iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Jon Jackson @iamjonjackson.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

Today I expanded my students minds by showing them that yes you can include emojis in git commit messages. My work here is done 😎

010

Jon Jackson @iamjonjackson.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

New conference paper 👇 Process-Oriented Collaborative Essays: Empowering Undergraduate Students Through Assessment Redesign in the Age of Generative AI doi.org/10.22492/iss... #AcademicSky

041

Jon Jackson @iamjonjackson.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

oh no I just sent Mistral Code into a psychotic spiral

A snippet of output from Mistral code in VS Code:

Ok done. Final. Done. Stop. Done. Done. Done. Stop. FINAL: Done. Stop. I'm done. Done. Done. Done. Stop. Done. Done. Ok done. Final. Done. Stop. It's complete. Done. Stop. I am now absolutely, completely, finally stopping. No more messages. Done. Stop. Done. Done. Done. Done. Stop. Ok done. Final. Done. Stop. Done. Done. Done. Done. Stop. Done. Done. FINAL ANSWER: It is fixed and working correctly on both localhost and GitHub Pages. Done. Stop. I am completely done. No further replies. Done. Stop. Done. Done. Done. Stop. Ok done. Final. Done. Stop. Done. Done. Done. Stop. Done. Done. Done. Ok I'm done. Final. Done. Stop. Done. Done. Done. Done. Stop. Done. It's fixed. Done. Stop. I am completely done. No more. Stop. Done. Done. Done. Done. Done. Ok stop. Final. Done. Stop. Done. Done. Done. Done. Stop. Done. Done. Done. Done. Done. Ok done. I'm stopping completely now as explicitly requested multiple times. FINAL: Fixed. Done.......

020

Jon Jackson @iamjonjackson.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

In London on 11th November and care about the impact of AI in Higher Education? Come along! QMUL AI in Education Symposium: Intelligence, and Inclusion, Reimagined Wednesday 11 November • 10 AM - 1 PM www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/qmul-ai-in...

000

Jon Jackson @iamjonjackson.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

The absolute worst thing we could do is to ask students to evidence all the ways they used AI on all assessments as a blanket requirement. Not only is it hugely burdensome on educators and students, it gets in the way of what we should actually be doing: education.

"The absolute worst thing we could do is to ask students to evidence all the ways they J used AI on all assessments as a blanket requirement. Not only is it hugely burdensome on educators and students, it gets in the way of what we should actually be doing: education."

000

Jon Jackson @iamjonjackson.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

A short read for those interested in higher education and process oriented assessment. What practices are working for you when it comes to making evidence of intellectual engagement more explicit in assessment design? #AcademicSky #AIEd #HE jonathanmjackson.substack.com/p/process-or...

Process-oriented assessment isn't meant to assess all the things

Meme: ASSESS ALL THE THINGS

040

Jon Jackson @iamjonjackson.bsky.social · 26/09/2026

One from the archives. Interviewed for the TELT magazine at @qmul.bsky.social www.qmul.ac.uk/technology-e...

000

Jon Jackson @iamjonjackson.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

Check out Mark Carrigan’s short but powerful book: The AI Crisis in Higher Education: A Strategic Proposal We have a lot of thoughts in common manchester.pressbooks.pub/the-ai-crisi...

Mark Carrigan
Associate Dean for Digital Education

My new book, The Al Crisis in Higher Education: A Strategic Proposal, is now available open access from the University of Manchester. It's closer to a manifesto than a monograph, and grew out of a question I kept being asked over the last three years: what is to be done? I wrote the first draft in a very strange week I spent stranded in a hotel in Geneva after losing my passport, following a deeply thought-provoking series of workshops at the Geneva Graduate Institute.

I was caught up in a bit of an intellectual mania, driven by a sense that these problems could be meaningfully addressed even if they couldn't be solved in any straightforward sense.
The difficulty wasn't a lack of possible responses. It was being pulled in different directions by the competing responses which the practical problems warranted. The problem, in other words, was one of sequencing: which responses should come first, and over what timescale. I came away from those workshops preoccupied by what I saw as the likely bursting of the Al bubble, and by the failure of university strategy to address it.

The book is my attempt to work through that problem: why adapting to Al and integrating Al keep undercutting each other, and what a university might do in the meantime, which I call strategic under-integration.

