AI in Education Podcast

AI in Education's Christmas Special: Hallucinations, Headbands, and Bad Ideas In this end-of-year Christmas special, Ray and Dan squeeze in one final episode to reflect on a whirlwind year in AI and education - with a healthy dose of festive chaos. They unpack the latest AI news, including Australia's National AI Plan, OpenAI's Australian data centre and teacher certification course, major university rollouts of ChatGPT, and global experiments like nationwide AI tools in schools and targeted funding for AI-assisted teaching. But this episode quickly moves beyond policy and platforms into something more fun - and more unsettling! Ray challenges Dan with a "Real or Hallucinated?" quiz featuring AI products that may (or may not) exist, from focus-monitoring headbands and robot teachers to pet translators and laugh-track smart speakers. Along the way, they explore what these products reveal about current AI practice, the risks of anthropomorphising technology, and why education must keep humans firmly at the centre of learning - even as experimentation accelerates. It's a light-hearted but thoughtful way to wrap up 2025, and a reminder that just because AI can do something, doesn't always mean it should.   News Items in the episode   Tech companies advised to label and 'watermark' AI-generated content https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-12-01/ai-guidance-label-watermark-ai-content/106083786    El Salvador announces national AI program with Grok for Education https://x.ai/news/el-salvador-partnership    Hong Kong schools to get HK$500,000 (about AU$100K/ US$65K) each under AI education plan https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/education/article/3336600/hong-kong-schools-get-hk500000-each-under-hk500-million-ai-education-plan    OpenAI to open Australian hosted service https://www.afr.com/technology/openai-becomes-major-tenant-in-7b-data-centre-deal-20251204-p5nkr4    OpenAI ChatGPT for Teachers foundations course https://www.linkedin.com/posts/chatgpt-for-education_new-for-k-12-educators-chatgpt-foundations-activity-7404242317718487042-He9H    La Trobe chooses ChatGPT Education https://www.latrobe.edu.au/news/articles/2025/release/openai-collaboration-drives-inclusion,-innovation    Australia's Nation AI Plan https://www.industry.gov.au/publications/national-ai-plan   

In this special end-of-year episode, Ray and Dan unwrap the biggest moments, ideas, guests, and breakthroughs that shaped AI in education in 2025. From standout tools to unforgettable interviews, they look back at a year defined by rapid change, bold experimentation, and extraordinary people driving meaningful impact. [If you want to see, rather than just hear, this episode, then come over and join us on YouTube at https://youtu.be/IhGwPPuWA4o - this episode is a visual treat with bonus Dad humour] They reveal their AI Product of the Year (NotebookLM), the worst offenders in AI hype, and their most loved - and most hated - research papers. And then they revisit the year's most-downloaded episode, celebrate exceptional system-level leadership from Brisbane Catholic Education, and honour powerful student voices from Caitlin and the All Hallows' cohort. The awards extend to professional learning champions Lee Barrett & Prem Radhakrishnan, Indigenous perspectives with Peta-Anne Toohey, and reflective insights from Carlo Iacono on what it means to stay human in an AI-saturated world. Finally, Ray and Dan name their overall winners of 2025 - and map out the essential episodes to revisit over the holidays. Full Awards list AI in Education Product of the Year: Notebook LM Research Paper of the Year: "Heads we win, tails you lose: AI Detectors in Education" from Mark A Bassett et al. Most downloaded Episode of the Year: "Learning Designers Meet AI" with Minh Huynh & Cory Dal Ponte K–12 Leadership & Vision Award: Leigh Williams and team at Brisbane Catholic Education Best AI Professional Development Work: Lee Barrett & Prem Radhakrishnan Award for "Voices Representing a Billion people": To the students we had in Series 12, especially Caitlin, and Abby, Abby, Miranda, Eloise, Charlotte, Annie Most Nerve-Wracking Interview / Indigenous Voice Award: Peta-Anne Toohey Making AI Human Award: Carlo Iacono Researcher of the Year: Dr Anna Denejkina  Runners Up People not on the podcast this year, but who  we feel have been influential in the AI in Education community Community Leaders in AI & Education: Simone Kirsch & Julianne Peloche; Sarah Ratner & the A-I-E-O-U team Education Leader Runner-Up of the Year: Jason Lodge  And finally, Winner of Winners  Dan's pick: Leigh Williams from Brisbane Catholic Education Ray's pick: Students in general      

