1. Here’s a free-to-read piece from the Journal of English as a Lingua Franca (JELF) https://www.degruyter.com/journal/key/jelf/html, Linguistic justice in English-medium instruction contexts: a theoretical argument by Josep Soler from Stockholm University  https://www.degruyter.com/document/doi/10.1515/jelf-2024-2003/html PDF below.

In the final keynote panel at the 2022 ICLHE conference, Philippe Van Parijs pondered how EMI teachers might be seen: either as killers, traitors, sellers, saviours, upgraders, or liberators. After providing characterisations for each of these labels, Van Parijs suggested that EMI teachers should be better conceived of as civilisers, not in a missionary sense of civilising the barbarian, but in the Aristotelian meaning of civic virtue, of citizens being part of public life, actively involved in discussion of public affairs. This seems to imply a specific view of English, one that almost naturally equates the language to democratic progress and consensus. In the article, I challenge this assumption …

Integrating Content and Language in Higher Education (ICLHE) home page here https://www.iclhe.org/

2. Navigating the New Frontier of AI in Education was the title of Helen Crompton’s (short and to-the-point) keynote talk for the William & Mary College 2024 Teaching & Learning Symposium https://youtu.be/P8y2fu2S1UU

Helen’s abstract: The emergence of generative AI models such as ChatGPT is reshaping educational environments. This presentation highlights the ways in which ChatGPT and comparable tools can enrich student engagement, deepen comprehension, and tailor learning experiences within university contexts. Furthermore, we will review the limitations and the challenges these technologies can present, including issues of academic integrity and the imperative to nurture critical thinking abilities alongside AI support. By participating in this session, attendees will gain insights into optimizing the utility of these tools while recognizing and proactively managing the limitations and potential abuses in education.

William & Mary STLI (Studio for Teaching & Learning Innovation) YouTube channel here https://www.youtube.com/@wmstudioforteachinglearnin1642/videos

3. Great stuff about the olive harvest in Greece, ‘Swish! Swish! Swish!’ by Patrick Leigh Fermor, read by Dominic West https://www.lrb.co.uk/podcasts-and-videos/podcasts/the-lrb-podcast/swish!-swish!-swish! First published sixty-three years after it was written in 1958: not sure why!

4. Carl Edward Rasmussen, the Professor of Machine Learning at Cambridge University, writes a very accessible blog, What should we, humanity, do about Climate Change? https://mlg.eng.cam.ac.uk/carl/climate/

My focus (says Carl) is on the grand human challenge of turning our scientific knowledge about climate change into concrete action to avoid its most severe consequences. This isn’t a particularly popular topic, probably because it reaches across conventional subject boundaries, and may be difficult to monetise.

Why is this a hard problem? There are 4 main reasons, in no particular order:

Horizon: the characteristic time scale for climate effects are much longer than typical legislative terms. The inconvenience and price of decarbonising society will be immediate, but the rewards come later, continuing for generations. If we don’t value future generation’s conditions, then climate change isn’t much of a problem. If we do, then that means that we’re willing to accept some inconveniences to promote their well-being. But the long time horizon makes it difficult to be sure our efforts are paying off.

Reluctance to give up privileges: the use of atmospheric resources, such as releasing CO2 has been very uneven globally. A subset of predominantly wealthy nations have overexploited these common resources. Now, they’ve gotten used to this behaviour and are reluctant either to stop or to pay a fair price. Beside general reluctance to engage, this sometimes manifests as systematic misinformation and various forms of climate change denial.

Inexperience with global cooperation: humans are generally extremely good at cooperative behaviour, e.g. in families or local communities. But we have little practical experience with cooperation at a global scale. Successful implementation will require thoughtful design based on universal principles which are applicable across culturally and economically diverse communities.

Insight: the majority of people agree we have an ethical obligation towards future generations to ensure good living conditions. But naturally, we will only endure the inconveniences necessary if we are confident about the outcomes. This means that we need to inform policy makers, politicians and our populations about the causes and consequences of climate change.

In order to make real progress on this hard problem, we need to acknowledge and address all of these difficulties. This page links to various short notes, discussing these problems, and what their solutions might look like.

5. And, finally and magically, from Cuba in the 1920s, https://youtu.be/A91jnug9Bmw

Plus, something a little more recent and commercial https://youtu.be/tGbRZ73NvlY