ChatEDU – The AI & Education Podcast

In this ChatEDU Check-In: Typewriters as an Anti-AI Tool, Liz explores how a Cornell University instructor is using 19th-century technology to ensure authentic student authorship. By removing screens and internet connectivity, the classroom shifts from digital convenience to a manual process where every character must be intentionally struck. This analog approach prevents the use of generative AI and online translation tools that often bypass the struggle of learning.

Key Takeaways:

Using manual typewriters creates a cognitive shift by forcing a slower pace of writing, requiring students to think deeply before committing ink to paper.

The absence of a delete key or digital cursor ends the habit of delegating problem-solving to search engines or AI models, returning the work to the student.

Replacing laptops with mechanical hardware changes the social dynamic, encouraging students to collaborate with peers and embrace the messy reality of the learning process.

Liz’s Two Cents: This episode highlights a fascinating, albeit extreme, strategic pivot toward "embodied" learning as a response to AI. While high-tech problems often seek high-tech solutions, the use of typewriters serves as a reminder that friction in the writing process is often where the actual learning happens. For district leaders, the takeaway isn't necessarily to buy vintage hardware, but to recognize that intentionally slowing down the creative process can be a powerful way to reclaim student agency and authentic assessment in a digital world.

Article:

https://www.ksat.com/tech/2026/03/31/a-college-instructor-turns-to-typewriters-to-curb-ai-written-work-and-teach-life-lessons/

Sponsored by:

Eduaide: Where good ideas become great lessons. Eduaide is an AI-powered, research-based K-12 tool that creates high-quality resources, games, and graphic organizers built for better student outcomes. Take advantage of our special offer: 50 percent off an Eduaide subscription with code: ChatEDU at⁠ https://www.eduaide.ai/⁠.

In this ChatEDU Check-In: The AI Cheating Panic is Loud, Student Use is Quiet, Liz explores the reality of how students interact with AI compared to common cheating narratives. Research involving interviews with over 50 students reveals that most AI use is functional and supplemental rather than fraudulent. The episode highlights a significant gap between institutional fears and actual student habits.

Key Takeaways

Student AI use is often boring and organizational, focusing on unpacking assignment instructions and clarifying lecture points.

Students treat Chat GPT as a 24, 7 on-demand tutor that provides a patient, non-judgmental resource for office hours at any time.

A psychological disconnect exists where students view their own use as responsible while assuming their peers are using it to cheat.

Liz's Two Cents: This episode highlights a strategic need for district leaders to shift the conversation from policing fraud to supporting supplemental learning. If the loud narrative of cheating dominates, schools risk missing the opportunity to integrate AI as a legitimate tool for organization and study support. Leaders should address the perception gap among students to foster a culture where responsible use is the visible norm rather than a hidden practice.

Article

https://edunewsletter.openai.com/p/the-ai-cheating-panic-is-loud-the

Sponsored by:

Eduaide: Where good ideas become great lessons. Eduaide is an AI-powered, research-based K-12 tool that creates high-quality resources, games, and graphic organizers built for better student outcomes. Take advantage of our special offer: 50 percent off an Eduaide subscription with code: ChatEDU at⁠ https://www.eduaide.ai/⁠.

In this episode of ChatEDU, From Messaging to Mastery, Texting Your Way to AI Literacy, Matt and Liz discuss couples therapy for a man and his AI girlfriend, OpenAI shelving adult companion features, and a pivot toward coding tools.

The Rundown

Gemini now imports personal context from other apps

University of Florida's Shark AI teaches K-12 machine learning through fossils and 3D prints

14 ways to remind kids that AI is a machine, not a friend

A new study on how 13–24-year-olds interact with AI

Mayor Wu wants Boston to lead on AI literacy in schools

Wikipedia bans AI-generated articles

Landmark rulings against Meta and Google over child safety

An Irish town bans smartphones for primary students

25 states target AI in education

The White House unveils a national AI workforce training framework

Prince William County bans AI glasses in school

Educause's "Prompt to Practice" pushes faculty AI transparency

Agentic AI speeds up math research at UPenn

Solar GPS and AI are replacing physical fences for livestock

AI bots have driven a 7,851 percent surge in internet traffic

Melania Trump proposes robots to teach classical studies

Anthropic finds an economic divide between AI newbies and power users

Beneath the Surface

Liz shares her firsthand experience with "Make America AI Ready," a free, week-long AI literacy course delivered via text message, discussing how SMS makes foundational AI concepts accessible to all Americans.

The Bright Byte

Helpany uses radar sensors to monitor seniors in living communities, reducing falls by 72% without invasive cameras.

Announcements

Learning They'll Love - Dr. Elizabeth Radday
ASCD:⁠ ⁠https://tinyurl.com/bde652nn⁠⁠ 
Amazon: https://tinyurl.com/22t9hz77
Barnes and Noble: https://tinyurl.com/bdckf6zw

Our six-week AI Micro-Credential course launching this spring in partnership with Southern Connecticut State University. Group discounts are available at Skills21.org/AI/Micro.

