Prologue So, I’m going to be 60, or if you’re reading this I am 60. It doesn’t feel momentous, I’m not even sure it should be. When I was growing up it did. I was the youngest child of parents who had me much later than most of their peers. So when I hit 20,…
Read moreAuthor: Lawrie Phipps
Beyond the Borderlands: Reimagining the Competencies of Postdigital Educational Leadership in an Era of Coalescing Geopolitical Crisis.
Based on Bryant, P., Lanclos, D., & Phipps, L., “Beyond the Borderlands: Reimagining the Competencies of Postdigital Educational Leadership in an Era of Coalescing Geopolitical Crisis.” I, Peter Bryant, and Donna Lanclos had been at a conference for three days. We had agreed to write a chapter on Postdigital Leadership and Crises. So on a…
Read moreYour Brain wasn’t built by a vendor!
Sunday morning. I rarely read newspapers anymore, so to get that same feeling of existential dread I was scrolling LinkedIn. There is a post by an “evangelist”, I’m not linking because why would I, I am not interested in debate (especially when any arguments put forward will probably have been generated). First of all let…
Read moreNew year, new low in accountability in public discourse
Well it’s new year, and I was going to blog about some of the thinking I’d done around Postdigital leadership (maybe later) but instead I am struck that we are reaching new lows in public discourse and debate. Free speech is not a shield for abuse; it is a principle built on mutual respect and…
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Climate, AI, and Technosolutionism
I’ve been working in technology and higher education for so long that sometimes I forget that I have a background in environmental science. This morning I was listening to Curious Cases with Hannah Fry and Dara O’Briain, the show was all about bubbles, soap bubbles. At one point the pair talked about giant space bubbles!…
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Toxicity and Responsibility: Is it time to reassess institutional engagement with Twitter (X)
About a year ago I left Twitter (or X), a decision based on concerns about the platform’s increasingly toxic environment. The decision was right, and has been borne out by the recent far right riots in the UK, where misinformation, outright lies, and the way in which the platform as allowed racists and nazis to…
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Some small thoughts on climate change.
Working in Higher Ed we often despair of the way people ignore the warning signs of climate change, we work at dispelling the misinformation of climate deniers. But when we are told that Gen AI is contributing to climate change, we shrug our shoulders and carry on. The energy and water consumption of AI technologies,…
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Push the Narrative Back!
“Why won’t you let us innovate?!” “You are holding us back!” “If we have to do the things you say, we won’t be able to change anything!” “You’re wrong, we’re right, and we are going to ignore all your concerns!” “Disabled Students will just have to make do with the content they can access!” It’s…
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ACCOUNT SUSPENDED: YOU ARE NOT WELCOME HERE
Some Background Yesterday was remembrance Sunday in the UK, as always it falls nearest the the 11th of November. I am sure people know, but the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th Month was the time at which “the Great War” ended. For over 100 years in countries around the world the…
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That thing you just said about your AI? Yeah, I have questions.
I / we have written about AI. We have asked about disclaimers and acknowledgements in response to people saying things like “We might feel that AI is most usefully considered as another tool: in itself ethically neutral…” (it is not ethically neutral) (pretty sure that ethical neutrality is not a real thing!). We have written…
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