Jeffrey Austin
@jaustinedu.bsky.social
Literacy Consultant | Growing Researchers of Environment Equity Network (G.R.E.E.N.) Co-Founder | Former ELA Department Chair, Writing Center Director, Instructional Coach + Humanities Teacher | Views are my own | Pronouns: He/Him
This is true of virtually every institution, from schools to the government.
We are being led by absolute cowards
November 10, 2025 at 4:59 AM
This is true of virtually every institution, from schools to the government.
Reposted by Jeffrey Austin
Next in our Creatively Critical Tech virtual speaker series is Audrey Watters @audreywatters.bsky.social on "AI Grief Observed: On the Death of Education."
Don't miss it on November 12, 2025, @ 6:30 pm CT!
Register today at tinyurl.com/CreativelyCr...
Don't miss it on November 12, 2025, @ 6:30 pm CT!
Register today at tinyurl.com/CreativelyCr...
October 22, 2025 at 2:57 PM
Next in our Creatively Critical Tech virtual speaker series is Audrey Watters @audreywatters.bsky.social on "AI Grief Observed: On the Death of Education."
Don't miss it on November 12, 2025, @ 6:30 pm CT!
Register today at tinyurl.com/CreativelyCr...
Don't miss it on November 12, 2025, @ 6:30 pm CT!
Register today at tinyurl.com/CreativelyCr...
Watching right wingers stand up for books, call out corporate publishers + think about education beyond job training while Democrats do little-to-nothing to offer an ambitious, progressive plan for public education is one of many disappointments right now.
hollykorbey.substack.com/p/replay-stu...
hollykorbey.substack.com/p/replay-stu...
Replay: Students read few—or no—books in top ELA programs, survey finds
Elementary students get little practice reading whole books in some of the country's most popular elementary reading curricula, shedding new light on national reading crisis
hollykorbey.substack.com
October 30, 2025 at 11:00 PM
Watching right wingers stand up for books, call out corporate publishers + think about education beyond job training while Democrats do little-to-nothing to offer an ambitious, progressive plan for public education is one of many disappointments right now.
hollykorbey.substack.com/p/replay-stu...
hollykorbey.substack.com/p/replay-stu...
I will give you $1 for every whole language district that you can find in Michigan.
The implication that districts aren’t teaching phonics + phonemic awareness is not the reality. If anything, they’ve prioritized phonics over everything, including other literacy skills, science + social studies.
The implication that districts aren’t teaching phonics + phonemic awareness is not the reality. If anything, they’ve prioritized phonics over everything, including other literacy skills, science + social studies.
Every district should be teaching phonics as part of a science of reading upgrade.
If they don’t, state law must require it.
All plans to renew public schools must include this—or we will lose this fight.
www.detroitnews.com/story/news/e...
If they don’t, state law must require it.
All plans to renew public schools must include this—or we will lose this fight.
www.detroitnews.com/story/news/e...
Will Michigan's literacy laws move districts to science of reading curriculum?
Some advocates and parents are worried the state's new literacy laws won't be enough to move districts not already embracing the science of reading.
www.detroitnews.com
October 27, 2025 at 9:56 PM
I will give you $1 for every whole language district that you can find in Michigan.
The implication that districts aren’t teaching phonics + phonemic awareness is not the reality. If anything, they’ve prioritized phonics over everything, including other literacy skills, science + social studies.
The implication that districts aren’t teaching phonics + phonemic awareness is not the reality. If anything, they’ve prioritized phonics over everything, including other literacy skills, science + social studies.
Reposted by Jeffrey Austin
teaching kids about reading and writing is too important to outsource to corporations
October 27, 2025 at 1:59 AM
teaching kids about reading and writing is too important to outsource to corporations
Reposted by Jeffrey Austin
Putting words in dead people's mouths is one of the most disgusting uses of Generative AI, to me.
If only OpenAI could have foreseen the entirely predictable hazards of irresponsibly releasing this tech. I guess the estate of every dead person will have to individually request a special dispensation to no longer have disgusting videos made by OpenAI’s tools.
OpenAI pauses Sora video generations of Martin Luther King Jr. | TechCrunch
OpenAI is pausing AI video generations of Martin Luther King at the request of the late civil rights activists' estate.
techcrunch.com
October 18, 2025 at 1:03 AM
Putting words in dead people's mouths is one of the most disgusting uses of Generative AI, to me.
