Phil Nichols
@philnichols.bsky.social
Assoc professor @Baylor. Studies: digitalization of/in education; how science/tech shape the ways we practice, teach, and talk about literacy. [he/him]
Reposted by Phil Nichols
Gift link to my argument in favor of teaching works of "serious literary value" in public schools: slate.com/life/2025/05...
This Year, We All Realized That Kids Aren’t Reading Books in School. Only the Right Is Offering a Solution.
Common Core and the College Board are my enemies. But the classical education movement is not my friend.
slate.com
May 28, 2025 at 12:31 PM
Gift link to my argument in favor of teaching works of "serious literary value" in public schools: slate.com/life/2025/05...
Reposted by Phil Nichols
it's not good for kids to read books because it will prepare them for college, or for work, or for seminary, it's good for them in the moment because it helps them grow, in any number of unpredictable directions
October 30, 2025 at 5:20 PM
it's not good for kids to read books because it will prepare them for college, or for work, or for seminary, it's good for them in the moment because it helps them grow, in any number of unpredictable directions
Good distillation of what I argue in Building the Innovation School—the imperative to "innovate" in K-12 education is a mechanism to recurrently launder austerity and/or public resource capture as common-sense, even equitable, reform.
bookshop.org/p/books/buil...
bookshop.org/p/books/buil...
October 30, 2025 at 2:42 PM
Good distillation of what I argue in Building the Innovation School—the imperative to "innovate" in K-12 education is a mechanism to recurrently launder austerity and/or public resource capture as common-sense, even equitable, reform.
bookshop.org/p/books/buil...
bookshop.org/p/books/buil...
Reposted by Phil Nichols
Just learned that WRITING BACKWARDS has won Narrative's 2026 Perkins Prize, "awarded to the book making the most significant contribution to the study of narrative in a given year." A true honor, especially given the prize's past recipients!
www.thenarrativesociety.org/barbara-and-...
www.thenarrativesociety.org/barbara-and-...
October 29, 2025 at 1:04 PM
Just learned that WRITING BACKWARDS has won Narrative's 2026 Perkins Prize, "awarded to the book making the most significant contribution to the study of narrative in a given year." A true honor, especially given the prize's past recipients!
www.thenarrativesociety.org/barbara-and-...
www.thenarrativesociety.org/barbara-and-...
Reposted by Phil Nichols
Hey high school English teachers! If you are going to @ncte.org 's convention next month, please be in touch! @dan-sinnamon.bsky.social and I, along with ed prof pals Robert LeBlanc and @philnichols.bsky.social, will be presenting and leading a workshop on Saturday, 11/22
October 24, 2025 at 3:53 PM
Hey high school English teachers! If you are going to @ncte.org 's convention next month, please be in touch! @dan-sinnamon.bsky.social and I, along with ed prof pals Robert LeBlanc and @philnichols.bsky.social, will be presenting and leading a workshop on Saturday, 11/22
Reposted by Phil Nichols
. @dan-sinnamon.bsky.social and I put CLOSE READING FOR THE TWENTY-FIRST CENTURY together to help connect what undergrads do in assignments with what we do as scholars
then we found ourselves talking to a lot of high school teachers
slate.com/life/2025/10...
then we found ourselves talking to a lot of high school teachers
slate.com/life/2025/10...
There’s a Literacy Crisis. One Classroom Solution Should Be Obvious.
You can't get better at reading until you care about a text.
slate.com
October 24, 2025 at 2:22 PM
. @dan-sinnamon.bsky.social and I put CLOSE READING FOR THE TWENTY-FIRST CENTURY together to help connect what undergrads do in assignments with what we do as scholars
then we found ourselves talking to a lot of high school teachers
slate.com/life/2025/10...
then we found ourselves talking to a lot of high school teachers
slate.com/life/2025/10...
Reposted by Phil Nichols
Seems like an opportune moment to re-up our paper about AWS seeking infrastructural dominance in education through a range of operations that include platforming the edtech industry on its cloud services codeactsineducation.wordpress.com/2022/07/12/h...
How many classes today were canceled because a whole suite of EdTech services are built atop AWS?
You know what platform never crashes?
You know what platform never crashes?
October 20, 2025 at 4:46 PM
Seems like an opportune moment to re-up our paper about AWS seeking infrastructural dominance in education through a range of operations that include platforming the edtech industry on its cloud services codeactsineducation.wordpress.com/2022/07/12/h...
Reposted by Phil Nichols
in which i compare chatgpt to humbert humbert
Why So Many People Are Seduced by ChatGPT
What makes OpenAI’s chatbot so dangerous? It’s a fictional character without an author.
www.theatlantic.com
October 17, 2025 at 2:36 PM
in which i compare chatgpt to humbert humbert
This is just as true for K-12, and if you're looking to cut through the hype in your local school/district, Faith Boninger and I wrote this brief to sum up the research evidence (or lack thereof) for school leaders, administrators, and policymakers. Send it to them!
nepc.colorado.edu/publication/...
nepc.colorado.edu/publication/...
