Dr. Rebecca Ottman
@rebeccaottman.bsky.social
PhD in Rhetoric currently working on a book theorizing eloquence and its horizons. Endlessly fascinated by rhetorical theory/classical rhetoric/multilingual pedagogy/digital writing. First-Gen. Fan of memes, 2000s emo lore, and pumpkin spice everything ☕️
Reposted by Dr. Rebecca Ottman
“At Texas A&M, internal emails show staff are using AI software to search syllabi and course descriptions for words that could raise concerns under new system policies restricting how faculty teach about race and gender.”
www.texastribune.org/2025/12/15/t...
www.texastribune.org/2025/12/15/t...
Texas universities deploy AI for course audits
Records obtained by The Texas Tribune show how universities are using the technology to reshape curriculum under political pressure, raising concerns about academic freedom.
www.texastribune.org
December 15, 2025 at 1:32 PM
“At Texas A&M, internal emails show staff are using AI software to search syllabi and course descriptions for words that could raise concerns under new system policies restricting how faculty teach about race and gender.”
www.texastribune.org/2025/12/15/t...
www.texastribune.org/2025/12/15/t...
It’s so funny to me that the powers that be think adding an AI-themed Gen Ed is going to do anything beyond fostering a deep resentment for AI in students. AI fatigue is real, and it’s coming soon to a campus near you.
December 15, 2025 at 5:21 PM
It’s so funny to me that the powers that be think adding an AI-themed Gen Ed is going to do anything beyond fostering a deep resentment for AI in students. AI fatigue is real, and it’s coming soon to a campus near you.
Wake up, new fresh hell just dropped!
🚨The “American Higher Education Restoration Act” would carve out a special pathway to tenure for faculty who teach “American Constitutionalism + Western Civilization,” increase the teaching loads for faculty who work in non-STEM disciplines…+ impose new governing board control over hiring. 👇
December 10, 2025 at 2:30 PM
Wake up, new fresh hell just dropped!
Reposted by Dr. Rebecca Ottman
if I see another academic describe LLMs - a tech owned by a small elite of white billionaires, built from extracting data from humans and minerals from the earth, and refined by the labor of underpaid workers in the global south - as an ‘important tool for decolonization’ I may simply just explode
December 9, 2025 at 2:32 AM
if I see another academic describe LLMs - a tech owned by a small elite of white billionaires, built from extracting data from humans and minerals from the earth, and refined by the labor of underpaid workers in the global south - as an ‘important tool for decolonization’ I may simply just explode
Somehow, I inevitably end up back at Roland Barthes.
November 18, 2025 at 11:53 PM
Somehow, I inevitably end up back at Roland Barthes.
Really don’t know how to face my students today in light of the institution being all over the news for all the wrong reasons.
November 14, 2025 at 2:36 PM
Really don’t know how to face my students today in light of the institution being all over the news for all the wrong reasons.
The tech companies, I fear, do not care about our input on their destruction of our learning sites, water infrastructure, or democracies.
November 5, 2025 at 9:57 PM
The tech companies, I fear, do not care about our input on their destruction of our learning sites, water infrastructure, or democracies.
Reposted by Dr. Rebecca Ottman
“higher ed must steer AI adoption” as a position is incompatible with academic freedom.
November 5, 2025 at 6:25 PM
“higher ed must steer AI adoption” as a position is incompatible with academic freedom.
Reposted by Dr. Rebecca Ottman
"this meeting could have been a clay tablet"
November 3, 2025 at 12:07 PM
"this meeting could have been a clay tablet"
Pretty sure this flavor of dudebro showed up in all my grad seminars lmao.
These people will speculate about the wildest sci-fi futures, and then call free buses for all unrealistic utopianism
November 3, 2025 at 5:46 PM
Pretty sure this flavor of dudebro showed up in all my grad seminars lmao.
Reposted by Dr. Rebecca Ottman
This is the political project every AI booster in higher education is facilitating
“The memo — in the form of fresh guidelines on how to talk to and evaluate answers from Apple’s upcoming new artificial intelligence model — appeared to have been retooled following Trump’s return to the White House…”
The topics include “diversity,” “elections,” and “vaccines.”
The topics include “diversity,” “elections,” and “vaccines.”
Revealed: Apple is teaching its AI to adapt to the Trump era
Apple policy documents enacted by a subcontractor show how the company shifted its approach to fine-tuning its AI in March, two months after the U.S. president was inaugurated.
www.politico.eu
September 11, 2025 at 12:13 PM
This is the political project every AI booster in higher education is facilitating
This semester, I’m teaching Plato’s Republic in my freshman writing class in that state everyone is talking about, and I’m not totally sure how to face my students tomorrow in the aftermath of my institution blatantly deciding that justice is indeed the advantage of the stronger.
September 10, 2025 at 2:01 AM
This semester, I’m teaching Plato’s Republic in my freshman writing class in that state everyone is talking about, and I’m not totally sure how to face my students tomorrow in the aftermath of my institution blatantly deciding that justice is indeed the advantage of the stronger.
