#Student evaluation tools

[newsepick]

Newsepick Evolve - Utilizes Digital Frameworks to Digitalize Daily Homework for Effective Practice

Newsepick #Evolve utilizes digital frameworks to digitalize daily homework for effective practice. Educators can use this tool to help students identify areas that need improvement with instant feedback and comprehensive data insight 📊 of their performance. So what are you waiting for? Connect with Us: support@newsepick.com. Call us at +91 99039 99574

[whentherewerebicycles]

a bunch of people have already registered for my mentoring workshop! unfortunately this means i have to plan and host a workshop aaaaaa

[solemnlyfloatingscorpion]

Career Mapping Tools: Your Roadmap to Professional Success

Choosing the right career path can be overwhelming, but with the help of career mapping tools, students and professionals alike can gain clarity and direction. These tools are designed to assess your strengths, interests, and goals, providing a personalized career growth map that leads to long-term satisfaction.

The career mapping process begins with self-evaluation. Through a mix of educational assessment and personality analysis, individuals get a clearer picture of where they stand and where they want to go. From there, expert career guidance helps translate this self-awareness into a structured action plan.

One of the most powerful outcomes of using career mapping tools is discovering a path to career success that aligns with both passion and skillset. For students and young adults, it often serves as a wake-up call about the variety of careers for education and beyond. From careers in academics to global opportunities and entrepreneurship, the choices become more visible and approachable.

Moreover, a career progression map allows for long-term planning. Instead of making choices based on short-term trends, individuals can look at where each path leads in 5, 10, or 15 years. This strategic planning helps avoid job dissatisfaction and enhances career fulfillment.

Whether you're a student, a parent, or someone planning a switch, understanding and using career mapping tools is crucial. It’s not just about finding a job — it’s about loving your career and achieving lasting success.

[healthlife99]

Pet Nutrition Alliance: A Comprehensive Guide to Optimal Animal Health and Well-being

Discover everything about the Pet Nutrition Alliance — its mission, scientific guidelines, and practical tools to support pet owners, students, and healthcare professionals in promoting optimal animal nutrition and well-being.

Introduction:

In an era where animal health is just as important as human health, the Pet Nutrition Alliance (PNA) has emerged as a trusted source of scientifically backed guidance on companion animal nutrition. Whether you're a veterinary student, a pet owner, or a healthcare professional seeking insights into pet dietary needs, the PNA is an invaluable resource that bridges the gap between research and practical application.

With rising concerns about obesity in pets, food allergies, and nutritional imbalances, understanding proper feeding practices has never been more critical. This blog post dives deep into what the Pet Nutrition Alliance stands for, its history, mission, tools, and the impact it makes on pets and their caregivers. Let’s explore how this alliance is shaping the future of animal nutrition.

Click here for details:

[mostlysignssomeportents]

AI can’t do your job

I'm on a 20+ city book tour for my new novel PICKS AND SHOVELS. Catch me in SAN DIEGO at MYSTERIOUS GALAXY on Mar 24, and in CHICAGO with PETER SAGAL on Apr 2. More tour dates here.

AI can't do your job, but an AI salesman (Elon Musk) can convince your boss (the USA) to fire you and replace you (a federal worker) with a chatbot that can't do your job:

https://www.pcmag.com/news/amid-job-cuts-doge-accelerates-rollout-of-ai-tool-to-automate-government

If you pay attention to the hype, you'd think that all the action on "AI" (an incoherent grab-bag of only marginally related technologies) was in generating text and images. Man, is that ever wrong. The AI hype machine could put every commercial illustrator alive on the breadline and the savings wouldn't pay the kombucha budget for the million-dollar-a-year techies who oversaw Dall-E's training run. The commercial market for automated email summaries is likewise infinitesimal.

The fact that CEOs overestimate the size of this market is easy to understand, since "CEO" is the most laptop job of all laptop jobs. Having a chatbot summarize the boss's email is the 2025 equivalent of the 2000s gag about the boss whose secretary printed out the boss's email and put it in his in-tray so he could go over it with a red pen and then dictate his reply.

The smart AI money is long on "decision support," whereby a statistical inference engine suggests to a human being what decision they should make. There's bots that are supposed to diagnose tumors, bots that are supposed to make neutral bail and parole decisions, bots that are supposed to evaluate student essays, resumes and loan applications.

The narrative around these bots is that they are there to help humans. In this story, the hospital buys a radiology bot that offers a second opinion to the human radiologist. If they disagree, the human radiologist takes another look. In this tale, AI is a way for hospitals to make fewer mistakes by spending more money. An AI assisted radiologist is less productive (because they re-run some x-rays to resolve disagreements with the bot) but more accurate.

In automation theory jargon, this radiologist is a "centaur" – a human head grafted onto the tireless, ever-vigilant body of a robot

Of course, no one who invests in an AI company expects this to happen. Instead, they want reverse-centaurs: a human who acts as an assistant to a robot. The real pitch to hospital is, "Fire all but one of your radiologists and then put that poor bastard to work reviewing the judgments our robot makes at machine scale."

