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x-syenite.bsky.social
syenite
@x-syenite.bsky.social
reader, elementary educator, candy corn enthusiast. ig: ifyougiveateacheraclassroom. she/her
Reposted by syenite
Not only will AI grading be the end of teaching because of the labor dynamics Marc covers, but it kicks off a process of what I call "self-alienation" where the teachers gradually remove themselves from the essential human experiences of their own work.
October 10, 2025 at 1:23 PM
Reposted by syenite
I strongly urge everyone to not just read this warning from @marcwatkins.bsky.social, but heed it, and be vocal and forceful pushing back against using AI to grade student writing. This must be anathema if we're going to have a world where learning means something. substack.com/inbox/post/1...
The Dangers of using AI to Grade
Nobody Learns, Nobody Gains
substack.com
October 10, 2025 at 1:16 PM
Reposted by syenite
It is morally wrong to want a computer to be sentient. If you owned a sentient thing, you would be a slaver. If you want sentient computers to exist, you just want to create a new kind of slavery. The ethics are as simple as that. Sorry if this offends
October 5, 2025 at 12:46 PM
Reposted by syenite
Preliminary results show that the current framework of "AI" makes ppl less likely to help or seek help from other humans, or to seek to soothe conflict, and that people actively prefer that framework to any others, literally serving to make them more dependent on it.
Sycophantic AI Decreases Prosocial Intentions and Promotes Dependence
Both the general public and academic communities have raised concerns about sycophancy, the phenomenon of artificial intelligence (AI) excessively agreeing with or flattering users. Yet, beyond isolat...
arxiv.org
October 5, 2025 at 5:45 PM
Reposted by syenite
anyway, reminder that Brando Sando is a mormon in good standing aka he tithes 10% of his income to a church that just announced they filed a brief saying that protecting trans rights infringes on their religious freedom ✌️
We are THRILLED to reveal the gorgeous cover for Isles of the Emberdark, a new Cosmere novel from none other than Brandon Sanderson, arriving February 3, 2026 from Tor Books

reactormag.com/cover-reveal...
Revealing Isles of the Emberdark, a New Standalone in the Cosmere Universe by Brandon Sanderson - Reactor
Sanderson's new novel navigates the seas and the stars of a far-future Cosmere...
reactormag.com
September 30, 2025 at 8:59 PM
Reposted by syenite
"The children are always ours, every single one of them, all over the globe; and I am beginning to suspect that whoever is incapable of recognizing this may be incapable of morality."
- James Baldwin
July 6, 2025 at 3:28 AM
Reposted by syenite
This keeps getting overlooked because we’ve been doing this with tech for the past 20 years in schools.
Even though AI tools have and are expected to improve, children in schools shouldn’t be used as tech firms’ guinea pigs for undertested, unregulated products while AI firms engage elected officials in actively resisting regulation.
The Senate’s AI Ban Applies to Every State, Not Just BEAD Recipients
Senate Republicans’ latest tax and budget bill draft includes a standalone 10-year federal ban on most state and local AI regulations, blocking states from addressing key harms such as algorithmic dis...
www.americanprogress.org
June 28, 2025 at 1:09 PM
Reposted by syenite
"Over four months, LLM users consistently underperformed at neural, linguistic, and behavioral levels."

