{"id":573899558,"date":"2026-10-27T20:09:56","date_gmt":"2026-10-28T00:09:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.kennysmith.org\/wordpress\/?p=573899558"},"modified":"2026-11-09T04:39:54","modified_gmt":"2026-11-09T09:39:54","slug":"just-a-lot-of-campus","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.kennysmith.org\/wordpress\/blog\/2026\/10\/27\/just-a-lot-of-campus\/","title":{"rendered":"Just a lot of campus"},"content":{"rendered":"

I was in my office, which is where I hold my office hours. These are the regularly scheduled times which I have made myself available to students. Students don’t really understand the advantages that can come from making use of office hours, so this is usually a great time to get work done. Sometimes you have a chat with a colleague. One of them stopped by today to ask me if I know something about a particular class. I do not know anything about that particular class. And so I got to use the little sign I keep on my desk. And I was able to use it unironically. <\/p>\n

<\/center><\/p>\n

My mother-in-law got that for me as a joke Christmas gift some years back. She’s lovely, and has a wonderfully wicked sense of humor. I’m not sure why I have that sign, but also that’s the point of the thing. <\/p>\n

I never get to use it unironically — not because I know anything, but because no one asks. Maybe they see the sign in advance. <\/p>\n

In class we talked about Dr. Jenny Davis<\/a>‘ affordances.<\/p>\n

Affordances are the ways design features enable and constrain user engagement and social action … <\/p>\n

“How Artifacts Afford” introduces the mechanisms and conditions framework of affordances in which technologies request, demand, encourage, discourage, refuse, and allow social action, varying across subjects and circumstances. Underlying this mechanisms and conditions framework is a sharp focus on the politics and power encoded in sociotechnical systems.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

We’re going to be using them in class through the rest of the semester. These verbs will haunt someone before we’re done. <\/p>\n

<\/center><\/p>\n

It’s all about the structure of digital platforms. What do the buttons and tools of a platform request of us? What does a site demand of us? And so on. Also, since we’re getting down to Election Day, and since I like media literacy and we all need media literacy, I showed them this video. First of all, don’t use an LLM for this. But if you must, I guess … <\/p>\n

<\/p>\n
\n

\ud83d\uddf3\ufe0f We would never tell you to use a particular website or tool to research election candidates. But if you – like 20% of voters surveyed – are going to use AI chatbots to help fill out your ballot, you need to pair them with a heavy dose of news literacy.<\/p>\n

NewsLit tips \u2935\ufe0f<\/p>\n

#Midterms #NewsLiteracy<\/p>\n

[image or embed]<\/a><\/p>\n

— News Literacy Project (@newslit.org<\/a>) October 20, 2026 at 12:21 PM<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n