Episodes

  • How does AI truly transform classroom practice?

    How does AI truly transform classroom practice?
    Jun 12 2026

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    Highlights
    - Today we are exploring a sentiment that echoes through so much of the current educational discourse: "Artificial intelligence in education is transforming classrooms." This phrase, this idea, you hear it everywhere, in articles, in webinars, in conversations in the staffroom.
    - The real value, the real transformation, comes when we are intentional about *how* we integrate it, and always, always, start with purpose over technology.
    - Marking formative assessments, drafting communications, generating starter activities, differentiating content for varying reading levels in a Year 7 English class.
    - We're designing learning that cannot be faked because it demands depth, care, and imagination.
    - Encourage those "Coffee Cart conversations" where teachers can share quick wins and frustrations informally.
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    8 mins
  • Will AI transform education more than the internet?

    Will AI transform education more than the internet?
    Jun 10 2026

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    Highlights
    - Today we are exploring a really striking piece of reporting from NPR, by Lee V.
    - What we’re seeing, and what teachers are intuiting, is that AI fundamentally alters how we process information, how we create, how we learn, and how we assess.
    - Before, they'd spend hours sifting through websites, trying to summarise and synthesise information.
    - Teachers often get labelled as resistant to change, but more often than not, they just need time and space.
    - AI is helping us hold the complexity, so we have more capacity for creativity, for connection, for the deeply human parts of education.

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    7 mins
  • Are schools teaching the right AI skills?

    Are schools teaching the right AI skills?
    Jun 10 2026

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    Highlights
    - Today we are exploring a headline from the Financial Times that really caught my eye.
    - It’s because they’re struggling to use AI as a tool to *augment* their own capabilities, to make their human work better, faster, and more insightful.
    - So, what does this look like in a concrete educational setting?
    - Maybe it’s using AI to differentiate learning materials more quickly for a diverse class, or to generate varied practice questions for a specific topic, freeing the teacher to spend more time on one-on-one student interaction.
    - If AI can produce sophisticated 'products,' then our assessments need to go beyond just the product.

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    9 mins
  • Is 'prompt engineering' still vital for teachers?

    Is 'prompt engineering' still vital for teachers?
    Jun 9 2026

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    Highlights
    - Today we are exploring an article I wrote for Forbes this week, simply titled "Prompt Engineering Isn't Dead, But The Caricature Is." It's a piece where I tried to cut through some of the noise about a topic that's often talked about, but rarely deeply understood.
    - Early systems, when they first came out, rewarded a kind of incantation.
    - We're not teaching students to outsmart machines with clever tricks; we're teaching them to outthink them by designing better processes.
    - You adjust your communication, you say more, or you break it down differently.
    - It builds AI literacy around four key capabilities: engaging with AI, creating with it, managing it, and designing it.

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    11 mins
  • How can AI boost classroom learning outcomes?

    How can AI boost classroom learning outcomes?
    Jun 8 2026

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    Highlights
    * Instead of banning AI, leverage it by redesigning assignments, such as coding an adventure game and then using AI to expand its narrative, focusing on student interaction with the tool.
    * Shift from simply using AI to critically evaluating its outputs; focus professional development on understanding AI's limitations, biases, and ethical implications within specific subject areas.
    * Prioritize "Purpose Over Technology" by defining *why* a subject is taught and what human capabilities are cultivated *before* determining how AI might serve those educational goals.
    * Raise expectations for student work: if AI can produce mediocre essays, design assignments that demand depth, critical thought, unique context, and genuine imagination that machines cannot replicate.
    * Approach AI integration with an evidence-based mindset, questioning assumptions about cheating or workload reduction, and researching its actual impact on learning processes.
    * Implement a "human-in-the-loop" principle, where educators use AI outputs as drafts, applying their wisdom, judgment, and care to refine and improve them, protecting core human domains.

    Mentioned
    * *Stanford Report*
    * Mehran Sahami
    * Karin Forssell
    * Victor Lee
    * Stanford’s Computer Science 106A
    * "Infinite Story" assignment
    * Stanford’s AI Tinkery
    * "Purpose Over Technology" framework
    * "Three Ps" of assessment

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    10 mins
  • Does AI make educators doubt their judgment?

    Does AI make educators doubt their judgment?
    Jun 5 2026

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    Highlights
    * Over-reliance on AI can subtly erode an educator's judgment and authenticity, leading to moments of self-doubt even for seasoned professionals who *know* their material is good.
    * Generative AI's confident fluency can lead students (and educators) to project human intent and authority onto it, making them susceptible to "persuasion-bombing" and outsourcing their own critical judgment.
    * Humans possess three irreplaceable qualities that AI cannot replicate: the capacity for *purpose* (asking 'why,' understanding consequences), *character* (authenticity, integrity, empathy), and the creation of *mental models* coupled with *interoception* (embodied sensing and understanding).
    * Allowing AI to constantly outsource writing or problem-solving can lead to "cognitive atrophy," where students feel worse about their own abilities and lose their unique voice, highlighting the need for "beneficial friction" in AI use.
    * Educators must design tasks that demand depth, care, and imagination, pushing students beyond cool AI answers to grapple with the underlying 'why,' consider real-world fallout, and cultivate their own transferable understandings and embodied learning.
    * Strategies for educators include "authoring first" before AI refinement, setting limits on AI usage, prioritizing human relationship, consciously noting what AI *cannot* do, and maintaining vigilant oversight.

    Mentioned
    * Deborah Ancona
    * Kate W. Isaacs
    * MIT Sloan Management Review
    * ChatGPT
    * BCG study
    * Renee Gosline

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    15 mins
  • How AI's profit boom affects school budgets?

    How AI's profit boom affects school budgets?
    Jun 4 2026

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    Flat-rate AI plans are ending, forcing educators to rethink usage as AI companies become profitable. This shift in EdTech pricing will significantly impact school budgets and classroom practice.

    Highlights
    - Today we are exploring a fascinating analysis of the sheer pace of AI acceleration we’ve seen in just one week, drawing from a recent expert commentary that really captures the feeling that the individual stories are adding up to something much more than the sum of their parts.
    - When you're trying to roll out AI tools across your school, your budget is finite.
    - These agents will intelligently look across the entire web, including blogs, news, social posts, real-time data, and then send you an intelligent, synthesised update with links at the right moment to help you take action.
    - But this week, an internal model at OpenAI disproved this conjecture, leveraging multi-dimensional math flattened into 2D, producing more pairs than the grid.
    - On one hand, opposition to data centers is growing, but on the other, facts are emerging to counter some of the bigger critiques.

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    17 mins
  • Can AI build a Babel Tower in schools?

    Can AI build a Babel Tower in schools?
    Jun 3 2026

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    Highlights
    - Today we are exploring a really fascinating piece from Vatican News, an article by Isabella Piro, reporting on Pope Leo XIV’s first encyclical, a document called ‘Magnifica humanitas: On Safeguarding the Human Person in the Time of Artificial Intelligence’.
    - It’s not just about integrating a new tool; it's about fundamentally rethinking how we prepare students to navigate this pivotal choice.
    - It's about ensuring students don't develop what I call "cognitive debt" from over-reliance on AI, where they outsource their thinking along with the doing.
    - The encyclical also talks about "social justice" and "peace." And this brings us directly to the role of AI as an equalizer.
    - Pope Leo XIV’s encyclical pushes us firmly into Box 2 thinking.

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    9 mins