Natalia Balyasnikova
@balyasnikova.bsky.social
Assistant Professor of Adult Education at York University | UBC Graduate | Fulbright Alumna.
Educational Gerontology | Applied Linguistics |
Creative Research | Playful Pedagogies
Educational Gerontology | Applied Linguistics |
Creative Research | Playful Pedagogies
Canada’s cuts to newcomer English language programs puts communities’ well-being at risk theconversation.com/canadas-cuts...
Canada’s cuts to newcomer English language programs puts communities’ well-being at risk
Cuts to literacy and language training for newcomers to Canada threaten the well-being of both migrant communities and all Canadians.
theconversation.com
February 19, 2025 at 10:19 PM
Canada’s cuts to newcomer English language programs puts communities’ well-being at risk theconversation.com/canadas-cuts...
Reposted by Natalia Balyasnikova
Thousands of advocates attended our recent webinar to learn about the potential impact of proposed #Medicaid cuts, and what our communities can do to defend against them.
Watch the recording:
Watch the recording:
Protecting Medicaid for Older Adults: What's at Risk and What Advocates Can Do (Webinar)
YouTube video by Justice in Aging
youtu.be
February 12, 2025 at 6:19 PM
Thousands of advocates attended our recent webinar to learn about the potential impact of proposed #Medicaid cuts, and what our communities can do to defend against them.
Watch the recording:
Watch the recording:
Reposted by Natalia Balyasnikova
University staff fear that students are becoming increasingly reliant on artificial intelligence tools, and are not critical enough of their output
#highered #EduSky
#highered #EduSky
Academics ‘fear students becoming too reliant on AI tools’
Global study reveals that academics believe students are not critical enough of material produced by artificial intelligence tools for use in their work
www.timeshighereducation.com
January 17, 2025 at 2:54 PM
I am often faced with a fact that students have a different vision for a course than I do. So, in every one of my classes I do a disclaimer:
January 10, 2025 at 1:50 AM
I am often faced with a fact that students have a different vision for a course than I do. So, in every one of my classes I do a disclaimer:
Learning is a lifelong project. Just because someone is older doesn’t mean they 1) can’t learn or 2) need to be patronized when they do. Our research clearly shows that with support learning doesn’t have to stop. www.cbc.ca/news/canada/...
As more seniors head online, efforts are needed to help their digital media literacy skills | CBC News
Canadian seniors haven't been the focus of many digital media literacy initiatives, but with more everyday tasks requiring digital fluency, misinformation swirling online and given the influence this ...
www.cbc.ca
January 9, 2025 at 2:46 AM
Learning is a lifelong project. Just because someone is older doesn’t mean they 1) can’t learn or 2) need to be patronized when they do. Our research clearly shows that with support learning doesn’t have to stop. www.cbc.ca/news/canada/...
Check out this valuable resource: The Anti-Elderspeak Language Guide, created by CATCH-ON and the Rush Center for Excellence in Aging. This concise, two-page guide provides practical communication tips for care teams working with older adults.
catch-on.org/wp-content/u...
catch-on.org/wp-content/u...
catch-on.org
January 9, 2025 at 2:41 AM
Check out this valuable resource: The Anti-Elderspeak Language Guide, created by CATCH-ON and the Rush Center for Excellence in Aging. This concise, two-page guide provides practical communication tips for care teams working with older adults.
catch-on.org/wp-content/u...
catch-on.org/wp-content/u...
Reposted by Natalia Balyasnikova
"A lot of our energy... as mothers or in caretaking, has gone outward, and it’s a time when we can actually stop and bring that energy back to ourselves, and it feels pretty damn good.”
Demi Moore and Jodie Foster on focusing on themselves in their 60s: 'It feels pretty damn good'
Foster, who won an award for her role in True Detective: Night Country, said she is ‘excited’ for the rest of her life and the ‘wisdom’ she can bring.
community.thefemalelead.com
January 7, 2025 at 10:16 AM
"A lot of our energy... as mothers or in caretaking, has gone outward, and it’s a time when we can actually stop and bring that energy back to ourselves, and it feels pretty damn good.”
Reposted by Natalia Balyasnikova
Opportunities for social connection and engagement change the lives of people who have #Alzheimers disease and other forms of #dementia, and for those who offer them love and support.
