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David Buck

@dbuckedu.bsky.social
2.1K followers 3K following 788 posts

Professor of English at a community college. Teaching composition (online & hybrid). #TempleMade. Interested in #SDGs, #pedagogy, #ungrading, #AIResistance, & #OER. Ungrading.weebly.com

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David Buck @dbuckedu.bsky.social · 04/06/2025
Had a great session of the #MoreThanWords virtual book club yesterday! A wonderful group of caring, compassionate educators hoping to guide their students through the ubiquitous sludge of GenAI. We focused on writing as thinking, a uniquely human endeavor rather than a transactional experience.
Image of a brain merged with a computer chip. Under the image are the words: More Than Words Virtual Book Club
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David Buck @dbuckedu.bsky.social · 30/05/2025
An idea from The AI Con that has really helped me answer the Q: Why do some surrender voice, agency, & trust to a GenAI tool? — the human tendency when processing language to engage w/ “the mind behind the text.” When there’s no human behind the probability/plagiarism machine, we tend to invent one!
Though the most basic and fundamental use of language is in face-to-face communication, once we have acquired a linguistic system, we can use it to understand linguistic artitacts even in the absence of co-situatedness, at a distance of space and even time. But we still apply the same techniques of imagining the mind behind the text, constructing a model of common ground with the author, and seeking to guess what the author might have been using the words to get their audience to understand.

Language models, problematically, have no subjectivity with which to perform intersubjectivity. Despite the frequent claims of Al researchers, these models do not learn "just like children do." Simply modeling the distribution of words in text provides no access to meaning, nothing from which to deduce communicative intent. Language models thus represent nothing more than exttensive information about what sets of words are similar and what words are likely to appear in what contexts. While this isn't meaning or understanding, it is enough to produce plausible synthetic text, on just about any topic imaginable, which turns out to be quite dangerous: we encounter text that looks just like something a person might have said and reflexively interpret it, through our usual process of imagining a mind behind the text. But there is no mind there, and we need to be conscientious to let go of that imaginary mind we have constructed.
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David Buck @dbuckedu.bsky.social · 23/04/2025
Looking for some summer reading? Check out the FREE More Than Words virtual book club beginning in June! Join others actively considering how to center authentic writing/thinking in the age of AI. @biblioracle.bsky.social will be planning to join us for most sessions! forms.gle/ksGsyZjkzhwz...
Image of a brain merged with a computer chip. Under the image are the words: More Than Words Virtual Book Club
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David Buck @dbuckedu.bsky.social · 16/04/2025
Much of my #AIResistance in college comp courses is rooted in what I would like my students to DO with their writing. "[T]teachers don't ask students to write essays since the world needs more student essays. The point of writing essays is to strengthen students' critical-thinking skills."
Image of a presentation slide. Pedagogical concerns: "As the linguist Emily M. Bender has noted, teachers don’t ask students to write essays because the world needs more student essays. The point of writing essays is to strengthen students’ critical-thinking skills; in the same way that lifting weights is useful no matter what sport an athlete plays, writing essays develops skills necessary for whatever job a college student will eventually get. Using ChatGPT to complete assignments is like bringing a forklift into the weight room; you will never improve your cognitive fitness that way."
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David Buck @dbuckedu.bsky.social · 16/04/2025
Am wondering how college profs using Gen-AI can square up ethically to what is happening to some of our international students on multiple campuses. How does endorsing a tool from a company aligned with student surveillance and harassment fit into anyone's pedagogical ethos?! #AIResistance
Image of presentation slide. Political concerns: “Axios cited senior State Department officials to report that an AI-fueled ‘Catch and Revoke’ effort will include AI-assisted reviews of tens of thousands of student visa holders' social media accounts.” Photo of an article with students protesting in front of a university building while holding up a white banner.
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David Buck @dbuckedu.bsky.social · 06/04/2025
Exactly⎯it seems like we need to contort ourselves into rhetorical pretzels to rationalize the good in all of this! One of my favorite slides in my presentation is about the WHY of our writing classrooms. ⬇️ #AIResistance
Pedagogical Concerns

As the linguist Emily M. Bender has noted, teachers don’t ask students to write essays because the world needs more student essays. The point of writing essays is to strengthen students’ critical-thinking skills; in the same way that lifting weights is useful no matter what sport an athlete plays, writing essays develops skills necessary for whatever job a college student will eventually get. Using ChatGPT to complete assignments is like bringing a forklift into the weight room; you will never improve your cognitive fitness that way. 

