Remote
Steve Foerster 🌐
@SteveFoerster@social.vivaldi.net
mastodon 4.7.3+vivaldimodEducational technologist with an international focus.
Founder, Success Learning Center
https://successlearning.ng
Host, Building the Modern University
https://modernuniversity.org
#CBE, #EdTech, #GlobalEd, #microcredentials, #mlearning, #ODL, #OER, #OpenEd, #stackability
Other interests: #Babylon5, #choir, #econdev, #Episcopalian, #FOSS, #Hawaii, #linux, #Nigeria, #StarTrek, #startups, #tmsr, #ttrpg
My searchable posts are written by me, not LLM generated.
800 Followers
836 Following
50 Posts
Joined December 18, 2025
Replying to
@Daojoan@mastodon.social My step-daughter's only experience with podcasts is me listening to them in the car, so her definition of a podcast is "when people talk about boring stuff on the radio."
Replying to
@user47@m.ai6yr.org Because the power company is bribing your politicians. I envy your ability to get off the grid.
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@RantingCanuck@mstdn.ca @anon_opin@mastodon.social It's not too dangerous. It's the same level of danger as when we were kids. Too many parents have just let the "if it bleeds it leads" media frighten them into cocooning their kids, to the point where those kids are scared of their own shadows.
Replying to
@MicroSFF "What's your superpower?"
"Synesthesia."
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@mattblaze @bodhipaksa The suggestion that someone shouldn't share a meme until its originator can be credited is completely ridiculous.
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@DemocracyMattersALot@mstdn.social Vultures of a feather flock together.
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@Em0nM4stodon@infosec.exchange You're right, but a bunch of dopamine junkies aren't going to wait for their fix no matter how good for them it would be.
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@DemocracyMattersALot@mstdn.social Silly liberal, masks are for secret police!
I actually got this with my lunch today. Even my fortune cookie thinks I'm crazy! 🫠
JD Vance’s new book features a photo of their church. They don’t know Vance.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2026/04/03/vance-book-cover-church-photograph/
(Or: https://archive.is/6CGBY )
Your periodic reminder that everything about JD Vance is fake BS manufactured in pursuit of his political ambitions.
It's not like I want the constant hysterics of MS NOW or Fox News, but one of the things I can't stand about mainstream journalism is the tendency to refer to obvious things in a mealy mouthed way.
Today's example is from the Washington Post article "Hegseth exonerates helicopter crews over Kid Rock flyby, nullifying Army probe":
https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2026/03/31/hegseth-kid-rock-flyby/
(Or: https://archive.ph/ejpZ5 )
"Hegseth’s swift intervention in the case raised immediate questions about whether the military can hold its own accountable for actions that Hegseth may deem politically favorable."
Is this an April Fool's Day joke? It doesn't "raise questions" about this, it's an incontrovertible example of it!
Fairness in journalism doesn't preclude calling things as they are. In fact, it demands it.
Replying to
@thisismissem@hachyderm.io @andypiper@macaw.social @_elena@mastodon.social Absolutely. This is a clear example of policymakers' stated vs. revealed preferences.
More states adopt college entrance exam touted by conservatives despite concerns
https://www.washingtonpost.com/education/2026/04/06/classic-learning-test/
(Or: https://archive.ph/G277e )
It's funny how determined the author was to use ominous implications to make this test seem like some sort of nefarious illiberal conspiracy.
"But look, conservatives like it! They're the bad guys, amirite?"
"The test refer to things written by Christians! They're all mouth-breathing haters with no ideas to contribute!"
"Look, I'm making a gratuitous reference to Trump!"
"Homeschoolers use it! That inherently makes it crazy!"
Yet the article pointed out a number of ways that this test isn't watered down the way the SAT and ACT have become. For example, the side by side comparison of passages makes the CLT seem more rigorous than the others, not less.
And while buried late in the article, the admissions that the CLT uses passages written by people of color, anti-Christian philosophers, Muslims, etc. belies the suggestion that a focus on the Western canon is necessarily anti-diverse.
Anyway, enough ranting. I just wish the author had written this otherwise interesting article without also trying to manipulate me into sharing his disdain for his subject.
Replying to
@alecaddd@mastodon.social Doctor: "Please fill out your paperwork online in advance"
I do so.
They still have me fill out all the same things when I get there.
Replying to
@ManyRoads@mstdn.social SDI 2: Stupidity Boogaloo
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@MicroSFF Friends, yes, but more importantly they want a ride.
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@tragivictoria @gnome Alas, but fair enough.
#WordWeavers Apr. 1: Your opinion on April Fools Day and do you incorporate the day into your work?