October 17, 2025 at 1:06 PM
This is just as true for K-12, and if you're looking to cut through the hype in your local school/district, Faith Boninger and I wrote this brief to sum up the research evidence (or lack thereof) for school leaders, administrators, and policymakers. Send it to them!
nepc.colorado.edu/publication/...
nepc.colorado.edu/publication/...
Reposted by Phil Nichols
New paper - "Brokering the brain: neuroscientific knowledge, technologies, and the translation of neuro-expertise into educational practice" - led by @dimiktz.bsky.social w Martyn Pickersgill, Jess Pykett and me from our bio-edu-data-sci project funded by @leverhulme.ac.uk doi.org/10.1080/0159...
Brokering the brain: neuroscientific knowledge, technologies, and the translation of neuro-expertise into educational practice
Educational neuroscience has expanded its influence since the 1990s, positioned as advancing new forms of intervention in educational policy and practice. Simultaneously, the gap between the neuros...
doi.org
October 9, 2025 at 1:10 PM
New paper - "Brokering the brain: neuroscientific knowledge, technologies, and the translation of neuro-expertise into educational practice" - led by @dimiktz.bsky.social w Martyn Pickersgill, Jess Pykett and me from our bio-edu-data-sci project funded by @leverhulme.ac.uk doi.org/10.1080/0159...
Reposted by Phil Nichols
I wrote about the divide between high school and college English, and what we might do to bridge it, for @publicbooks.bsky.social—part of an excellent roundtable on higher ed under Trump organized by @dennismhogan.bsky.social
www.publicbooks.org/toward-the-h...
www.publicbooks.org/toward-the-h...
Toward the Higher- and Secondary-Ed Alliance! - Public Books
The influence of K-12 policy and pedagogy on higher ed can perhaps be seen best in the trickle-up effect of the standards of the Common Core.
www.publicbooks.org
October 10, 2025 at 4:39 PM
I wrote about the divide between high school and college English, and what we might do to bridge it, for @publicbooks.bsky.social—part of an excellent roundtable on higher ed under Trump organized by @dennismhogan.bsky.social
www.publicbooks.org/toward-the-h...
www.publicbooks.org/toward-the-h...
Maybe of interest to the @civicsoftech.bsky.social and #literacies communities and others concerned about the growing influence of private tech in public schools.
New policy brief: Educators should reassess the hidden impacts of ed tech ecosystems on teaching, learning, and student data. bit.ly/46C2JXT
Fit for Purpose? How Today’s Commercial Digital Platforms Subvert Key Goals of Public Education
Digital educational platforms have become ubiquitous in American classrooms, with tools like Google Workspace for Education, Kahoot!, Zearn, Khan Academy, and many others now structuring curriculum, i...
nepc.colorado.edu
September 29, 2025 at 10:53 PM
Maybe of interest to the @civicsoftech.bsky.social and #literacies communities and others concerned about the growing influence of private tech in public schools.
Reposted by Phil Nichols
Say it often, say it loud:
"Overall, research has not supported the common-sense presumption that digital approaches to schooling are better than non-digital alternatives. At the broadest level, widespread computer use in education has been found to be associated with lower student achievement."
"Overall, research has not supported the common-sense presumption that digital approaches to schooling are better than non-digital alternatives. At the broadest level, widespread computer use in education has been found to be associated with lower student achievement."
Fit for Purpose? How Today’s Commercial Digital Platforms Subvert Key Goals of Public Education
Digital educational platforms have become ubiquitous in American classrooms, with tools like Google Workspace for Education, Kahoot!, Zearn, Khan Academy, and many others now structuring curriculum, i...
nepc.colorado.edu
September 29, 2025 at 10:18 AM
Say it often, say it loud:
"Overall, research has not supported the common-sense presumption that digital approaches to schooling are better than non-digital alternatives. At the broadest level, widespread computer use in education has been found to be associated with lower student achievement."
"Overall, research has not supported the common-sense presumption that digital approaches to schooling are better than non-digital alternatives. At the broadest level, widespread computer use in education has been found to be associated with lower student achievement."