Ted Chiang, “Why A.I. Isn’t Going to Make Art: To create a novel or a painting, an artist makes choices that are fundamentally alien to artificial intelligence.” The New Yorker
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David Buck @dbuckedu.bsky.social · 06/04/2025
One small nudge that I make in my #AIResistance pedagogy is the use of "Completion Statements" for student blog postings. We make an ethical agreement that we've resisted the use of GenAI in our writing⎯for the sake of our writing improvement & developing our unique writing voices, warts & all!
Question 3: I have NOT used any GenAI tool (ex: ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, Grammarly, Copilot, etc.) to generate content in my blog posting. My blog posting submission complies with Professor Buck's 🌐 Policy for AI Usage in ENGL-121Links to an external site..

My blog posting is 100% my wording and sentence structure (warts and all!). This ensures that I am interested in developing my unique writing voice. My focus is not on being perfect but on growing and improving within my writing practice. True/False
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David Buck @dbuckedu.bsky.social · 06/04/2025
Been thinking about how good this point is⎯thanks for this! Reminds me of one of my presentation slides. I'm planning to read Dan's book. ⬇️ #AIResistance
Broader Concerns

“AI can't be relied on to give a useful answer to a factual question, but it will still give an answer no matter how conspiratorial or delusional the question is. We can see how useful this is to the technofascist agenda in the way Elon Musk's DOGE team is using LLMs to decide which money to cut and who to fire, based on imaginary connections to hated concepts like ‘diversity’ and ‘inclusion.’”
—Dan McQuillan (interview with Diyar Saraçoğlu)

Image of Dan's book. Resisting AI on a blue background with technical webbing.
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David Buck @dbuckedu.bsky.social · 06/04/2025
Awesome! Love the ethos to “Do no harm.” And here is my version of the “AI is bullshit” point. ⬇️
Full-on Clarity!

“Bullshit is unavoidable whenever circumstances require someone [AI] to talk [write] without knowing what [it’s] talking [writing] about. Thus the production of bullshit is stimulated whenever a person’s [AI’s] obligations or opportunities to speak [write] about some topic exceed [its] knowledge of facts that are relevant to that topic. This discrepancy is common in public life [college], where people [LLMs] are frequently impelled — [. . .] by the demands of others [students] — to speak [write] extensively about matters of which they are to some degree ignorant.”

