#writing

Why I use AI to mirror my voice without outsourcing the thinking that happens in drafting.

What building TrustSense revealed about the current state of local AI: the model is easy now, but the real challenge is system design and trust.

Why collapsing every generative system into "ChatGPT" weakens our thinking about AI, learning, and what these tools actually are.

A follow-up on ungrading that argues removing grades is only the beginning; agency requires labor, structure, and support.

What I learned when ungrading stopped being a rejection of points and became a question of infrastructure, power, and student support.

How I turned a pile of local services into a coherent private cloud with domain names, HTTPS, and a real front door.

A reflection on Vincent Harding's idea of the live human signpost and the quiet people who help others keep moving.

Why agency in AI work often feels like productive friction.

Why checklists feel reassuring in complex digital systems, and why they often fail when what we really need is literacy and judgment.

What it means to federate your self across website, newsletter, and notes.

Why a living web presence should be more than a static CV.

A real-time, messy walkthrough of building a Proxmox homelab.

How Obsidian can turn a newsletter into a connected knowledge garden.

How my first DIY server kicked off a homelab journey.

How a homelab project became an experiment in writing with AI.

How to get started building your own local AI sandbox with LM Studio.

Why it's time to start experimenting with your own personal AI sandbox.

How to evaluate new AI tools before you trust or buy them.

How a newsletter grew into a larger digital literacy project.

What MCP makes possible when AI can inspect your actual notes.

What RAG is and how it helps AI answer from your notes and sources.

A question about what problem AI is really trying to solve.

Why language skills are key to getting better results from AI.

How prompting works as a pedagogical conversation with AI.

How to design AI loops that keep human flourishing at the center.

What it means to stay responsible and human in AI-assisted work.

The key dilemmas that shape an honest conversation about AI and education.

How I built and published my digital garden with Obsidian.

An introduction to my digital garden and how it works.

How generative AI is reshaping education and learning practice.

A tour of an Obsidian vault and the knowledge practices behind it.

How AI helped turn a newsletter archive into a connected system.

How generative AI can act as a critical friend in writing.

How to structure a digital garden with folders, tags, and note stages.

Which tools best support a flexible digital garden workflow.

Why I’m turning newsletters and notes into a digital garden.

What a digital garden is and why it matters.

Why civic progress depends on coordinated work, not lone heroes.

How to find balance, safety, and agency in a screen-filled world.

How ChatGPT can help archive a WordPress blog into Obsidian.

What humans still do better than computers and why it matters.

A short reflection on Clint Smith's How the Word Is Passed.

How smart note-taking can improve learning and thinking.

What it really means to do research well.

What the fediverse is and why people are moving there.

A brief note on the harms Cathy O'Neil identifies in algorithms.

How a digital commonplace book can help organize ideas.

A quick take on Noah Hawley's novel Anthem.

How AI changes the writing process and what schools should do about it.

How code and ethics shape media and information literacy.

How generative AI tools can change the way presentations get made.

How AI virtual assistants are evolving in public view.

How an AI writing assistant can help draft a conference proposal.

How to plan a website that serves members instead of just existing online.

Why starting a new project often feels messy before it gets better.

What I learned after my first semester of ungrading.

How ungrading can support more equitable intellectual discovery.

How ungrading feedback pushed me toward more critical pedagogy.

A starting point for rethinking assessment through ungrading.

How memoir can help make sense of mental health and the creative process.

Why 'do no harm' can be an incomplete guide for action.

We recently moved to our new home, and as a result we have a lot of new projects to complete.

How to extend the reach of your talks by resharing them online.

A reflection on cleaning up scattered digital habits, clarifying where different kinds of work belong, and building a more coherent publishing practice.

How to keep your digital life organized without losing the signal to noise.

Why writing has become a way of making sense of my life.

Why the internet needs a shared bill of rights.

Lessons from Vinay Gupta's 'Monster Factory' interview.

A look at orbiting, ghosting, and the weirdness of digital social distance.

How diamonds and glass illustrate pressure, beauty, and strength.