No one seriously thinks that the reverse-centaur radiologist will be able to maintain perfect vigilance over long shifts of supervising automated process that rarely go wrong, but when they do, the error must be caught:

https://pluralistic.net/2024/04/01/human-in-the-loop/#monkey-in-the-middle

The role of this "human in the loop" isn't to prevent errors. That human's is there to be blamed for errors:

https://pluralistic.net/2024/10/30/a-neck-in-a-noose/#is-also-a-human-in-the-loop

The human is there to be a "moral crumple zone":

https://estsjournal.org/index.php/ests/article/view/260

The human is there to be an "accountability sink":

https://profilebooks.com/work/the-unaccountability-machine/

But they're not there to be radiologists.

This is bad enough when we're talking about radiology, but it's even worse in government contexts, where the bots are deciding who gets Medicare, who gets food stamps, who gets VA benefits, who gets a visa, who gets indicted, who gets bail, and who gets parole.

That's because statistical inference is intrinsically conservative: an AI predicts the future by looking at its data about the past, and when that prediction is also an automated decision, fed to a Chaplinesque reverse-centaur trying to keep pace with a torrent of machine judgments, the prediction becomes a directive, and thus a self-fulfilling prophecy:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/03/09/autocomplete-worshippers/#the-real-ai-was-the-corporations-that-we-fought-along-the-way

AIs want the future to be like the past, and AIs make the future like the past. If the training data is full of human bias, then the predictions will also be full of human bias, and then the outcomes will be full of human bias, and when those outcomes are copraphagically fed back into the training data, you get new, highly concentrated human/machine bias:

https://pluralistic.net/2024/03/14/inhuman-centipede/#enshittibottification

By firing skilled human workers and replacing them with spicy autocomplete, Musk is assuming his final form as both the kind of boss who can be conned into replacing you with a defective chatbot and as the fast-talking sales rep who cons your boss. Musk is transforming key government functions into high-speed error-generating machines whose human minders are only the payroll to take the fall for the coming tsunami of robot fuckups.

This is the equivalent to filling the American government's walls with asbestos, turning agencies into hazmat zones that we can't touch without causing thousands to sicken and die:

https://pluralistic.net/2021/08/19/failure-cascades/#dirty-data

If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this post to read or share, here's a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:

https://pluralistic.net/2025/03/18/asbestos-in-the-walls/#government-by-spicy-autocomplete

Image: Krd (modified) https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:DASA_01.jpg

CC BY-SA 3.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/deed.en

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Cryteria (modified) https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:HAL9000.svg

CC BY 3.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/deed.en

[neil-gaiman]

Hi Neil! I’m a computer science student that’s moving on to my final year in uni soon and for my final year project, I’m hoping so sth along the lines of producing a tool for preventing voice cloning! It’ll be exploring techniques similar to what Glaze does to defend against style mimicry in visual art and it’s all very exciting. I will need ppl to evaluate the end result in terms of success of preventing voice cloning, sound quality after adding the defence etc. And it’ll be great to get some ppl who actually voice/read stuff for a living to evaluate all this. I have zero idea how I would get access to that kinda community tho. And I thought you might know sth abt it. It’ll be great if I can get some contacts (I’m based in the uk if that helps) but otherwise can I just get a good luck for my dissertation? :3

Sincerely

A girl who rewatched Sandman 5 times and proceeded to go down a rabbit hole of all ur works

Sounds like a very worthwhile project. I hope lots of people reach out to you! (And Good Luck!)

[un-lawliet]

Can I PLEASE request more soft gojo fics pleaseee. Maybe in jujitsu tech where he barges in the class we're teaching just to give us a goodbye kiss because he's going on a mission and he just can't go without a kiss! 🥺

“Teacher, Teacher”

-in which Gojo visits you before he leaves for his mission.

“And so Maki!” You say, staring down at the faces of your students, your arms opening in a hug like motion towards them.

“When using any of your cursed tools, make sure you protect your weak points, it’s essential!”

It was late in the afternoon, and you were currently going over your students last performance in training, your eyes lit up with passionate praise as you evaluated their improvements.

Maki nods, her face resting on her palm, her glasses slipping down her nose slightly.

“Now..Panda.” You turn, looking at him a grin on your face.

Panda straightens, cocking his fluffy head in acknowledgement to your engagement.

You giggle, “Well, you did great! However, maybe try to rely a little less on your size and more on the technical aspect of your attacks.”

“Tuna.” You hear Inumaki sigh, rubbing his shin in which Panda had sat on mid battle.

“If I have the weight shouldn’t I use it?” Panda questions gently, ignoring Inumaki entirely.

You nod, “Of course! Just not to the point where your entire strength hinges on it…If that makes sense..”

“Try throw a punch she means.” Maki interrupts, leaning back in her chair yawning.

“Salmon.”

“Listen, I can’t help it if my battle tactics are different from you’s two” Panda huffs.

“So what? You gonna sit on a curse?”

“Maybe I will.” Panda replies, sticking out his chest, “See if they can handle me!”

Inumaki’s shoulder slumps as he writes something on the book in front of him before holding it up.

“You’ll get destroyed.”

“The hell? No I won’t.”

Maki leans over to read Inumaki’s writing before laughing to herself, “He has a point y’know”

“Stupid point.”

“Bonito flakes.”

“Ooh someone’s mad I beat him.”

“OoOoh some Panda’s mad that he gets annihilated by a grade 4 curse.” Maki cheekily replies, her eyes glimmering with mischief.

“Hey!” You interupt, “Nobodys getting annihilated when I’m the teacher.”

