Natalie Lafferty

So the seed of an idea to run a conference on WordPress in education & research in HE planted 6 years ago with @Pgogy comes to fruition at 10am today 😃 It’s called PresssED, it’s free & open to anyone just follow #pressedconf18 trough out today @pressedconf

SCOOP: The writing software Grammarly will discontinue its AI “Expert Review” feature, which used the names of authors without their permission to suggest edits. But parent company Superhuman is still facing a class-action lawsuit over it, brought by journalist Julia Angwin.

If you have 2minutes I would be eternally grateful if you could vote for and share my @LEGOIdeas submission for a model of @VADundee: beta.ideas.lego.com/product-ideas/… 🙌 #LegoIdeas #VADundee #LegoArchitecture

Sweden is committing more than €100 million to a sweeping classroom overhaul: replacing tablets and screens with traditional printed textbooks to help reverse falling student performance and sharpen focus. After more than a decade of embracing digital-first education, Swedish authorities are now pivoting back to paper-based learning. Official data and recent studies cited by the Ministry of Education show that prolonged screen use in class has been linked to shorter attention spans, weaker reading comprehension, and reduced critical-thinking abilities. Research consistently finds that reading on illuminated screens requires greater mental effort and invites more distractions compared to the calm, linear experience of physical books—factors believed to have contributed to declining academic outcomes in recent years. Under the new plan, every student will receive printed textbooks for all core subjects, restoring books as the central learning tool. Digital devices and online resources will remain available as supportive tools, but they will no longer dominate daily instruction. This bold €100+ million investment signals Sweden’s leadership in rethinking the role of technology in education. It underscores a broader, growing recognition worldwide: while screens provide speed and access, the hands-on, distraction-free engagement of physical books supports deeper concentration, stronger memory retention, and more effective long-term learning. By choosing paper over pixels, Sweden is charting a path toward a more balanced, evidence-informed classroom future—one that puts proven pedagogical principles ahead of unchecked digital trends.

At Google, speech critical of ICE is censored from the company's internal platform, employees who speak out are served with warnings and leadership refuses to acknowledge a petition that's now gotten 1,200 employee signatures Inside the worker-led push to get ICE out of Google:

Seeing AI transparency statements at the bottom of some education and AI related articles. Good to see these but would perhaps be better to publish at the start of the article so the reader can make an informed decision on whether or not they want to go ahead and read it.