—Harry G. Frankfurt, On Bullshit, 2005
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David Buck @dbuckedu.bsky.social · 06/04/2025
Yes—I’m so happy that I’m following your lead! Here is my thesis slide—I’m arguing that all those webinars/presentations about “ethical AI” are basically about teaching student how to use GenAI “appropriately” w/o cheating. Nope—there’s a whole other world of ethics we should be talking about w/ Ss!
Ethical Concerns (which ethics are we talking about?) The 3 Es of AI refusal: Ethically compromised, Extractive (environment), Exploitive (human labor). An image of a webinar presentation.
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David Buck @dbuckedu.bsky.social · 06/04/2025
GenAI tools are so extractive that the LLMs are running out of training data. They’ve scraped so much that they’re looking for more human-produced intellectual property to steal. Plus AI models are training other AI models. The ouroboros myth come to life! Crappy data training crappy systems.
Image of a black snake eating its own tail. Based on the ancient Egyptian symbol representing the infinite cycle of time.
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David Buck @dbuckedu.bsky.social · 23/03/2025
Working on an AI-refusal presentation detailing my resistance to using Gen-AI tools in my freshman writing courses, and this is such a timely affirmation of my intentional choice to refuse! As @biblioracle.bsky.social consistently argues—our Ss writing can (& should) be so much more than mimicry.
An A.I. tool may learn how to superficially mimic the end result of writing, but it will never mimic a writer’s soul or how he or she actually produces meaningful writing — that process by which an individual idiosyncratic mind works out a problem, granting readers access to the inner life of another actual person, that constitutes the lifeblood of writing and storytelling.
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David Buck @dbuckedu.bsky.social · 04/02/2025
📢 Celebrate today's release of @biblioracle.bsky.social's More Than Words by signing up for our FREE Virtual Book Club! Join others actively considering how to center authentic writing (& thinking!) in the age of AI. John will be planning to join us for most sessions! forms.gle/ksGsyZjkzhwz...
Image of a brain merged with a computer chip. Under the image are the words: More Than Words Virtual Book Club
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David Buck @dbuckedu.bsky.social · 18/01/2025
The #unessay — another wonderful authentic activity to disrupt the compliance-based nature of traditional schooling and restore the JOY of learning! 👇🏻
UN (prefix): used for giving word the opposite meaning
• UNgrading-instead of grades, use feedback and student reflections to focus on learning rather than performance
• UNessay-instead of traditional academic formats, use authentic modes of writing (blogs, memes, websites)
• UNsyllabus—instead of boring, policy-driven syllabi, use a "liquid syllabus" as a humanizing first contact with students #HumanizeOL (via@brocansky.bsky.social)
• UNtextbook—instead of a costly commercial text, use a free openly licensed one
#OER
• UNLMS—instead of using an LMS, display your content in open, outward-facing platforms
• UNdiscussions-instead of a discussion board in an LMS, use social #annotation
• UNdisposable assignments-instead of using assignments that die with the course, design assignments that students can use in their lives after your course has ended (via@brocansky.bsky.social)
• UNconference—instead of traditional events with a keynote and a schedule of pre-planned sessions, encourage participants to drive the conversation and their learning #Edcamp
• UNleading-instead of a leadership based on compliance, hierarchy, or fear, lead from a position that encourages humanity, inclusion, reflection, and systemic change (via @VidyaShah6)
• UNstuffing-instead of over-packing a course with stuff like content/assignments, create moments of rest that enable curiosity and make pedagogic choices that allow students to marinate, to listen to their bodies, and to develop their curiosities organically (via @jessicazeller.bsky.social)
• UNlecture
—instead of long, drawn-out traditional lectures, provide micro-lectures
and bumper videos (2-3 min videos that clarify a sticky topic) (via @brocansky.bsky.social)
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David Buck @dbuckedu.bsky.social · 08/01/2025
Please join us for a promising and meaningful book club with author @josheyler.bsky.social. Josh has been wonderfully generous with his time and expertise. We have 76 folks signed up already. Hope you can join us in February! 😀
Image of a globe (earth) with a graduation cap on its top. On a banner midway across the globe are the words: Failing Our Future Virtual Book Club. The cap and globe are blue.
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David Buck @dbuckedu.bsky.social · 12/12/2024
#UngradingChat A3: Love this Q, it hits at the criticism that gradeless classes lack motivated Ss. But there is something special when Ss produce effort & motivation bc there ARE NO grades to limit them. When they are laboring for themselves & their own learning goals & they're enjoying the work!
What happens when we focus on labor rather than on grades? "I believe that the amount of time that went into my work showed in how well I did each assignment. I worked my hardest in this class, not just because I wanted a good grade. I worked hard because I thoroughly enjoyed the work that we did. I like being able to focus on labor because don't need to stress out too much about what grade I will get, and I feel that if I'm less stressed out I can produce better writing compared to when I'm anxious." — student reflection
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David Buck @dbuckedu.bsky.social · 08/12/2024
For me, something that *always* appears in these articles is this idea of “repurposed” time, where the AI deals w/ the supposed laborious work of teaching—like assessment. But if we do assessment in good-faith, we’re building those very relationships lauded in these types of pro-AI articles.
Assessment derives from the Latin “assidere” meaning to sit beside. Conferring is one of the most effective forms of authentic assessment.
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David Buck @dbuckedu.bsky.social · 07/12/2024
Love this one, Cate! Reminds me of E.B. White turning down an invitation from the Eisenhower administration—“I must decline, for secret reasons.” Perhaps we should start a collection of refusal statements to help folks make #AIResistance a reality! 😄
September 28, 1956

Dear Mr. Adams :

Thanks for your letter inviting me to join the committee of the Arts and Sciences for Eisenhower. 

I must decline, for secret reasons. 

