Pauline Ridley
@paulineridley.bsky.social
Educational developer, ex art historian, interested in education, visual literacy (https://blogs.brighton.ac.uk/visuallearning/), dress history, local (East Sussex) history https://dallingtonhistory.uk - also here for other random unexpected stuff
Reposted by Pauline Ridley
This hits a lot of the notes I've been shouting from the rooftops: the frictionlessness of both producing and consuming slop, and the value of labor as friction that lets us slow down and think. Rather than "unlocking creativity" it's rendering our collective creativity down into a big vat of slop.
Hi. I wrote an essay about AI slop: How it feels like an invasive species for the internet. How its boosters describe building a future that’s devoid of craft. How frictionlessness can be nihilistic & how this stuff seems to leach part of our shared humanity out of the world. I hope you'll read it.
AI’s Invasive Species
The slop is winning.
www.theatlantic.com
October 21, 2025 at 12:55 PM
This hits a lot of the notes I've been shouting from the rooftops: the frictionlessness of both producing and consuming slop, and the value of labor as friction that lets us slow down and think. Rather than "unlocking creativity" it's rendering our collective creativity down into a big vat of slop.
Reposted by Pauline Ridley
We told anyone who would listen that boiling learning down to a multiple-choice question assessment at the end of each year would lead to teaching to the test. That teachers would feel forced to teach test-taking strategies rather than teaching life strategies
jesspiper.substack.com/p/silencing-...
jesspiper.substack.com/p/silencing-...
Silencing Mockingbirds
Reading is resistance
jesspiper.substack.com
October 8, 2025 at 1:58 PM
We told anyone who would listen that boiling learning down to a multiple-choice question assessment at the end of each year would lead to teaching to the test. That teachers would feel forced to teach test-taking strategies rather than teaching life strategies
jesspiper.substack.com/p/silencing-...
jesspiper.substack.com/p/silencing-...
Reposted by Pauline Ridley
Even those of us working in universities but on teaching-only contracts are excluded from a variety of opportunities and funding.
With yet another university hosted event closed to 'non academics' (aka those not employed by a university)* I'm just going to leave this piece by @drhelenkara.bsky.social and myself here blogs.lse.ac.uk/impactofsoci...
* yes I know it's utter nonsense and academics/researchers exist outside unis
* yes I know it's utter nonsense and academics/researchers exist outside unis
Institutional affiliation should not be a requirement for doing research - Impact of Social Sciences
Universities espouse a universalist approach to creating research-based knowledge. Helen Kara & Petra Boynton argue, from the outside these claims are hollow.
blogs.lse.ac.uk
October 7, 2025 at 4:58 PM
Even those of us working in universities but on teaching-only contracts are excluded from a variety of opportunities and funding.
Reposted by Pauline Ridley
Those interlibrary loan staff and other library staff who produce scans of articles and book chapters that are perfectly done and a pleasure to read ought to know that their skill and extra effort is appreciated. #Libraries
September 23, 2025 at 6:01 PM
Those interlibrary loan staff and other library staff who produce scans of articles and book chapters that are perfectly done and a pleasure to read ought to know that their skill and extra effort is appreciated. #Libraries
Reposted by Pauline Ridley
👀
A new study, based on a survey of 1,150 workers suggests that the injection of AI tools into the workplace has not resulted in a magic productivity boom and instead increased the amount of time that workers say they spend fixing low-quality AI-generated “work.”
🔗 www.404media.co/ai-workslop-...
🔗 www.404media.co/ai-workslop-...
AI ‘Workslop’ Is Killing Productivity and Making Workers Miserable
AI slop is taking over workplaces. Workers said that they thought of their colleagues who filed low-quality AI work as "less creative, capable, and reliable than they did before receiving the output."
www.404media.co
September 23, 2025 at 6:23 PM
👀
Reposted by Pauline Ridley
Ted Chiang:
"The task that generative A.I. has been most successful at is lowering our expectations, both of the things we read and of ourselves when we write [...]. It is a fundamentally dehumanizing technology because it treats us as less than what we are: creators and apprehenders of meaning."