John Robertson: A tribute. The Nottingham Forest legend, who has passed away aged 72, was a joyous, skilful winger who made kids fall in love with the game and reminded adults what the game was really about: beating an opponent with skill and delivering. Above all, Robertson made the game look easy and made it fun to watch. Whatever the occasion. The Forest fans’ banner hanging from a fence at the Bernabeu at the 1980 European Cup final read simply: “Robbo Eats Hamburgers”. Forest’s opponents, Hamburg, boasted many talents, including Kevin Keegan, Felix Magath and also Manny Kaltz, the right wing-back who’d be up against the feared, two-footed winger “Robbo”. Asked about the celebrated Kaltz on the eve of the final, Brian Clough replied, “We’ve got a little fat guy that will turn him inside out – a very talented, highly skilled, unbelievable outside-left.” Robertson needed only 20 minutes to turn Kaltz and waltz through, exchange passes with Garry Birtles, and score the final’s only goal. Even a defender as good as Kaltz couldn’t handle Robertson. The “Picasso of our game” Clough called Robertson. His colourful brushstrokes vivified the green canvas of match-day. His distinctive flourishes in possession helped define the previous European Cup final against Malmo in Munich. Robertson picked up the ball on the left touchline, and nudged it forward with his right, feinting to go inside, confusing Malmo’s right-back, Roland Andersson. Robertson then drove for the line, catching out Andersson and also Robert Prytz, the midfielder racing back. At the last second, as the white of the goal-line loomed, Robertson lifted the ball across for a stooping Trevor Francis to head Forest to that 1979 victory. Andersson had represented Sweden at the World Cup the previous year. Within four weeks of succumbing to Robertson, Kaltz was winning Euro 1980 with West Germany. These were experienced, elite defenders. The joy of John Robertson was not simply the effortless way he eluded defenders of their calibre but that he delivered in major moments. Nothing fazed him. He took pressure, as well as the ball, in his stride. Robertson’s goal against Hamburg was one of 73 he scored in his career. The Scot delighted Forest fans with his trickery and the thrills he gave them but also because he brought trophies: those two European Cups, one League title, and two League Cups. It is no exaggeration to claim that if Robertson had been at a more fashionable club he’d have featured in European Footballer of the Year voting. He wasn’t even in the top 30 in 1979 (won by Keegan) or 1980 (won by Karl-Heinz Rummenigge). Kaltz came fourth and 10th. Robertson deserved some recognition, certainly in the top 10. He may not have been the greatest Nottingham Forest player of all time – but he was in the top one. Apologies for the reworking of Clough’s famous assessment of himself but it applies well to Robertson, one of his favourite players. It brings humour and fact. It also reflects his close association with Clough, who believed in Robertson and helped lift him to great heights. A 2015 fans’ poll by the Nottingham Post confirmed his place as Forest's greatest ever player. Robertson finished ahead of second-placed Stuart Pearce, then Des Walker, John McGovern and Peter Shilton. In the modern era where wingers are often considered a luxury not a staple, and all about speed as much as skill (and often inverted), it feels even more poignant to lament the sad passing of Robertson. He was two-footed for a start, so full-backs didn’t know which side he would go. He could go outside as Andersson learned to his cost in 1979 or come inside on his right, as Kaltz discovered painfully in 1980. Robertson was described as “scruffy, unfit”, not looking like a professional athlete, not least by Clough. “When you get the ball, just give it to the fat lad on the left,” Clough would tell the team. He was stocky more than fat. You don’t turn out for Forest on 243 consecutive occasions between 1976 and 1980 without fitness, fortitude and ability. But even with the occasional cigarette supplementing his diet, Robertson had more than enough to defeat a full-back, he had strength, trickery, enough of a dart to beat his man outside or on the inside as well as applying his game craft. He was a roving puzzle for opponents. It’s fitting to see many of the tributes coming in from Liverpool fans of a certain vintage who remember how Robertson so often took the game to their accomplished right-back, the experienced Phil Neal, of that great Liverpool side. One famous European Cup tie, the first leg against Liverpool in 1978, Robertson didn’t assist or score but those who were there at the City Ground remember one particular storming run down the left before cutting the ball back for Colin Barrett’s shot saved by Ray Clemence. Robertson made things happen. He was another from the dream factory of Drumchapel Amateurs that helped shape Sir Alex Ferguson, Eddie McCreadie, Archie Gemmill and John Wark. He represented Scotland in an era stocked with talent. Jock Stein’s 1982 World Cup squad included Kenny Dalglish, Gordon Strachan, Graeme Souness, Davie Provan and Robertson, amongst others. They didn't always see the best of him but he scored eight times in 28 internationals, including a penalty winner past Joe Corrigan to defeat England at Wembley in 1981. Humility was a word long associated with Robertson. Loyalty, too. Loyalty to Forest, and also loyalty to Martin O’Neill, who he played with at Forest and assisted everywhere from Wycombe Wanderers to Norwich City and Leicester City, from Celtic to Aston Villa - providing stellar service. What a player and coach John Robertson was, and what a wonderful character who will be much missed. RIP.

Shame Chappers wasn’t part of the presenting team this evening on Sports Personality of the Year #SPOTY

To be clear: the problem isn't Copilot. It's the "add AI to everything" playbook. It's led to inferior and overpriced AI products. $30/seat/month for a wrapper most teams could build in a weekend with MCP or Claude agents - customized to their actual workflows. Microsoft is already scaling back because adoption is a ghost town. extremetech.com/computing/micr…

