Learning Ecosystems

Diverse and Dramatic Behaviors Top the 2026 Bird Photographer of the Year Contest

On 09/23/2026, in creativity, digital photography, global, photography, by Daniel Christian

Diverse and Dramatic Behaviors Top the 2026 Bird Photographer of the Year Contest — from thisiscolossal.com by Kate Mothes & various photographers

It’s all things avian at Bird Photographer of the Year, the world’s largest contest dedicated to images of feathered creatures planet-wide. This year, the program welcomed more than 24,000 entries from photographers around the globe, capturing diving penguins, urban denizens, mating rituals, dramatic flights, and more.

Highlighting birds of all kinds, the competition emphasizes the diverse appearances and behaviors of the animals and also raises awareness of the challenges they face due human-triggered habitat loss, poaching, pollution, and other factors. Categories include Best Portrait, Bird Behavior, Conservation, Urban Birds, and others, plus three youth categories for budding photographers aged 17 years and younger.
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Learning used to cascade—now it must circulate [Ravitch]

On 09/22/2026, in business, corporate / business world, corporate universities / corporate training, ideas, instructional design, leadership, learning ecosystem, Learning Experience Design, training / L&D, United States, by Daniel Christian

Learning used to cascade—now it must circulate — from chieflearningofficer.com by Sharon M. Ravitch
Long-held structural and procedural assumptions undergird how organizations promote and deepen learning that precedes its flow through organizations. What replaces the cascade isn’t a smarter platform. It’s a deliberate act of leadership; a set of adaptive mindsets that make circulation possible in the first place.

Admitting “I don’t know what I’m doing with this yet” felt like exposure, a confession of falling behind, and surfacing a workaround carried the calculated risk of “going rogue.” By the time the CLO scheduled a refresher, the tool had evolved again, and whatever either camp learned in the meantime had nowhere to go.

The issue wasn’t adoption. It was circulation. Without this step, learning cannot move through the organization quickly enough to keep pace with technological adoption.

The problem has both widened and deepened. Organizations are moving to roughly double AI investment as a share of revenue, with 72 percent of CEOs now personally directing AI strategy. Capability requirements are shifting at the pace of leadership attention, not curriculum cycles.

Tech & Learning Announces Winners of Best for Back to School 2026 — from techlearning.com by TL Editors
This annual award celebrates the products that offer schools versatility, value, and solutions to specific problems to support innovative, effective teaching and learning.

The 2026-27 school year is off and running, and it’s already shaping up to be another pivotal year for education. While AI remains a massive topic, the biggest headline this fall is the screentime debate, hands down. Communities nationwide—including the country’s two largest school districts—are advocating for strict limitations and outright bans to reclaim screen-free classrooms.

Yet, if there’s one constant in education, it’s resilience. We adapt, we evolve, and we keep going because at the heart of it all, we want what’s best for our students. Instead of a setback, this heightened scrutiny around screentime and AI has forced the edtech community to be better. It demands that the tools we bring into the classroom are safe and built to inspire active creation rather than passive consumption.
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More people than ever are trying to get into college classes in Illinois prisons. Getting a seat hasn’t gotten any easier. [West]

On 09/22/2026, in colleges, communities of practice, community colleges, liberal arts, society, sociology, student-related, United States, universities, by Daniel Christian

More people than ever are trying to get into college classes in Illinois prisons. Getting a seat hasn’t gotten any easier. — from college-inside.beehiiv.com by Charlotte West
The college waitlist in Illinois has grown 80% since last year, with 3,700 people waiting and 2,600 enrolled.

Excerpt from highlights:

Illinois waitlists are outpacing seats. The college waitlist has grown 80% since last year, with 3,700 people waiting and 2,600 enrolled. Read [the] full story, published with WBEZ Chicago’s Prisoncast!
Wisconsin’s prisons hit a record population, straining access to programs, reports our partner Wisconsin Watch.
Delaware Tech is ending its prison education program after graduating current students, reports the Delaware News Journal.