Sincerely,
E. B. White
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David Buck @dbuckedu.bsky.social · 06/12/2024
I remember teaching Whitman’s “When I Heard the Learn’d Astronomer” in my intro to lit course. The more I contemplate the ubiquitous presence of GenAI in education, I think there are some interesting parallels between the act of #AIResistance and the message/theme of Whitman’s poem. 1/
When I heard the learn’d astronomer,
When the proofs, the figures, were ranged in columns before me,
When I was shown the charts and diagrams, to add, divide, and measure them,
When I sitting heard the astronomer where he lectured with much applause in the lecture-room,
How soon unaccountable I became tired and sick,
Till rising and gliding out I wander’d off by myself,
In the mystical moist night-air, and from time to time,
Look’d up in perfect silence at the stars.
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David Buck @dbuckedu.bsky.social · 05/12/2024
Re-upping the free Failing Our Future Virtual Book Club w/ author @josheyler.bsky.social in Feb. 2025. Join us! Meetings via Zoom—I'll be emailing details to club members soon! Register Here: forms.gle/gXVsSe41ao3R... Purchase Book Here: tinyurl.com/4mrhf9vf #ungrading #assessment #edusky
Image of a globe (earth) with a graduation cap on its top. On a banner midway across the globe are the words: Failing Our Future Virtual Book Club. The cap and globe are blue.
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David Buck @dbuckedu.bsky.social · 04/12/2024
Virtue must be exercised under duress, temptation, or conflict. So we get to the part in Areopagitica where Milton explains Adam’s ability to reason as a choice. If Adam had no agency, he would be merely an automaton, an “artificial” Adam. Milton absolves God from any wrongdoing 👇🏻 10/
If every action which is good, or evill in man at ripe years, were to be under pittance, and prescription, and compulsion, what were vertue but a name, what praise could be then due to well-doing, what gramercy to be sober, just or continent? many there be that complain of divin Providence for suffering Adam to transgresse, foolish tongues! when God gave him reason, he gave him freedom to choose, for reason is but choosing; he had bin else a meer artificiall Adam, such an Adam as he is in the motions. We our selves esteem not of that obedience, or love, or gift, which is of force: God therefore left him free, set before him a provoking object, ever almost in his eyes herein consisted his merit, herein the right of his reward, the praise of his abstinence.
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David Buck @dbuckedu.bsky.social · 04/12/2024
Then God says one of my favorite lines in PL: “I made him just and right, / Sufficient to have stood, though free to fall.” There it is—humankind has the capacity, the free will, to either stand or fall. But then God goes on to flesh out this topic of free will & what his creation can do w/ it.👇🏻 3/
Freely they stood who stood, and fell who fell.
Not free, what proof could they have givn sincere
Of true allegiance, constant Faith or Love,
Where onely what they needs must do, appeard, [ 105 ]
Not what they would? what praise could they receive?
What pleasure I from such obedience paid,
When Will and Reason (Reason also is choice)
Useless and vain, of freedom both despoild,
Made passive both, had servd necessitie, [ 110 ]
Not mee. They therefore as to right belongd,
So were created, nor can justly accuse
Thir maker, or thir making, or thir Fate,
As if predestination over-rul'd
Thir will, dispos'd by absolute Decree [ 115 ]
Or high foreknowledge; they themselves decreed
Thir own revolt, not I: if I foreknew,
Foreknowledge had no influence on their fault,
Which had no less prov'd certain unforeknown.
So without least impulse or shadow of Fate, [ 120 ]
Or aught by me immutablie foreseen,
They trespass, Authors to themselves in all
Both what they judge and what they choose; for so
I formd them free, and free they must remain,
Till they enthrall themselves: I else must change [ 125 ]
Thir nature, and revoke the high Decree
Unchangeable, Eternal, which ordain'd
Thir freedom, they themselves ordain'd thir fall.
The first sort by thir own suggestion fell,
Self-tempted, self-deprav'd: Man falls deceiv'd [ 130 ]
By the other first: Man therefore shall find grace,
The other none: in Mercy and Justice both,
Through Heav'n and Earth, so shall my glorie excel,
But Mercy first and last shall brightest shine.
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David Buck @dbuckedu.bsky.social · 04/12/2024
Milton may portray God in PL as a flat character, one who’s bound by his moralistic principles & sense of justice, a brutish ogre who banishes mankind from paradise, there is a flash of self-realization. He speaks w/ Adam abt his solitary state. Is God happy being alone? Does he want a partner, too?
What think'st thou then of mee, and this my State,
Seem I to thee sufficiently possest
Of happiness, or not? who am alone [ 405 ]
From all Eternitie, for none I know
Second to mee or like, equal much less.
How have I then with whom to hold converse
Save with the Creatures which I made, and those
To me inferiour, infinite descents [ 410 ]
Beneath what other Creatures are to thee?
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David Buck @dbuckedu.bsky.social · 03/12/2024
Continuing my journey of grad school Milton. One sonnet that I find myself teaching in multiple lit contexts is Sonnet 19/“On His Blindness.” Analyzing the octave (8) & sestet (6), I always made the point that Patience invades the octave to correct the speaker’s thinking. Every person has use! 1/
When I Consider How My Light Is Spent