Your students sigh and turn back to you, Inumaki sticking out his tounge to Panda in his movements.

And you giggle to yourself fondly.

You love being a teacher.

After training at Jujutsu Tech it seemed the only natural course for you, you had strength of course, but your real talent stemmed from your ability to create battle plans that exploited sorcerers strengths and disguised their weaknesses.

Yaga had welcomed you as a co-worker just a couple days after your graduation, his grin wide as he explained your duties before frowning at someone behind you.

“And what are you doing here Satoru.”

“What? I’m here to teach.”

“Huh?” You had said turning to look at him.

Even Shoko, who you would tease for her stoicism, raised an eyebrow.

“You’re gonna teach?” She said, “You.”

Gojo placed a hand on his heart, a dramatic showing of offence present in the way he opened his mouth and gasped, “Is it that weird?”

“Yes.” You all deadpanned.

Yaga scratched the back of his head, “Never in all my years of teaching you, have you ever shown an interest in teaching.”

“Well, it’s different now.” Gojo replied simply, grinning at his previous teacher, gloating. “Someone has to look after this one.” He nodded towards you, winking.

“Look after me??” You exclaim, turning to face him fully, your arms crossed, “I’m more than capable of-”

“Is this about Geto?” Shoko had asked plainly, resting her chin on her palm, staring Gojo out.

All of you went silent.

“No, not at all.”

Gojos’ expression had turned cold, as if the very mention of his best friend could freeze any conversation, any fleeting moment. You felt uneasy, your body closing in on itself to fight off the chill.

“Are you sure-”

“Yes.”

It was awkward.

Gojo and Shoko staring at eachother, as if commuting in a silent battle in which you and Yaga could not understand.

Quiet. Until Yaga interupted with a sigh, shaking his head.

“You’ll have to do an interview.”

“HUH?” Gojo replied, his head swinging back to Yaga, breaking his battle with Shoko instantaneously.

“Y/N didn’t need an interview?”

“Y/N is not a reckless.”

“Neither am I!!”

And you remember laughing into your palm, the pain of the past dissipating for a split second, as Gojo pouted, and followed Yaga into his office, as Shoko congratulated you on your new job.

Your new job that you had kept for the last 10 years.

…With Satoru Gojo.

Who had somehow, along the way, stole your heart.

Your phone buzzes from your desk, and you glance at it to see a message for Satoru, asking you if you wanted anything back from his mission later.

You deflate a little at the reminder.

You weren’t going to see Gojo before his mission due to your scheduled classes with the second years.

It had been a while since you had properly spent time with him, you missed seeing his silly face.

You sigh, you’ll reply later.

“So Maki, were you with Nobara yesterday?” You hear Panda start as you tune back into your students conversation.

“Huh? Yea? We were training.”

“Oh oh oh…Private training sessions…” Panda smirks, and you swear Maki’s glare could kill.

“Salmonnn~.”

“Shut up Inumaki.”

“Look Inumaki she’s totally blushing!” Panda laughs, you think it sounds more like a roar.

“That’s it! I swear to God, next training session I will fuc-”

The sliding door behind you opens, and you turn to see your boyfriend waltz into the room, bending to pass through the threshold.

“There she is!” Gojo says, opening his arms in your direction.

“Oh here we go.” Maki mutters.

Gojo was beaming, his mouth carrying the weight of his expression, teeth bared in a wide grin, eyes hidden behind his blindfold.

He raised his arms and walked towards you, ignoring your students exasperation, only focusing on you.

“Hello!” You say, as he pulls you into his chest, giving you a big; dramatic kiss on your head, swaying gently.

“Thought you were leaving?” You question, leaning towards him.

“I was, but someone didn’t reply to my text.” Gojo huffs back, pulling away to watch your face.

“How can I face this world’s dangers if I’m being ignored!?”

“You just sent it Toru.”

“Aha! So you did see it!”

“I was gonna reply later.”

Gojo shakes his head, pouting, “Not good enough.”

You watch amused as he taps his cheek twice, challenging you.

You giggle rising up on your feet to kiss his cheek, before you push him away by the chest.

“Go!” You say, your voice light, “You got your goodbyes, don’t let me hold you back.”

And he just looks at you, a soft smile on his face and you miss the cheeky look he gives you before leaning down and quickly kissing you.

It was small and gentle, and you barely register the disgusted groans of your students, your cheeks warning.

“I’ll be home by 10.” Gojo says, patting your head, “Don’t wait up for me if you’re tired yea?”

And you nod, although you both know that you’ll stay up to see him regardless.

“Be safe!” You call after him, as he walks away, a spring in his step.

“Always am baby!”

And then he’s gone, and you’re left speechless and smiling.

“God, can we leave?” Maki groans, “I feel sick.”

“You just wish that was you and Nobara Maki.” Panda teases, and you hear Inumaki laugh, slapping the desk.

Maki’s face turns bright red and she stands up from her desk, pointing a finger at Panda.

“You and me outside now, we can see if Pandas can survive being buried alive!”

“Oh it’s on!”

You lift an eyebrow and all three of them rise, not bothering to stop them.

“Please try not to kill each other.” You call after them, laughing as Inumaki salutes you before he exits.

