistance is urgent + critical.

Jesse Stommel (Jessifer)@jessifer.bsky.social · last yr.

"The work of ungrading is to push back on the culture of grades and quantitative assessment that reinforces hierarchies between students and teachers, while reducing both to a set of crude (often inscrutable) data points." www.jessestommel.com/the-practice...

The Practice of Ungrading

Ungrading inspects the inequities of schooling, asks hard questions of the structures of our schools, and offers a critique of the labor conditions for teachers at all levels of education.

jessestommel.com

David Buck@dbuckedu.bsky.social · last yr.

We are 2️⃣ weeks away from the first session of the #MoreThanWords virtual book club on June 3rd (5-6 p.m. EST)! Join 7️⃣3️⃣ folks exploring how to center authentic writing/thinking in the age of AI. Author @biblioracle.bsky.social will be joining us! Register for FREE: forms.gle/AMUKNQc5egaf...

More Than Words Virtual Book Club

Welcome to the More Than Words virtual book club! We'll be reading & discussing John Warner's new book—More Than Words: How to Think About Writing in the Age of AI. We'll meet on Zoom about twice a...

forms.gle

John Warner@biblioracle.bsky.social · last yr.

I know this seems grim, but I'm here to testify that it is not hopeless, that most faculty do not feel this way and mostly just want a little help to navigate these things. I've delivered a couple dozen talks and sessions over the last 6 months & the energy to make necessary change is real.

John Warner@biblioracle.bsky.social · last yr.

I've started explicitly addressing some of what's described in this article as I go on my merry way, institution to institution insisting that we can and must continue to teach writing. There's two main risks. Both are real. 🧵 www.nytimes.com/2025/05/14/t...

David Buck@dbuckedu.bsky.social · last yr.

Would you like to join 6️⃣8️⃣ thoughtful people in a relaxing summer reading group? Feel free to register for the #MoreThanWords virtual book club starting Tuesday, 6/5 from 5-6 p.m. (EST). @biblioracle.bsky.social (the author) plans to attend each session! Register HERE: tinyurl.com/cfndnhf2

More Than Words Virtual Book Club

Welcome to the More Than Words virtual book club! We'll be reading & discussing John Warner's new book—More Than Words: How to Think About Writing in the Age of AI. We'll meet on Zoom about twice a...

tinyurl.com

David Buck@dbuckedu.bsky.social · last yr.

The more I contemplate my #AIResistance in my FYW courses, the more I’ve found: 1️⃣ Ss respect a clear, reasonable AI Policy, 2️⃣ my assessment approach (#ungrading) is key to removing the incentive to use GenAI tools, & 3️⃣ Ss actually feel relieved that AI has no place in their learning & writing!