Sean Michael Morris

What GenAI May Take Away

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What GenAI May Take Away

A great deal is being said about the transformative power of generative AI. Digital tools like ChatGPT, Bard, Claude.ai, Otter.ai, and a host of chatbots and AI supplements to existing platforms all promise to change the way we work, learn, enjoy media, create art, and write. New "

Hitting Backspace: Critical Digital Pedagogy and AI

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Hitting Backspace: Critical Digital Pedagogy and AI

AI only works because we have let human life become automatable.

To Open Myself to Possibilities

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To Open Myself to Possibilities

"The word becomes an alibi." — Roland Barthes I have writer's block. And this is how it feels: it feels like the start of a conversation—that terrific moment when you know you're going really get into something, and you can see the arguments, the

The End of Grades: An Afterword to Undoing the Grade

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The End of Grades: An Afterword to Undoing the Grade

On August 15, 2023, Hybrid Pedagogy announced the publication of Undoing the Grade: Why We Grade, and How to Stop. The book proposes that the work of ungrading is to ask hard questions, point to the fundamental inequities of grades, and push for structural change. What follows is the afterword

"if boredom should prevail": A Few Thoughts on Student Engagement

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"if boredom should prevail": A Few Thoughts on Student Engagement

On February 23, 2023, I was invited to present at keynote at the Fierce Education conference. Below is the text of that keynote. A very long time ago, I wrote a letter to my students. I was a teacher then, a teacher of creative writing. And every day, I went

Opening Doors with Open Pedagogy: Access, Imagination, and Student Engagement

Opening Doors with Open Pedagogy: Access, Imagination, and Student Engagement

On August 10, I was invited to present a keynote address to the Affordable Learning Pennsylvania (ALPA) summit. The text of the keynote is below. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- An interesting thing happened on the way to writing this keynote. I began reading—or more accurately, listening to—a book called Emergent Strategy

Technology is Made of People

critical digital pedagogy

Technology is Made of People

To me, pedagogy happens when learning defies its container. In that strange and awkward and generative moment when the normal containers for education are opened or broken… and no one is quite sure what will come next.

Critical Resilience

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Critical Resilience

This piece was originally published on 14 October 2021 by OEB Insights, the newsletter for the Online Educa Berlin conference. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Many years ago when my father was still alive, he used to tell me to keep my chin up. I came out of the closet and divorced the person

A Primer for the Progressive Educator

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A Primer for the Progressive Educator

On August 3, 2021, I was invited to give a talk to primary and secondary educators at a Human Restoration Project event. The text of that talk is below. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- I started my now 20-year career in progressive pedagogy in a very unprogressive way. The first job that I had

When We Talk about Grades, We Are Talking about People

critical digital pedagogy

When We Talk about Grades, We Are Talking about People

Ungrading is always necessarily a part of a pedagogy of care. Because when we talk about grades, we are talking about people.

As we step forward, we must stand still: Critical digital pedagogy and the praxis of taking time

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As we step forward, we must stand still: Critical digital pedagogy and the praxis of taking time

We have come upon a watershed moment for digital education. As we climb our way out of the pandemic and the necessary turn to online and remote learning that resulted, we are faced with an opportunity: to remodel our digital pedagogies.

On Silence: Humanising Digital Pedagogy

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On Silence: Humanising Digital Pedagogy

The secret to humanising digital pedagogy is asking “Are you there?” and waiting, sometimes on tenterhooks, for the answer.

Humanizing Digital Pedagogy: the Role of Imagination in Distance Teaching

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Humanizing Digital Pedagogy: the Role of Imagination in Distance Teaching

We have to begin to imagine better digital pedagogies, more critical digital pedagogies, which go farther than the mere implementation of design.

Best Practices after COVID

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Best Practices after COVID

The point of any best practice or set of best practices should be to support community, collaboration, and respect in any classroom—online, on campus, or somewhere in between.

Reflections on Teaching through the Screen

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Reflections on Teaching through the Screen

Critical pedagogy aims to deeply question our epistemological assumptions—about teaching, about education, about power, about expertise—and while this can be exhilarating, it is almost never a picnic.

A Problem-Posing Learning Design

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A Problem-Posing Learning Design

There's a movement across the field of learning and instructional design to create a digital education which seeks to confront or dismantle the what-already-is of learning design.

Critical Digital Pedagogy after COVID-19

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Critical Digital Pedagogy after COVID-19

Behaviorism isn’t inclined to offer us any hope. It is not a visionary pedagogy, but a sedentary one. Critical pedagogy on the other hand, remind us that the future is possibility, that education is a practice of freedom.

Teaching through the Screen and the Necessity of Imagination Literacy

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Teaching through the Screen and the Necessity of Imagination Literacy

The rules are undoable.

Play is the Companion of Scholarship

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Play is the Companion of Scholarship

To put it simply, just as healthy children play, so good scholars must too. And play must not be reserved just for weekends or vacation, but integrated into the way we think about our work.

We Rise and Fall Together: Assessment during COVID-19

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We Rise and Fall Together: Assessment during COVID-19

How we reimagine assessment when sick and dying dogs, sleepless nights, and cleaning up dog fur are as much a factor as whether or not a student did the reading or writing may be the most pressing question we face as educators.

Technology is not Pedagogy

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Technology is not Pedagogy

We have not coded for the human in education, and so, unless we know how to seek it out past digital platforms, algorithms, and surveillance tools, the human is largely left out of online learning.

Fostering Care and Community at a Distance

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Fostering Care and Community at a Distance

There’s no built-in function in any technology which can produce community. Nor can building community be done from the front of the room; it is not an exercise or a manoeuvre.

Love Letters and Pen Pals: Community through Correspondence

critical digital pedagogy

Love Letters and Pen Pals: Community through Correspondence

There are myriad ways that teaching online can preserve the most cherished or favorite parts of classroom pedagogy. What is required is thinking past the screen, past the platform, and beyond the distance that separates teachers and students.

Open Online Office Hours

critical digital pedagogy

Open Online Office Hours

In the interests of supporting faculty, teaching staff, and students at every level, Jesse and I will be offering weekly open office hours. We welcome anyone to attend and to bring their questions and challenges to the table.

Pivot to Online: A Student Guide

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Pivot to Online: A Student Guide

To succeed as schools pivot to online, students will need to be resourceful, and they may need to demand fairer treatment than they have ever demanded previously.