arxiv.org/abs/2506.08872
Your Brain on ChatGPT: Accumulation of Cognitive Debt when Using an AI Assistant for Essay Writing Task
This study explores the neural and behavioral consequences of LLM-assisted essay writing. Participants were divided into three groups: LLM, Search Engine, and Brain-only (no tools). Each completed thr...
arxiv.org
June 15, 2025 at 12:33 PM
Reposted by syenite
I wish I could say I was surprised but I'm not.
At least now it's in the open
(if you're spending money on Harry Potter, watching Harry Potter themed stuff etc., please reconsider in view of where this money might be going?)
JK Rowling has emerged from the shadows as a funder of the anti-feminist biology is destiny movement.
May 24, 2025 at 10:08 AM
Started Paladin’s Strength and on page 5 I am already grinning and giggling #booksky
May 24, 2025 at 7:47 AM
I was planning a sort of “kids books we love that feature food” post and I had three in mind. Then I started reorganizing toddler’s bookshelf and bringing out books that had been in another room for a while, and what do I see - Bilal Cooks Daal (which was immediately requested to be read)
May 23, 2025 at 3:47 AM
Reposted by syenite
Absolutely OBSESSED with how these macarons inspired by The Spear Cuts Through Water turned out!!! I can't wait to mail these out to @ebook-em.bsky.social who won the Macarons 4 Trans Rights Giveaway 🙌 💙📚 #Booksky #bookrecommendations #fantasybooks #thespearcutsthroughwater
May 19, 2025 at 4:30 PM
Started Untamed Shore yesterday as part of my quest to read all of Silvia Moreno-Garcia's novels an short fiction. Took a break from this journey and now i am BACK and was immediately reminded of how much enjoy her writing
May 19, 2025 at 5:30 AM
Reposted by syenite
i dont want to be a killjoy but we desperately need to make it socially unacceptable to talk about asking chatgpt things in regular conversation
May 18, 2025 at 9:40 PM
I've been reading short stories and novellettes as I try to read through stuff for the hugos and I really need to make reading short fiction a regular part of my reading life
May 18, 2025 at 4:04 AM
Reposted by syenite
Seriously, do not buy, stream, or otherwise support of promote more Harry Potter bullshit. It is no longer theoretical - Rowling is funelling those wizard bucks into getting the law changed to actively oppress an already-vulnerable minority.
May 17, 2025 at 10:34 PM
Reposted by syenite
this is a letter to the editor from a high school track runner who came in second to a trans girl in a race. her state house rep in maine started talking about it. so she wrote this: www.pressherald.com/2025/05/14/r...
May 16, 2025 at 3:25 AM
Reposted by syenite
but there’s no such thing as someone else’s children.

(From One Day, Everyone Will Have Always Been Against This, by Omar El Akkad)
May 16, 2025 at 12:50 PM
Reposted by syenite
I'm not sure how you read this paragraph from @bcmerchant.bsky.social today and reach the conclusion that AI/GenAI is something you should be welcoming into your teaching and asking students to embrace as ~the future of learning~ Read the post at: www.bloodinthemachine.com/p/de-democra...
May 16, 2025 at 1:36 PM
Reposted by syenite
If you are embracing "AI" in schools, it's not your students' futures you are looking out for. It is these guys'.
May 16, 2025 at 12:24 PM
Reposted by syenite
ICE pretended to arrest a 21 yo in order to force her to call her undocumented mother to come leave the house (where she was safe from ICE arrest) to care for her baby. When the mother came, she was abducted and the daughter was suddenly of no interest to ICE.

www.rollingstone.com/politics/pol...
May 14, 2025 at 2:54 PM
Reposted by syenite
“Remember that nobody deserves to be lied to; and no child deserves to be rendered ill. Retain your humanity. Pull your boots back on. And keep going.”
everyone even mildly into polar exploration knows how badly vitamin A can fuck you up, and seeing the Health Secretary of the US recommend megadoses to measles patients made me so mad i wrote about it. im so angry at this malthusian ghoul buttondown.com/theswordandt...
The Poisoning of the American Mind
The winds at Cape Denison on the Australasian Antarctic Expedition, photographed by Frank Hurley, 1912 In the emptiness of Antarctica, on a desolate stretch...
buttondown.com
May 14, 2025 at 4:45 PM
This topic is what I structured my research around for one of my grad class major projects last semester, interested in reading this much larger scale study about it
EveryLibrary's Martha McGehee and John Chrastka have had an article, "Parent Perceptions of Book Bans, Materials Selection, and Reading in School Libraries and Public Libraries," published in Public Library Quarterly. Learn more at the link below.

buff.ly/1dzRNeR
www.tandfonline.com
May 13, 2025 at 8:36 PM