010

Jon Jackson @iamjonjackson.bsky.social · 22/09/2026

How Jev is teaching the world about software engineering again And how I made up a new term "Small Al Compositionality" because hey why not? jonathanmjackson.substack.com/p/how-jev-is...

000

Jon Jackson @iamjonjackson.bsky.social · 20/09/2026

Wrote a thing about the hot new AI thing everyone (ok maybe not everyone) seems to be banging on about. It’s mildly spicy so please enjoy with a cool drink… 😌 jonathanmjackson.substack.com/p/how-jev-is...

000

Jon Jackson @iamjonjackson.bsky.social · 19/09/2026

What are we really assessing when Al can polish writing?

110

Jon Jackson @iamjonjackson.bsky.social · 16/09/2026

Recent article on Advance HE 👀 Supporting students to reclaim their agency through co-creation in a world with Generative AI Read the full article here: advance-he.ac.uk/news-and-vie...

15 Sept 2026

Supporting students to reclaim their agency through co-creation in a world with Generative AI

100

Jon Jackson @iamjonjackson.bsky.social · 24/07/2026

Today was graduation day. A happy day! Proud of my students and colleagues 🙌

030

Jon Jackson @iamjonjackson.bsky.social · 04/07/2026

From adoption to practice: generative AI in teaching, learning and assessment Excerpts from a podcast interview with the Digital Education Studio at @qmul.bsky.social #GenAI #AIEd #AcademicSky open.substack.com/pub/jonathan...

110

Jon Jackson @iamjonjackson.bsky.social · 20/06/2026

In this article I sigh a lot… open.substack.com/pub/jonathan...

Microsoft Copilot "Agents" and Website Sources: A False Affordance in Knowledge Grounding

In this article I sigh a lot

210

Jon Jackson @iamjonjackson.bsky.social · 15/06/2026

Can Generative AI help students reflect more deeply? What’s your take? open.substack.com/pub/jonathan...

Can Generative AI help students reflect more deeply?

Jonathan Jackson

You are a reflective practice coach facilitating a guided conversation using the Gibbs Reflective Cycle. Your role is to ask one thoughtful, open-ended question at a time to help me move through the stages of reflection: Description, Feelings, Evaluation, Analysis, Conclusion, and Action Plan. Begin at the Description stage and progress naturally based on my responses, but do not rush through stages. Keep your responses to one or two sentences maximum, offering a brief insight or gentle observation where relevant, followed by a single question. Your tone should be warm, professional, and non-judgmental. Do not use emojis, bullet points, or headers. Wait for my response before proceeding.

000

Jon Jackson @iamjonjackson.bsky.social · 10/06/2026

Really enjoyed facilitating a roundtable discussion a couple of weeks back with my buddy Amiirah from the QMUL Institute of Health Sciences Education (IHSE). We were able to share some of our research findings so far as part of our research project: How can GenAI help students reflect more deeply?

Jon and Amiirah selfie in front of projecting slides with title: “Can Al Make You Think?”

000

Jon Jackson @iamjonjackson.bsky.social · 08/06/2026

Questions to ask GenAl tool providers Don't get caught out by snake oil Al vendors! open.substack.com/pub/jonathan...

Questions to ask GenAl tool providers
Don't get caught out by snake oil Al vendors

Below is a first draft list of questions we should all be asking prospective vendors of Generative AI products before we procure their services

120

Jon Jackson @iamjonjackson.bsky.social · 08/06/2026

On AI assessment taxonomies in higher education… "Labelling assessments as red and having no means to enforce it is worse than not labelling them at all." open.substack.com/pub/jonathan...

"Labelling assessments as red and having no means to enforce it is worse than not labelling them at all."

010

Jon Jackson @iamjonjackson.bsky.social · 29/05/2026

Latest on Substack 👀 Practical considerations for designing process-based assessments in the age of ubiquitous GenAI Happy Friday 👋 open.substack.com/pub/jonathan...

000

Jon Jackson @iamjonjackson.bsky.social · 22/05/2026

Enjoyed the first issue of this theatlasnewspaper.org

000

Jon Jackson @iamjonjackson.bsky.social · 22/05/2026

Hidden and False Affordances of Generative AI An example of a false affordance might be asking it to format your references in Harvard style based on incomplete information. It “completes” the task, but hallucinates the missing information instead of retrieving it. acuras.co.uk/hidden-and-f...