…You love being a teacher.

masterlist <3

FEEL FREE TO LEAVE A REQUEST

A/N THANK U FOR THE REQUEST !!! i decided just to write it silly, just bc i’m not too good at the characterisation of the second year students EEK so i hope this is ok !!!!! i love gojo <3 also i wrote this instead of getting ready for work so AHHHHHH i have to panic get ready now so that’s fun

i love you all have a lovely LOVELY day thank u for reading :)

[literaryvein-reblogs]

Writing Notes: The Five-Factor Model of Personality

Culture is transmitted to people through language, as well as through social norms which establish acceptable and unacceptable behaviors which are then rewarded or punished (Henrich, 2016; Triandis & Suh, 2002).

With an increased understanding of cultural learning, psychologists have become interested in the role of culture in understanding personality.

The 5 Personality Traits According to this Model

OPENNESS TO EXPERIENCE

Refers to a person's imagination, feelings, actions, ideas

LOW score: More likely to be practical, conventional, prefer routine

HIGH score: More likely to be curious, have a wide range of interests, be independent

CONSCIENTIOUSNESS

Competence, self-discipline, thoughtfulness, goal-driven

LOW: Impulsive, careless, disorganized

HIGH: Hardworking, dependable, organized

EXTROVERSION

Sociability, assertiveness, emotional expression

LOW: Quiet, reserved, withdrawn

HIGH: Outgoing, warm, seeks adventure

AGREEABLENESS

Cooperative, trustworthy, good-natured

LOW: Critical, uncooperative, suspicious

HIGH: Helpful, trusting, empathetic

NEUROTICISM

Tendency toward unstable emotions

LOW: Calm, even-tempered, secure

HIGH: Anxious, unhappy, prone to negative emotions

Applicability

The idea that personality can be described and explained by five traits (OCEAN) has important implications, as does the fact that most personality tests were constructed and initially tested in Western countries.

Western ideas about personality may not apply to other cultures (Benet-Martinez & Oishi, 2008).

2 Main Cultural Approaches for Researching Personality

Etic traits - considered universal constructs that are evident across cultures and represent a biological bases of human personality. If the Big Five are universal then they should appear across all cultures (McCrae and Allik, 2002).

Emic traits - constructs unique to each culture and are determined by local customs, thoughts, beliefs, and characteristics. If personality traits are unique to individual cultures then different traits should appear in different cultures.

Using an Etic Framework

Cross cultural research of personality uses an etic framework and researchers must ensure equivalence of the personality test through validation testing.

The instrument must include equivalence in meaning, as well as demonstrate validity and reliability (Matsumoto & Luang, 2013).

Example: The phrase feeling blue is used to describe sadness in Westernized cultures but does not translate to other languages.

Differences in personality across cultures could be due to real cultural differences, but they could also be consequences of poor translations, biased sampling, or differences in response styles across cultures (Schmitt, Allik, McCrae, & Benet-Martínez, 2007).

Personality Test/Measure Used: The NEO-PI

Most of the cross-cultural research on the Five-Factor Model (FFM) and Big Five (OCEAN) has been done using the NEO-PI (and its subsequent revisions; i.e., it is an assessment tool developed to measure the 5 dimensions of personality according to the FFM) which has demonstrated equivalence, reliability and validity across several cross-cultural studies (Costa & McCrae, 1987; McCrae, Costa & Martin, 2005).

Research using the NEO-PI found support for the entire Five-Factor Model in Chinese, Dutch, Italian, Hungarian, German, Australian, South African, Canadian, Finnish, Polish, Portuguese, Israeli, Korean, Japanese, and Filipino samples, in addition to other samples (McCrae, Costa, Del Pilar, Rolland, & Parker, 1998).

NOTE

Personality tests rely on self-report which is susceptible to response bias like socially desirability responding.

To evaluate this possibility, McCrae and colleagues (2005) recruited students from 50 cultural groups and modified the NEO-PI to be in the third person (i.e., he, she, his, her):

The research participants were asked to complete the form on someone else that they knew very well (McCrae et al., 2005).

The same 5 factors emerged in this study.

These results provided empirical support for the FFM and for the use of self-report instruments when conducting cross-cultural personality research.

There was no reason for the students to respond in a desirable way because they were answering questions about someone else.

Sources: 1 2 ⚜ Writing Notes & References

[horsesarecreatures]

Attendees of the 2023 USEA Annual Meeting & Convention were in for a real treat with this year’s keynote speaker, Dr. Temple Grandin. Dr. Grandin is an icon in the worlds of agriculture and autism and is most notably known for applying her own experiences as an autistic individual to her studies on how stress impacts both humans and animals. In this year’s keynote address, Dr. Grandin shared several different scenarios encountered in both her studies and the studies of her animal science students at Colorado State University that apply to the equestrian community. Take a look at some of our favorite takeaways from this year’s keynote address below:

1. Animals live in a sensory-based world. Get away from verbal language to understand animals and instead evaluate what is the animal hearing, smelling, and touching and use that to your advantage when exposing your horse to objects that often spook them.

“Sudden new things are scary for people with autism and for animals. If your horse is afraid of flags, don’t shove it in their face.," she said. "Decorate their pasture fence or arena fence with flags and let them walk up to it on their own.”

2. Exposure, conducted in the right manner, is the best training tool for your horse.

“A lot of animals lead sheltered lives," said Dr. Grandin. "I had a chance to go to the Keeneland Thoroughbred sale [Lexington, Kentucky], and the horses were terrified of the auctioneer because they hadn’t been trained for the sound of the auctioneer's voice. They also hadn’t been prepared for a strange groom or handler to hold them. What I realized was that when a horse was swapped from his regular groom to a new person, the horse became anxious and let out a giant shriek. I noticed that noise. I don’t think anybody wants to make that stressful mess, but they did. Now the horse was alone in this strange, creepy, scary new place, and his regular groom was gone. You have to expose your animals to enough different things.”

3. Horses think in pictures which can impact how and why they spook at certain objects.

“This is an interesting study that one of my students did that explains why a horse might suddenly spook. If you look at this playset, you will notice that it looks totally different when it's rotated. My students walked young fillies and colts past this playset 15 times at the walk, until the horses just walked by it without stopping, raising their heads up, or flaring their nostrils. When this thing was turned, it became a new thing. It became something different.”

4. Everything feels different to horses at different gaits.

“The saddle feels different at a walk, trot, and canter," she said. "I suggest to students to put a backpack on and then walk, trot, and canter so they can see how it feels different. Sometimes you have to go slow and think about how you are going to introduce things to your horse. Since they are sensory-based, it is much more specific.”

5. Animals are very fear specific. Keep that in mind when dealing with a horse who habitually exhibits fear as a response to certain stimuli or when trying to expose a horse to something new.

“This horse was terrified by black cowboy hats because he associated a really bad experience with a person wearing a black cowboy hat," she said. "So black cowboy hats were very frightening, but white cowboy hats were fine—it was very specific. Now, if I put the black cowboy hat on the ground, it was a lot less scary, but as I brought that hat toward my head, it got more and more scary. And the problem with fear memories is that they are very, very difficult to get rid of. So let's try to not have that.”

6. Animals have emotions and, just like in humans, each animal or each horse is going to be very different in the way they manage their individual emotions.

“Fear is a proper scientific word," said Dr. Grandin. "When I first started doing scientific research in the early '90s, I wasn’t allowed to use the word 'fear' as they said it wasn’t scientific to assign human emotions to animals. But now we know that animals have emotions; they definitely do. Fear is real, and some animals genetically are going to have higher fear responses than other animals. It turns out with me that my fear center is three times larger than normal. You can have animals that are higher fear or low fear. An animal that is high fear is an animal that gets scared more easily; their heart rate and cortisol levels go up more, and when you put that animal in a high-stress situation they are more likely to get sick.”

7. The best thing for your horse is to let them be a horse.

“We have to look at what animals need," she said. "Dogs in an animal shelter need 45 minutes every day of funsies with the volunteer, that is what they need because we have bred them to be social. A lot of horses need to get out and run around in the pasture just to have a chance to be a horse. I am concerned that some horses are so locked up in stalls. You’ve got stallions with abnormal behavior? It’s because they have never learned that give and take of social relationships with other animals. Does the animal have a life worth living? Does it have a positive, fun, experience? Does it get to do things it likes to do? For a horse, that is getting out and running around. You want to let the horse have positive, happy experiences.”

8. Horses can be life-changing for people of all backgrounds, but especially for kids with autism.

“When I was in a regular high school, I got bullied and teased for being autistic," Dr. Grandin shared. "So I went away to a special school where horses became my life. The only place I had friends was when I was riding horses or getting horses ready for shows. I learned how to work with horses and there are a lot more troubled teenagers today who cleaning horse stalls, taking care of horses, and getting involved could be the best thing that has ever happened to them.”

[newsepick]

Digital Assessments for Students from Grade 3 Onwards - Newsepick Evolve solution enables educators to create regular assessments as per their curriculum and affiliated boards and gain student performance insights for personalized guidance

[ivyblossom]

In the last 10 years or so my library career has involved a lot of hiring committees, and I've gotten pretty good at sussing out great candidates. I swear it's been like 70% of my job or more at some points, writing job descriptions, reviewing applications, interviews, evaluating candidates, arguing with committees, etc. Hiring the right candidates for a role has a huge positive impact on work and work culture, and hiring the wrong ones is so detrimental for everyone involved including the candidate, so I take it very seriously.

I have become an industrial strength implicit bias detector (people's biases never come out as strongly as they do on hiring committees, omg, the racism, the sexism! The preference for the comfort of the shitty known over the fear of change! The respect I have lost for colleagues because of serving on search committees could feed a village for a year).

I have a ton of weirdly specific experience and tools for this work, and I have a series of favourite interview questions the answers to which can tell you how a candidate is going to blow up your org (in a good way or in a bad way), and my track record for being right about that is still spotless after 10 years.

But in spite of the fact that everywhere I've ever worked hires a lot of students into student jobs, I have never been involved in student interviews and hiring. These are 10 hour a week jobs. This week, I'm standing in to help with student interviews because one of my teams is down a person. After all that experience hiring, you'd think I'd be primed for this, but no.

I am useless interviewing undergrads for student jobs, useless. I am charmed by all of them. I think they're all wonderful. They's so smart and thoughtful and earnest and have the potential to change the world, I love them all. Hire them all. They're perfect.

[yesornopolls]

The article under the cut

Allies of Elon Musk stationed within the Education Department are considering replacing some contract workers who interact with millions of students and parents annually with an artificial intelligence chat bot, according to internal department documents and communications.