"The task that generative A.I. has been most successful at is lowering our expectations, both of the things we read and of ourselves when we write [...]. It is a fundamentally dehumanizing technology because it treats us as less than what we are: creators and apprehenders of meaning."
December 17, 2024 at 11:50 AM
Ted Chiang:
"The task that generative A.I. has been most successful at is lowering our expectations, both of the things we read and of ourselves when we write [...]. It is a fundamentally dehumanizing technology because it treats us as less than what we are: creators and apprehenders of meaning."
"The task that generative A.I. has been most successful at is lowering our expectations, both of the things we read and of ourselves when we write [...]. It is a fundamentally dehumanizing technology because it treats us as less than what we are: creators and apprehenders of meaning."
Reposted by Pauline Ridley
Over the summer, students worked with me & @susannah-lw.bsky.social on the #StudentSalon project, where they helped us assemble a cabinet of 17th & 18th century objects. Our webpage is now live and full of incredible, student-led resources - please check it out!
blogs.york.ac.uk/student-salo...
blogs.york.ac.uk/student-salo...
The Student Salon – The Student Salon Project
blogs.york.ac.uk
September 18, 2025 at 2:53 PM
Over the summer, students worked with me & @susannah-lw.bsky.social on the #StudentSalon project, where they helped us assemble a cabinet of 17th & 18th century objects. Our webpage is now live and full of incredible, student-led resources - please check it out!
blogs.york.ac.uk/student-salo...
blogs.york.ac.uk/student-salo...
Reposted by Pauline Ridley
this iconic advertising copywriter named Kathy Hepinstall Parks died over the weekend and I wanted to share something from her website I thought Bluesky would like
August 22, 2025 at 2:20 PM
this iconic advertising copywriter named Kathy Hepinstall Parks died over the weekend and I wanted to share something from her website I thought Bluesky would like
Reposted by Pauline Ridley
We’re trying to survive an era bought and twisted by a handful of men my age, who were themselves shaped by 1970s and 80s South Africa.
Notably Peter Thiel and Elon Musk. (Also lesser figures like David Sacks, and Patrick Soon-Shiong, who controls the LA Times.)
Notably Peter Thiel and Elon Musk. (Also lesser figures like David Sacks, and Patrick Soon-Shiong, who controls the LA Times.)
June 23, 2025 at 11:32 PM
We’re trying to survive an era bought and twisted by a handful of men my age, who were themselves shaped by 1970s and 80s South Africa.
Notably Peter Thiel and Elon Musk. (Also lesser figures like David Sacks, and Patrick Soon-Shiong, who controls the LA Times.)
Notably Peter Thiel and Elon Musk. (Also lesser figures like David Sacks, and Patrick Soon-Shiong, who controls the LA Times.)
Reposted by Pauline Ridley
This. An emergency recall of parliament on a weekend for British Steel. Nothing at all for UK HE which employs far more people, has already shed 10,000 academic jobs, with several institutions on the brink of collapse.
A reminder: we train all the doctors, teachers, engineers, nurses, lawyers &c &c
A reminder: we train all the doctors, teachers, engineers, nurses, lawyers &c &c
British Steel employs 3.6k people. Coventry Uni group, which auditors say may not survive, employs 7.7k. But there is an emergency debate in parliament for British Steel and nothing for the whole HE sector imploding
Why is the government and the news so indifferent to the meltdown happening in UK #HigherEd right now?
Our universities are the envy of the world. Yet we are at risk of losing a generation of academics and damaging the sector beyond repair.
Our universities are the envy of the world. Yet we are at risk of losing a generation of academics and damaging the sector beyond repair.
April 12, 2025 at 8:24 AM
This. An emergency recall of parliament on a weekend for British Steel. Nothing at all for UK HE which employs far more people, has already shed 10,000 academic jobs, with several institutions on the brink of collapse.
A reminder: we train all the doctors, teachers, engineers, nurses, lawyers &c &c
A reminder: we train all the doctors, teachers, engineers, nurses, lawyers &c &c
Reposted by Pauline Ridley
This was an excellent read.
Why we think physician associates in the UK are a failed experiment. #healthpolicy #medsky
independentsage.substack.com/p/physician-...
independentsage.substack.com/p/physician-...
