iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

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Aram Sinnreich @aramsinn.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

34% of the children in the DC area live in food insecure households. www.nbcwashington.com/news/local/f...

Trevor Aleo @mraleosays.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

Students are starting their “Digging into Discourse Communities” project & have to pick a community to research, engage with, & produce writing for. Today one of my students said he wants to swap his business major for history. I did my best to play it cool. Might have let out a quiet “Hell yeah.”

static.klipy.com

Robert Redford as Jeremiah Johnson Nodding Yes

ALT: Robert Redford as Jeremiah Johnson Nodding Yes

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Matt Seybold @mattseybold.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

A couple people tagged me here. Thank you. Following the money is definitely a precept of my EdTech research. When it comes to Alpha, the trail is both obvious, & deceptively complex. The obvious part leads to Joe Liemandt, his software company (Trilogy) & investment firm (ESW Capital).

theamericanvandal.com

All Our Kids Will Go To Alpha School

On the plans to hyperscale Alpha School’s “AI” tutoring software to “a billion kids.”

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AERA Writing & Literacies SIG @writinglit.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

Only 1 hour til #literacies chat! Come discuss Multilingual Literacies Transcending Borders.

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Trevor Aleo @mraleosays.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

💯 💯💯 The crisis is how we define the crisis. The crisis is how we solve the crisis. The crisis is in the profit motive for us to be in a constant state of crisis.

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Trevor Aleo @mraleosays.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

I’m tired, ya’ll. We’re really about to do this whole thing again aren’t we? We’re really about to get sold another story aren’t we? This is seriously some hauntology, capitalist realism level stuff: “It is easier to envision the end of the world than the end of the literacy wars.” 🫠

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Greg Shill @gregshill.com · 29/09/2026

They did the cartoon!

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Derek Gottlieb @derekgottliebphd.com · 29/09/2026

The thing about SaS's breathless innuendo about the evil publishing company pushing a flawed product, the cultish devotion to a set of scholars invested in a particular way of understanding education, and widespread underdelivering is — that’s just what ed reform looks like. For decades.

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Annie Abrams @annieabrams.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

“The goal was to destabilize U.S. educational infrastructure and carve out a large space for reactionary indoctrination within it.” When you don’t have a teacher—a thinking person—in a classroom, endless ideological reproduction is easier.

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Trevor Aleo @mraleosays.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

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Trevor Aleo @mraleosays.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

Haven’t people spent the last 5 years melting down about how we spent billions of dollars on a dated literacy program with scant supporting evidence that was owned & operated by an EduGuru & run like a cult of personality? Is it because this one has #Science on the box? time.com/article/2026...

time.com

The Woman Winning the Reading Wars

Louisa Moats’ teacher-training program is painstaking, pricey, and decades old. It’s also the hot new thing

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Trevor Aleo @mraleosays.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

There are many reasons to take issue with the NYT article making the rounds, but one of them is the fact it treats incredibly complex, abstract, & contested methods/approaches that require specialized training, implementation, etc. & treat them like they’re an app you install to make scores go 📈.

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Jack Schneider @jackschneider.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

My point, ultimately, is that focusing on a "fix" is misguided. It isn't ill-intended. It just won't work.

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Asheesh Kapur Siddique @asheeshks.org · 29/09/2026

The Chronicle Against Higher Education gives the Vanderbilt report endless publicity while not running a single story on the World Humanities Report, which shows that the disciplines slandered in the Vanderbilt report are actually making vital contributions to the world. worldhumanitiesreport.org

worldhumanitiesreport.org

Home - The World Humanities Report

The World Humanities Report Demonstrating the vitality of the humanities throughout the world

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Jack Schneider @jackschneider.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

I don't disagree. But, as I wrote back to these reporters, I am most optimistic about projects that respond to the expressed concerns of students and teachers. These are the people who spend 180 days inside schools each year, and they're the key actors in the process of teaching and learning. 1/n

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Trevor Aleo @mraleosays.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

“30 Ideas for Raising Standardized Test Scores As Cheaply As Possible” Fixed the title.

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Trevor Aleo @mraleosays.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

I think one of the things most insulting about this is that these feckless ghouls are not only transgressing against basic human decency with their digital necromancy, but they’re so heinously unimaginative and stupid that they think THIS is educational innovation. It’s somehow worse.

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Trevor Aleo @mraleosays.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

The “common sense” of “education is for human capital” simultaneously feels like an untranscendable horizon and an increasingly dubious rationale. I really worry about how reactionary ghouls trying to dismantle public education will be able to take advantage of that in the next few years.

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Jacobin @jacobinmag.bsky.social · 26/09/2026

On this day in 1940, Marxist philosopher Walter Benjamin died while attempting to flee occupying Nazi forces. Benjamin was one of the most influential cultural theorists of the last century, and his Marxist commitments run right through his dazzling intellectual legacy.

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Trevor Aleo @mraleosays.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

I mean, the whole narrative that the broligarch class want to horde high culture & the canon for themselves might just be a very particular form of cope that allows us to liberal art folk to believe that even our political adversaries can’t deny the ✨magical power of humanistic inquiry.✨

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Ryan Cordell @ryancordell.org · 24/09/2026

pretty much every conversation here is about mitigating the devastation from losing international students It’s not just students who can’t get visas—international applications are way down across the board It’s a generational self own—deliberately killing a (literally) world-renowned industry

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Leah McElrath @leahmcelrath.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

AP Stylebook warns against anthropomorphizing AI systems: “Avoid language that gives them human characteristics… Instead, explain what a system does, how well it performs, who built it and who could be affected by it.”

APStylebook @APStylebook
X.com
Artificial intelligence systems do not think, feel, want or understand. Avoid language that gives them human characteristics. This is called anthropomorphizing, when we ascribe human traits, emotions or behaviors to non-human things, such as animals or inanimate objects.
Instead, explain what a system does, how well it performs, who built it and who could be affected by it.

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Benjamin Riley @benjaminjriley.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

FOURTH REPORT: Former Alpha School students speak out I have just posted my latest report on what student life is *really* like at Alpha School, based on interviews with several student sources. They describe anti-patterns, rocket ships & pirate ships, and "getting nuked." Here's a short summary.

buildcognitiveresonance.substack.com

FOURTH REPORT: Former Alpha School students speak out

“A science experiment that’s been framed as a school” - “pretty much a concentration camp” - “cool the first few months and then it just becomes shit”

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Robert Rubsam @robrubsam.bsky.social · 22/09/2026

My friend who works in education always says that we want education to solve all our society's problems, when we should see those problems as something we must solve in order to have good education

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Jo Wolff @jowolff.bsky.social · 22/09/2026

Would be nice (mutatis mutandis).

Liberté • Égalité • Fraternité
République Française

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lastpositivist.bsky.social @lastpositivist.bsky.social · 22/09/2026

This is a very recognisable depiction of various political subcultures and we all know it. I am Pessimistic about our ability to persuade people not to do this, but I am also baffled by the fact that so many people in fact want to do this. Some sort of instinct to small-group meanness is common!

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Trevor Aleo @mraleosays.bsky.social · 22/09/2026

I recently spoke with a colleague who runs a college counseling office and has worked in admissions at an Ivy. Let me tell you—no matter how bleak you think the US News & World Report shenanigans are, I promise you it is much, much worse.

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404 Media @404media.co · 21/09/2026

With the backlash to Flock, cities are moving to Axon cameras. But what exactly are they doing with them? 404 Media is filing public records requests around the country to find out how cops are using Axon's ALPRs, @josephcox.bsky.social explains. You can too: www.404media.co/is-your-city...

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Trevor Aleo @mraleosays.bsky.social · 22/09/2026

While many students reject AI due to deeply informed takes on its environmental, labor, cognitive, etc. impact, I also have a number of students who just find it “cringe” because adults won’t shut up about it. Nothing kills a vibe faster than a bunch of middle aged derps going “ISNT THIS NEATO!?”

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What's Left of Philosophy @leftofphilosophy.bsky.social · 21/09/2026

new episode out today! we discuss Anton Jäger's Hyperpolitics, which diagnoses our present moment's curious combination of mass mobilization and debilitating standstill. it's time for a paradigm shift, comrades! www.patreon.com/leftofphilos...

patreon.com

142 | Hyperpolitics in the Present | What's Left of Philosophy

In this episode we discuss the concept of hyperpolitics, as originally conceptualized by Anton Jäger. We contemplate the acute lack of subst

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Trevor Aleo @mraleosays.bsky.social · 21/09/2026

Arguments like this irk me. If people really think that we’d solve a bunch of issues in secondary/post-secondary education by “bringing back the SAT” then I beg you to spend 5 seconds researching before launching tired hot takes. Do people really think rich parents don’t hire tutors to hack the SAT?

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Trevor Aleo @mraleosays.bsky.social · 21/09/2026

This sums up my feelings on the NHJ story pretty well. It was a moving read but it really highlights the limitations of liberal coded analysis and critique. Though she gestures towards the structural issues underpinning her story, her focus is the failure of individual teachers, admin, & schools.