“When I consider how my light is spent,
Ere half my days, in this dark world and wide,
And that one Talent which is death to hide
Lodged with me useless, though my Soul more bent
To serve therewith my Maker, and present
My true account, lest he returning chide,
“Doth God exact day-labour, light denied?”
I fondly ask. But patience, to prevent
That murmur, soon replies, “God doth not need
Either man’s work or his own gifts; who best
Bear his mild yoke, they serve him best. His state
Is Kingly: thousands at his bidding speed,
And post o’er land and ocean without rest;
They also serve who only stand and wait.”
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David Buck @dbuckedu.bsky.social · 03/12/2024
#UngradingChat A2: One major shift was rebalancing the power dynamic in the classroom. Centering the student voice, de-centering mine. Using personal conferencing to “come alongside” students’ learning & invite them to articulate their progress, process, & growth.
Assessment derives from the Latin “assidere” meaning to sit beside. Conferring is one of the most effective forms of authentic assessment.
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David Buck @dbuckedu.bsky.social · 03/12/2024
As we neared the end of discussion, I would show Ss Rembrandt's Portrait of an Old Woman to illustrate the lines: "This fall in a real museum I stand before a real Rembrandt, old woman, or nearly so, myself." Notice the lighting on the face & hands=moral cognition & action. Ethics as active living!
Rembrandt's Portrait of an Old Woman. A pale-skinned older woman looks down and to our left in front of a shadowy background in this vertical painting. Brushstrokes are visible throughout, especially in the woman’s face, hands, and clothing. Her shoulders square toward us but she looks down and to the side with heavy-lidded, sunken eyes. Her face is deeply lined between her eyebrows, down the sides of her nose, and at the corners of her mouth. Her cheeks sag in jowls on either side of a fleshy chin, and her thin lips are set in a line. An earth-brown hood rests across the crown of her head and droops to her shoulders, where it meets the cloak. The background is also dark brown.
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David Buck @dbuckedu.bsky.social · 03/12/2024
Years ago, I taught an Ethics in Lit course. I always liked assigning Linda Pastan’s “Ethics” bc of the poem's academic setting. I would pair it with Lawrence Kholberg’s theory of moral development. Prompted great discussions about community, care, & our moral responsibilities for/with each other! 😀
Ethics

