In the Phaedrus , Plato tells us that Socrates distrusted the written word. He believed that committing knowledge to writing would weaken memory and discourage dialogue. Writing, he warned, is inferior to debate because it cannot respond. It only creates an appearance of wisdom, not genuine wisdom. The parallel with AI is clear. We now have systems […] … learn more→

In the past five years, higher education has been in a seemingly endless state of disruption. In early 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic resulted in a mass rapid pivot to emergency remote teaching. In shifting to unfamiliar digital learning environments, instructors scrambled to replicate classroom learning online. When restrictions lifted, many institutions pushed for a “return to normal,” as […] … learn more→

Texas A&M University told philosophy professor Martin Peterson in early January 2026 that he could not teach some of Greek philosopher Plato’s writings that touch on “race and gender ideology.” The university’s local chapter of the American Association of University Professors, an organization of professors and academics in the U.S., quickly denounced this requirement. Peterson, in response to […] … learn more→

Imagine trying to fill a water bottle with a fire hose at full pressure. Most of the water would spill out, and the bottle would still be half empty. Something very similar happens in our brains when we try to learn by rote memorization, which is why we’ve all found ourselves reading a text over […] … learn more→

As Canadian federal election candidates prepared for their final debate in April 2025, youth across the country were preparing for collaborative conversations around timely and potentially divisive issues for the National Ethics Bowl at the Canadian Museum of Human Rights in Winnipeg. Ethics Bowl Canada is a non-profit organization that hosts competitions where high school and university students […] … learn more→

For the class of 2025, exams are done and results are coming in. Attention is turning to plans for next year. With the benefit of a bit more free time and brain space, some students might be wondering if they have made the right decisions about courses. Perhaps your results have made you reconsider your […] … learn more→

The Trump administration’s aggressive deportation policies have heightened stress among the country’s approximately 14 million immigrants who are living in the U.S. without legal authorization. The sharp rise in dramatic arrests and deportations of immigrants over the past year has received widespread media attention. A less publicized issue is that many young, undocumented immigrants are also finding it harder to apply to and stay in college. As someone who researches […] … learn more→

Higher education is under stress. The highest-profile threat has been the Trump administration’s efforts to cut funding to several universities, including Harvard, Columbia and Northwestern. Research universities heavily depend on federal money to conduct research and carry out other areas of work. For example, after tuition, federal money allocated for research made up 40% of the total revenue for two major […] … learn more→

The use of generative artificial intelligence is now widespread among new generations of students, disrupting the established norms and challenges of knowledge assessment. This poses a number of dilemmas for universities. How can they rethink their exams to maintain the credibility of their degrees? If truly disruptive innovations exist in education, the uses of generative […] … learn more→

Debates about generative artificial intelligence on college campuses have largely centered on student cheating. But focusing on cheating overlooks a larger set of ethical concerns that higher education institutions face, from the use of copyrighted material in large language models to student privacy. As a sociologist who teaches about AI and studies the impact of this technology on work, […] … learn more→