Bernie Goldbach

Back when I cut code daily

Thirty years ago, I was a simple code cutter. I had a fat HTML encyclopedia and new clients every month, some who would pay more than 500 Irish pounds for each web page. I had a poster like the image at the top of this post. Life was simple in the days before Wordpress.Today I watch programmers with …

Back when I cut code daily

Questioning Everything More Than Ever

It is hard to flip through my daily flow without encountering something that feels like a human didn’t produce it. Because I teach people how to ethically use artificial intelligence, I often offer these five precepts to people who want to ensure they’re consuming authentic content. I …

Questioning Everything More Than Ever

Empowering Learners for the Age of AI

Scrolling through the OECD Framework for AILit “Empowering Learners for the Age of AI”. The AILit Framework connects knowledge, skills, and attitudes, and highlights the importance of ethical and critical understanding of AI. Young people must understand how AI works, appreciate its …

Empowering Learners for the Age of AI

Outing Local ICE

It is time people start outing family members, neighbors, and community friends who are drawing salaries from ICE.

Outing Local ICE

Planning a Workshop on Authentic Storytelling #iceri2025

’m deep into a prep session about authentic storytelling with Brigit Kolen on the campus of Fontys University in Eindhoven. I will bring selected bits of AI into a series of workshops we’re proposing for the 18th annual International Conference of Education, Research and Innovation.

Planning a Workshop on Authentic Storytelling #iceri2025

Joyful Simple Daily Tick-off List

Everybody has their own method of tracking progress. I’ve landed onto a simple daily note that I open every morning inside Obsidian on my laptop and then sync to my mobile phone. When I can tick off some of the checklist items, I feel like I’ve accomplished important things. On top of …

Joyful Simple Daily Tick-off List

Smart Connections Helped Me Write This #RUNEUAI

So grateful for Brian Petro’s Smart Connections Community Plug-in for Obsidian.

Smart Connections Helped Me Write This #RUNEUAI

Using Summertime to Dive into Smart Connections inside Obsidian

I toggle between Obsidian (using it several times a day) and Notion (publishing content for workshops). I am getting smarter with both. I’ve discovered I actually take better notes than ever because my copy of Obsidian uses Brian Petro’s Smart Connections. That community plug-in …

Using Summertime to Dive into Smart Connections inside Obsidian

Office Sirens and Dons in Shorts

I’m reading about how to be an office siren because I’ve noticed advice on professional attire is being replaced by the idea that if you’ve got it, flaunt it. And now with Ozempic and everyone losing enormous amounts of weight, I see men and women becoming more daring with what they wear …

Office Sirens and Dons in Shorts

Three Luminaries Thinking about AI in Education

I’m looking at practical workflows educators can improve with AI. My interest is shared by a group of 20 educators in an edulearn25 workshop. We’re starting by determining what Mairead Pratschke, Andrej Karpathy, and Ethan Mollick think about educators using AI to improve their workflows …

Three Luminaries Thinking about AI in Education

Fan of Socrative as a Tick-off List

I often use Socrative to track activities in training workshops. This screenshot from Socrative revealed several things for me. First, the red responses show that two groups did not complete task 15 related to “authenticity statements”. And on group did not complete the task “use …

Fan of Socrative as a Tick-off List

Ireland Wants to Attract Academics Fleeing America

Ireland’s Minister for Higher Education, Research, and Skills has a message for my friends in America who have seen their research grants terminated and watched their collaborators rounded up by ICE. Here is what Minister James Lawless says. Behind every thriving economy lies a quiet, often …

Ireland Wants to Attract Academics Fleeing America

Happy to Have Full-on Meta AI Working Again

I’ve owned two sets of Ray-Ban Meta Glasses since November 2023 and for the past nine months the “look and tell me” feature was deactivated. Then in late April 2025, version 216.0.0.51.168 landed on my Wayfarers and I regained the full AI service with the glasses.The 9th of May …

Happy to Have Full-on Meta AI Working Again

Respect for Microcredentials

Looking at ways to link HCI funding to agentic AI training.

Respect for Microcredentials

My email inbox is untamed

On the first day of Trump 2.0, I woke up worried about losing my mind because of an email overload–not caused by a broligarchy empowered in the States but by my email bloatage.Since I have several paid versions of AI services, I thought I could just put one of them to work but Larry Maguire …

My email inbox is untamed

Focus Starts on my Primary Screen

Although I haven’t written down any Resolutions for 2025, I have taken some steps to clean up my routines so that during every increment of time, I’m aware of what I’m prioritising at the moment. I’ve been helped along in this Quest by the screen that welcomes me on my mobile phone. That screen is …

Focus Starts on my Primary Screen

Implementing Online Age Verification

I’m looking at several standards for verifying ages, including the IEEE Standard for Online Age Verification I asked my resident AI to determine the most onerous burden faced by ISPs when implementing these proposed standards. The most onerous consideration for Internet Service Providers …

Implementing Online Age Verification

Carving Out Working Conditions with AI

I’m running a hands-on AI training workshop for educators with educatefran at DEC24 on 10 Dec and hope we can claw back the increased productivity we get from AI by either getting more free time or getting paid more for getting more results during the normal business day. We have walked into a …

Carving Out Working Conditions with AI

Taking a Google Selfie

by Bernie Goldbach in Clonmel IF YOU LIVE and work online, you’re creating electronic selfies all the time. It’s worth you time to see what those selfies show about you. Google forms a profile about you in order to show you relevant advertising. I look at what Google thinks I like by …

Taking a Google Selfie

To Read and Be Read as Legacy

I AM COUNTING down the number of Mondays remaining in my university teaching career and with around four dozen Mondays on my academic schedule I’ve started thinking about what I will leave behind and who would be interested in the remnants of 25 years of my teaching on the same campus. …

To Read and Be Read as Legacy

Recommended Mobile Journalism Tools

AFTER THREE MONTHS of hard use, I can unreservedly recommend the DJI Osmo Pocket 3 as a primary tool for mobile journalism. I bought the camera and its accompanying DJI Wireless Mic II from Harvey Norman in Waterford after discovering DJI wasn’t stocking Whelan Cameras in Limerick fast enough. …

Recommended Mobile Journalism Tools

Need a Factory Reset

MY ANDROID PHONE needs a factory reset. It’s more than five years old, has a cracked screen and a worn charging port, and its battery is well-worn.

Need a Factory Reset

My AI Says My Days Start with My Notes

I’VE STARTED MOST MORNINGS with prompts to my favourite AI. Today I asked Mem.ai to guide me in a process that ensured the results of my questions would include trustworthy evidence from high quality sources. Its first set of answers drilled down into my personal knowledge management (PKM) …

My AI Says My Days Start with My Notes

I Didn't See the Other Aircraft

DURING MY 3000 FLYING HOURS I vividly remember two occasions when we were cleared to land on a runway that was occupied by another aircraft or by a vehicle. In both cases, I didn’t see the conflict but a crew member sitting in the jump seat pointed out the problem.

I Didn't See the Other Aircraft

Higher Education for Good Launches

by Bernie Goldbach in Clonmel CATHERINE CRONIN launches Higher Education for Good in Galway today and I’ve asked our main library to add the book to our local reference section. In the book, editors Catherine Cronin and Laura Czerniewicz break down neoliberalism in higher education through a …

Higher Education for Good Launches