In ethics class so many years ago
our teacher asked this question every fall:
if there were a fire in a museum
which would you save, a Rembrandt painting
or an old woman who hadn't many
years left anyhow? Restless on hard chairs
caring little for pictures or old age
we'd opt one year for life, the next for art
and always half-heartedly. Sometimes
the woman borrowed my grandmother's face
leaving her usual kitchen to wander
some drafty, half imagined museum.
One year, feeling clever, I replied
why not let the woman decide herself?
Linda, the teacher would report, eschews
the burdens of responsibility.
This fall in a real museum I stand
before a real Rembrandt, old woman,
or nearly so, myself. The colors
within this frame are darker than autumn,
darker even than winter — the browns of earth,
though earth's most radiant elements burn
through the canvas. I know now that woman
and painting and season are almost one
and all beyond saving by children.
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David Buck @dbuckedu.bsky.social · 03/12/2024
Oh, wow! What a great illustration of the long, hard journey to home (and the light of your family’s love), a hellish ride home to ultimately read a bit of Milton! Agreed—it seems that Milton meets us as a universal inspiration no matter what stage in life we find ourselves! 😄
“Long is the way and hard, that out of hell leads up to light.” —John Milton, Paradise Lost
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David Buck @dbuckedu.bsky.social · 03/12/2024
Guess I would pair this Tyson quote with this one: 👇🏻 #UngradingChat
“People are born with intrinsic motivation, self-respect, dignity, curiosity to learn, joy in learning. The forces of destruction begin with toddlers—a prize for the best Halloween costume, grades in school, gold stars—and on up through the university.” —Peter M. Senge, The Fifth Discipline
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David Buck @dbuckedu.bsky.social · 03/12/2024
Oh, absolutely—Satan is the OG bullshitter. He’s on the precipice of repentance here, but then accepts his role as the antagonist and leans hard into it! 👇🏻
ut say I could repent and could obtaine
By Act of Grace my former state; how soon
Would higth recall high thoughts, how soon unsay [ 95 ]
What feign'd submission swore: ease would recant
Vows made in pain, as violent and void.
For never can true reconcilement grow
Where wounds of deadly hate have peirc'd so deep:
Which would but lead me to a worse relapse [ 100 ]
And heavier fall: so should I purchase deare
Short intermission bought with double smart.
This knows my punisher; therefore as farr
From granting hee, as I from begging peace:
All hope excluded thus, behold in stead [ 105 ]
Of us out-cast, exil'd, his new delight,
Mankind created, and for him this World.
So farewel Hope, and with Hope farewel Fear,
Farewel Remorse: all Good to me is lost;
Evil be thou my Good; by thee at least [ 110 ]
Divided Empire with Heav'ns King I hold
By thee, and more then half perhaps will reigne;
As Man ere long, and this new World shall know.
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David Buck @dbuckedu.bsky.social · 03/12/2024
Reviewing some of my grad notes from a course on Milton, and I’m reminded that Satan has the coolest lines in Paradise Lost! He’s the most beautifully flawed and dynamic of all the characters. Milton captures the essence & attraction of rebellion—a refined perception of personal power. 👇🏻
“The mind is its own place, and in itself Can make a heav’n of hell, a hell of heav’n. What matter where, if I be still the same, And what I should be, all but less than he Whom thunder hath made greater? Here at least We shall be free: th’Almighty hath not built Here for his envy, will not drive us hence: Here we may reign secure, and in my choice To reign is worth ambition, though in hell; Better to reign in hell than serve in heav’n.”

–Paradise Lost, Book One, lines 254-263

John Milton
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David Buck @dbuckedu.bsky.social · 03/12/2024
Was cleaning up some files, came across this interesting graphic: “The flaw in the educational system, as far as I can see it, is that you live your life—the teacher and the student—in quest of A’s. Yet later in life, the A is irrelevant.” —Dr. Neil deGrasse Tyson, Astrophysicist #UngradingChat
“The flaw in the educational system, as far as I can see it, is that you live your life—the teacher and the student—in quest of A’s. Yet later in life, the A is irrelevant.” —Dr. Neil deGrasse Tyson, Astrophysicist
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David Buck @dbuckedu.bsky.social · 01/12/2024
I’m intrigued by this passage about the rhetoric surrounding AI and the pressure that educators have when performing #AIResistance. Being labeled as resistors to innovation or progress is not an accurate depiction. Giving up the possibility for humans engaged in learning growth is not an option. 👇🏻
So what that rhetoric around AI is telling us is to surrender our human freedom, and to me that’s such a profound violation of what is good about being human. The idea that we should give that up would mean giving up the possibility of artistic growth, of political growth, of moral growth — and I don’t think we should do that.
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David Buck @dbuckedu.bsky.social · 26/11/2024
A nice argument for elevating the process of learning over its products. This is the “friction” that helps students develop an understanding of the skill or topic. This critical learning experience shouldn’t be co-opted to AI tools. #AIResistance Great paragraph—👇🏻
Part of the problem is the broader higher education context that incentivises students to value the qualification, not the education, and that needs fixing as well. But there are a lot of tools that students can use that don't accept this framing, and my colleagues and I certainly don't accept it. The reason AI offends me so much is that it fully accepts this framing, and worse, it automates it!
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David Buck @dbuckedu.bsky.social · 25/11/2024
#AIResistance 👇🏽
Image of unfinished horse drawing. The left side of the horse is beautifully drawn and detailed, with a flowing tail and strong back legs. The right side of the horse is drawn in stick figures with a cartoonish face, as if the drawer is not very talented.
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David Buck @dbuckedu.bsky.social · 24/11/2024
Claire provides a great example of an UNessay assignment and the wonderful way for Ss to demonstrate their learning! UNessays are just one of the many UNs— that can disrupt traditional education. 💪🏻
UN (prefix): used for giving word the opposite meaning


