Talking with machines

Advocacy, access, equity, and support for students and faculty, as AI is adopted in a multicultural urban college.

A conversation with Chris Weidenbach, an English professor at Laney College in Oakland, California, and the longtime chair of the English department. We are joined by professors Tom Haymes and Bryan Alexander to discuss our experiences teaching, learning and using “AI.” Our conversation started with Chris’s lifelong engagement with human rights advocacy and expanding access and equity in his multicultural urban institution. Chris was an early adopter of using WP websites to expand student access to resources and offering different digital technologies, some barriers to entry for students and their hesitancy with many tools and the introduction of “AI.” We discussed professional development and support for faculty, some of their resistance, and creating an AI policy and its application. We finished with ways faculty can offer assignments beyond just requiring text responses and the many ways students can learn. Talking with machines by Mark Corbett Wilson @mcorbettwilson on social media

Storytelling, Education, and AI in this Chaotic Political Moment

A conversation with Joe Lambert, an innovator of telling stories using digital technologies, educator, and co-founder of StoryCenter.org (originally the Center for Digital Storytelling), about his work in these unsettled times. We are joined by professors Tom Haymes and Bryan Alexander to discuss our experiences teaching, learning and using “AI.” Joe reflects on his work designing ASU’s 100 Year EdTech Project and other futures work, past and present. Much of our conversation was about adapting or resisting the new political climate both in higher education and the general culture. Joe and his team have brought digital storytelling to nearly 100 countries in circumstances ranging from universities to war torn refugee camps and their traumatized survivors. After more than four decades, this summer he’s looking forward to not seeing his boss in the mirror as he plans the next phase of his life. Talking with machines by Mark Corbett Wilson @mcorbettwilson on social media

Artificial Intelligence, Abolition, and Luxury Surveillance

A conversation with Dr. Chris Gilliard, Co-Director of The Critical Internet Studies Institute, about his approach to writing, privacy, and “artificial intelligence.” We are joined by professors Tom Haymes and Bryan Alexander to discuss our experiences teaching and learning, and Chris starts by explaining his stance as an “AI abolitionist.” He shares his critiques of the many aspects of “AI”: their creation, use, and the culture that produces these digital tools. Chris asserts that ideology is built into digital technology, and he quotes Rob Horning: “GenAI is a tool of power that masquerades as a tool of knowledge.” Chris goes on to observe: “Some of the worst people in the world want us to use these tools.” Chris taught rhetoric and composition in community colleges for decades, but left to pursue other opportunities before the explosion of “AI” in academia. This has allowed him to be an absolutist: he hasn’t used LLMs or ”AI” at all. Chris insists that writing must be embodied and cannot be generated by algorithms. He is currently writing “Luxury Surveillance,” defined as “consensual surveillance that users pay for directly, and whose tracking, monitoring, and quantification features are understood by the user as benefits that they are likely to celebrate” on the Critical Internet Studies Institute website. In our conversation, Chris summarized it as “Ankle monitors and Apple watches are essentially the same thing.” Resources The Critical Internet Studies Institute https://www.criticalinternet.org/ [https://www.criticalinternet.org/] Why They Can’t Write: Killing the Five-Paragraph Essay and Other Necessities; The Writer’s Practice: Building Confidence in Your Nonfiction Writing; More Than Words: How to Think About Writing in the Age of AI; All by John Warner https://www.hachettebookgroup.com/titles/john-warner/more-than-words/9781541605503/ [https://www.hachettebookgroup.com/titles/john-warner/more-than-words/9781541605503/] Defining AI by Ali Alkhatib 06 December 2024 https://ali-alkhatib.com/blog/defining-ai [https://ali-alkhatib.com/blog/defining-ai] Rob Horning AI - GenAI is a tool of power that masquerades as a tool of knowledge. https://robhorning.substack.com/p/practico-inertia [https://robhorning.substack.com/p/practico-inertia] https://robhorning.substack.com/p/artificial-intentionality [https://robhorning.substack.com/p/artificial-intentionality] David Golumbia https://davidgolumbia.medium.com/chatgpt-should-not-exist-aab0867abace [https://davidgolumbia.medium.com/chatgpt-should-not-exist-aab0867abace] Brian Merchant https://www.bloodinthemachine.com/p/openais-studio-ghibli-meme-factory [https://www.bloodinthemachine.com/p/openais-studio-ghibli-meme-factory] On the Dangers of Stochastic Parrots: Can Language Models Be Too Big? 🦜 https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3442188.3445922 [https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3442188.3445922] Facebook Has a Genocide Problem by Alex Shephard March 15, 2018 https://newrepublic.com/article/147486/facebook-genocide-problem [https://newrepublic.com/article/147486/facebook-genocide-problem] Allies and Rivals: German-American Exchange and the Rise of the Modern Research University by Emily J. Levine https://press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/chicago/A/bo22804958.html [https://press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/chicago/A/bo22804958.html] Talking with machines by Mark Corbett Wilson @mcorbettwilson on social media

