Blog Archives

مرحبا is all around: where is our linguistic landscape going?

مرحبا is all around: where is our linguistic landscape going?

It turns out that this Saturday they open a new pop-up store in the center, and in two weeks the Christmas market begins , and what better time than Christmas to have a gourmet experience like the one advertised by a department store. The italics accuse us of the foreign origin of these terms that many of us, as readers, already identify […] … learn more→

As a death doula and professor who teaches about dying, I see a need for more conversations about death

As a death doula and professor who teaches about dying, I see a need for more conversations about death

A growing number of folks may have heard of the death-positive movement, death cafés or death-friendly communities — each of which are animated by the understanding that welcoming our own mortality could improve the quality of our lives. There is truth to these claims. Both as a person who has taught courses on death, dying, and spirituality for more than […] … learn more→

What if we created “sanctuaries without AI”?

What if we created “sanctuaries without AI”?

In Hyperion , a science fiction novel written by Dan Simmons in 1989, the characters are connected to a network of artificial intelligences, called the “datasphere”. By allowing them to have instant access to any information, knowledge is immediately available, but the ability to think for oneself is now lost. More than thirty years after the publication of […] … learn more→

The Independent Campus program's 'link and match' program is not appropriate for universities

The Independent Campus program’s ‘link and match’ program is not appropriate for universities

The Ministry of Education, Culture, Research and Technology (Kemendikbudristek) is promoting the Independent Campus program with the spirit of link and match to overcome the gap between educational qualifications and industry demands. Link and match is a Ministry of Education and Culture policy developed to increase the relevance of education to work, business and industrial needs. One of […] … learn more→

Generative AI is a minefield for copyright law

Generative AI is a minefield for copyright law

In 2022, an AI-generated work of art won the Colorado State Fair’s art competition. The artist, Jason Allen, had used Midjourney – a generative AI system trained on art scraped from the internet – to create the piece. The process was far from fully automated: Allen went through some 900 iterations over 80 hours to create and […] … learn more→

The illusion of merit: perceptions of effort and talent at work

The illusion of merit: perceptions of effort and talent at work

There is a growing enthusiastic view of meritocracy. We aspire to meritocratic societies, where the most talented people occupy the most responsible positions, thus allowing social mobility. Therefore, meritocracy is a classification system that orders people according to their merits, and for this, equal opportunities are necessary in all fields, starting with access to education. In recent decades there […] … learn more→

Children have been interacting in the metaverse for years – what parents need to know about keeping them safe

Children have been interacting in the metaverse for years – what parents need to know about keeping them safe

The metaverse sounds like it could be a scary place. Recent headlines have highlighted the dangers to children of the metaverse – a generic term for the range of online virtual worlds, developed by different tech companies, in which users can interact. Children’s charities have raised concerns about its potential for harm. Recently, Meta – Facebook’s parent company – announced […] … learn more→

4 ways all online university courses could promote student mental health

4 ways all online university courses could promote student mental health

One quarter of first-year university students in Canada self-declare that they have a disability. Among those, mental-health-related disabilities are the most common. Each year, more students with self-declared mental-health issues enroll in post-secondary institutions. At the same time in Canada, more students are taking online courses, particularly in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. For students with disabilities, online […] … learn more→

‘Are you asking us to sleep under the Harbour Bridge?’: 3 myths about international students and the housing crisis

‘Are you asking us to sleep under the Harbour Bridge?’: 3 myths about international students and the housing crisis

There is a story doing the media rounds that international students – particularly from China – will now “flood” back to Australia. It is claimed this will push up already high rents for scarce housing in our major cities. This story is one of three myths that risk setting up international students as scapegoats for Australia’s ongoing […] … learn more→