What makes a worthwhile leader and the roles and skills behind it.

How to share research more creatively and reach wider audiences.

How scholars can make their work more accessible and approachable.

A candid look at parenting, conflict, and the messy work of change.

Why credentials help, but values and lived fit matter too.

A hard question about how we help create the conditions we resist.

A practical guide to writing and publishing a blog post.

A caution against overusing the language of addiction when talking about tech use.

How small habits add up to big changes over time.

Why speaking to one specific audience makes writing stronger.

A reflection on self-actualization, freedom, and long-term purpose.

A reflection on gaslighting, mistrust, and feeling unmoored from reality.

When critical evaluation goes too far and starts to flatten nuance.

Why innovation matters less without execution.

Why failure can be a useful part of ambitious goal-setting.

Why protecting your center matters when opportunities pull you outward.

Why documenting your life can help you think more clearly and learn from mistakes.

Why the doorway effect makes us forget what we meant to do.

Why writing for yourself is often the best way to find your voice.

A reminder to protect maker time instead of over-scheduling like a manager.

Why learning how doxing works is part of staying literate online.

How to start building your digital identity from the ground up.

Why sharing your work builds credibility over time.

A reminder that failure is often just part of learning to play.

Why finishing matters more than starting when work gets hard.

A reflection on waking up from inherited beliefs and assumptions.

What our family learned from getting COVID tests and antibody tests.

A reflection on stepping back from social signals for a month.

A look at social media, screentime, and the mental health conversation.

A brief note on stepping away from social feeds.

How music becomes the soundtrack for memory, feeling, and identity.

How to use GitHub Pages and Jekyll to host a podcast.

How poetry can mark a turning point in a collaborative project.

How to balance open scholarship with the demands of tenure and promotion.

How poetry and performance shape a community storytelling project.

Why blogging is a practical open scholarship habit for researchers and educators.

How close reading and detail work shape a poetry-making practice.

How poetry can help people tell where they come from.

How a poetry project uses voice, performance, and shared making.

How poetry can be used to ask and answer identity questions.

How a slam poetry course helps students respond to the moment.

What criteria can help you describe and evaluate assessments.

How journaling can support reflection, assessment, and learning.

How to respond when trolling shows up online.

How online anonymity can lower social restraint and distort behavior.

Why people say harsher things online than they would face to face.

Three ways annotations and social bookmarking can support networked learning.

A reflection on what it means to own a domain, build a home on the web, and keep shaping that space over time.

How IndieWeb ideas might reshape digital scholarship and citations.

Why blogging matters for open identity, learning, and the difference between small-b and Big B blogging.

Why first impressions can mislead and how to think more critically.

What Cambridge Analytica reveals about data, politics, and manipulation.

What creativity means and how useful ideas get made.

A reflection on grief, memory, and the reminder that we all die.

How critical autoethnography connects identity, culture, and reflection.

How to write an annotated bibliography that evaluates sources well.

How to write a personal vision statement that guides choices and action.

What a literature review is and how it maps the state of knowledge on a topic.

What oppositional conversational style looks like in conversation.

How a daily gratitude journal can steady your morning.

How logic models help clarify what grant proposals can do.

A simple guide to three types of web pages.

How stop-motion animation can support creativity and divergent thinking.

How I write and send my weekly newsletter.

How I build and send my weekly Digitally Literate newsletter.

Why students need a personalized online space to become digitally literate.

How to choose a WordPress theme when building your own domain.

How to install WordPress as part of building your own site.

Why hosting your own website is the best way to own your content.

How digital portfolios can support identity, reflection, and learning.

How to write strong research questions that guide inquiry.

How podcasting uses RSS and why a website still matters.

How blockchain might affect open badges in higher education.

How students can become digitally literate in a connected environment.

How to find CC-licensed images and cite them correctly.

A look at Known as a lightweight publishing platform for people who want a simpler way to blog, share, and own their work online.

How blogs and platforms like Medium can support a more open, participatory fishbowl discussion for project planning and collaborative thinking.

Why working with cool people matters more than status or hierarchy.

