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Assigning essays is not the only way to teach students writing. This isn’t to devalue essays, which are a solid genre by which students can approximate advanced academic writing and work through complex ideas. But if you’re looking at your assessment and the idea of using essays as the core artifact is creating an unreasonable faculty burden then rethink why you’re privileging essays. Research grids, recorded presentations, user guides/examples of integrated learning, glossaries, disciplinary style guides — all of these are legitimate, conventional genres that can enable and provide evidence of student learning. Bonuses: AI will have a harder time with these assignments. Such assignments also help students learn to deconstruct writing into manageable parts rather than a seemingly unified and therefore daunting task. (2023-02-09 ↗)

Somehow I’m the go-to on ChatGPT at my campus now? Ironically, so much for getting any of my own writing done this semester. (2023-02-09 ↗)

I am becoming the bots I’m studying. (2023-02-07 ↗)

Questions for today’s research: How many assignments are typical in a WAC FYC course? —— Such that revision, focus, organization and generic conventions are also prioritized —— And such that content knowledge can also be adequately and consistently assessed? —— With the goal of improving accessibility and supporting instructor work/life balance? I know answers for this but need to revisit and update in order to present a compelling case to my faculty. I’ve budgeted … three hours for this research. *sigh* (2023-02-06 ↗)

A winderful articulation if why I find sizeable exoskeletal creatures unsettling: 
“To this day I would rather meet a ghost than a tarantula. And to this day I could almost find it in my heart to rationalise and justify my phobia. As Owen Barfield once said to me, ‘The trouble about insects is that they are like French locomotives—they
have all the works on the outside.’ The works—that is the trouble. Their angular limbs, their jerky movements, their dry, metallic noises, all suggest either machines that have come to life or life degenerating into mechanism.” – C.S. Lewis, Surprised by Joy 
Note: This is immediately followed by a sentence in support of patriarchy, whether humorously meant is unclear. (2023-01-12 ↗)