Measuring the Microschool Experience: A National Analysis [microschoolingcenter.org]

On 09/19/2026, in assessment, education, K-12 related, learning ecosystem, Learning Experience Design, learning hubs & pods & microschooling, parents/guardians, student-related, by Daniel Christian

Measuring the Microschool Experience: A National Analysis — from microschoolingcenter.org

Findings:

Student assessments. Microschool students in this analysis exhibited average academic growth that was generally consistent with expected trajectories, but overall student performance was somewhat stronger in ELA than in mathematics. Although this study’s assessment data suggest that microschool students largely perform no better or worse than expected on standardized tests in ELA and math, both students and parent/caregivers report extraordinarily positive experiences in microschools across a range of non-academic and academic indicators.

Parent/Caregiver Survey. Families report choosing microschools primarily because of their small class sizes, individualized attention, levels of safety, and positive school culture, with individualized attention being the most important factor for parent/caregivers. Parent/caregivers also hold strong positive perceptions of their child’s microschool across academic, social-emotional, and life skills domains. In the survey, a striking 97% of respondents say that they are satisfied/very satisfied with their child’s microschool overall. When families compare their child’s current microschool to their child’s previous public school, parent/caregivers report stronger relationships, increased home-school communication, and enhanced safety in their child’s current microschools.

Student Survey. More than 90% of microschool students report strong relationships with teachers across a range of measures while 95% say that they feel safe at school. Ninety-three percent say that they participate in class most of the time. Additionally, students who are new to their current microschool are more likely to report that their current school experience was better than the previous year and that they are currently learning more. Among students who completed both fall and spring surveys, they report enhanced perceptions of their problem-solving ability, communication skills, and respect for others improved from fall to spring.

More than 95% of students report being treated with respect by their teachers, and 97% indicate that their teachers care about them, want what is best for them, and care about their learning.

Sample characteristics. The schools in this study served substantial numbers of students with unique learning needs. Approximately 40% to 47% of students across the study samples had an identified disability, special learning need, or chronic medical condition, and roughly one in five participating schools explicitly focused on serving students with disabilities.

How to Improve Your AI Skills [Andrade & Caplan]

On 09/19/2026, in Artificial Intelligence/Agents/LLMs/and Related, Google, human-computer interaction (HCI), Open AI, platforms, productivity / tips and tricks, professional development, skills, tools, United States, vendors, by Daniel Christian

How to Improve Your AI Skills — from wondertools.substack.com by Frank Andrade and Jeremy Caplan
What to learn next, from prompts to workflows
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Today I’m sharing a guest post on how to strengthen your AI skills. It’s by Frank Andrade, an AI instructor who has helped thousands of people on Substack master ChatGPT and Claude with beginner-friendly guides and in-depth tutorials.

New study: 15 community college presidents on what it will take to lead higher ed’s next chapter [eddesignlab.org]

On 09/19/2026, in career development, change, changing business models, community colleges, competency-based learning/education, experimentation, faculty/staff, future, future of higher education, game-changing environment, generational differences, higher education, skills, student-related, teaching & learning, United States, workplace, by Daniel Christian

New study: 15 community college presidents on what it will take to lead higher ed’s next chapter — from eddesignlab.org

Community colleges are at a pivotal moment.

As learners, employers, and regional economies change, these institutions have an opportunity to lead the next evolution of higher education — if they can move beyond structures built for a different era.

In the Lab’s new study, Insights from 15 Community College Presidents on the Future of Learning in a New Economy, leaders share their perspectives on the opportunities and barriers facing the sector, as well as the institutional changes needed to help more learners access economic mobility.

Their insights validate Education Design Lab’s Future of Learning framework, which asks five essential design questions:

How might we make skills and competencies visible?
How might we create stackable pathways that credential skills along the way?
How might we make learning universally flexible through multiple modalities?
How might we guarantee applied learning opportunities for every learner?
How might we ensure every learner has access to adequate support services?

OpenAI Releases Astra for Law

On 09/19/2026, in 24x7x365 access, Artificial Intelligence/Agents/LLMs/and Related, emerging technologies, law schools, Legal operations, legal technologies, legislatures / government / legal, Open AI, platforms, tools, United States, vendors, by Daniel Christian

Another day, another frontier AI company moving into legal. First it was @AnthropicAI with Claude for Legal, and now it is @OpenAI, which today announced Astra for Law, a version of its latest GPT-6 Astra model configured for legal work. https://t.co/TqJbfU9tfO

— Bob Ambrogi (@bobambrogi) September 17, 2026

Astra for Law: Frontier intelligence built for your practice.

