Technolandy

Day 71 (of 2025/26) 5 News Stories including: using AI to not be lazy; we need to talk more about dyscalcula; how’s Oz’s social media ban starting?

1. Interesting share of someone mindfully using AI to augment their learning, not to be lazy and have the collaborator do all the work…. Y’know, like in those group projects that too often have one person do the majority of the work, yet credit get shared….. https://apple.news/A9JvMZCL3SzGiljpRa8hM7A and a retro alternative to essay approaches: oral evaluations: https://apple.news/AG0Y6W7fpTvmQXDIGOTyvnQ

2. We already don’t talk enough about dyslexia – more of a ‘heres a bunch of strategies to try out’ diagnosis… but it’s’ good that there are some more stories being shared about dyscalculia; https://apple.news/A8mR4SSUHRyS2dMIcL58Sjw (and school burnout overall)

3. Week One in Australia’s Social Media Ban: youth skirt the law: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2025/12/10/australian-pm-told-try-harder-teens-social-media-ban/ how? Frowning at the camera… – I did have a discussion about this at our monthly PVP meeting, and I agree that social media has it’s issue, but it should not be the reason why we don’t incorporate tech into learning… when done well, it is an amazing equalizer and accelerant for meaningful learning; I admit that when it’s done wrong… then you get people on social media wishing for a removal of Chromebooks and a return to bluebooks because the 1980s were so good for so many learners (eyeroll emoji) My complaint is that an age restriction remains the wrong approach – some will be ready younger… others should be older… which is why I (sarcasm font) wish there were a place where youth gathered where they could learn together key content and learning points to be successful in society. The problem is that many teachers (and adults in general) are also poor users of the social media platforms. Gonna be an interesting one to keep an eye on!

4. Alberta going all-in on legal names of students only.. https://globalnews.ca/news/11533510/pronoun-policy-alberta-teachers-notwithstanding-clause/

5. And I’ve been enjoying watching the variety of reactions to the naming of the replacement of the Patullo Bridge – with the new stal̕əw̓asəm Bridge https://globalnews.ca/news/11568592/new-pattullo-bridge-first-nations-name-stal̕%C9%99w̓as%C9%99m-bridge/ proud of myself that the I got the pronunciation right just by reading it!