This week delivered one of the biggest waves of AI news in recent memory - and Dan and Ray unpack what it all means for schools, universities and vocational education. From Microsoft's upcoming Copilot upgrades to Google's jaw-dropping Gemini 3 and Nano Banana Pro image model, the landscape for teachers shifted fast. They explore how these tools are already reshaping lesson design, image generation, student support and academic workflows - and why NotebookLM might quietly be the most important education tool Google has ever released. They also break down newly released case studies from the Australian Industry Group, discuss Claude's expansion through Azure, and look at how sectors like health, logistics and vocational training are adopting AI at speed. In the second half, the episode dives into three significant peer-reviewed research papers - including new evidence of gender bias in AI explanations, emerging AI-pedagogy frameworks, and fresh insights into how students actually use (and feel about) AI in their studies. News   Microsoft   Microsoft rolling more into the free version of Microsoft 365 Copilot Chat https://www.theverge.com/news/822789/microsoft-copilot-chat-outlook-word-excel-powerpoint  Microsoft and NVIDIA invest $15 billion in Anthropic - and Anthropic agree to buy $30B of Microsoft's Azure  https://www.anthropic.com/news/microsoft-nvidia-anthropic-announce-strategic-partnerships  Google Useful review of Gemini 3 by Ethan Mollick https://www.oneusefulthing.org/p/three-years-from-gpt-3-to-gemini  Examples of the infographics we created with Google's NotebookLM can be found on these two links: The podcast episode infographic from the Aaron Driver, of UNE, interview https://www.linkedin.com/posts/ai-in-education-podcast_aiineducation-notebooklm-podcast-activity-7398861734071083008-08GD The podcast series infographic from Series 14 "the Humans of AI" https://www.linkedin.com/posts/rayfleming_aiineducation-podcast-notebooklm-activity-7398515648089468928-vOUS  NotebookLM announcements https://x.com/notebooklm/status/1989078069454270649?s=46&t=p57lLRpTCXGNBiwhIjsl7Q  Google announce new Gemini certifications for education https://blog.google/outreach-initiatives/education/gemini-certifications-education/  Cogniti 29 teachers sharing their stories about using AI with students https://cogniti.ai/2025-cogniti-mini-symposium-resources/  Anthropic   Anthropic partners with Rwandan Government and ALX to bring AI education to hundreds of thousands of learners across Africa https://www.anthropic.com/news/rwandan-government-partnership-ai-education  The London School of Economics has provided all students with access to Claude for Education https://www.lse.ac.uk/news/latest-news-from-lse/d-april/lse-partners-with-anthropic-to-shape-the-future-of-ai-in-education  OpenAI   OpenAI announce "ChatGPT for teachers" for US school teachers - and makes it free until the middle of 2027 https://openai.com/index/chatgpt-for-teachers/ https://help.openai.com/en/articles/12844995-chatgpt-for-teachers  First ChatGPT Edu deployment in Australian Vocational Education https://connectweb.com.au/news.aspx?id=1038171&headline=nexted-launches-australias-first-chatgpt-edu-deployment-in-vocational-education    Australian Industry Group Report: AI positive for companies, their people and Australian industry https://www.australianindustrygroup.com.au/news/reports/2025/artificial-intelligence-positive-for-companies-their-people-and-australian-industry/    Research   Gender equity in GenAI science explanations https://www.ase.org.uk/resources/school-science-review/issue-395/gender-equity-in-genai-science-explanations https://www.linkedin.com/posts/victoriamhedlund_biasaware-aiineducation-genderbias-activity-7394637681978212352-1UUB    Bonus research mentioned: Sexist textbooks: Automated analysis of gender bias in 1,255 books from 34 countrieshttps://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC11463758/    A dialogic theoretical foundation for integrating generative AI into pedagogical design https://bera-journals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/bjet.70026    Time, emotions and moral judgements: how university students position GenAI within their study https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/07294360.2025.2580616   