The proposal is part of President Trump’s broader effort to shrink the federal work force, and would mark a major change in how the agency interacts with the public. The Education Department’s biggest job is managing billions of dollars in student aid, and it routinely fields complex questions from borrowers.

The department currently uses both call centers and a rudimentary A.I. bot to answer questions. The proposal would introduce generative A.I., a more sophisticated version of artificial intelligence that could replace many of those human agents.

The call centers employ 1,600 people who field over 15,000 questions per day from student borrowers.

The vision could be a model for other federal agencies, in which human beings are replaced by technology, and behemoth contracts with outside companies are shed or reduced in favor of more automated solutions. In some cases, that technology was developed by players from the private sector who are now working inside or with the Trump administration.

Mr. Musk has significant interest in A.I. He founded a generative A.I. company, and is also seeking to gain control of OpenAI, one of the biggest players in the industry. At other agencies, workers from the newly created Department of Government Efficiency, headed by Mr. Musk, have told federal employees that A.I. would be a significant part of the administration’s cost-cutting plans.

A year after the Education Department oversaw a disastrous rollout of a new federal student aid application, longtime department officials say they are open to the idea of seeking greater efficiencies, as have leaders in other federal agencies. Many are partnering with the efficiency initiative.

But Department of Education staff have also found that a 38 percent reduction in funding for call center operations could contribute to a “severe degradation” in services for “students, borrowers and schools,” according to one internal document obtained by The Times.

The Musk associates working inside the Education Department include former executives from education technology and venture capital firms. Over the past several years, those industries have invested heavily in creating A.I. education tools and marketing them to schools, educators and students.

The Musk team at the department has focused, in part, on a help line that is currently operated on a contract basis by Accenture, a consulting firm, according to the documents reviewed by The Times. The call center assists students who have questions about applying for federal Pell grants and other forms of tuition aid, or about loan repayment.

The contract that includes this work has sent more than $700 million to Accenture since 2019, but is set to expire next week.

“The department is open to using tools and systems that would enhance the customer service, security and transparency of data for students and parents,” said Madi Biedermann, the department’s deputy assistant secretary for communications. “We are evaluating all contracts to assess effectiveness relative to costs.”

Accenture did not respond to interview requests. A September report from the Education Department describes 1,625 agents answering 462,000 calls in one month. The agents also handled 118,000 typed chats.

In addition to the call line, Accenture provides a broad range of other services to the student aid system. One of those is Aidan, a more rudimentary virtual assistant that answers basic questions about student aid. It was launched in 2019, during Mr. Trump’s first term.

Accenture reported in 2021 that Aidan fielded 2.2 million messages in one year. But its capabilities fall far short of what Mr. Musk’s associates envision building using generative A.I., according to the internal documents.

Both Mr. Trump and former President Joseph R. Biden Jr. directed federal agencies to look for opportunities to use A.I. to better serve the public.

The proposal to revamp the communication system follows a meltdown in the rollout of the new Free Application for Federal Student Aid, or FAFSA, last year under Mr. Biden. As FAFSA problems caused mass confusion for students applying for financial aid, several major contractors, including Accenture, were criticized for breakdowns in the infrastructure available to students and parents seeking answers and help.

From January through May last year, roughly three-quarters of the 5.4 million calls to the department’s help lines went unanswered, according to a report by the Government Accountability Office.

More than 500 workers have since been added to the call centers, and wait times were significantly reduced, according to the September Department of Education report.

But transitioning into using generative A.I. for student aid help, as a replacement for some or all human call center workers, is likely to raise questions around privacy, accuracy and equal access to devices, according to technology experts.

Generative A.I. systems still sometimes share information that is false.

Given how quickly A.I. capabilities are advancing, those challenges are potentially surmountable, but should be approached methodically, without rushing, said John Bailey, a fellow at the American Enterprise Institute and former director of educational technology at the Education Department under President George W. Bush.

Mr. Bailey has since become an expert on the uses of A.I. in education.

“Any big modernization effort needs to be rolled out slowly for testing, to see what works and doesn’t work,” he said, pointing to the botched introduction of the new FAFSA form as a cautionary tale.

“We still have kids not in college because of that,” he said.

In recent weeks, the Education Department has absorbed a number of DOGE workers, according to two people familiar with the process, who requested anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the department’s security procedures and feared for their jobs.

One of the people involved in the DOGE efforts at the Education Department is Brooks Morgan, who until recently was the chief executive of Podium Education, an Austin-based start-up, and has also worked for a venture capital firm focused on education technology, according to the two people.

Another new staffer working at the agency is Alexandra Beynon, the former head of engineering at Mindbloom, a company that sells ketamine, according to those sources and an internal document.

And a third is Adam Ramada, who formerly worked at a Miami venture capital firm, Spring Tide Capital, which invests in health technology, according to an affidavit in a lawsuit filed against the Department of Government Efficiency.

None of those staffers responded to interview requests.

[americanssweetheart]

Keep Fighting!

As Americans, we are aware of the political stance we are currently in. From political standoffs to economic struggles, it is easy to feel overwhelmed and suffocated, especially when it feels as if our country is headed in a direction we disagree with. And yet, one sentence I keep encountering is, "I am sorry, world, well fix this in 4 years." But do we have to wait four years for another presidential election to move forward? 