Intentionally Equitable Hospitality as Critical Instructional Design

A conversation with Dr. Maha Bali about “Intentionally Equitable Hospitality” (IEH) and how this professional development journey emerged from her earlier projects Virtually Connecting and Equity Unbound. A professor of practice at the Center for Learning and Teaching at the American University in Cairo, we were joined by professors Tom Haymes and Bryan Alexander to discuss our experiences teaching and learning with digital technologies. IEH offers opportunities to engage with marginalized perspectives, encourage critical thinking and accessibility, and create more welcoming and equitable learning spaces. We explored the many literacies needed today, including visual thinking, creating and using images, and the use of “AI” models despite their limitations, especially for language translation. Mike Caulfield’s SIFT model to assess information was mentioned and his latest version designed to use with Claude.ai. As always, we approached these issues from both ‘open’ and institutional perspectives, and in the context of our current political climate. Maha’s cake baking and decorating metaphors added the frosting to this episode. Intentionally Equitable Hospitality 2025 registration https://www.eventbrite.com/e/intentionally-equitable-hospitality-ieh-series-15-april-6-may-2025-tickets-1291237107949 [https://www.eventbrite.com/e/intentionally-equitable-hospitality-ieh-series-15-april-6-may-2025-tickets-1291237107949] Intentionally Equitable Hospitality Series for May 2024 https://equityunbound.org/ieh-series-may-204/ [https://equityunbound.org/ieh-series-may-204/] Intentionally Equitable Hospitality as Critical Instructional Design by Maha Bali and Mia Zamora https://pressbooks.pub/designingforcare/chapter/intentionally-equitable-hospitality-as-critical-instructional-design/ [https://pressbooks.pub/designingforcare/chapter/intentionally-equitable-hospitality-as-critical-instructional-design/] Equity Unbound is hosting MYFest again this year! June through August 2025. The “Mid-Year Festival” (MYFest) is a “recharge and renewal experience” exploring community building, critical pedagogy, socially just education, AI in education, open educational practices, digital literacies, and activities that support wellbeing and joy. https://equityunbound.org/ [https://equityunbound.org/] “Visual language: global communication for the 21st century” by Robert Horn 1998 https://archive.org/details/visuallanguagegl0000horn [https://archive.org/details/visuallanguagegl0000horn] MyEssayFeedback uses AI to offer students detailed and fast formative feedback on their essays under the guidance of an instructor or tutor. https://myessayfeedback.ai/ [https://myessayfeedback.ai/] SIFT Toolbox for Claude Released: I don’t know how to explain how much this changes everything, so I’m just going to ask you to try it. By Mike Caulfield Mar 31, 2025 https://mikecaulfield.substack.com/p/sift-toolbox-for-claude-and-chatgpt [https://mikecaulfield.substack.com/p/sift-toolbox-for-claude-and-chatgpt] Talking with machines by Mark Corbett Wilson @mcorbettwilson on social media

Challenges in higher education from a new federal administration

This episode of “Talking with machines” features a conversation with Professor Robert Brem from California State University East Bay and the College of Alameda community college. I was joined by Tom Haymes and Bryan Alexander as we discussed recent challenges in higher education, the US Department of Education, and the political factions supporting change. We talked abut the structure and administration of our institutions, how they adapt to new technologies, and then compared our different positions, experiences with learners, viewpoints on recent trends, and what the future of education may hold. Talking with machines by Mark Corbett Wilson @mcorbettwilson on social media