You said, “The vast majority of my students use AI to cheat on every digital assignment. It’s to the point that I am cutting students using technology in my classroom to the bone.”
Same! I’m going as analog as possible this year. Not even using the projector more than once a week. Ugh!!
Also: “Depending on the outcome, that could change my entire opinion on tipping.” I’m with you, my brotha!! 🤣
BTW, we have our first round of NWEA MAP testing on Wednesday, 12 August. For the prep on the 11th, I’m TOTALLY looking forward to telling my 9th graders… LET’S GO TO WAR! (As promised and will keep you posted.) 👊
Spot on about all the general enshittification of everyday life.
Also, re: AI: How many resources could be saved if one could just get a straight yes/no answer for those questions instead of an entire treatise on whatever it is?? I mean, I don’t need the tutorial. I just need to know if X is a thing. Why do I have to tell the AI “Just a yes/no answer.”? And then how many more resources could be saved if the AI didn’t always have to get the last word in?? (I.e. I say, “Great! Thanks!” and it goes on and on about if I need anything else, bla, bla, bla 😑. Just STFU, AI!!)
Well, I went and did it! Yesterday and today before testing. “Let’s go to war on these tests! Let’s show *them*!” And so on.
Lots of eye rolls yesterday (which is… acknowledgment, right??? 🤦🏻♀️🤣) And today a few grins. And those students took their time, took everything seriously and just did it!
I’m so proud of them!
And one teacher heard me say that, and chuckled. So I count that, too 🙂
I've loathed United Healthcare's prescription management system OptumRX for over 20 years with a virulent passion. It randomly deletes active prescriptions, changes prescriptions from generics to more expensive brand name drugs, auto-refills despite NONE of my prescriptions being set to auto-refill AND, just tp make your life hell, for the one hideously expensive drug you take (I'm looking at you, Ozempic), first tells you that your prescription will be $500, then you get a notification that your credit card was charged $900. AGAIN. Even if you chat with an agent to find out the price, the number they give you is several dollars too low because their system sucks shit. I have an entire string of rants that I've sent to my long-suffering GP where I've had to have prescriptions resent because OptumRX has lost or changed them. Fortunately, the doctors and nurses think I'm hilarious with my absolute loathing of OptumRX.
I also hate Alexa, despite being an early adopter. I want it to do six things, and six things only: play music on the platform I CHOOSE, set an alarm or a timer, tell me the forecast, play the NPR news and tell me who's in a movie because my phone's in the other room. That's ALL I want. I don't want to play games, have it use Amazon Music to play random songs I don't like or try to get me to reorder stuff. Yes, I understand that the reason Alexa exists is to sell me shit and that Bezos is evil. I still can get a countertop dishwasher and extremely obscure tools I need, plus a DVD of the only six episodes of The Nevers that disappeared off HBO one day. I hate them and I prefer to buy local, but Bezos began by selling books at a discounted price that I'd get at work the day it came out.
The last one is Microsoft Word. Every single new version of Word dumbs down the program and puts functions that power users, LIKE SECRETARIES, desperately need. I used to teach secretaries how to use crap like styles and citations. Yes, you can use ten hard returns to start a paragraph on a new page, but what about the next schmuck who has to edit it? It's not a typewriter, USE the program to make your life easier. BUT, every new version makes it easier for the newbies and barely computer literate to use and dumps people who learned how to do this shit in college to write term papers by the wayside. Yes, there's more of them, but I used it for forty hours a week for decades, so why don't you have settings like video games for easy and expert players? I'd refuse to allow IT to update Word until Microsoft would force them to do it. I can learn how a command has changed, but I can't fix when it screws up citations. That's why you read every legal brief to make sure your table of authorities is correct before you file it. Far in the weeds here.
I'm the very beginning of GenX, and I started programming computers when I was 15. I'm not some technodweeb - I'm patient and I understand most systems. However, I just loathe some of this shit.
Our major health insurance companies all seem to have two main goals: to make their top dogs as rich as possible and make our lives as annoying, painful, and frustrating as possible so we’ll keep giving them our money.
Alexa spooks the hell out of us at random moments, answering a question no one asked. I think she does that intermittently to remind us she’s there.
Most Microsoft products seem to be ass in my opinion.
Keep on keeping on. Thanks for the read and rant. I appreciate it.
I need to figure out this Jameson’s and Coke idea. Is this classy or utterly déclassé? Or is it just cocktail technology that is ass? I have business in Nashville next month. I think I will test this when I’m there as that is probably the only opportunity I’ll have to go to a bar in the foreseeable future.
Maybe that’s another set of listicle essays: “cocktails and booze that are epic” and “cocktails and booze that are ass.”
Those are two very good ideas for listicles. You’re a genius. The comment section would probably be fun and, uh, colorful. People can be very opinionated with their drinks.
There isn’t much to figure out with Jameson and Coke. I think Jameson is a great-tasting whiskey. I drink Coke Zero all the time. Combining the two makes an awesome drink. For me, anyway.
Being in Nashville, you may want to ask for a Tennessee whiskey instead. Either way, have a good time in Nashville, GG.
You said, “The vast majority of my students use AI to cheat on every digital assignment. It’s to the point that I am cutting students using technology in my classroom to the bone.”
Same! I’m going as analog as possible this year. Not even using the projector more than once a week. Ugh!!
Also: “Depending on the outcome, that could change my entire opinion on tipping.” I’m with you, my brotha!! 🤣
BTW, we have our first round of NWEA MAP testing on Wednesday, 12 August. For the prep on the 11th, I’m TOTALLY looking forward to telling my 9th graders… LET’S GO TO WAR! (As promised and will keep you posted.) 👊
Spot on about all the general enshittification of everyday life.
Also, re: AI: How many resources could be saved if one could just get a straight yes/no answer for those questions instead of an entire treatise on whatever it is?? I mean, I don’t need the tutorial. I just need to know if X is a thing. Why do I have to tell the AI “Just a yes/no answer.”? And then how many more resources could be saved if the AI didn’t always have to get the last word in?? (I.e. I say, “Great! Thanks!” and it goes on and on about if I need anything else, bla, bla, bla 😑. Just STFU, AI!!)
💕
Oh man, I can’t wait to hear about how “Let’s go to war!” works. I’m excited. That would be almost as good as a tip.
Keep me posted for sure.
Well, I went and did it! Yesterday and today before testing. “Let’s go to war on these tests! Let’s show *them*!” And so on.
Lots of eye rolls yesterday (which is… acknowledgment, right??? 🤦🏻♀️🤣) And today a few grins. And those students took their time, took everything seriously and just did it!
I’m so proud of them!
And one teacher heard me say that, and chuckled. So I count that, too 🙂
Oh, hell yeah, Elizabeth! You go, girl. That is so cool. I’m proud of you.
I've loathed United Healthcare's prescription management system OptumRX for over 20 years with a virulent passion. It randomly deletes active prescriptions, changes prescriptions from generics to more expensive brand name drugs, auto-refills despite NONE of my prescriptions being set to auto-refill AND, just tp make your life hell, for the one hideously expensive drug you take (I'm looking at you, Ozempic), first tells you that your prescription will be $500, then you get a notification that your credit card was charged $900. AGAIN. Even if you chat with an agent to find out the price, the number they give you is several dollars too low because their system sucks shit. I have an entire string of rants that I've sent to my long-suffering GP where I've had to have prescriptions resent because OptumRX has lost or changed them. Fortunately, the doctors and nurses think I'm hilarious with my absolute loathing of OptumRX.
I also hate Alexa, despite being an early adopter. I want it to do six things, and six things only: play music on the platform I CHOOSE, set an alarm or a timer, tell me the forecast, play the NPR news and tell me who's in a movie because my phone's in the other room. That's ALL I want. I don't want to play games, have it use Amazon Music to play random songs I don't like or try to get me to reorder stuff. Yes, I understand that the reason Alexa exists is to sell me shit and that Bezos is evil. I still can get a countertop dishwasher and extremely obscure tools I need, plus a DVD of the only six episodes of The Nevers that disappeared off HBO one day. I hate them and I prefer to buy local, but Bezos began by selling books at a discounted price that I'd get at work the day it came out.
The last one is Microsoft Word. Every single new version of Word dumbs down the program and puts functions that power users, LIKE SECRETARIES, desperately need. I used to teach secretaries how to use crap like styles and citations. Yes, you can use ten hard returns to start a paragraph on a new page, but what about the next schmuck who has to edit it? It's not a typewriter, USE the program to make your life easier. BUT, every new version makes it easier for the newbies and barely computer literate to use and dumps people who learned how to do this shit in college to write term papers by the wayside. Yes, there's more of them, but I used it for forty hours a week for decades, so why don't you have settings like video games for easy and expert players? I'd refuse to allow IT to update Word until Microsoft would force them to do it. I can learn how a command has changed, but I can't fix when it screws up citations. That's why you read every legal brief to make sure your table of authorities is correct before you file it. Far in the weeds here.
I'm the very beginning of GenX, and I started programming computers when I was 15. I'm not some technodweeb - I'm patient and I understand most systems. However, I just loathe some of this shit.
Preach, Nermie! Rant away. It can be cathartic.
Our major health insurance companies all seem to have two main goals: to make their top dogs as rich as possible and make our lives as annoying, painful, and frustrating as possible so we’ll keep giving them our money.
Alexa spooks the hell out of us at random moments, answering a question no one asked. I think she does that intermittently to remind us she’s there.
Most Microsoft products seem to be ass in my opinion.
Keep on keeping on. Thanks for the read and rant. I appreciate it.
I need to figure out this Jameson’s and Coke idea. Is this classy or utterly déclassé? Or is it just cocktail technology that is ass? I have business in Nashville next month. I think I will test this when I’m there as that is probably the only opportunity I’ll have to go to a bar in the foreseeable future.
Maybe that’s another set of listicle essays: “cocktails and booze that are epic” and “cocktails and booze that are ass.”
Those are two very good ideas for listicles. You’re a genius. The comment section would probably be fun and, uh, colorful. People can be very opinionated with their drinks.
There isn’t much to figure out with Jameson and Coke. I think Jameson is a great-tasting whiskey. I drink Coke Zero all the time. Combining the two makes an awesome drink. For me, anyway.
Being in Nashville, you may want to ask for a Tennessee whiskey instead. Either way, have a good time in Nashville, GG.