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Kashana @kashana.blacksky.app · 20/09/2026

Americans: oh, look, a systemic issue. I will solve it individually

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Iris van Rooij 💭 @irisvanrooij.bsky.social · 20/09/2026

I guess you do not know what cognitive science is. Here a useful illustration

Fig. 1 A visual depiction of the connections between the cognitive
sciences. Solid lines denote stronger interdisciplinary ties, and dashed
lines denote weaker ones. This figure is derived from the original put
forth by the Sloan Foundation in 1978 and reproduced from Fig. 4 in
Pléh and Gurova (2013). Different versions of it over time have used
‘Artificial intelligence’ (as above) instead of ‘Computer Science’ and
vice versa (cf. Miller, 2003)

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Ted McCormick @tedmccormick.bsky.social · 19/09/2026

if you don't think humanistic learning has value in its own right, no amount of instrumentalization is going to save it that epochal decline coincided with the hegemony of the "employable skills" pitch, including earnings data and all the trimmings, ought to have taught us that

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Trevor Aleo @mraleosays.bsky.social · 18/09/2026

John articulates a distinction that is often overlooked. Criticism of EdTech is necessary but insufficient for humanizing education. Many prominent tech-lashers who oppose automation also advocate for forms of standardization based on the same logic of efficiency & optimization underpinning tech.

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Trevor Aleo @mraleosays.bsky.social · 18/09/2026

One of the (many) things that irks me about our current PD ecosystem is that deeply researched & classroom tested approaches like Christian’s have to fight for airtime and recognition, while EduGurus get paid 5-figures for Temu TedTalks & big box curriculum companies suck up funding.

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Trevor Aleo @mraleosays.bsky.social · 18/09/2026

Running back one of my favorite rhet comp lessons from last year. I do love a good pop culture & theory pairing.

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Nick Covington @covingtonedu.bsky.social · 17/09/2026

"Learning is not the aim of school, learning is the means, the aim of school is human development." - Dr. Mary Helen Immordino-Yang

The whole notion of learning is a red herring. I don’t talk about learning, throw it out. I’m sick of thinking about learning because learning in our society, the way we conceptualize it, is about semantic recall and procedural recall in a context. Learning is not the aim of school, learning is the means, the aim of school is human development. It’s developing the dispositions, the capacities, to be able to engage in a complex systems-level of social and cultural institutionalization in the world, and to reify and create the kinds of structures and systems that we want and that we need given the changing circumstances.

The thing is, learning is essential…but it is essential because you need fodder to be able to develop around, not because it is the end point, but we call learning the ‘outcome’, ‘learning outcomes’, and then we’re done! That’s what school’s about: it’s about producing learning outcomes. But it’s not. The learning outcomes are just the midway to what you’re really supposed to be working on, which is: how did learning these things, how did engaging with thinking about these things develop you as a thinker, as a person, as a citizen? Those are the outcomes we should be caring about but we think about them as on a separate track from the learning. There’s the math, and then there’s the other stuff…which is kind of ridiculous.

Mary Helen Immordino-Yang

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Trevor Aleo @mraleosays.bsky.social · 17/09/2026

I really like this framing. It centers the fact that, while AI might allow more people to “produce content” in particular forms, it also risks preventing people from participating in & learning from the actual communities who care for & create that form.

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Saeed Jones @theferocity.bsky.social · 16/09/2026

“Langston Hughes’ literary estate now belongs to International Literary Properties, which says a Harlem Renaissance licensing program is next on its list.”

theankler.com

Private Equity Is Coming for Authors, Dead or Alive - The Ankler

Like music catalogs, literary estates are now targeted by investment firms and changing how Hollywood will deal with IP

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Annie Abrams @annieabrams.bsky.social · 17/09/2026

“This month, Alpha opened the doors of its ‘Founders School’ in New York City, which charges $150,000 a year and promises that students will graduate with both a diploma and $1 million in profit from a business they started.“ read a book read a book read a book read a book read a book rea

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Benjamin Riley @benjaminjriley.bsky.social · 16/09/2026

I suspect Alpha School leadership is already regretting their decision to force their students to use Twitter. New story from the SF Standard on what's happening in boot camp. sfstandard.com/2026/09/16/7...

sfstandard.com

The $75k-a-year private school encouraging kids to go viral on Twitter

Life skills or initiation? Alpha School’s 8-week bootcamp splits the internet.

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