How transmedia storytelling supports literacy instruction across media.

How transmedia storytelling spreads a narrative across multiple media channels.

How open scholarship can fit the culture of academia.

How students learn and share through online video.

How to publish content online and syndicate it across platforms.

A request for comments on Web Literacy version 2.0.

A look at advanced writing techniques in Medium.

A beginner's guide to reading and writing in Medium.

A video overview of the web literacy map up to version 1.5.

How meditation and mindfulness can improve your workflow.

How web literacy supports reading, writing, and participation.

How WordPress tweaks can help readers navigate and contribute.

How coding and programming can function as literacy practices in classrooms.

How the systems around us shape the way we work.

Why every educator should build and maintain one home base online.

Continued reflections on Trello, Kanban, and getting things done.

How building and breaking your own site helps sharpen your critique.

How to notice, name, and respond when an account has been hacked.

A reflective piece on digital identity, unfinished work, and the fear of leaving imperfect traces of yourself online.

An overview of digital badges as evidence, assessment, and motivation.

A personal reflection on dreams, grief, memory, and the way old losses continue to shape the stories we tell about ourselves.

How to think through the purpose, audience, and structure of an online hub that can serve as the front door to your digital identity.

Why I think of a website as the front door to a digital life, and how that metaphor shapes the way I build and share online.

What open teaching and learning ask of teachers and students.

A collection of letters supporting the UNH Education Department.

TL;DR version: An update in my continued exploration and development of a digital badging system. At this point

Where the Mozilla Web Literacy Map stood at a key transition point.

My current thoughts on where the Mozilla Web Literacy initiative is headed.

How a collaborative summer read can support shared learning.

How I think about sharing ideas across Google+, Twitter, and Facebook.

How LED maker activities can be used to tell stories with light.

How blogs can support student evaluation, reflection, and communication.

Why the digital native myth still needs to be debunked.

A satire of Facebook's mood experiment using Google Forms.

My application for the Web Literacy Ninja Badge.

How open learning creates serendipity in online spaces.

Come join us for the second annual Print to Pixel Unconference.

How an open repository can help archive teaching and learning materials.

Why teachers are central to the past, present, and future of web literacy.

How multimodal information is changing the future of writing.

What academics owe readers when they publish their work online.

How open access shapes writing, publishing, and sharing.

How social networking and poetry can come together in classrooms.

How to make your content accessible across devices.

How Creative Commons helps you share and protect your content.

Why the Networked Learning Collaborative was created.

A look at digital texts and tools that support my writing process.

Why build an open educational MOOC in the first place?

How cognitive authority shapes decisions about digital badges.

Key lessons from hosting an open badging initiative.

A quick guide to Creative Commons licensing for open educational content.

What unconferences are and how participants shape the agenda.

Why stop motion animation is a useful connected learning activity.

How open badges can support teachers trying to use technology.

How online tools support research, collaboration, and writing.

A call for chapter proposals on writing and technology.

Why blogging helps us think, write, and share online.

A quick look at cloud storage, backup, and Google Drive.

How to build a classroom culture around online learning and student blogging.

How poetry, digital media, and mobile phones intersect in learning.

Why the tree octopus saga still matters for online literacy.

A follow-up reflection on raising a digital native.

My article review and study design task for comprehensive exams.

This is the task I received for one part of my Comprehensive Exams. Below I have embedded my response to this task.

Yuval Noah Harari

Journal article · O'Byrne, William Ian; Houser, Katherine; Stone, Ryan; White, Mary. (2018). Digital storytelling in early childhood: Student illustrations shaping social interactions. Frontiers in Psychology.

Journal article · Slota, Stephen T; Young, Michael F; O’Byrne, W Ian; Ballestrini, Kevin. (2016). A new hope: Negotiating the integration of transmedia storytelling and literacy instruction. Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy.

Book chapter · Pet, Sue Ringler; McVerry, J. Gregory; O'Byrne, W Ian. (2014). Multimodal response and writing as poetry experience. Exploring Multimodal Composition and Digital Writing.