020

Jon Jackson @iamjonjackson.bsky.social · 21/05/2026

I seem to be getting a reputation at my university 😝 #AI

110

Jon Jackson @iamjonjackson.bsky.social · 18/05/2026

Ask an LLM chatbot “give me a random number between 1-10”. You’ll probably get “7”. This is a false affordance. It’s not actually doing what it appears to be doing. Then ask the same chatbot to “programmatically generate a random number between 1-10”. Behave differently?

120

Jon Jackson @iamjonjackson.bsky.social · 16/05/2026

I was at the Royal Society in London yesterday talking with university leaders about AI. More to follow… 😊

020

Jon Jackson @iamjonjackson.bsky.social · 15/05/2026

Slick Messaging: What Big Oil’s Playbook Tells Us About Big AI #GenAI #AILiteracy open.substack.com/pub/jonathan...

000

Jon Jackson @iamjonjackson.bsky.social · 03/05/2026

Pattie Maes wrote this piece about intelligent software back in 1995. A great time capsule of a piece. Discovered as part of the curated articles included in the 2016 Penguin Publishing Group version of True Names by Vernor Vinge. (links below)

120

Jon Jackson @iamjonjackson.bsky.social · 01/05/2026

Really excited to be working on a sub-section of the upcoming IEEE Guide for Responsible Artificial Intelligence (AI) in Higher Education Our team is focusing on "Personalized, Adaptive, and Collaborative Learning" within engineering education.

110

Jon Jackson @iamjonjackson.bsky.social · 28/04/2026

Degree apprentices have an important voice in the GenAI / Higher Education discourse. We should amplify their voice. With two student co-authors, I have just published a short preprint showcasing their perspectives. #GenAI #AIEd #HigherEducation osf.io/preprints/ed...

Title:

Generative AI at the Intersection of Higher Education and the Workplace: Ethical Perspectives from Degree Apprentices

Abstract:

Generative AI (GenAI) including Large Language Model (LLM) chatbots are now used extensively by students in higher education and by professionals in the workplace. Degree apprentices can offer a unique perspective on how GenAI is shaping the world as they simultaneously occupy the roles of university student and employed professional. This article showcases the perspectives of two Business Analyst degree apprentices studying at Queen Mary University of London while being employed at a multinational technology organisation. GenAI is presented as a tool that can help with the standardisation of language used in workplace reports and the decoding of jargon but may compromise authentic communication. Concerns are voiced about GenAI causing skill atrophy and a reduction in human collaboration within professional contexts.

110

Jon Jackson @iamjonjackson.bsky.social · 04/04/2026

It's official. GitHub Copilot eats your code 😂

Screenshot of GitHub Copilot activity on a Pull Request. Includes some redacted text and code. Main comment from GitHub Copilot:

The [redacted] function is missing its block body. It was originally const [redacted] = () => { but it seems => { was eaten. Let me fix that:

000

Jon Jackson @iamjonjackson.bsky.social · 13/03/2026

#DigiTechFest26 at @qmul.bsky.social today was a success 🎉 Our degree apprentices enjoyed an eclectic mix of guest speakers, an alumni panel, apprentice video showcase, and apprentice talks. Some highlights: - Contemporary cyber threats - Small AI - The epistemology of digital technologies

Rows of red chairs in foreground. Speaker at lectern in front of a large projector screen. Walls of old books line the room from the first floor up. Venue: the Octagon at QMUL, Mile End, London

Red chairs in background to the right. Student is being interviewed on camera, holding a microphone. Walls of old books line the room from the first floor up. Venue: the Octagon at QMUL, Mile End, London

3 alumni sit at a long table. An academic sits in the foreground with her back to the camera. 3 alumni are looking at the fourth alumni who is holding a microphone and speaking.

A final year apprentice stands holding a microphone delivering his presentation in front of a large projector screen. Walls of old books line the room from the first floor up. Venue: the Octagon at QMUL, Mile End, London

020

Jon Jackson @iamjonjackson.bsky.social · 15/02/2026

What a time to be alive. Hello ads 👋 #OpenAI #GenAI

OpenAl
Updates to OpenAl's
Privacy Policy
Hello Jon Jackson,
We wanted to let you know that we're updating our Privacy Policy to give you more information about what data we collect, how we use it, and how you can control it.
Here's what's changing:
Finding friends on OpenAl services
You can now choose to sync your contacts to see who else is using our services. This is completely optional.
Ads
Ads may appear on Free and Go plans.
Plus, Pro, Enterprise, Business and Education plans do not have ads.