In this episode, Ray sits down with Aaron Driver, Director of LabNext70 at the University of New England (UNE), a regional Australian university making one of the boldest moves in higher education: giving every staff member and every student access to a full enterprise AI platform. Aaron shares how UNE has built Madgwick, its white-labelled version of the SIMTheory AI platform, and why the university chose to go beyond standard tools like Copilot or ChatGPT for Education. With multi-model access, MCP connectors, and soon agentic capabilities, UNE staff have already created more than 3,000 AI assistants and reached an extraordinary 85% daily usage rate. The conversation dives into UNE's four big reasons for giving AI to all students - safety, job readiness, equity, and privacy - and how this move positions graduates for a job market where AI capability is no longer optional. Aaron also lifts the curtain on UNE's rapid cultural transformation, their sector-leading AI literacy programs, and the regional impact they hope to create by becoming Australia's most AI-enabled university. A fascinating look at a university rewriting the rulebook in real time. Bonus Links Aaron mentioned the SIMTheory Academy that his team runs, and recommended the free AI Quick Wins course for a good overview of what SIM Theory can do  

In this episode of the AI in Education Podcast, Ray and Dan wrap up Series 14 with a packed news and research roundup. They start with the tricky world of AI governance in education, where Ray explains how schools and universities can simplify their policies instead of writing 26 new ones. The conversation then turns to a Washington Post piece on the rise of new AI-driven jobs - from conversation designers to human-AI collaboration leads - and what this means for the future of work and capability-building. They also unpack new insights from cechat about how teachers are creating and using AI agents, explore Microsoft's AI Diffusion report, and look at La Trobe University's staff chatbot, "Troby." They discuss Google's education research, Claude's pilot in Icelandic schools, and the latest update from OpenAI, before closing with a fascinating study on how students respond differently to teacher versus AI feedback. Listen in for practical insights, fresh data, and a few laughs along the way.   News   As AI reshapes the job market, here are 16 roles it has created - Washington Post https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2025/10/29/ai-new-jobs/    CENet analyses teacher created AI agents https://www.linkedin.com/posts/cenet---catholic-education-network_aiwithheart-catholicschools-catholiceducation-activity-7393528419411668992-nQc1    Microsoft AI Diffusion research https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/research/group/aiei/ai-diffusion/    Mustafa Suleyman - Human super intelligence https://www.msn.com/en-us/health/other/microsoft-launches-superintelligence-team-targeting-medical-diagnosis-to-start/ar-AA1PWmIO    Microsoft will offer in-country data processing in Australia & UK for Microsoft 365 Copilot https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-365/blog/2025/11/04/microsoft-offers-in-country-data-processing-to-15-countries-to-strengthen-sovereign-controls-for-microsoft-365-copilot/    Case Study "La Trobe University supercharges academic productivity with AI and Copilot Studio" https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/power-platform/guidance/case-studies/latrobe-supercharges   New Google paper on AI and the future of learning https://blog.google/outreach-initiatives/education/ai-and-learning/    Iceland goes Anthropic https://www.anthropic.com/news/anthropic-and-iceland-announce-one-of-the-world-s-first-national-ai-education-pilots    Open AI - ChatGPT's new personalities https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/technology/openai-says-the-brand-new-gpt-51-is-warmer-and-has-more-personality-options/ar-AA1QjoBA    Competitions for students to get involved in:   CSIRO want you to predict pasture biomass from images - global https://www.kaggle.com/competitions/csiro-biomass   United States Artificial Intelligence Institute Hackathon - US only https://www.usaii.org/ai-insights/usaii-kicks-off-the-ai-nextgen-challenge-2026-americas-largest-scholarship-program    How confidential is your chat with AI? https://www.crikey.com.au/2025/11/12/australia-national-security-chief-ai-speech-writing/    Research   Teacher, peer, or AI? Comparing effects of feedback sources in higher education https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S266655732500059X