Reposted by Jeffrey Austin
One of the LinkedIn AI evangelists posted today that those raising concerns about energy costs + environmental harms of AI data centers were using it as a front to prevent educational innovation because only the harm-inducing machines will save teaching + learning.
I feel like regulating data centers' energy grid impacts is such a layup for state legislators. These costs should be borne by tech companies, who can then pass them on to their users. There is no reason why local residents should be paying increased energy bills.
www.nytimes.com/2025/08/14/b...
www.nytimes.com/2025/08/14/b...
Big Tech’s A.I. Data Centers Are Driving Up Electricity Bills for Everyone
www.nytimes.com
October 16, 2025 at 9:56 PM
One of the LinkedIn AI evangelists posted today that those raising concerns about energy costs + environmental harms of AI data centers were using it as a front to prevent educational innovation because only the harm-inducing machines will save teaching + learning.
One of the issues here is that if you position education mostly about economic gain, then there's no leg to stand on when it comes to arguing for a more humanizing + socially democratic education. This makes it difficult for teachers, schools + kids who want something more than career readiness.
October 13, 2025 at 11:49 PM
One of the issues here is that if you position education mostly about economic gain, then there's no leg to stand on when it comes to arguing for a more humanizing + socially democratic education. This makes it difficult for teachers, schools + kids who want something more than career readiness.
Reposted by Jeffrey Austin
I remain convinced that any educational paradigm that stakes it’s legitimacy on “catching cheaters” has already fundamentally lost the plot on how to do education.
October 11, 2025 at 5:25 PM
I remain convinced that any educational paradigm that stakes it’s legitimacy on “catching cheaters” has already fundamentally lost the plot on how to do education.
Unfortunately, education was the canary in the coal mine here yet again.
Government officials have long pressed their corporate friends, especially those over at the College Board, who control curriculum + testing, to block, erase + manipulate content + ideas they find objectionable.
Government officials have long pressed their corporate friends, especially those over at the College Board, who control curriculum + testing, to block, erase + manipulate content + ideas they find objectionable.
so the US government just forced a tech company to delete an app it doesn’t like, which is totally normal stuff
www.404media.co/iceblock-own...
www.404media.co/iceblock-own...
ICEBlock Owner After Apple Removes App: ‘We Are Determined to Fight This’
Apple removed ICEBlock reportedly after direct pressure from Department of Justice officials. “I am incredibly disappointed by Apple's actions today. Capitulating to an authoritarian regime is never t...
www.404media.co
October 3, 2025 at 3:09 AM
Unfortunately, education was the canary in the coal mine here yet again.
Government officials have long pressed their corporate friends, especially those over at the College Board, who control curriculum + testing, to block, erase + manipulate content + ideas they find objectionable.
Government officials have long pressed their corporate friends, especially those over at the College Board, who control curriculum + testing, to block, erase + manipulate content + ideas they find objectionable.
Reposted by Jeffrey Austin
We are producing a generation unable and (somewhat) unwilling to think, read and write without relying on tech controlled by some of the most evil people on the planet to tell them what to think, read and write and they don’t seem to see the dangers of this dependency even if we point it out
I cannot tell you how grim the AI in higher ed situation is. Many of the students have completely surrendered to letting AI do their homework, badly, I might add. How do you fix this? Truly, what the hell do we do, beyond what grading can address, which isn't a solution?
September 23, 2025 at 1:50 PM
We are producing a generation unable and (somewhat) unwilling to think, read and write without relying on tech controlled by some of the most evil people on the planet to tell them what to think, read and write and they don’t seem to see the dangers of this dependency even if we point it out
The thing can't tell someone how to make a basic sauce but a bunch of people, including a bunch of educators, think we should let kids talk to the avatar of Anne Frank that it generates in history class.
September 18, 2025 at 1:42 AM
The thing can't tell someone how to make a basic sauce but a bunch of people, including a bunch of educators, think we should let kids talk to the avatar of Anne Frank that it generates in history class.
Creating permission structures for AI refusal is an urgent, collective need, especially as its use becomes increasingly mandated by leaders + districts who staked economic, social + political capital on AI "working."