The idea of sitting around and waiting for the new administration to take power four years from now is a dangerous form of complacency. While feeling defeated is understandable, we have more tools to fight against this political outcome than we may think. 

Midterms, Local Elections, and Special Elections Matter

First and foremost, the 2024 general election is not the end of our responsibility to our democracy. Although the general election gets the most attraction, we still have midterms in 2026. Midterm elections determine who holds the White House and who represents us in Congress and at the state and local levels every two years. 

Local elections and special elections happen year-round. Whether it is choosing your city council members, voting on local ballot initiatives, or filling vacancies in Congress, these elections matter. We have the ability and responsibility to stay engaged in all elections since they shape the laws and politics that impact our daily lives.  

Contact Your Representatives-They Work for You!

We have the opportunity that many people worldwide envy: the ability to contact our representatives. This is not a privilege- it is right. A right that many of us fail to exercise. If you're angry or worried about the direction our nation is heading, you do not have to take the defeat and move on. You can reach out to your senators, congresspeople, and state legislators. Inform them about where you stand, what policies you care about, and how their decisions can affect you and your community.  

If they're not listening? Organize peaceful protests, petitions, town hall meetings—these are all ways we can hold our elected officials accountable. We do not need to wait for the political pyramid to make a difference. Grassroots movements have made historical changes and brought significant changes to our society. Change doesn't have to wait for the next presidential cycle—it can start in your neighborhood, state, and local community.

Education

We should fix what is broken. Therefore, we must educate ourselves on the problem—explicitly identifying meaningful ways of educating people about propaganda and media literacy's roles in one's life. Far too many of us have fallen into the trap of being influenced by misinformation or half-truths, whether from social media, news, or any unreliable source. Having the ability to evaluate the news and information we consume is an essential tool for modern citizenship. 

Education is not just for students; it is for adults, too. We need to create a culture where people actively seek to learn, understand, and engage with political issues year-round, not just when the presidential race is happening. The habit of checking on political events every four years must be broken. Our stakes are too high; every decision made by elected officials creates long-lasting consequences, and if we remain passive, we risk becoming complicit in a system that does not serve us. 

Breaking the Cycle of Surrender

It is understandable to feel defeated and discouraged when things don't seem to be going your way, but we cannot afford the cost of giving into a sense of "proactive surrender." Fundamental issues are at play, and there are ways to push back. Some of us may be able to weather the storm, but we must remember that those most vulnerable are also the most affected by our inactivity. The more time we spend sitting back and waiting, the longer we allow the problems to fester. 

A Call to Action

So, what does "four years" mean? It does not mean waiting passively for the next election cycle. It means continuing the work, pushing for a meaningful change, and never giving up on our democracy. We have the power to shape our future now, in this very moment. We cannot wait another four years to start fighting for change that we desperately need now. The work is long, complex, and often discouraging, but it is worth it. Our country's future depends on it. 

credits to @dollywons for the border 💘

[fannedandflawless]

How Not to Die in Potions Class: A Surviving Student’s Guide

Spoiler: You probably won’t.

🖤 Snape’s Syllabus: Foundations of Fear & Minor Explosions

Year 1 – Introduction to Utter Silence

The only subject where crying is graded—and deducted.

Lesson Highlights:

Don’t speak. Don’t smile. Ever.

Identification of basic ingredients while being glared at.

Take notes without breathing too loud.

Learn to stir clockwise while rethinking your life.

Midterm: Stir clockwise without crying. Final Exam: Brew a basic Cure for Boils while resisting the urge to die.

—

🖤 Snape’s Syllabus: Developing Terror & Cauldron Confidence

Year 2 – Brewing Under Duress

Attendance mandatory. Joy optional. Dignity not guaranteed.

Lesson Highlights:

Handling volatile ingredients without friends or emotional support.

Safety goggles are for the weak.

When to duck.

Midterm: Identify 12 poisons using only scent and existential dread. Final: Draught of Peace. You may not consume your own.

—

🖤 Snape’s Syllabus: Read At Your Own Risk

Year 3 – Intermediate Brewing & Disappointment

Side effects may include terror, talent, and emotional suppression.

Lesson Highlights:

Personal failure as a teaching tool.

Essays annotated in red ink and contempt.

Why you are not clever enough for Wolfsbane.

Midterm: Brewing a Shrinking Solution without shrinking your pride. Final: Group project with someone you loathe.

—

🖤 Snape’s Syllabus: Now With Less Mercy

Year 4 – Precision & Passive Aggression

Same dread. New term.

Lesson Highlights:

Brewing for accuracy while being judged.

Passive insults in constructive feedback.

Ingredients that mirror your emotional instability.

Midterm: Befriend your cauldron. It’s the only one who listens. Final: Veritaserum attempt. Tell no one you tried.

—

🖤 Snape’s Syllabus: Advanced Fear & Consequences

Year 5 – Brewing with Burdens

Still no joy. Still no praise.

Lesson Highlights:

The art of silence in a room full of Gryffindors.

Polyjuice Potion theory (you are not approved to attempt).

Evaluating the weight of your regrets via potion.

Midterm: Complex antidotes under emotionally manipulative instruction. Final: Calming Draught, brewed under duress (yours).

—

🖤 Snape’s Syllabus: Survival is Extra Credit

Year 6 – Selective Privilege & Academic Fear

And you’re still behind.