Usually not. But one year I couldn't resist, and posted this link in a variety of #OER related communities:
https://stevefoerster.com/important-unesco-replaces-oer-acronym/
Replying to
@gnome If we donate, will you all restore Google Drive integration?
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@bodhipaksa One thing is for sure: Franklin himself would have appreciated it!
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@Alice@beige.party If this story isn't 100% true, I don't want to know.
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@admiralwonderboat@mastodon.social So I'll have to successfully fly back out at the end of Caverns of Mars after all? Ho boy....
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@jalefkowit I guess in that case I wouldn't be sitting here worrying about the Year 2038 problem?
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@Daojoan You're right. Bye.
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@fedops@fosstodon.org @vicfroh@mastodon.social People complain when they don't generate their own power, saying it raises prices for everyone else, then people complain when they do generate their own power. Pick one.
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@Daojoan@mastodon.social Even back in the late '90s the joke was: "We used to think that if you had infinite monkeys banging away on typewriters that one would eventually produce the works of Shakespeare, but now we have the Internet and know that's not so."
Replying to
@Daojoan@mastodon.social Blaming women for working, sure. Social conservatives definitely have a false nostalgia for a perfect 1950's that never existed. Working class women in particular have always kept working. My grandma did and that was decades before Leave It to Beaver.
But you seem to be suggesting that conservatives are the ones responsible for normalizing middle class women staying in the workplace after marriage, and unilaterally so. That doesn't ring true for me at all.
Replying to
@wannabemystiker@expressional.social @quinn@social.circl.lu Thank you. I get why America's standing in the world is at an historic low. And MAGA really is a cult. But to extrapolate from that to "everything about American society is a cult" is to be wilfully ridiculous.
Replying to
@patricks@mas.to "...so they don't have to talk about record price increases, a losing war, and torturing immigrants all over the country."
There's no reason why centrist Democrats wouldn't want to talk about these things and every reason why they would.
Replying to
@chiefgyk3d@social.chiefgyk3d.com I went to Las Vegas once for a conference.
I am not the target market.
Replying to
@vicfroh@mastodon.social If you really think that data centers for AI have created "crises" in water and electricity, then you have completely succumbed to social media hysteria. There are good reasons not to like AI, but this post is ridiculous.
Replying to on mastodon.social
@knowprose@mastodon.social I'm looking for the right machine to run agents, and would not buy this, for all the reasons you say: 16GB and trouble running Linux? Either one would be a deal breaker.
Replying to
@heidilifeldman@mastodon.social I agree that it's good for the Roman Catholic Church to become less regressive. But to call that "forward-thinking" is a bit tough to accept when, by comparison, it's been fifty years since the Episcopal Church started ordaining women and also became officially and fully LGBTQ+ affirming.
Replying to
@andypiper@macaw.social @_elena@mastodon.social Between this and that awful bill in the Canadian parliament, it's a crappy time for Internet freedom.
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@transworld@masto.ai How disgustingly servile of them.
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@NetscapeNavigator@social.vivaldi.net Prove the photo is fake.
See? Two can play that silly game.
I wonder what percent of people who complain that LLMs have stolen all the data they use have never pirated any songs, TV shows, or movies. #ai
Replying to
@VeroniqueB99@mastodon.social @Sir_Osis_of_Liver@beige.party You'd have to ask each one individually since it's not like they all vote identically.
Looks like another Leopards Eating People's Faces Party voter found out what that means.
https://www.yahoo.com/news/articles/3-time-trump-voter-complains-165937850.html
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@user47@m.ai6yr.org Perhaps, but as things stand now, you guys will soooo outlive me if SHTF.
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@NetscapeNavigator@social.vivaldi.net What is your goal? Do you seriously believe that a progressive could have won the race for governor of Kentucky? Or that if by some miracle that happened, that such governor could just unilaterally call a special election for McConnell's seat when McConnell has not yet actually died?
Replying to
@ManyRoads@mstdn.social I'm old enough to remember this from the Reagan administration.
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@Daojoan@mastodon.social So say we all!
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Replying to
@quinn@social.circl.lu @wannabemystiker@expressional.social Wow. In that case, I definitely stand behind the last two words of my previous remark.
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@knowprose@mastodon.social “After the aircraft left the terminal and proceeded to the runway for departure, a young child was standing in their seat and would not secure their seatbelt. Attempts by the accompanying parent and crew to address this were unsuccessful,” a Porter Airlines spokesperson said.
I'm sorry, a parent who can't make their toddler wear a seatbelt? WTF?
Replying to
@angusm@mastodon.social You'd think that a character whose name anagrams to "The Reptile" and who founds a surveillance company named after the evil crystal balls from Lord of the Rings, would be a James Bond villain, not one in real life.
#peterthiel