Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Nathan K. Hensley @nathankhensley.bsky.social · 3h

wild to watch the last vestiges of a shared public sphere violently transformed into for-profit content farms run by sociopaths, while (as in all private equity takeovers) the brand name of the former institution remains, like an insect body-husk long since liquefied internally by parasites

Brandon Friedman @brandonfriedman.bsky.social · 6h

Promoting the editor-in-chief's personal side project. Zero named sources in a story that promotes the editor-in-chief's personal political position. Misspelling the subject's name. It took one day for CBS News to become a conservative blog.

www.cbsnews.com/video/some-n...

CBS News: Some NYPD officers worry about Mandani becoming NYC mayor the Free Press reports.

2

Reposted by Nathan K. Hensley

Brian Goldstone @brian-goldstone.bsky.social · 7h

Trump to the Israeli parliament today, gloating about U.S. weapons supplied to Israel over the past two years:

"You obviously used them very well."

www.theguardian.com/world/ng-int...

Guardian headline: "Young lives cut short on an unimaginable scale: the 18,457 children on Gaza’s list of war dead"

The children’s names below appear on a list of victims of Israel’s offensive in Gaza, maintained by health authorities in the territory. As of the end of July it ran to 60,199 names, of whom 18,457 were under 18s. Far from comprehensive, the list does not include the thousands still buried under the rubble of destroyed buildings, as well as the war’s many indirect victims"

7 160 270

Nathan K. Hensley @nathankhensley.bsky.social · 7h

pez dispensers among the greatest achievements of postwar society

11

Nathan K. Hensley @nathankhensley.bsky.social · 10h

😂 🦠

[i keep punching myself in the face! here are some tips on how to manage the pain.]

2

Nathan K. Hensley @nathankhensley.bsky.social · 11h

i do think a simple answer is right there for us guys

WaPo column: Column Karla L. Miller
Work Advice: How to avoid
'workslop' and other Al
pitfalls
999+

1 5 44

Nathan K. Hensley @nathankhensley.bsky.social · 1d

important caveat:

Trevor Aleo @mraleosays.bsky.social · 1d

1000% in agreement with all of this, but am also a bit nervous that the (very necessary) pushback against fads, hype, & fluff will morph into folks romanticizing the “good ol’ days” and/or lionizing ineffective, even harmful forms of “RETVRN Pedagogy” under the cover of being anti-edtech.

1 2 12

Nathan K. Hensley @nathankhensley.bsky.social · 1d

i think this is a very reasonable worry and something to be considered quite seriously -- thank you for sharing this. nostalgia can't be the answer here

11

Nathan K. Hensley @nathankhensley.bsky.social · 1d

Yeah! People are so hungry for it, too — students especially but not only them. TED talks, podcasts, all that stuff is evidence that people will chase the high of an amazing lecture to the ends of the earth

2 10

Nathan K. Hensley @nathankhensley.bsky.social · 1d

okay man, I lost the thread of what you’re mad about here. I’m sure we agree on most if not all of this stuff. be well.

Nathan K. Hensley @nathankhensley.bsky.social · 1d

i LOVE that adam is updating the adorno position, in the sartre-adorno debates on commitment, for the age of fascist retrenchment and partisanized higher ed!

chtodelat.org/wp-content/u...

First page of TA Adorno's essay "Commitment," highlighting the phrase describing art that takes "an apolitical stance that is in fact highly political," although this withdrawal of direct politics is considered "a fetish, an idle pastime" by those who insist all art and thought must engage directly with the fallen present.

5

Reposted by Nathan K. Hensley

Anna Kornbluh @annakornbluh.bsky.social · 1d

"the classroom has political relevance in creating opportunity for experience not conditioned by what Jäger calls “hyperpolitics.” Hold open this one last precious space of focused attention of careful deliberation of understanding before criticizing."

adamkotsko.substack.com/p/pedagogy-i...

2 5 31

Nathan K. Hensley @nathankhensley.bsky.social · 1d

design & lead classes & share their expertise with students directly, in real life, is a good thing. This is true in every sector of higher ed but especially for students who aren't rich, who deserve this as much or more than anybody else. Solidarity.

1 3

Nathan K. Hensley @nathankhensley.bsky.social · 1d

i'm sorry but this is now shifting the terms of the discussion to be about scarcity & relative privilege in an obviously obscene hierarchical system. i am not advocating for ivy league lecture practices. i am saying that having trained experts, in whom years of investment has been made, +

1 1

Nathan K. Hensley @nathankhensley.bsky.social · 1d

a “student led” pedagogy disavows the key function of facilitator expertise or denies its primacy — or enables admins to deny it— and is therefore (again from admin pov) amenable to, and I believe an accelerant of adjunctification. Solidarity.

2

Nathan K. Hensley @nathankhensley.bsky.social · 1d

everyone who has facilitated a seminar knows this is not entirely the case— but in the same way that the old lecture/discussion section model has grad students leading the discussion part, and vetted experts handling the lectures, +

2 1

Nathan K. Hensley @nathankhensley.bsky.social · 1d

thanks for this, matt. My thinking here is that from an administrator’s perspective, the flipped, discussion-section style model does not rely on the expertise or knowledge of the facilitator in the same way other models do. +

1 2

Nathan K. Hensley @nathankhensley.bsky.social · 1d

Yes, totally. I think this is how many of our colleagues were essentially co-opted into projects whose ultimate goal was the dissolution of the institutions of knowledge we care about

2 15

Nathan K. Hensley @nathankhensley.bsky.social · 1d

flipped classrooms & the unquestioned shift toward “student-led learning” were also part of the deprofessionalization->adjunctification->mechanization program whose ultimate goal was a fully administrative university

John Downes-Angus @johndownesangus.bsky.social · 1d

The over-reliance on standardization as the mechanism for writing instruction really was a pretty unbeatable context to produce de-professionalized teachers okay with using AI to grade

11 39 150

Reposted by Nathan K. Hensley

abc @thekitchentapes.bsky.social · 2d

Something about this reminds me of how excited I was to start classes as a first-gen student at the University of Central Florida. My whole family was excited. My grandfather had a fourth-grade education, and I was going to Learn Big Things and Think Deep Thoughts. There was pride in that.

Jake Grumbach @jakemgrumbach.bsky.social · 2d

Just got back from Normal, IL for a lecture at Illinois State University. Established in 1857 after this small town lawyer named Abe secured the funding. Was reminded once again that US public universities are the triumph of civilization

1 16 98

Reposted by Nathan K. Hensley

The Tennessee Holler @thetnholler.bsky.social · 2d

“YOU hit HER.”

CHICAGO - Trump’s ICE goons ram into a passing car after snatching someone, then brutally drag the female driver of the car they hit out of her car with guns drawn and arrest her too. (Her brother says she’s a citizen)