Linkblog - 2026-09-20
← All weeksBookmarks: Week of Sep 14 - Sep 20, 2026
Frontline can generate your course, but does it really have “instructional design expertise”?
drphilippahardman.substack.com
Articulate released a new “AI instructional designer” tool. So, what is Instructional Design, and can a tool do it?
For every learning experience we produce, we make roughly 400 decisions, across five stages. This is a model of a typical design rather than a universal constant, but it’s enough to test a product against.
Authoring content is a tiny part of what an Instructional Designer does…
Tags: Articulate, via:Stephen Downes, person:Philippa Hardman, instructional design
A.I. Slopware Is Everywhere Now. Nobody Is Using It.
nytimes.com
Where A.I. excels, I think, is in letting you get access to aspects of computing that were previously out of reach. You can use A.I. to develop complex business models, machine learning systems or advanced software that runs in a web browser. These were all utterly normal things before large language models showed up, but they required specific skills and tended to be the domain of very highly paid software developers. A.I. lets you learn these things as you go, and you’re less likely to give up along the way.
Tags: NYTimes, person:Paul Ford, AI, vibecoding
Global consultations on education in the age of AI | UNESCO
unesco.org
UNESCO is publishing a compilation of policy briefs, offering analytical tools and AI governance strategies, grounded in emerging evidence
Tags: UNESCO, AI, strategy, via:Stephen Downes
Air Theremin · Play With Motion Or Hand Tracking
theremin.bizibah.com
Air Theremin — a browser theremin played in mid-air: tilt your phone, or wave both hands in front of the camera. Pitch, volume and timbre follow you, with note snap, cave reverb and recording.
Tags: theremin, webcam, music, via:Dogtrax
Humanist AI Code of Conduct | Microsoft AI
microsoft.ai
This document outlines the intended behavior and values of MAI models, the models developed by Microsoft AI.
It summarizes our approach to training and operating them, following a set of design principles we call Humanist AI. This document, and our approach more generally, is still under development so we are not using it to train our models today. Instead, we’re sharing it broadly for public consultation. We’ll take feedback, iterate on it, and publish a revised version toward the end of the year, which we’ll use to guide our model development in 2027 and beyond.
Does it matter? Is it actually meaningful or useful? Who KNOWS?
Establishing Policies and Procedures, Policy on | University Legal Services | University of Calgary
ucalgary.ca
Our new policy-policy for creating new policies.
Should AI chatbots simulate care for students? Alberta teachers say no
theconversation.com
AI literacy should help students recognize simulated care, not make simulated care a normal part of schooling.
(and how closely does this connect to chatbots in higher ed…)
Tags: AI, chatbots, health care, person:Soroush Sabbaghan
Toolkit for reflecting on the use of Digital and AI Technologies in Learning and Teaching
eprints.gla.ac.uk
We invite you to critically explore your assumptions, analyse your practice, and engage in reflective dialogue when using, or considering the use of, digital and AI technologies in your teaching.
This toolkit consists of four parts. In Part 1, you will examine your assumptions around education, learning, and technology. Part 2 invites you to analyse and critically reflect on your teaching practices. In Part 3, you will be supported in considering the use of technologies in learning and teaching during lesson planning. Finally, Part 4 brings together this reflective journey through the development of a professional enquiry focused on an aspect of your own practice.
Looks interesting, despite the curious font choices…
Tags: University of Glasgow, AI, toolkit
peerScholar | Peer review and group evaluation proposal | Educational Technology Hub | University of Waterloo
uwaterloo.ca
Investigation of a new centrally funded and supported peer review and group evaluation tool.
it’s from 2024, so things will have changed since then. and they missed or omitted some applications that would probably be considered in 2026…
Tags: UWaterloo, peer feedback
A Scoping Review of Generative Artificial Intelligence Boundaries in Educational Assessment Systems | Canadian Journal of Learning and Technology
cjlt.ca
This scoping review mapped GenAI functions in assessment systems, identified boundaries for appropriate use, and examined how human and institutional responsibilities are framed. Peer-reviewed English-language articles published between January 2023 and December 2025 were retrieved from ERIC, Web of Science, and Scopus on January 7, 2026. Of the 1,360 records retrieved, 43 met the inclusion criteria. Analysis examined assessment function, judgment configuration, boundary types, and governance framing. GenAI was most frequently studied as a rubric-applying scorer, with emerging roles in feedback mediation, assessment design, analytic encoding, and integrity monitoring. Across studies, acceptable use was consistently framed as conditional, bounded by validity, reliability, fairness, interpretability, privacy, pedagogical alignment, and governance. Fully autonomous high-stakes use was not supported; hybrid human–AI configurations dominated, positioning reliability and responsibility not merely as technical metrics but as emergent properties of assessment system design.
Tags: person:Ali Mikhaeili, person:Soroush Sabbaghan, person:Reyhaneh Bastani, AI, article, CJLT