#caregiving #purpose #mentalhealth #wellbeing
#caregiving #purpose #mentalhealth #wellbeing
Her mother was struggling with dementia. Then she had an idea that transformed her — and other isolated seniors in the GTA
Marina Korneeva started a social club in the party room of her condo building. The positive impacts were immediate, but now the club’s future is in doubt.
www.thestar.com
December 31, 2024 at 1:47 AM
Opportunities for social connection and engagement change the lives of people who have #Alzheimers disease and other forms of #dementia, and for those who offer them love and support.
#caregiving #purpose #mentalhealth #wellbeing
#caregiving #purpose #mentalhealth #wellbeing
Reposted by Natalia Balyasnikova
Recently talked to a student who admitted to using ChatGPT as a study device - by feeding it all of the class lecture slides and having it generate summaries. So now OpenAI has ownership of all the slides my co-instructor and I created from scratch…
December 23, 2024 at 5:22 PM
Recently talked to a student who admitted to using ChatGPT as a study device - by feeding it all of the class lecture slides and having it generate summaries. So now OpenAI has ownership of all the slides my co-instructor and I created from scratch…
“If anything, the AI cheating crisis has exposed how transactional the process of gaining a degree has become.”
www.theguardian.com/technology/2...
www.theguardian.com/technology/2...
‘I received a first but it felt tainted and undeserved’: inside the university AI cheating crisis
More than half of students are now using generative AI, casting a shadow over campuses as tutors and students turn on each other and hardworking learners are caught in the flak. Will Coldwell reports ...
www.theguardian.com
December 15, 2024 at 11:39 PM
ChatGPT has completely destroyed any value of verbs like “foster” and “emerge”; also “it’s not x, it’s y” and “let’s do x” structures. I mourn these, but every time I see them in text, I can’t help but think AI wrote it. ☹️
December 15, 2024 at 4:23 PM
ChatGPT has completely destroyed any value of verbs like “foster” and “emerge”; also “it’s not x, it’s y” and “let’s do x” structures. I mourn these, but every time I see them in text, I can’t help but think AI wrote it. ☹️
Reposted by Natalia Balyasnikova
From a former educator's standpoint, people miss that in school the point isn't the product — both with research and writing. Rather, the point is the skills learned like media literacy, critical thinking, argumentation, and reasoning. Use GenAI and you're surrendering your growth.
"I used GenAI to research this topic"
The research:
The research:
December 15, 2024 at 2:46 PM
From a former educator's standpoint, people miss that in school the point isn't the product — both with research and writing. Rather, the point is the skills learned like media literacy, critical thinking, argumentation, and reasoning. Use GenAI and you're surrendering your growth.
Reposted by Natalia Balyasnikova
"I used GenAI to research this topic"
The research:
The research:
December 15, 2024 at 10:48 AM
"I used GenAI to research this topic"
The research:
The research:
Reposted by Natalia Balyasnikova
Reposted by Natalia Balyasnikova
Nobody wants a student essay as a product; we want students to learn to compose their thoughts in written form as a process. I mean, would you have a machine run your laps or play your scales for you? In which case we would not say you had run or played.
This is what's so baffling about so many suggestions for AI in the humanities classroom: they mistake the product for the point. Writing outlines and essays is important not because you need to make outlines and essays but because that's how you learn to think with/through complex ideas.
I'm sure many have said this before but I'm reading a student-facing document about how students might use AI in the classroom (if allowed) and one of the recs is: use AI to make an outline of your reading! But ISN'T MAKING THE OUTLINE how one actually learns?
December 13, 2024 at 8:01 PM
Nobody wants a student essay as a product; we want students to learn to compose their thoughts in written form as a process. I mean, would you have a machine run your laps or play your scales for you? In which case we would not say you had run or played.
Reposted by Natalia Balyasnikova
How to say I miss you, around the world...
6. You are missing from me (French)
5. I feel the lack of you (Estonian)
4. I see a need of you (Welsh)
3. The thoughts of you come to me often (Hindi)
2. My heart has become tight for you (Farsi)
1. You coming home soon or what? (Mancunian)
6. You are missing from me (French)
5. I feel the lack of you (Estonian)
4. I see a need of you (Welsh)
3. The thoughts of you come to me often (Hindi)
2. My heart has become tight for you (Farsi)
1. You coming home soon or what? (Mancunian)
December 11, 2024 at 5:15 PM
How to say I miss you, around the world...