A new offering powered by GPT-6 Astra with tools, settings, and context to support the expertise and judgment of lawyers and legal technology firms. pic.twitter.com/qxVRXkvp4o

— OpenAI (@OpenAI) September 17, 2026

Will smart glasses make it too risky to speak up in class? — from timeshighereducation.com by Georgia Luckhurst & Kieran Phelan
AI-powered glasses may boost learning but they also pose obvious threats to privacy, academic integrity and the sanctity of the seminar room as a safe space to explore ideas. Are universities doing enough to head off the risks, asks Georgia Luckhurst – while Kieran Phelan suggests they are not

Smart glasses can superimpose information on to a viewer’s field of vision, and they can access apps and communicate with your phone. Some are hands-free while some require touch, and some also respond to voice automation. Most controversially, they can take pictures and record footage, potentially without anyone else knowing that it is happening. And they are becoming ever more common.

But, for academia, the biggest issue associated with smart glasses may be a decline in intellectual risk-taking and freedom of expression, Murray said.

How useful are smart glasses in improving accessibility in higher education? — from timeshighereducation.com by Helen Nicholson-Benn
Smart glasses have the potential to support learning for disabled students, but this technology also comes with significant privacy concerns. Helen Nicholson-Benn looks at how to balance functional benefits with data security and safeguarding

Consider how different models of smart glasses might be used to improve accessibility in higher education. A deaf student might use XRai’s ar2 captioning glasses during a lecture to view live captions in their eyeline, allowing them to follow the content without looking down at a separate screen. A visually impaired student might use Envision’s Ally Solos glasses to generate a description of images on printed material or read text during a class. The glasses provide a hands-free option rather than scanning the materials with their smartphone.

These examples are hypothetical, and smart glasses are far from an everyday teaching tool, but that may be about to change. Smart glasses available today are far more capable than their predecessors, particularly boosted by developments in artificial intelligence (AI) technology.

Which brings up the topic of how to handle these technologies in the classroom:

Are device-free classrooms the way forward? — from timeshighereducation.com by Georgia Luckhurst
US universities embrace laptop and phone bans, but professor suggests policies may be more about political positioning than pedagogy

Growing numbers of US universities are making some of their courses “device free”, drawing mixed enthusiasm from edtech experts.

In the latest move the University of Chicago is introducing a no-laptops and no-phones policy on three of its 15 required undergraduate modules, aiming to “reduce distractions and encourage face-to-face discussions”. Exceptions remain, including for students with disabilities.
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Device-free policies appear in other countries, experts suggested, despite the trend picking up pace in the US.

How to Reduce Cognitive Load in Digital Lessons — from educationtechnologysolutions.com by etsmagazine

A digital lesson can be beautifully designed and still make learning unnecessarily hard.

Students may be asked to watch a video, remember an instruction, find a link, switch tabs, interpret unfamiliar icons and submit a response—all before they have dealt with the idea the lesson was meant to teach.

That friction is often mistaken for rigour. It is not. Productive difficulty comes from thinking about the content. Avoidable difficulty comes from navigating the lesson.

The goal is not to make learning effortless. It is to spend students’ limited attention on the knowledge and skill that matter.

The above article links to:

Managing cognitive load optimises learning — from edresearch.edu.au
Implications for policymakers

Risks and Rewards of IoT in Higher Education [Dickson]

On 09/16/2026, in 24x7x365 access, colleges, communities of practice, community colleges, computer science, higher education, internet, IT in HE, productivity / tips and tricks, student-related, the downsides of how people use tech, United States, universities, by Daniel Christian

Risks and Rewards of IoT in Higher Education — from edtechmagazine.com by Akeya Dickson
Shadow IT is flooding college and university networks as students move back to campus. Here’s how higher ed IT leaders can secure their networks without impacting the student experience.

Connected minifridges, smart speakers and internet-based gaming consoles are among the devices students are bringing to college that IT departments may not have accounted for — or even know are connected to the campus network. These devices may run on default passwords and have little to no security configuration, making them an attractive and vulnerable entry point for a cyberattack.

For higher ed IT, the stakes couldn’t be higher. According to the Zscaler ThreatLabz 2025 Mobile, IoT and OT Threat Report, the education sector saw an 861% rise in malware attacks from Internet of Things devices between 2024 and 2025.

Per Anthropic’s CEO: “We Must Pace the Frontier: I’ve written a new essay on why the AI industry should slow down, with a three-part plan for doing so.”

On 09/14/2026, in 21st century, 24x7x365 access, Artificial Intelligence/Agents/LLMs/and Related, change, communities of practice, dangers of the status quo, future, game-changing environment, generational differences, global, legislatures / government / legal, pace of change, society, technology (general), the downsides of how people use tech, trends, vendors, vision/possibilities, by Daniel Christian

We Must Pace the Frontier: I’ve written a new essay on why the AI industry should slow down, with a three-part plan for doing so.

Anthropic is unilaterally committing to the first of these steps. We’ll provide third-party evaluators with permanent, employee-level access to our…

— Dario Amodei (@DarioAmodei) September 12, 2026

Dario Amodei’s article here:
We Must Pace the Frontier — from darioamodei.com

But like many technologies before it, AI brings risks, and because it is such a powerful technology, these risks are serious. I’ve written a lot about them too. They include the risk of losing control of AI systems, misuse of AI for cyberattacks and bioterrorism, and serious economic disruption. A race to the bottom, spurred by commercial incentives, can make these risks more acute.

Along with my co-founders and employees, I have grappled with this duality of risk and benefit since the beginning of Anthropic.

Also relevant/see:

I left Anthropic’s safety team two weeks ago. Now feels like a good moment to explain why.

AI companies are racing to build machines that are much smarter than any human, and we may not survive this. I want to work from the outside to ensure the public is informed about these…

— Joe Benton (@JoeJBenton) September 11, 2026

[GIFTED ARTICLE]
Anthropic CEO calls for the AI industry to slow down — from washingtonpost.com by Ted Hesson, Ian Duncan, and Gerrit De Vynck
Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei said he was worried about the ability to control self-improving AI models.

Three of the nation’s leading artificial intelligence executives endorsed slowing down the blistering pace of technological advancement, revealing the growing unease with its potential dangers at the industry’s very highest levels.

The call was first made in an essay Anthropic chief executive Dario Amodei posted online Saturday. The idea has gained ground in recent weeks as AI companies have struggled in some cases to keep their creations under control, even as they usher in an age in which AI systems themselves can build the more powerful next generation of the technology.

[GIFTED ARTICLE]
For years, they warned AI could kill all humans. Now people are listening. — from washingtonpost.com by Nitasha Tiku
A doomsaying community once on the periphery of the tech industry has gained influence, as AI “agents” perform amazing and alarming feats.

But when Hubinger issued a similar warning this week in a post on X, his message was viewed tens of millions of times, prompting state and federal lawmakers to echo his concern. Now he spoke as a team lead at Anthropic, developer of the chatbot Claude and a company set to go public at a valuation of over $1 trillion.

“AI could kill all humans … I personally think it is >10% within the next decade,” Hubinger wrote, in response to the resignation of his colleague Jacob Coxon, who accused Anthropic of racing ahead despite the dangers.
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The Case for Prioritizing Play in Kindergarten [Swartz]

On 09/14/2026, in education, education reform, ideas, instructional design, K-12 related, learning, learning ecosystem, Learning Experience Design, play, relationships, student-related, teachers, Uncategorized, United States, vision/possibilities, youth, by Daniel Christian

The Case for Prioritizing Play in Kindergarten — from the74million.org by Mark Swartz
Laura Bornfreund on how schools, families and policymakers can transform kindergarten to better support young children.

In order for these years to lay a sturdy foundation for everything that follows, the kindergarten experience should prioritize play and relationship-building, including connections with peers and teachers. Over the years, however, kindergarten has become increasingly “schoolified,” according to Bornfreund…

The book laments the state of kindergarten today, where classroom experiences are overly scripted and funding is insufficient in many communities. At the same time, Bornfreund finds teachers who are providing meaningful experiences for young learners against the odds. In the conversation below, she shares her perspective on what a strong kindergarten experience looks like and offers insights on how schools, families and policymakers can reshape kindergarten to help children thrive.

Learning Ecosystems

Diverse and Dramatic Behaviors Top the 2026 Bird Photographer of the Year Contest

Learning used to cascade—now it must circulate [Ravitch]

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