UNgrading—instead of grades, use feedback and student reflections to focus on learning rather than performance

UNessay—instead of traditional academic formats, use authentic modes of writing (blogs, memes, websites)

UNsyllabus—instead of boring, policy-driven syllabi, use a "liquid syllabus" as a humanizing first contact with students #HumanizeOL (via @brocansky.bsky.social)

UNtextbook—instead of a costly commercial text, use a free openly licensed one #OER

UNLMS—instead of using an LMS, display your content in open, outward-facing platforms

UNdiscussions—instead of a discussion board in an LMS, use social #annotation

UNdisposable assignments—instead of using assignments that die with the course, design assignments that students can use in their lives after your course has ended (via @brocansky.bsky.social)

UNconference—instead of traditional events with a keynote and a schedule of pre-planned sessions, encourage participants to drive the conversation and their learning #Edcamp 

UNleading—instead of a leadership based on compliance, hierarchy, or fear, lead from a position that encourages humanity, inclusion, reflection, and systemic change (via @VidyaShah6) 

UNstuffing—instead of over-packing a course with stuff like content/assignments, create moments of rest that enable curiosity and make pedagogic choices that allow students to marinate, to listen to their bodies, and to develop their curiosities organically (via @jessicazeller.bsky.social)

UNlecture—instead of long, drawn-out traditional lectures, provide micro-lectures and bumper videos (2-3 min videos that clarify a sticky topic) (via @brocansky.bsky.social)
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David Buck @dbuckedu.bsky.social · 24/11/2024
Thanks SO much for this! Even though you say this is "very simple," there is so much emotional complexity to letting go of "fears or preconceived notions" when adapting our pedagogy to one of trust & possibility. My favorite passage is the one abt TRUSTING our students & the learning process. 👇🏽
Assessment Design

When designing assessments, I am drawn to open-ended tasks that allow for expression, choice, and inquiry in multiple directions. Educators employing this approach need to trust their students, trust the learning process, and let go of fears or preconceived notions about how we might approach something.

This can feel risky. We may worry whether students will produce work of an appropriate standard. However, scaffolding, sharing, and evolving ideas together can overcome these concerns. Often, when we let go a little, students exceed our expectations. When we hold on too tightly to preconceived ideas of what “good” looks like, we confine students to our own perspective, imposing a deficit model. Letting go opens the door to unimagined excellence.
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David Buck @dbuckedu.bsky.social · 23/11/2024
A theme animating my relationship w/ Ss is the invitation to produce authentic writing that’s meaningful to them. Using the approach in the blog posting from @jessifer.bsky.social — if Ss perceive the learning activity as “busywork,” that authenticity is lost. www.jessestommel.com/ungrading-an...
You should consider this course a “busy-work-free zone.” If an assignment does not feel productive, we can find ways to modify, remix, or repurpose the instructions.
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David Buck @dbuckedu.bsky.social · 20/11/2024
Thinking about AI refusal & resisting the heavy push for its use in academia (especially for students who may not be able to refuse), I keep returning to this fabulous, thoughtful poem from @josephfasano.bsky.social.
“For a Student Who Used AI to Write a Paper”

Now I let it fall back
in the grasses.
I hear you. I know
this life is hard now. 
I know your days are precious 
on this earth. 
But what are you trying 
to be free of? 
The living? The miraculous 
task of it?
Love is for the ones who love the work.

