Educación
Four Girders: The Book
After more than thirty years in higher education, most of them helping students — across a desk, in a classroom, and at my own kitchen table — I’ve written a book, and I’ve made it free. It’s called The Four Girders Framework: Becoming a Successful Learner in the AI Era. It isn’t a study-skills textbook. It’s a plain-spoken framework for the four interconnected things that actually shape a student’s success — self-regulation, life balance, learning strategies, and resources — and how they hold together like the girders of a bridge.
Mi libro
La inteligencia artificial se sienta hoy junto a los estudiantes, y aunque los fundamentos del aprendizaje no han cambiado, el terreno sí. De un blog que arrancaba y se detenía nació un libro completo: The Four Girders Framework: Becoming a Successful Learner in the AI Era. Los fundamentos de siempre, ahora frente a los nuevos retos de la inteligencia artificial. Disponible gratis como recurso educativo abierto (OER).
Sanitized History
The Trump administration has embarked on a campaign to rewrite American history. The aim is a whitewashed version of the past that glorifies American exceptionalism while discarding well-established facts, critical thinking, and intellectual honesty. This isn’t just rhetoric—it is an assault on the nation’s capacity to reflect, learn, and grow.
Prior Restraint
The federal government’s decision to shut down DEI initiatives under the guise of legality and so-called divisiveness argument is nothing more than prior restraint—a well-known and heavily frowned-upon form of censorship. And as history has shown us, prior restraint is not just a direct violation of the First Amendment, but one of the biggest threats to a democratic society.
Merit and fairness
The new U.S. government administration ordered the dismantling of all federal DEI programs under the argument that such programs are discriminatory and undermine fairness. The government claims they want to implement a purely merit-based system. This view misunderstands the role of access and achievement programs and the structural inequities they aim to address and favors the meritocratic fallacy of effort and talent.
A new journey
This week I say goodbye to my job of 14+ years to start a new professional journey (CV has the details). Throughout the many years serving students, I’ve had the privilege of crossing paths with many amazing individuals. One of those happened to be my “boss” of many years, Bruce Weaver. Rarely you cross paths with a person of such a kind heart who’s also committed to provide students not just great service, but an excellent academic experience full of kindness, respect, and compassion.
$4 BILLION FAILURE
President Obama is proposing to invest $4 billion in computer science education. I believe this is a good idea in principle. Unfortunately, I can foresee a $4 Billion failure. If there is a shortfall of Computer Science professionals money will be better spent in scholarships to help kids pay for college degrees in CS.
LA MARCHA
Dime con quien marchas y te diré quien eres. La marcha del talibán criollo en pro de la teocracia puertorriqueña fue todo un éxito. Archirivales de diversas denominaciones “religiosas” olvidaron brevemente sus diferencias para unir fuerzas en contra de su nuevo enemigo: la perspectiva de género.
RACIAL TERRORISM
Can we call the killings of thousands of African Americans acts of terrorism? Yes we can, and we should. The Equal Justice Initiative (EJI) just released “Lynching in America: Confronting the Legacy of Racial Terror”, a report which documents lynching in twelve Southern states during the period between Reconstruction and World War II.
PERSPECTIVA DE GÉNERO
La perspectiva de género es una iniciativa que, en su carácter oficial, lleva veinte años en desarrollo a nivel mundial. ¿Por qué en Puerto Rico existe tanta oposición a implementar la perspectiva de género en el currículo educativo? En mi humilde opinión, porque charlatanes retrógrados y oportunistas politico-religiosos se han encargado de propagar el veneno de la sinrazón, la intolerancia y el odio hacia otros seres humanos.