Last quarter I rolled out Microsoft Copilot to 4,000 employees. $30 per seat per month. $1.4 million annually. I called it "digital transformation." The board loved that phrase. They approved it in eleven minutes. No one asked what it would actually do. Including me. I told everyone it would "10x productivity." That's not a real number. But it sounds like one. HR asked how we'd measure the 10x. I said we'd "leverage analytics dashboards." They stopped asking. Three months later I checked the usage reports. 47 people had opened it. 12 had used it more than once. One of them was me. I used it to summarize an email I could have read in 30 seconds. It took 45 seconds. Plus the time it took to fix the hallucinations. But I called it a "pilot success." Success means the pilot didn't visibly fail. The CFO asked about ROI. I showed him a graph. The graph went up and to the right. It measured "AI enablement." I made that metric up. He nodded approvingly. We're "AI-enabled" now. I don't know what that means. But it's in our investor deck. A senior developer asked why we didn't use Claude or ChatGPT. I said we needed "enterprise-grade security." He asked what that meant. I said "compliance." He asked which compliance. I said "all of them." He looked skeptical. I scheduled him for a "career development conversation." He stopped asking questions. Microsoft sent a case study team. They wanted to feature us as a success story. I told them we "saved 40,000 hours." I calculated that number by multiplying employees by a number I made up. They didn't verify it. They never do. Now we're on Microsoft's website. "Global enterprise achieves 40,000 hours of productivity gains with Copilot." The CEO shared it on LinkedIn. He got 3,000 likes. He's never used Copilot. None of the executives have. We have an exemption. "Strategic focus requires minimal digital distraction." I wrote that policy. The licenses renew next month. I'm requesting an expansion. 5,000 more seats. We haven't used the first 4,000. But this time we'll "drive adoption." Adoption means mandatory training. Training means a 45-minute webinar no one watches. But completion will be tracked. Completion is a metric. Metrics go in dashboards. Dashboards go in board presentations. Board presentations get me promoted. I'll be SVP by Q3. I still don't know what Copilot does. But I know what it's for. It's for showing we're "investing in AI." Investment means spending. Spending means commitment. Commitment means we're serious about the future. The future is whatever I say it is. As long as the graph goes up and to the right.

This is a great piece with some mind-boggling statistics. - At Brown and Harvard, more than 20% of undergraduates are registered as disabled - At Amherst: more than 30 percent - At Stanford: nearly 40 percent Soon, many of these schools "may have more students receiving [disability] accommodations than not, a scenario that would have seemed absurd just a decade ago." As students and their parents have recognized the benefits of claiming disability—extended time on tests, housing accommodations, etc—the rates of disability at colleges, and especially at elite colleges, has exploded. America used to stigmatize disability too severely. Now elite institutions reward it too liberally. It simply does not make any sense to have a policy that declares half of the students at Stanford cognitively disabled and in need of accommodations.

News integrity in AI Systems - this is a superb resource for discussing with staff and students the reliability of AI news output and risks associated with not doing research thoroughly - AI has a place but there are sensible caveats needed around its use. bbc.co.uk/aboutthebbc/do…

The Great Higher Ed Lie by Steven Mintz This applies beyond Harvard and US higher education. stevenmintz.substack.com/p/the-great-hi…

AI Has Exposed Higher Ed’s Hollow Core — The University Must Reinvent Itself or Fade substack.com/home/post/p-17…

@jonny_acheson @PennineParkies Fantastic, congratulations Jonny! 👏👏⚽️⚽️🏆

15 months ago I had an orchiectomy and chemotherapy for #testicularcancer Today I helped @PennineParkies win the #RayKennedy Shield (European #Parkinsons Football Championship) with 16 teams from England, Wales, Denmark, Norway, Sweden and Spain It’s what dreams are made of

Media literacy - a case of policy failure davidbuckingham.net/2025/07/28/med…

Interesting to hear Turnitin’s CEO on #Newsnight calling for UK universities to rethink their adoption of AI detection.

There are, sadly, now enough examples of chatgpt-induced psychosis that it's an active field of study. psychologytoday.com/au/blog/dancin…

As a doctor with #Parkinsons I had to learn to adapt, with adaptation came acceptance. My story ‘When Your Neurons Dance’ comes out Sept 2025. Join me over the next 10 weeks as we dive deeper into it Please share 😀 #WhenYourNeuronsDance #WYND #medicalmemoir #JonnyAcheson

@TrentBridge there seems to be a problem with the live stream, any idea when it will be back up? Many thanks!

🚨 BREAKING: Apple says LLMs that "think" are giving us an illusion. They're just pattern-matching with confidence. And when things get complex? They collapse. This paper might be the most honest take on AI yet 🧵: