Category «Education»

Teaching Legal Research in the Generative AI Era: When Source Blindness and Source Erasure Collide (Part 1)

Tanya Thomas, Research and Instructional Technology Librarian, raises the argument that we are training a generation of lawyers who rarely engage with the raw materials of their profession, and are increasingly consuming only the processed, pre-digested, AI-synthesized versions. Students are suffering from what we might call source blindness, the inability to distinguish between fundamentally different types of sources, compounded by source erasure, where sources disappear behind AI-generated summaries.

Subjects: AI, Education, KM, Law Librarians, Legal Research, Legal Research Training, Legal Technology

All government shutdowns disrupt science − in 2025, the consequences extend far beyond a lapse in funding

The government shutdown will continue until Congress can pass a bill reopening it. Samuel Corum/AFP via Getty Images U.S. science always suffers during government shutdowns. Funding lapses send government scientists home without pay. Federal agencies suspend new grant opportunities, place expert review panels on hold, and stop collecting and analyzing critical public datasets that tell …

Subjects: Economy, Education, Government Resources, Health, Healthcare

The Trump Administration’s Continued War Against Science, Research, Public Health, and the Rule of Law – Part 4

This the fourth in a series by Sabrina I. Pacifici on the Trump administration’s relentless attacks against science, medicine and public health, government sponsored data collection and reporting, climate science, and censorship of government documents and federally funded academic research and scholarship. Our country continues to face daily attacks on our civil liberties, access to accurate, actionable and science based medical and health information, broadening censorship of government information, and the dismantling of our non partisan federal workforce. These attacks have bypassed laws and regulations that exist to ensure equality, justice, the rule of law and the safeguarding of civil liberties. These dangerous cracks in the pillars of US democracy have shattered long agreed upon norms that have until January 20, 2025 defined how the institutions and procedures of our three co-equal branches of government, the legislative, executive, and judicial branches sustain democracy. In the month of October alone, our government and the economy, public health and safety, our legal system, science and research, food and nutrition programs, public health and critical vaccine programs, have sustained irrevocable blows by the Trump administration.

Subjects: Archives, Big Data, Civil Liberties, Economy, Education, Free Speech, Freedom of Information, Government Resources, Healthcare, Leadership, Legal Research, Medical Research

Pete Recommends – Weekly highlights on cyber security issues, October 18, 2025

Privacy and cybersecurity issues impact every aspect of our lives – home, work, travel, education, finance, health and medical records – to name but a few. On a weekly basis Pete Weiss highlights articles and information that focus on the increasingly complex and wide ranging ways technology is used to compromise and diminish our privacy and online security, often without our situational awareness. Five highlights from this week: Frustrated Job Seekers Are Trying to Manipulate AI; ChatGPT Is Wrecking Real-Life Marriages – Couples use AI to argue, vent, and even divorce; Is the AI bubble about to pop? Ed Zitron weighs in; Layoffs, reassignments further deplete Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA); and Satellites Are Leaking the World’s Secrets: Calls, Texts, Military and Corporate Data.

Subjects: AI, Cybercrime, Cybersecurity, Education, Legal Research

With ChatGPT, law-school instructor Sean Harrington is rebuilding student assessment for the AI era

With ChatGPT, law-school instructor Sean Harrington is rebuilding student assessment for the AI era. Sean—who teaches students AI and law at the University of Oklahoma and holds both a JD and an MS in Data Analytics—saw a core problem the moment generative AI went mainstream: traditional take-home exams no longer reveal what students really know.

Subjects: AI, Education, Legal Education, Legal Profession, Legal Research, Legal Technology

The Trump Administration’s Continued War Against Science, Research and Public Health – Part 2

This is a follow up to Sabrina I. Pacifici’s July 31, 2025 article, The Trump Administration’s Continued War Against Science, Research and Public Health. In just one more month the administration has ramped up its use of unsupportable actions to expand the cancellation of billions of dollars of congressionally approved funding for a broad swath of government-funded agencies, institutions, programs and leading edge initiatives. They also relentlessly target and censor academic research in the sciences, public health, medicine, and on the climate crisis. The deliberate collateral damage has purged the leadership in organizations whose subject matter expertise drives vast knowledge acquired through decades of public service. The continued decimation of the country’s long standing support for the sciences impacts every person in America. It has fractured our collective human and technological systems and resources. The scope and specificity of the bare knuckle attacks and the implications are exposed.

Subjects: Civil Liberties, Education, Health, Healthcare, Legal Research, Medical Research, Viruses & Hoaxes

Beyond the Tool: Why True AI Literacy is About Critical Thinking, Not Prompting

Michael G. Wagner, a technology educator with more than 30 years experience in higher education, contends that the nature of AI literacy is largely misunderstood within the education community. Ultimately, the goal of AI literacy should not be to make students better at using AI, but to empower them to be more discerning thinkers, more ethical citizens, and more self-aware human beings in a world where AI exists. Analyzing the relationship between artificial and human intelligence requires two components: understanding how LLMs work, and understanding how human cognition works. Wagner says we understand neither well enough to make informed judgments. The uncomfortable truth is that confident dismissal of AI’s intelligence often just reveals a deeper misunderstanding of our own.

Subjects: AI, Communication Skills, Education

Pete Recommends – Weekly highlights on cyber security issues, August 3, 2025

Privacy and cybersecurity issues impact every aspect of our lives – home, work, travel, education, finance, health and medical records – to name but a few. On a weekly basis Pete Weiss highlights articles and information that focus on the increasingly complex and wide ranging ways technology is used to compromise and diminish our privacy and online security, often without our situational awareness. Five highlights from this week: Online Scams and Attacks in America Today; You probably should not use link shorteners; Is Your Phone Call Really Private?; Malicious extensions can use ChatGPT to steal your personal data – here’s how; The food supply chain has a cybersecurity problem; and Why Smart People Fall for False Information and What to do About It.

Subjects: AI, Cryptocurrency, Cybercrime, Cybersecurity, Education, Health, Legal Research, Privacy, Search Engines, Social Media

The Trump Administration’s Continued War Against Science, Research and Public Health

Sabrina I. Pacifici’s overview of selected articles highlights the devastating impact of the Trump administration’s dismantling of agencies across the federal government, with a focus on cancelling critical scientific and health related research grants, as reported in July, 2025. The total cancellation of funds is escalating as grant suspensions are ongoing, but it is in the billions of dollars. Unilateral, sweeping and rapid actions are targeting a wide range of projects, programs, education and funding for research on critical health issues including: Alzheimers’, cancer, the climate crisis, weather and forecasting, vaccines, HIV, infectious diseases, food and drug safety, fossil fuels, air and water pollution.

Subjects: Climate Change, Education, Energy, Federal Legislative Research, Freedom of Information, Government Resources, Healthcare, KM

Pete Recommends – Weekly highlights on cyber security issues, July 12, 2025

Privacy and cybersecurity issues impact every aspect of our lives – home, work, travel, education, finance, health and medical records – to name but a few. On a weekly basis Pete Weiss highlights articles and information that focus on the increasingly complex and wide ranging ways technology is used to compromise and diminish our privacy and online security, often without our situational awareness. Five highlights from this week: Employees are quietly bringing AI to work and leaving security behind; AI could harm your critical thinking skills. Should that change how you use it?; Device disregard is multiplying digital ghosts across federal agencies; Fake online stores look real, rank high, and trap unsuspecting buyers; and Appeals court strikes down ‘click-to-cancel’ rule.

Subjects: AI, Cryptocurrency, Cybercrime, Cybersecurity, Economy, Education, Financial System, KM, Privacy, Search Engines