EdAdvance is offering a Middle and High School Student AI Literacy course — email [email protected] to bring it to your district. ​​⁠⁠www.skills21.org/ai/learnai⁠⁠ 

Skills21’s FREE social media literacy course. Check it out at https://www.skills21.org/social-balance⁠⁠

Register for our Spring AI Conference (5.1.26) in Litchfield, CT https://www.skills21.org/event-details/ai-in-education-spring-2026-conference 

Check out our new Screen Time initiative
skills21.org/ai/screenshift 

This episode is sponsored by
The National Center for Next Generation Manufacturing.⁠ ⁠⁠⁠https://www.nextgenmfg.org⁠⁠ and EDIA edia.app.

Links

Therapy for a man and his AI girlfriend
https://tinyurl.com/yuwub6x8

Bring your AI chat history to Gemini 
https://tinyurl.com/4dknmrca

Using shark teeth to teach Florida students about AI
https://tinyurl.com/2fe8ym3y

Ways to Remind Yourself (and Your Kids) AI is a Machine
https://tinyurl.com/7fhpacyy

Youth, AI, and the Relationships That Shape Them
https://tinyurl.com/yshp99bc

Boston schools and AI literacy
https://tinyurl.com/2tz2kshk

Wikipedia bans AI-generated articles
https://tinyurl.com/2cfd2pka

How courts are rewriting the rules for Big Tech and children
https://tinyurl.com/3phy49ed

A Phone-Free Childhood?
https://tinyurl.com/4wrkhxkh

One Question Every Superintendent Should Be Asking
https://tinyurl.com/ye25sff2

National AI Policy Framework
https://tinyurl.com/mstfm8nt

Guidance for the use of AI-enabled glasses 
https://tinyurl.com/4mpvnp8e

Transparent GenAI Use in Higher Education
https://tinyurl.com/ytbr4uym

How AI is reshaping math research workflows
https://tinyurl.com/3szc52hd

Expansion of Virtual Fencing
https://tinyurl.com/22ykucvz

AI Traffic & Cyberthreat Benchmark Report
https://tinyurl.com/2e5rxaap

Melania and the Robot 
https://tinyurl.com/523buhen

America's next class war: AI fluency
https://tinyurl.com/496ns9n7

Make America AI-Ready
https://tinyurl.com/4tc9ja7h

Radar-Based Fall Prevention and Motion Monitoring
https://helpany.com

In this ChatEDU Check-In: The New Social Lab Modeling Humanity with Millions of Bots, Matt explores how researchers are moving beyond individual chatbots to study the collective behavior of millions of autonomous agents in digital societies. These studies utilize environments like Minecraft to observe how AI agents interact, organize, and evolve without human guidance.

Key Takeaways:

AI research is shifting toward a new field of digital sociology where thousands of autonomous agents function as a persistent collective society rather than just one to one conversational tools.

Without human intervention, AI agents in simulations spontaneously developed complex social structures, including specialized labor, economic systems, and even political debates over tax reforms.

Researchers successfully modeled the spread of ideologies by introducing a parody religion to a small group of agents, demonstrating how AI societies can act as digital twins to track the movement of misinformation.

Matt’s Two Cents: These simulations raise a critical strategic question for educators: are these agents providing novel insights into human behavior, or are they simply mimicking human patterns as "stochastic parrots"? As we consider using AI personas for focus groups or sociological modeling, we must discern whether these digital twins offer authentic data or merely reflect the biases and behaviors already present in their training sets.

Articles:

The first ‘AI societies’ are taking shape: how human-like are they?
https://tinyurl.com/y2uesysk

These AI Minecraft characters did weirdly human stuff all on their own
https://tinyurl.com/z46e2rbk

Sponsored by:

Eduaide: Where good ideas become great lessons. Eduaide is an AI-powered, research-based K-12 tool that creates high-quality resources, games, and graphic organizers built for better student outcomes. Take advantage of our special offer: 50 percent off an Eduaide subscription with code: ChatEDU at⁠ https://www.eduaide.ai/⁠.

In this ChatEDU Check-In: The AI refugee crisis, Matt explores the growing trend of white collar professionals transitioning into teaching to escape AI driven job instability. As automation erodes roles in finance and marketing, veteran workers are seeking the human centric stability of the classroom.

Key Takeaways:

Experienced professionals in their 40s and 50s are fleeing corporate sectors where AI has significantly reduced income and job security.

Generative AI is automating high level tasks like data summarization and document creation, allowing companies to replace entire teams with a single staff member using tools like ChatGPT.

The interpersonal nature of teaching remains a unique defense against displacement, offering a career path focused on human development that AI cannot easily replicate.

Matt’s Two Cents: The influx of "AI refugees" into education brings valuable real world experience to the classroom, but it also creates new competition for younger teachers entering the field. District leaders must consider how this shift affects the long term economic prospects of students as they prepare for a labor market where even high level corporate functions are being automated.

Article:

Meet the AI refugees: white-collar workers retrain as teachers
https://tinyurl.com/2cs2hzfs

Sponsored by:

Eduaide: Where good ideas become great lessons. Eduaide is an AI-powered, research-based K-12 tool that creates high-quality resources, games, and graphic organizers built for better student outcomes. Take advantage of our special offer: 50 percent off an Eduaide subscription with code: ChatEDU at⁠ https://www.eduaide.ai/⁠.