Lesson Highlights:

Welcome to N.E.W.T. level. You probably won’t survive.

Ingredient theory—what separates “gifted” from “lucky.”

Brewing as battle strategy.

Midterm: Felix Felicis theory and why you don’t deserve it. Final: Draught of Living Death. Brew it, don’t drink it. Unless.

—

🖤 Snape’s Syllabus: The Unforgivable Term

Year 7 – Mastery, Misery & That One Look

You’re not here for learning. You’re here for war.

Lesson Highlights:

Brewing under moral ambiguity.

Healing potions and the cost of saving lives.

Ethics? Discuss with someone softer.

Midterm: Create your own potion. Defend it with your life. Final: Surprise. It’s not the potion you’re being graded on. It’s who you’ve become.

—

To those who survived all seven years:

You may now identify poisons by scent, assess a Gryffindor’s intellect in under five seconds, and brew under duress with your eyes closed.

Congratulations. You are not unscarred.

Should you experience recurring nightmares involving cauldrons, parchment margins, or a voice deducting house points for existing, do not contact the school.

We did warn you.

[whentherewerebicycles]

ok chipping away at this AI workshop and here is a first stab at articulating some learning goals. in this two-workshop series, I want students to:

explore and discuss the limits of AI as a research tool (including issues around AI hallucinations and “overcertainty”, sources consulted & source credibility, data privacy and security, etc)

develop concrete strategies for using AI more effectively in research contexts (including how to coach AI tools to give more rigorous search results + how to prompt AI to give substantive feedback rather than generating content for you)

differentiate between situations where using AI is shortchanging your learning/growth vs. helping you automate rote tasks that free up energy to do substantive work. maybe we’ll evaluate different hypothetical scenarios here and I’ll ask students to argue both sides before deciding on a stance… I think we can also work in some discussion here about the underlying emotional stuff that might drive us to use generative AI in inappropriate or unproductive ways—imposter syndrome, fear of falling behind or not measuring up to others, poor time management, etc.

practice having conversations about the use of AI in research with faculty mentors and peers (basically I want them to understand that adults are also learning this stuff in real time and also have a wide range of attitudes towards generative AI, and may not know how to have productive conversations about it with students… I certainly feel that way myself!! so I want to give them some tools for starting those conversations and clarifying mentor expectations around AI use)

can’t figure out how to articulate this as a learning outcome yet but I am hoping that we can do a mix of this focused work on “here are concrete strategies for dealing with these tools” + bigger-picture reflection on what learning is for and why we are personally driven to learn/develop expertise/create new knowledge. I want one of the big overarching aims of the summer seminar to be helping students articulate their identity, purpose, and values as researchers… and then we’ll think together about how all this skill development stuff we’re doing fits into that larger framework of why we care about this work and why we’ve chosen to pursue it.

[hibou088]

You Can Become A Mystic

If you desire to follow a Spiritual Path, but you do not want to join a teaching organization or school of Mysticism, you can initiate a Path without joining a teaching organization. You must learn Meditation and then enhance it with more advanced teachings on the subject. When you, as a student of Mysticism, master the practice of Meditation, you will have a powerful and necessary tool for your study of Mysticism. As you study Mysticism and run across a profound statement or Cosmic Law, you must use the tools that you learned in Meditation : concentration, contemplation. You should use concentration/contemplation/meditation in all the studies that seem profound to you. As you "meditate" on the smorgasbord of ideas you will come across, you will have to decide if you want to make that particular statement "your reality". This is done by meditating on it. If you cannot accept the statement as your reality, you can temporarily keep it in mind, accept it "on faith only" for now, and reconsider it at a later time when you have advanced Spiritually. 

Many important Cosmic laws that are accepted by many Mystics, cannot be made your reality at this time, but will be accepted at a later time. Reincarnation is a good example where this happens to many students who are starting with the study of Mysticism. Meditation is the means you have to get in touch with your subconscious and eventually the Master Within or Cosmic Consciousness. You will know if a new idea is accepted or rejected by your inner self. An accepted idea is your reality at this time, possibly at a later time, some of these will be revised. This is Mysticism at its best. Accepting ideas on faith like a religionist, is not the aim of Mysticism. You must have confidence in your ideas or truths; they must be your reality. If faith is used at all, it must be a temporary measure until you can evaluate it according to your Spiritual Reality.

The Rosicrucian Mystic does not visualize God as a human being on a gold throne. She merely thinks of God as a Supreme, Divine Intelligence inside her as a human being and outside her everywhere--and in all human beings. She thinks of God as being close and intimate enough for people to walk and talk with God, even laugh and joke with God. Is there anything irreverent or irreligious about a smile or a happy heart ? The Mystic realizes that at any moment, at any time of the day, she can turn her thoughts inward and immediately contact the mind and consciousness of God. She realizes that she does not have to be in a church to pray. She realizes that she can talk with God on a hilltop, under a tree, in a canoe, in an automobile, in the cellar of her house, in the garret, or in the corner of her bedroom. God is not reached by turning her thoughts outward to some point in the heavens but by turning her thoughts inward to the temple within where the consciousness of God is always ready to respond and give help. This will give you some good ideas about God that will become your reality as you advance on the Spiritual Path of Mysticism. Remember that Mysticism is the study of God. People understands nothing of God so long as their soul are separated from God as though it were a separate being.