Physician Associates in the UK: a failed experiment?
Profs Trish Greenhalgh and Martin McKee discuss the latest evidence on the use of PAs in the UK
independentsage.substack.com
April 8, 2025 at 8:31 AM
This was an excellent read.
Reposted by Pauline Ridley
If you like this account please do give it a share! We are really struggling to get engagement on this platform. London’s geology is more varied than you think and we are here to spread the word, look after and promote London’s geosites #londongeology
April 8, 2025 at 5:53 PM
If you like this account please do give it a share! We are really struggling to get engagement on this platform. London’s geology is more varied than you think and we are here to spread the word, look after and promote London’s geosites #londongeology
Reposted by Pauline Ridley
Okay. The uncomfortable opinion I would like ministers to consider is that they're letting everybody who bloody voted for them down through their refusal to challenge a single right wing culture war shibboleth.
March 26, 2025 at 7:02 PM
Okay. The uncomfortable opinion I would like ministers to consider is that they're letting everybody who bloody voted for them down through their refusal to challenge a single right wing culture war shibboleth.
Reposted by Pauline Ridley
Posting- or retweeting- anything made with generative AI is a pretty instant unfollow from me. I know I can’t tell other people not to use it, but it goes so firmly against my own moral codes on both plagiarism and climate sustainability that I simply cannot interact with it.
March 29, 2025 at 1:35 PM
Posting- or retweeting- anything made with generative AI is a pretty instant unfollow from me. I know I can’t tell other people not to use it, but it goes so firmly against my own moral codes on both plagiarism and climate sustainability that I simply cannot interact with it.
Reposted by Pauline Ridley
I think the curse of the modern world is believing that everything should be free if you want it.
March 27, 2025 at 10:00 AM
I think the curse of the modern world is believing that everything should be free if you want it.
Reposted by Pauline Ridley
This is Labour’s poll tax. Its tuition fees. It is - as Iraq was for Blair - the moral stain that will mark Starmer’s government and the party for years to come. Severely disabled people are going to be starved, isolated and degraded. No Labour MP who backs this will be forgiven.
March 26, 2025 at 6:58 PM
This is Labour’s poll tax. Its tuition fees. It is - as Iraq was for Blair - the moral stain that will mark Starmer’s government and the party for years to come. Severely disabled people are going to be starved, isolated and degraded. No Labour MP who backs this will be forgiven.
Reposted by Pauline Ridley
Good morning! I'll be on this with @drhelenkara.bsky.social later today
Creativity isn’t just for art—it's a powerful research tool! 🧠✨
Learn how creative methods are reshaping power dynamics in knowledge production at our webinar on March 24.
@drhelenkara.bsky.social
📍Online | 🎥Recording available.
Register: buff.ly/BJ3BrZj
Learn how creative methods are reshaping power dynamics in knowledge production at our webinar on March 24.
@drhelenkara.bsky.social
📍Online | 🎥Recording available.
Register: buff.ly/BJ3BrZj
March 24, 2025 at 9:35 AM
Good morning! I'll be on this with @drhelenkara.bsky.social later today
Reposted by Pauline Ridley
I'm honoured to be part of the Editorial Board of this brand new #journal working with a great team of people to advance scholarship in #CreativeResearchMethods 🤓
We’re delighted to introduce you to our latest journal!
The Journal of #CreativeResearchMethods
Edited by @sumingkhoo.bsky.social, Harriet Shortt, @sophierwoodward.bsky.social and consulting editor @drhelenkara.bsky.social bristoluniversitypress.co.uk/journals/jou...
#ResearchMethods #Creativity
The Journal of #CreativeResearchMethods
Edited by @sumingkhoo.bsky.social, Harriet Shortt, @sophierwoodward.bsky.social and consulting editor @drhelenkara.bsky.social bristoluniversitypress.co.uk/journals/jou...