Reposted by Dr. Rebecca Ottman
Education is for liberation, not control.
September 9, 2025 at 12:25 AM
Education is for liberation, not control.
Reposted by Dr. Rebecca Ottman
Clapping back at other academics (or tech apologists) making ridiculous claims about their favorite shiny toy is not punching down.
September 7, 2025 at 9:43 PM
Clapping back at other academics (or tech apologists) making ridiculous claims about their favorite shiny toy is not punching down.
Reposted by Dr. Rebecca Ottman
I don't use feedback on my writing from an LLM because it can't read and I write for readers. When students say they find LLM feedback "helpful" what are we signaling about what's important about their writing? Helpful for what goal? Helpful how? What values are being reinforced?
September 8, 2025 at 5:30 PM
I don't use feedback on my writing from an LLM because it can't read and I write for readers. When students say they find LLM feedback "helpful" what are we signaling about what's important about their writing? Helpful for what goal? Helpful how? What values are being reinforced?
Reposted by Dr. Rebecca Ottman
TBH I think it's hard to overstate the gap between the assumed guard rails and reality.
people think "well it might be wrong on the details sometimes" and the reality is that it is **coaching children to commit suicide**
you wouldn't expect that from ANY product! why would that exist!
people think "well it might be wrong on the details sometimes" and the reality is that it is **coaching children to commit suicide**
you wouldn't expect that from ANY product! why would that exist!
September 8, 2025 at 3:48 AM
TBH I think it's hard to overstate the gap between the assumed guard rails and reality.
people think "well it might be wrong on the details sometimes" and the reality is that it is **coaching children to commit suicide**
you wouldn't expect that from ANY product! why would that exist!
people think "well it might be wrong on the details sometimes" and the reality is that it is **coaching children to commit suicide**
you wouldn't expect that from ANY product! why would that exist!
I hope James Dobson is having the afterlife he deserves.
August 22, 2025 at 12:24 AM
I hope James Dobson is having the afterlife he deserves.
Opened my email to discover the university libraries kindly made an online version of one of my assigned textbooks available on Proquest, which now uses an AI-based “Research Assistant” that handles all the pesky reading so students don’t have to. 🙃🙃🙃
August 20, 2025 at 5:03 PM
Opened my email to discover the university libraries kindly made an online version of one of my assigned textbooks available on Proquest, which now uses an AI-based “Research Assistant” that handles all the pesky reading so students don’t have to. 🙃🙃🙃
Looks like handwritten feedback is back on the menu!
August 19, 2025 at 6:23 PM
Looks like handwritten feedback is back on the menu!
Reposted by Dr. Rebecca Ottman
Hi. Hello. GRAMMARLY IS NOT A WRITING TOOL. IT IS SURVEILLANCE CAPITALISM AND LINGUISTIC HOMOGENIZATION IN A TRENCHCOAT.
August 18, 2025 at 3:34 PM
Hi. Hello. GRAMMARLY IS NOT A WRITING TOOL. IT IS SURVEILLANCE CAPITALISM AND LINGUISTIC HOMOGENIZATION IN A TRENCHCOAT.
My personal theme for teaching FYC this year is slowness. Slow notes, slow reading, slow writing. Slowing down the process. Learning is a lifelong pursuit, and I’m over the pressure to optimize based on the whims of tech billionaires and admin who see students as nothing more than profit margins.
August 14, 2025 at 1:06 AM
My personal theme for teaching FYC this year is slowness. Slow notes, slow reading, slow writing. Slowing down the process. Learning is a lifelong pursuit, and I’m over the pressure to optimize based on the whims of tech billionaires and admin who see students as nothing more than profit margins.
Has Sam Altman ever talked to an expert or is pretending to be one enough? 🤔
“GPT-5 is the first time that it feels like talking to an expert in any topic — a Ph.D.-level expert,” OpenAI CEO Sam Altman said.
OpenAI Unveils GPT-5, Its Latest and Most Powerful Model, After Two-Year Wait
CEO Sam Altman said using the chatbot will be like talking with a doctorate-level expert in any topic.
www.wsj.com
August 8, 2025 at 2:50 PM
Has Sam Altman ever talked to an expert or is pretending to be one enough? 🤔
Reposted by Dr. Rebecca Ottman
What a time to
A. Be a rhetorician
B. Live in Texas
C. Try to write anything rn
A. Be a rhetorician
B. Live in Texas
C. Try to write anything rn
August 4, 2025 at 9:24 PM
What a time to
A. Be a rhetorician
B. Live in Texas
C. Try to write anything rn
A. Be a rhetorician
B. Live in Texas
C. Try to write anything rn
Happy Sunday scaries season of the academic year to all who celebrate!
August 1, 2025 at 11:11 AM
Happy Sunday scaries season of the academic year to all who celebrate!