—Joseph Fasano
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David Buck @dbuckedu.bsky.social · 19/11/2024
One more thing! The assessment conversations often TRANSFER to the learning they achieve in their other courses, many of which will not use an #ungrading approach. 😀 Love the student who said that the grades will follow the learning! ⬇
"I loved how the emphasis was placed on learning rather than grades; it causes you to think about the readings and writings rather than just doing them for the GPA. I think I am going to try and use this philosophy in other classes, because the grades will follow if you focus on learning the material."
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David Buck @dbuckedu.bsky.social · 19/11/2024
And no more "fight-or-flight" response to receiving feedback. When students have their parasympathetic nervous system (the "well-and-dwell" response) lit up by positive attention to their labor, they're more open to receiving my suggestions for revision. ⬇
What happens when we focus on labor rather than grades? "In the first few weeks, English didn't seem like it would be my favorite class. But as the class moved on, I started to like how we didn't get grades. It became so much easier to read my professor's feedback because I wasn't caught up in some numbers. I honestly think because of this was able to retain more suggestions my professor made because of the no grade system." -- student reflection
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David Buck @dbuckedu.bsky.social · 19/11/2024
Students seem to tie this approach to their learning motivation, which is a win for "Process over Product"! ⬇
What happens when we focus on labor rather than grades? "As a writer, I have been more interested in knowledge gained during learning rather than focusing on grades or points. Because I believe points make me less motivated to try things and learn from my mistakes." -- student reflection
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David Buck @dbuckedu.bsky.social · 19/11/2024
#Ungradingchat A2: I’ve explored a bunch of approaches since going gradeless in 2014—metacognition/reflection, mastery-based, contract grading, labor-based. I’ve merged all these approaches into what I call a “Labor-Reflex” model. Final grade is determined by an assessment conversation.
Labor-Reflex Model. Merges a little something of all approaches. Default labor tied to A grade. Tons of reflection with final self-assessment to determine grade. Goal—students grow to reflexively labor with mindfulness.
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David Buck @dbuckedu.bsky.social · 18/11/2024
#Ungradingchat Perhaps there is an underlying thread that’s woven in the fabric of our ungrading philosophies—and that is our moral compulsion to create the conditions for our students’ learning growth. Like Sir Ken Robinson’ metaphor of the soil in which plants grow naturally! 😀
In agriculture, you don’t make plants grow, you create conditions for growth. Plants grow themselves. —Sir Ken Robinson
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David Buck @dbuckedu.bsky.social · 18/11/2024
In response to your 2, this is SO important to keep in mind, especially when we consider our students’ mental health. I like the idea that there’s “no terminal mastery” in our writing. We’re in the constant process of “reaching.” Love your suggestion that this should be baked in! 😀#Ungradingchat
Mastery is in the reaching, not the arriving. It’s in the constantly wanting to close the gap between where you are and where you want to be. —Sarah Lewis, Embrace the near win
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David Buck @dbuckedu.bsky.social · 18/11/2024
Here’s a good one to feel good about your #Ungrading philosophy! ⬇️ #Ungradingchat
Grades thwart basic psychological needs of students and academic motivation, while narratives evaluations and actionable feedback promote trust between instructors and students and cooperation amongst students. —Chamberlin, et al. “The impact of grades on student motivation.”
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David Buck @dbuckedu.bsky.social · 18/11/2024
Q1: Remove grades & their attending harms, students are humans so everything we do together is rooted in our humanity. Narrative feedback is more useful to chart learning growth. Every semester I ask students for their response to this prompt, and the answers are always the same! ⬇️ #Ungradingchat
A word cloud in response to the question: What words or feelings immediately come to mind when you hear the phrase “This will be graded”? The main word is STRESS.
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David Buck @dbuckedu.bsky.social · 13/11/2024
This is the paragraph that is a megaphone for me and my small-but-mighty stance to resist GenAI tools in my composition courses!! ⬇️
Students write quality, process-driven work when we simply ask them to avoid AI, to trust their creative instincts and we turn around and offer meaningful, human feedback. Toss every fun, inspired strategy that you know works into your classroom. Maybe you hate stifling rubrics or annotated bibliographies. Resist. Think that outcomes-based assessment cannot possibly capture the magical synapses of imaginative writing? Burn. It. Down. Generative AI pushers are asking us to do the same, and it’s time to return the sentiment with rebellion born in the knowledge that this ship is going down either way.
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David Buck @dbuckedu.bsky.social · 16/12/2023
Hopefully, I won’t have to make any disclaimers here to differentiate my good name from the bad “one” who has sullied it! 😄
Quotation: “Good will, like a good name, is hit by many actions, and lost by one.” —Francis Jeffrey
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