Reposted by Phil Nichols
[clears throat]...I have another book coming out in the near future
if you'd like to read a bit about LYRIC LOGIC, there are some very generous blurbs over at @columbiaup.bsky.social
(my thanks to Marjorie Levinson, Oren Izenberg, Theo Davis, Nan Z. Da, and also @philipleventhal.bsky.social)
if you'd like to read a bit about LYRIC LOGIC, there are some very generous blurbs over at @columbiaup.bsky.social
(my thanks to Marjorie Levinson, Oren Izenberg, Theo Davis, Nan Z. Da, and also @philipleventhal.bsky.social)
Lyric Logic | Columbia University Press
Between the Civil War and the Cold War, American literary modernism and philosophy both grappled with the challenge of novelty and the chance to make it new.... | CUP
cup.columbia.edu
September 26, 2025 at 1:21 PM
[clears throat]...I have another book coming out in the near future
if you'd like to read a bit about LYRIC LOGIC, there are some very generous blurbs over at @columbiaup.bsky.social
(my thanks to Marjorie Levinson, Oren Izenberg, Theo Davis, Nan Z. Da, and also @philipleventhal.bsky.social)
if you'd like to read a bit about LYRIC LOGIC, there are some very generous blurbs over at @columbiaup.bsky.social
(my thanks to Marjorie Levinson, Oren Izenberg, Theo Davis, Nan Z. Da, and also @philipleventhal.bsky.social)
Reposted by Phil Nichols
Edtech platforms "are not neutral 'tools' but complex ecosystems shaped by technical architectures, commercial imperatives, and political-economic interests." Excellent new policy brief on edtech platforms from @nepc.bsky.social and @philnichols.bsky.social
New policy brief: Educators should reassess the hidden impacts of ed tech ecosystems on teaching, learning, and student data. bit.ly/46C2JXT
Fit for Purpose? How Today’s Commercial Digital Platforms Subvert Key Goals of Public Education
Digital educational platforms have become ubiquitous in American classrooms, with tools like Google Workspace for Education, Kahoot!, Zearn, Khan Academy, and many others now structuring curriculum, i...
nepc.colorado.edu
September 25, 2025 at 6:18 PM
Edtech platforms "are not neutral 'tools' but complex ecosystems shaped by technical architectures, commercial imperatives, and political-economic interests." Excellent new policy brief on edtech platforms from @nepc.bsky.social and @philnichols.bsky.social
Reposted by Phil Nichols
New @nepc.bsky.social policy brief with Faith Boninger: how commercial edtech undercuts key goals of public education—and what we can do about it. We look at transparency, governance, and privacy issues and offer recommendations for educators and policymakers.
nepc.colorado.edu/publication/...
nepc.colorado.edu/publication/...
Fit for Purpose? How Today’s Commercial Digital Platforms Subvert Key Goals of Public Education
Digital educational platforms have become ubiquitous in American classrooms, with tools like Google Workspace for Education, Kahoot!, Zearn, Khan Academy, and many others now structuring curriculum, i...
nepc.colorado.edu
September 25, 2025 at 5:25 PM
New @nepc.bsky.social policy brief with Faith Boninger: how commercial edtech undercuts key goals of public education—and what we can do about it. We look at transparency, governance, and privacy issues and offer recommendations for educators and policymakers.
nepc.colorado.edu/publication/...
nepc.colorado.edu/publication/...
Reposted by Phil Nichols
If you care about young people, education, and the future, this report from @nepc.bsky.social is a must read.
New @nepc.bsky.social policy brief with Faith Boninger: how commercial edtech undercuts key goals of public education—and what we can do about it. We look at transparency, governance, and privacy issues and offer recommendations for educators and policymakers.
nepc.colorado.edu/publication/...
nepc.colorado.edu/publication/...
Fit for Purpose? How Today’s Commercial Digital Platforms Subvert Key Goals of Public Education
Digital educational platforms have become ubiquitous in American classrooms, with tools like Google Workspace for Education, Kahoot!, Zearn, Khan Academy, and many others now structuring curriculum, i...
nepc.colorado.edu
September 25, 2025 at 11:17 PM
If you care about young people, education, and the future, this report from @nepc.bsky.social is a must read.
Reposted by Phil Nichols
New policy brief: Educators should reassess the hidden impacts of ed tech ecosystems on teaching, learning, and student data. bit.ly/46C2JXT
Fit for Purpose? How Today’s Commercial Digital Platforms Subvert Key Goals of Public Education
Digital educational platforms have become ubiquitous in American classrooms, with tools like Google Workspace for Education, Kahoot!, Zearn, Khan Academy, and many others now structuring curriculum, i...
nepc.colorado.edu
September 25, 2025 at 2:37 PM
New policy brief: Educators should reassess the hidden impacts of ed tech ecosystems on teaching, learning, and student data. bit.ly/46C2JXT
New @nepc.bsky.social policy brief with Faith Boninger: how commercial edtech undercuts key goals of public education—and what we can do about it. We look at transparency, governance, and privacy issues and offer recommendations for educators and policymakers.
nepc.colorado.edu/publication/...
nepc.colorado.edu/publication/...