#ResearchMethods #Creativity
Journal Of Creative Research Methods
The Journal of Creative Research Methods is a space for the creative research methods community; it publishes critical and engaged work on creative research methods and welcomes contributions from aut...
bristoluniversitypress.co.uk
March 19, 2025 at 7:05 AM
I'm honoured to be part of the Editorial Board of this brand new #journal working with a great team of people to advance scholarship in #CreativeResearchMethods 🤓
Reposted by Pauline Ridley
There is no reason for Labour to choose austerity in next week's Spring Statement. If budget balancing is necessary, there are lots of ways in which more money could be raised from the better off. But Labour hates government now, and so austerity it will be.
www.taxresearch.org.uk/Blog/2025/03...
www.taxresearch.org.uk/Blog/2025/03...
Reeves is going to do austerity next week
According to the FT:
Chancellor Rachel Reeves will not raise taxes in next week’s Spring Statement, Labour officials said, as they tried to dismiss Conservative claims that she is preparing an “emerge...
www.taxresearch.org.uk
March 20, 2025 at 8:05 AM
There is no reason for Labour to choose austerity in next week's Spring Statement. If budget balancing is necessary, there are lots of ways in which more money could be raised from the better off. But Labour hates government now, and so austerity it will be.
www.taxresearch.org.uk/Blog/2025/03...
www.taxresearch.org.uk/Blog/2025/03...
Reposted by Pauline Ridley
It's a cliché, but isn't it funny how "making tough decisions" in government always involves hurting people who are in no state to fight back, rather than those who would feel no pain through being taxed?
March 11, 2025 at 7:43 AM
It's a cliché, but isn't it funny how "making tough decisions" in government always involves hurting people who are in no state to fight back, rather than those who would feel no pain through being taxed?
Reposted by Pauline Ridley
Recognising and responding to student concerns and distress (which may or may not be a mental health issue) is a key academic skill. Including discussing problems with confidence and effective signposting. Useful case study of this in practice here:
www.timeshighereducation.com/campus/how-k...
www.timeshighereducation.com/campus/how-k...
How to know when students need mental health assistance
Academic institutions have a rare opportunity to intervene to help students with mental health challenges, but this requires support and training for staff and faculty, writes Amy Epperley
www.timeshighereducation.com
February 21, 2025 at 3:20 PM
Recognising and responding to student concerns and distress (which may or may not be a mental health issue) is a key academic skill. Including discussing problems with confidence and effective signposting. Useful case study of this in practice here:
www.timeshighereducation.com/campus/how-k...
www.timeshighereducation.com/campus/how-k...
Reposted by Pauline Ridley
"If universities don’t start asking harder questions about AI’s real value, they’ll keep spending money they don’t have on tools their students don’t need—while real educational challenges go unresolved."
What’s really going on with campus-wide AI adoption is a mix of virtue signaling and panic purchasing. Universities aren’t paying for AI—they’re paying for the illusion of control.
open.substack.com/pub/marcwatk...
open.substack.com/pub/marcwatk...
The Costs of AI in Education
What’s really going on with campus-wide AI adoption is a mix of virtue signaling and panic purchasing. Universities aren’t paying for AI—they’re paying for the illusion of control. Institutions are bu...
open.substack.com
February 21, 2025 at 4:31 PM
"If universities don’t start asking harder questions about AI’s real value, they’ll keep spending money they don’t have on tools their students don’t need—while real educational challenges go unresolved."
Reposted by Pauline Ridley
A day in the life a British GP - an articulate advocate, dedicated doctor, and who also happens to be my son's godfather.
"Fix poverty, fix society ... and you fix a lot of health."
www.theguardian.com/uk-news/vide...
"Fix poverty, fix society ... and you fix a lot of health."
www.theguardian.com/uk-news/vide...
‘Fix poverty, fix health’: A day in the life of a ‘failing’ NHS
A GP surgery in one of the most deprived areas in the north-east of England is struggling to provide care for its patients as the health system crumbles around them. In the depths of the winter flu se...
www.theguardian.com
February 18, 2025 at 8:28 PM
A day in the life a British GP - an articulate advocate, dedicated doctor, and who also happens to be my son's godfather.
"Fix poverty, fix society ... and you fix a lot of health."
www.theguardian.com/uk-news/vide...
"Fix poverty, fix society ... and you fix a lot of health."
www.theguardian.com/uk-news/vide...