School districts need to create policies protecting students and teachers who refuse to use generative AI. Teachers unions need to lead the charge. #EduSky
refusinggenai.wordpress.com/2025/08/29/a...
refusinggenai.wordpress.com/2025/08/29/a...
A Student’s Right to Refuse Generative AI
Elizabeth Palumbo, Syracuse University Photo by cottonbro studio on Pexels.com I’m sitting at a desk in a college classroom in Upstate New York. It’s nearing the end of the fall semester of my seni…
refusinggenai.wordpress.com
September 6, 2025 at 2:24 AM
Creating permission structures for AI refusal is an urgent, collective need, especially as its use becomes increasingly mandated by leaders + districts who staked economic, social + political capital on AI "working."
Live look at the @nytimes.com right now.
September 5, 2025 at 10:41 PM
Live look at the @nytimes.com right now.
By dunking on public ed, you can manufacture consent to dismantle it, sell it off for parts + privatize the rest, which is what the NYT's neoliberal publishers, writers + readers have wanted for decades. It's a corporate, for-profit, technofascist fever dream. MacKenzie Price is the poster child.
The NYT has relentlessly attacked American schools + teachers for creating a crisis of rigor for not following "the science of learning."
Platforming this vapid, uncritical, no-citation BS reveals the NYT never really cared about "the science" as much as they cared about dunking on public ed.
Platforming this vapid, uncritical, no-citation BS reveals the NYT never really cared about "the science" as much as they cared about dunking on public ed.
A.I. is changing classrooms. We spoke to the co-founder of Alpha Schools about how her private K-12 schools are using A.I. to generate personalized lesson plans and enabling teachers to spend their time motivating rather than teaching students. nyti.ms/3JHIZub
September 5, 2025 at 9:21 PM
By dunking on public ed, you can manufacture consent to dismantle it, sell it off for parts + privatize the rest, which is what the NYT's neoliberal publishers, writers + readers have wanted for decades. It's a corporate, for-profit, technofascist fever dream. MacKenzie Price is the poster child.
The NYT has relentlessly attacked American schools + teachers for creating a crisis of rigor for not following "the science of learning."
Platforming this vapid, uncritical, no-citation BS reveals the NYT never really cared about "the science" as much as they cared about dunking on public ed.
Platforming this vapid, uncritical, no-citation BS reveals the NYT never really cared about "the science" as much as they cared about dunking on public ed.
A.I. is changing classrooms. We spoke to the co-founder of Alpha Schools about how her private K-12 schools are using A.I. to generate personalized lesson plans and enabling teachers to spend their time motivating rather than teaching students. nyti.ms/3JHIZub
September 5, 2025 at 9:18 PM
The NYT has relentlessly attacked American schools + teachers for creating a crisis of rigor for not following "the science of learning."
Platforming this vapid, uncritical, no-citation BS reveals the NYT never really cared about "the science" as much as they cared about dunking on public ed.
Platforming this vapid, uncritical, no-citation BS reveals the NYT never really cared about "the science" as much as they cared about dunking on public ed.
Reposted by Jeffrey Austin
TIL that Moms for America, Moms for Liberty, and Parents Defending Education have signed the White House's pledge to America's youth to invest in AI education, which further clarifies how this AI education initiative is a political project and whose vision of education is being prioritized.
September 5, 2025 at 2:46 AM
TIL that Moms for America, Moms for Liberty, and Parents Defending Education have signed the White House's pledge to America's youth to invest in AI education, which further clarifies how this AI education initiative is a political project and whose vision of education is being prioritized.
Reposted by Jeffrey Austin
In the wake of destructive floods, #Wisconsin youth sue state utility regulator over failure to consider climate change.
The case is part of a growing movement to force climate action through the courts, led in part by Indigenous youth.
grist.org/justice/in-t...
#Floods #Indigenous #Youth #WI
The case is part of a growing movement to force climate action through the courts, led in part by Indigenous youth.
grist.org/justice/in-t...
#Floods #Indigenous #Youth #WI
In the wake of destructive floods, Wisconsin youth sue state utility regulator over failure to consider climate change
The case is part of a growing movement to force climate action through the courts, led in part by Indigenous youth.
grist.org
August 23, 2025 at 7:59 PM
In the wake of destructive floods, #Wisconsin youth sue state utility regulator over failure to consider climate change.