6. You are missing from me (French)
5. I feel the lack of you (Estonian)
4. I see a need of you (Welsh)
3. The thoughts of you come to me often (Hindi)
2. My heart has become tight for you (Farsi)
1. You coming home soon or what? (Mancunian)
6. You are missing from me (French)
5. I feel the lack of you (Estonian)
4. I see a need of you (Welsh)
3. The thoughts of you come to me often (Hindi)
2. My heart has become tight for you (Farsi)
1. You coming home soon or what? (Mancunian)
This semester I had a honour of collaborating with The Kimel Family Centre for Brain Health and Wellness of Baycrest Health Sciences. The specific program's focus is on reducing dementia risk in adults aged 50+.
December 11, 2024 at 11:03 PM
This semester I had a honour of collaborating with The Kimel Family Centre for Brain Health and Wellness of Baycrest Health Sciences. The specific program's focus is on reducing dementia risk in adults aged 50+.
So proud of our work as the Artem Collective. What started as book club with @yecidortega.bsky.social and @melaniemwong.bsky.social to think through #CreativeResearchMethods is now a collective of scholar friends writing together. And our first paper is out now! nsuworks.nova.edu/tqr/vol29/is...
Collaborative Creative Inquiry: An Arts-Informed Approach to Transdisciplinary Research
This paper presents Collaborative Creative Inquiry (CCI) as innovative arts-informed approach to transdisciplinary research. Moving away from conventional qualitative research paradigms, we adopt a re...
nsuworks.nova.edu
December 9, 2024 at 6:12 PM
So proud of our work as the Artem Collective. What started as book club with @yecidortega.bsky.social and @melaniemwong.bsky.social to think through #CreativeResearchMethods is now a collective of scholar friends writing together. And our first paper is out now! nsuworks.nova.edu/tqr/vol29/is...
Playful pedagogies forever
December 6, 2024 at 12:39 PM
Playful pedagogies forever
Reposted by Natalia Balyasnikova
🔊 Call for papers!
Join us for the @britsoci.bsky.social Presidential Event, in collaboration with the BSA Education Study Group.
⏳ Deadline: 30 January 2025
💬 Theme: The Future of the Sociology of Education
📅 Date: 6 June 2025
📍 Place: BSA Meeting Room, London
🔗 britsoc.co.uk/events/key-b...
Join us for the @britsoci.bsky.social Presidential Event, in collaboration with the BSA Education Study Group.
⏳ Deadline: 30 January 2025
💬 Theme: The Future of the Sociology of Education
📅 Date: 6 June 2025
📍 Place: BSA Meeting Room, London
🔗 britsoc.co.uk/events/key-b...
December 5, 2024 at 9:28 AM
🔊 Call for papers!
Join us for the @britsoci.bsky.social Presidential Event, in collaboration with the BSA Education Study Group.
⏳ Deadline: 30 January 2025
💬 Theme: The Future of the Sociology of Education
📅 Date: 6 June 2025
📍 Place: BSA Meeting Room, London
🔗 britsoc.co.uk/events/key-b...
Join us for the @britsoci.bsky.social Presidential Event, in collaboration with the BSA Education Study Group.
⏳ Deadline: 30 January 2025
💬 Theme: The Future of the Sociology of Education
📅 Date: 6 June 2025
📍 Place: BSA Meeting Room, London
🔗 britsoc.co.uk/events/key-b...
This is so true and timely: "Lifelong learning provides multiple benefits such as knowledge accumulation, adaptive competence, mental health and social belonging, enabling empowerment and resilience for a successful life." elmmagazine.eu/i-argue-the-...
Dr. Satya Brink: “Learning knows no age limits”
Technology is evolving at an exponential rate and skills must be learned to survive in a digital environment through a longer life.
elmmagazine.eu
December 5, 2024 at 12:36 PM
This is so true and timely: "Lifelong learning provides multiple benefits such as knowledge accumulation, adaptive competence, mental health and social belonging, enabling empowerment and resilience for a successful life." elmmagazine.eu/i-argue-the-...
There is no one right way to tell a story! Celebrate minds (and storytellers) of all kinds.
December 2, 2024 at 6:05 PM
There is no one right way to tell a story! Celebrate minds (and storytellers) of all kinds.
When in doubt — stickers.
December 1, 2024 at 12:20 AM
When in doubt — stickers.