Fit for Purpose? How Today’s Commercial Digital Platforms Subvert Key Goals of Public Education
Digital educational platforms have become ubiquitous in American classrooms, with tools like Google Workspace for Education, Kahoot!, Zearn, Khan Academy, and many others now structuring curriculum, i...
nepc.colorado.edu
September 25, 2025 at 5:25 PM
New @nepc.bsky.social policy brief with Faith Boninger: how commercial edtech undercuts key goals of public education—and what we can do about it. We look at transparency, governance, and privacy issues and offer recommendations for educators and policymakers.
nepc.colorado.edu/publication/...
nepc.colorado.edu/publication/...
Reposted by Phil Nichols
📚New Pub! Contributing to our special issue series, Dominique McDaniel and Matthew Osborn write “From Platforms to Pedagogy: Exploring How Youth’s Social Media Practices Can Shape Teacher Education Through Culturally Digitized Pedagogy.” Check it out!
From Platforms to Pedagogy: Exploring How Youth’s Social Media Practices Can Shape Teacher Education Through Culturally Digitized Pedagogy – CITE Journal
citejournal.org
September 10, 2025 at 11:36 PM
📚New Pub! Contributing to our special issue series, Dominique McDaniel and Matthew Osborn write “From Platforms to Pedagogy: Exploring How Youth’s Social Media Practices Can Shape Teacher Education Through Culturally Digitized Pedagogy.” Check it out!
Reposted by Phil Nichols
The final issue of our series on critical perspectives on digital platforms in ELA teacher education is published. We are so grateful to all of our brilliant contributors. Check it out!
English/Language Arts Education – CITE Journal
citejournal.org
September 10, 2025 at 11:31 PM
The final issue of our series on critical perspectives on digital platforms in ELA teacher education is published. We are so grateful to all of our brilliant contributors. Check it out!
Reposted by Phil Nichols
📚New Pub! Contributing to our special issue series, @justmaybechris.bsky.social, Cherise McBride, and
@anna-phd.bsky.social
write on “The (Im)Possibilities of ‘Creating Digital Living Rooms’: A Black Educational Studies Perspective on Digital Platforms in Teacher Education”. Check it out!
@anna-phd.bsky.social
write on “The (Im)Possibilities of ‘Creating Digital Living Rooms’: A Black Educational Studies Perspective on Digital Platforms in Teacher Education”. Check it out!
The (Im)Possibilities of “Creating Digital Living Rooms”: A Black Educational Studies Perspective on Digital Platforms in Teacher Education – CITE Journal
citejournal.org
September 10, 2025 at 11:51 PM
📚New Pub! Contributing to our special issue series, @justmaybechris.bsky.social, Cherise McBride, and
@anna-phd.bsky.social
write on “The (Im)Possibilities of ‘Creating Digital Living Rooms’: A Black Educational Studies Perspective on Digital Platforms in Teacher Education”. Check it out!
@anna-phd.bsky.social
write on “The (Im)Possibilities of ‘Creating Digital Living Rooms’: A Black Educational Studies Perspective on Digital Platforms in Teacher Education”. Check it out!
Reposted by Phil Nichols
Academic authors, here's a peek into the black box of journal publishing from an journal editor if you can bear it:
September 6, 2025 at 11:09 PM
Academic authors, here's a peek into the black box of journal publishing from an journal editor if you can bear it:
Reposted by Phil Nichols
Tonight in Critical Tech in Ed, we're reading @anterobot.bsky.social, @charleswlogan.bsky.social & @philnichols.bsky.social's LA Book Review on @bcmerchant.bsky.social's Blood in the Machine to talk abt why we're reading widely & critically in seeking to understand tech in edu & advocate for change.
Inspiration from the Luddites: On Brian Merchant’s “Blood in the Machine” | Los Angeles Review of Books
Three educators find inspiration for fighting automation in the classroom in Brian Merchant’s “Blood in the Machine: The Origins of the Rebellion Against Big Tech.”
lareviewofbooks.org
September 4, 2025 at 4:47 PM
Tonight in Critical Tech in Ed, we're reading @anterobot.bsky.social, @charleswlogan.bsky.social & @philnichols.bsky.social's LA Book Review on @bcmerchant.bsky.social's Blood in the Machine to talk abt why we're reading widely & critically in seeking to understand tech in edu & advocate for change.
Reposted by Phil Nichols
I've been working for many months on this article on Silicon Valley's under-the-radar role in bringing AI into schools across the US. I really hope you'll read it — here's a gift link — but I'll tell you some of the highlights in this thread. (1/x)
How Chatbots and AI Are Already Transforming Kids' Classrooms
Educators across the country are bringing chatbots into their lesson plans. Will it help kids learn or is it just another doomed ed-tech fad?
www.bloomberg.com
September 2, 2025 at 4:31 PM
I've been working for many months on this article on Silicon Valley's under-the-radar role in bringing AI into schools across the US. I really hope you'll read it — here's a gift link — but I'll tell you some of the highlights in this thread. (1/x)