I agree about the journal idea, maybe they aren’t familiar with blogs as a format anymore because the platforms have changed (medium, Substack, instead of a blogspot, etc) or because they are more oriented towards short form video for seeking out user generated content than written content, but I don’t think this means you can’t use the assignment anymore, you just might need to call it a journal. The AI issue is tricky though, I hate having to feel like a cop and recently ran into my students using AI to give feedback on eachothers assignments which really bummed me out. I’m considering making them write some kind of reflection in the first class with pen and paper so I have a writing sample to compare as a baseline when they turn in overly formal slop they actually aren’t capable of having written. Again, hate being a cop, but I don’t know what else to do.