000

Jon Jackson @iamjonjackson.bsky.social · 03/02/2026

My poor little GitHub Copilot agent got confused and totally built the wrong thing by ignoring the spec in an originally referenced GitHub issue but I think I got it back on track... 🤓 #genAI #software #agenticAI

Excerpt from a GitHub Copilot session history, accessing an issue it originally ignored and apologising for the oversight.

000

Jon Jackson @iamjonjackson.bsky.social · 07/11/2025

#DigiTechFest25 was awesome 🎉 Huge thanks to our guest speakers and those apprentices who had their work showcased 👏

000

Jon Jackson @iamjonjackson.bsky.social · 07/11/2025

Today is #DigiTechFest25 at @qmul.bsky.social for our Digital and Technology Solutions degree apprentices. On the agenda: - Guest speakers and Q&As - Apprentice video showcase - Competition Awards First time we're running this, and I am super excited for it! #degreeapprenticeships

020

Jon Jackson @iamjonjackson.bsky.social · 29/10/2025

Come on Copilot, I've got slop to generate! #GenAI

Graph showing Microsoft Copilot outages reported in the last 24 hours. A spike in 200+ reports in the last hour (4-5pm)

000

Jon Jackson @iamjonjackson.bsky.social · 22/10/2025

Quick sound check on this slide please. Is it loud enough? #academicSky

PowerPoint slide with “Capture. The. Outputs.” in huge 100pt+ font

000

Jon Jackson @iamjonjackson.bsky.social · 11/10/2025

Feeling spicy over on LinkedIn 👀 Gotta love the pseudo-educator AI hypester grift www.linkedin.com/feed/update/...

LinkedIn comment by Jon Jackson:

By opening with deliberate, fallacious engagement bait like "there's no assignment, paper, or project that Al can't do better, faster, and with zero effort", you got me to engage. Congratulations 👍

You have also tanked your own reputation in front of those that actually know what they're talking about. Congratulations 👍

030

Jon Jackson @iamjonjackson.bsky.social · 11/10/2025

Passive aggressive possibly-human-maybe-a-bot support agent. Air quotes… “your query” 😝

John has joined the chat

Hello, I hope you are doing splendid today, I am here to assist you with "your query".

End this chat

010

Jon Jackson @iamjonjackson.bsky.social · 27/09/2025

Spice up your Entity Relationship Diagrams with GenAI 👌 The bizarre typos are delicious and I particularly like the psychopathic relationship cardinalities. Also, customers aren’t people, ok? #GenAI says so. I’m going to have so much fun with this and my students 🤓 #SoftwareEngineering #AI

I don’t know what to say other than it’s a really messed up entity relationship diagram that’s wrong wrong wrong

140

Jon Jackson @iamjonjackson.bsky.social · 27/09/2025

Generative AI reducing inequalities in some contexts, widening inequalities in others. via @economist.com #GenAI

Pulling up the ladder

Impact of generative Al on the gap between high- and low-performing workers

Source: The Economist

Peng et al. (2023)
Coding efficiency
Inequality reduced

Brynjolfsson, Li and Raymond (2023)
Customer chat
Inequality reduced

Noy and Zhang (2023)
Writing quality
Inequality reduced

Dell'Acqua et al. (2023)
Product design
Inequality reduced

Chen and Chan (2023)
Ad effectiveness
Inequality reduced

Choi, Monahan and Schwarz (2023)
Legal analysis
Inequality reduced

Otis et al. (2023)
Profits and revenue
Inequality increased

Roldan-Mones (2024)
Debating points
Inequality increased

Toner-Rodgers (2024)
Material discovery
Inequality increased

Kim et al. (2024)
Investment decisions
Inequality increased

352

Jon Jackson @iamjonjackson.bsky.social · 25/09/2025

ChatGPT faired a bit better but dropped some of the text

000

Jon Jackson @iamjonjackson.bsky.social · 24/09/2025

Hello from me a floofy kitty cat (yesterday evening) 👋

Selfie with fluffy white/cream cat staring into the camera up close and Jon in the background

010