A cool paper with thought provoking perspectives, by an old colleague!
"This paper proposes that information access systems should be seen not just as #retrieval engines but as didactic environments with the potential to #teach, guide, and #scaffold."
[2601.08035] From Tool to Teacher: Rethinking Search Systems as Instructive Interfaces
https://arxiv.org/abs/2601.08035 #search #HCI #informationretrieval #pedagogy #CHIIR2026
Information access systems such as search engines and generative AI are central to how people seek, evaluate, and interpret information. Yet most systems are designed to optimise retrieval rather than to help users develop better search strategies or critical awareness. This paper introduces a pedagogical perspective on information access, conceptualising search and conversational systems as instructive interfaces that can teach, guide, and scaffold users' learning. We draw on seven didactic frameworks from education and behavioural science to analyse how existing and emerging system features, including query suggestions, source labels, and conversational or agentic AI, support or limit user learning. Using two illustrative search tasks, we demonstrate how different design choices promote skills such as critical evaluation, metacognitive reflection, and strategy transfer. The paper contributes a conceptual lens for evaluating the instructional value of information access systems and outlines design implications for technologies that foster more effective, reflective, and resilient information seekers.
Does anyone knows good way to find #gig opportunity for software dev? I'd like to avoid pitfalls of well known platforms. I can do:
- #Rust CLI/Dev tools, APIs
- #C code (#FreeRTOS, #Zephyr, #Linux including some #drivers or #v4l2)
- #Cpp C++ code
- #Bash or #Python scripts, tools
- #CI workflows (GitHub, GitLab)
- #Yocto layers
- #Debian packaging + #DKMS
Anyone has experience in getting hands on small projects?
@Ashedryden then make shure the #Cyberfascists don't win and host a #CryptoParty instead!
Hand out #flashdrives with @tails_live / @tails / #Tails on them and spread #links to @torproject / #TorBrowser!
#CryptoParties #Teaching #Media #Cyverfasvism #NotLegalAdvice #tech #TechSupport #ITsec #InfoSec #OpSec #ComSec #Torrorist #Torrorism #Tor #Linux #privacy #DataProtevtion #VPN #I2P
@neil time to #teach the kids proper #TechLiteracy and #MediaLiteracy so hard the #NCA is gonna put an arrest warrant out to everyone doing a @cryptoparty / @cryptoparty / #CryptoParty or attending one!
Attached: 1 image @mrmasterkeyboard@mastodon.social not only protests but actively subverting it. - We need something like a *"#HowToTor?"* guide site that teaches #TechIlliterate #Zoomers with the attention span of a #TikTok on how to setup @torproject@mastodon.social / #Tor and do all their #browsing through it. - Ideally we'd have kids start #copyparty events underground for @tails_live@venera.social / @tails@fosstodon.org / #Tails and spread those alobgside #TorBridges along minors in the #UK so hard that the #Cyberfascists have to resign! Or do you too remember [that](https://www.techpowerup.com/forums/threads/nca-children-hacking-with-kali-linux-tor-and-discord.263960/) iconic #Copaganda poster by the #NCA? - Cuz for every bullshit #Zensursula, #VanDerBolle and other #Cyberfascists are goebbeling up, I'll teach another person how to *"#EncryptHarder!"*... #sarcasm #UKpol #OSA #UK #Cyberfascism
@alice Remember:
"#KYC" IS THE ILLICIT ACTIVITY!
And everyone else should do the same!!!
Gay Curmudgeon
Playne Jayne
George Macgregor
OdicforceSounds
Michał Fita
Kevin Karhan 
Wordmark
Bud Talbot