Apparently, it was Karl Popper's, the philosopher behind the modern scientific method, birthday yesterday (28th July). He was an intellectual giant: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karl_Po...

Karl Popper - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

Just a thought: Wouldn't it be a good idea to have some substantial, high-quality research on how the various GPT-LLM use strategies improve &/or inhibit learning BEFORE running workshops that give recommendations for strategies for using GPT-LLMs in educational contexts?

"Alarming trends in the commercialisation of unvalidated aesthetic practices through Instagram-based courses" pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/42447280/ Yeah I think if your surgeon's alma mater is Instagram, that is a red flag 🟥

NEW BLOG POST Addressing the disconnect: Pre-sessional EAP instruction vs. functional disciplinary language requirements in humanities & social sciences Continue reading: matbury.com/wordpress/in...

Oh please, please, please make this happen! A petition, a campaign, a viral video... A "Yes Men" video with a UKIP... sorry, ReformUK spokesperson announcing that Nige is now pursuing an inclusive, compassionate, caring manifesto to re-unite Britain & renouncing foreign interference in our democracy

Larry & Paul@larryandpaul.bsky.social · 4w ago

Would be genuinely shit-yerself funny if, say, the Greens got in to Clacton after Farage's lil paddy.

NEW BLOG POST How to close achievement gaps without resorting to differentiated instruction Continue reading: matbury.com/wordpress/in...

half-cock (noun) /hɑ:fˈkɒk/: Teaching [insert new technology here] "literacy" when there's little valid, reliable research & the new technology &/or our understanding of it is likely to change just after you've told everyone how you think it should be used.

samethink (noun) /ˈseɪmθɪŋk/: The tendency for two or more people to arrive at similar ideas, language, strategies, & conclusions through the use of GPT-LLMs instead of actually doing the work themselves. See also: groupthink, conformity, intellectual dishonesty

Where language learning is concerned, we have some meaningful, useful models of language to choose from. Why do we stick with the current orthodox model that is so problematic? - We can & should change. Link: matbury.com/wordpress/in...

Online age-verification to prevent child abuse & promote child well-being SocMedia are in overdrive to discredit, dismiss, & demonise efforts to reign in their abuses. The EU's response makes online age verification easy to use, secure, & private: See: www.youtube.com/watch?v=uryH...

"No more excuses": New age verification app to keep kids safe online

YouTube video by European Commission

youtube.com

NEW BLOG POST Rejecting Chomskian grammar for more meaningful & useful models Continue reading: matbury.com/wordpress/in...

Now that none of the royals actually want to live at Buckingham Palace, can we have a petition to prevent Tim Martin from turning it into a Wetherspoons? Please? Pretty please?

For anyone who's not used to living in a hot climate, it takes about 2 weeks for your body to adapt. During that time, give yourself & break. Take things slowly.

Writing from sources (WFS) is arguably the predominant method for students to learn & make sense of their disciplines. It's also arguably the most challenging to learn & teach. I've compiled a checklist of 20 criteria for evaluating WFS instruction: matbury.com/wordpress/in...

Why is 3rd person -s in English so problematic for our EFL & ESL students? Here's the coherent, cohesive, comprehensive explanation you've been waiting for:

Curious about the origins of large language models (LLMs)? This paper was a milestone in their development & gives an accessible, simplified view of how LLMs can generate seemingly meaningful text purely from statistical regularities: wordvec.colorado.edu/papers/Landa...

Re: GPT-LLM plagiarism, looking on the bright side, at least now I can say my terrible, eccentric, sometimes unfathomable writing is actually mine & people will believe me & think it's a good thing!

Yet another study confirms that using GPT-LLM chatbots produces no lasting learning gains & cultivates dependency: doi.org/10.1145/3772...

Dialogues with AI Reduce Beliefs in Misinformation but Build No Lasting Discernment Skills | Proceedings of the 2026 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems

doi.org

"Higher education as we know it is finished because... !" This time it's AI but we've been here many times before & each time they said, "Yeah, but this time it's different." Very expensive plagiarising machines won't revolutionise education.

can't argue with this.

This seems prescient today: "Once men turned their thinking over to machines in the hope that this would set them free. But that only permitted other men with machines to enslave them." ― Frank Herbert, Dune, 1965 Yes, 1965!

Self-Determination Theory (SDT) certainly has its place in the teaching & learning literature; when it informs teaching appropriately, it can boost learning. However...

If you work in education, read this book. It's the antidote to misinformation about how we learn best: Kirschner, P. A., Hendrick, C., & Heal, J. (2025). Instructional Illusions (1st ed). Hachette Learning. www.hachettelearning.com/teaching-str...

Your reminder about the massive AI bubble... The only company not losing frightening amounts of money on AI is Nvidia: isaiprofitable.com

Headlines reporting more bots than humans on the internet are not true... yet. Bot traffic exceeds human but bots send a lot more requests that humans, i.e. bots use more traffic but there are not more bots than humans... yet!

Unlawful by design: Exposing the human rights costs of generative AI Link: www.amnesty.org/en/documents...

We strongly agree that this is not about a lack of potential. Reaching 16 without a strong foundation in English or maths should never be taken as a sign that a young person can’t achieve this. With the right support, they are in almost every case more than capable of developing these skills.

Farewell Sonny Rollins, one of the finest, most influential saxophonists of all time. Thank you for the hundreds of hours of listening to your recordings, transcribing, copying your phrasing, & just trying to work out what it was that you were doing! www.youtube.com/watch?v=7njE...

Sonny Rollins - I'm an old cowhand(from the Rio Grande)

YouTube video by Lennart Länk aka helluvagun

youtube.com

In general, I'd call this a sub-category of "I keep talking too much because I don't think through what I'm going to say & how I'm going to say it in the lesson planning stage." If in doubt, write it out.

Alex Quigley@alexjquigley.bsky.social · 2mo ago

'Every hour counts: Daycares track conversations to boost language skills' "“It’s making it more literacy rich for children, gets their minds thinking, exposing them to that critical thinking, that back and forth."" Via @karenvaites.bsky.social www.yahoo.com/news/article...

The media: "Study from U-Penn shows phone bans in schools don't work." Are you sure about that? They didn't study phone *bans*, they studied phone *policies*. Allow Jared Cooney Horvath to explain: thedigitaldelusion.substack.com/p/researcher...

Researchers Say Phone Bans Don’t Improve Learning — But They Didn’t Study Bans

How a Crucial Distinction Continues to be Blurred in the Debate Around Phones in Schools

thedigitaldelusion.substack.com