The case is part of a growing movement to force climate action through the courts, led in part by Indigenous youth.
grist.org/justice/in-t...
#Floods #Indigenous #Youth #WI
The case is part of a growing movement to force climate action through the courts, led in part by Indigenous youth.
grist.org/justice/in-t...
#Floods #Indigenous #Youth #WI
Big tech has never had better friends than the corporate reformers who run so much of American education, which is a huge part of the reason we are where we are today.
“The business commitments include things like cash prizes for students and teachers who use AI in educational ways, and cheap or free access to the companies' AI tools, trainings and certifications.”
Big tech signs on to White House plan for AI education in US schools
The White House hosted several tech and AI leaders at an event today centered on teaching artificial intelligence in US schools.
www.engadget.com
September 4, 2025 at 11:01 PM
Big tech has never had better friends than the corporate reformers who run so much of American education, which is a huge part of the reason we are where we are today.
Reposted by Jeffrey Austin
“The technology is producing a generation of eternal novices, unable to think or perform for themselves.”
I’m a High Schooler. AI Is Demolishing My Education.
The end of critical thinking in the classroom
www.theatlantic.com
September 3, 2025 at 5:19 PM
“The technology is producing a generation of eternal novices, unable to think or perform for themselves.”
Reposted by Jeffrey Austin
The fascist use of GenAI goes beyond aesthetics. It's a tool to reify revisionist history & implant false nostalgia, especially through who they decide "humanize".
It's a choice to bring John Adams "to life" & not, say, the enslaved people that built the White House.
www.npr.org/2025/09/03/n...
It's a choice to bring John Adams "to life" & not, say, the enslaved people that built the White House.
www.npr.org/2025/09/03/n...
'Founders Museum' from White House and PragerU blurs history, AI-generated fiction
Historians say it's good to highlight America's founders, but the project takes too narrow a view of history.
www.npr.org
September 3, 2025 at 2:14 PM
The fascist use of GenAI goes beyond aesthetics. It's a tool to reify revisionist history & implant false nostalgia, especially through who they decide "humanize".
It's a choice to bring John Adams "to life" & not, say, the enslaved people that built the White House.
www.npr.org/2025/09/03/n...
It's a choice to bring John Adams "to life" & not, say, the enslaved people that built the White House.
www.npr.org/2025/09/03/n...
Riparbelli sounds like the many educational leaders who are wholly invested in corporate schooling run by tech billionaires. Their belief in kids + teachers is so little that they believe the future is boxed curriculum + skill-and-drill surveillance ed tech. The call is coming from inside the house!
Technologist Victor Riparbelli sees a future where students interact with AI avatars rather than read and write. We ask teachers and kids what they think and how they're using AI right now.
Will AI avatars eventually teach our kids?
Technologist Victor Riparbelli sees a future where students interact with AI avatars rather than read and write. We ask teachers and kids what they think and how they're using AI right now.
n.pr
August 30, 2025 at 1:21 AM
Riparbelli sounds like the many educational leaders who are wholly invested in corporate schooling run by tech billionaires. Their belief in kids + teachers is so little that they believe the future is boxed curriculum + skill-and-drill surveillance ed tech. The call is coming from inside the house!
The best feedback from all the back-to-school PDs is about my simple slide letting participants know I haven't used AI to create any part of the presentation + asking them not to use AI while we're learning together.
Simple, informal steps toward #AIRefusal can have powerful impacts.
Simple, informal steps toward #AIRefusal can have powerful impacts.
August 27, 2025 at 10:02 PM
The best feedback from all the back-to-school PDs is about my simple slide letting participants know I haven't used AI to create any part of the presentation + asking them not to use AI while we're learning together.
Simple, informal steps toward #AIRefusal can have powerful impacts.
Simple, informal steps toward #AIRefusal can have powerful impacts.
Reposted by Jeffrey Austin
You can add up all the enjoyable pursuits of LLMs and the work productivity hacks and none of them, separately or together, will be more important than AI’s ecological costs or political disruption.
“We” is more important here.
“We” is more important here.
August 23, 2025 at 7:02 PM
You can add up all the enjoyable pursuits of LLMs and the work productivity hacks and none of them, separately or together, will be more important than AI’s ecological costs or political disruption.
“We” is more important here.
“We” is more important here.