ChatEDU: AI in Education

In this ChatEDU Check-In: Scrolling and Teens, Liz explores how passive phone use is a symptom of poor adolescent mood rather than its root cause. Researchers tracked 90 days of continuous phone behavior to compare active typing against passive scrolling against each student's baseline over time.
Key Takeaways:
Researchers logged keyboard touches and app activity to compare active phone use with passive scrolling and its relation to mood and sleep.
Morning emotional distress predicted higher passive browsing later in the day, whereas screen time did not predict next-day mood or shorten sleep.
Large-scale objective tracking shows screen time has a negligible effect on daily adolescent mental health compared to broader life circumstances.
Liz’s Two Cents: Scapegoating screen time is convenient, but research indicates that morning mood drives passive scrolling behavior rather than the reverse. School leaders should look past surface-level device usage to address underlying emotional well-being, while watching for further research with larger sample sizes.

Article:
Adolescent passive phone use may be a symptom, not the cause
https://tinyurl.com/ysx28fwf

"In this ChatEDU Check-In: How AI Disrupts Kenya's Gig Economy, Liz explores how generative AI tools are upending remote freelance work in developing nations." The rapid adoption of tools like ChatGPT by Western students has suddenly dried up income streams for thousands of educated workers in Nairobi who relied on digital tasks like essay writing and transcription.

Key Takeaways:
Generative AI tools are erasing entry-level digital gig work that educated workers in Kenya depended on for income.
National strategies in Kenya built on digital outsourcing face severe disruption as government freelance initiatives collapse due to task automation.
Remaining freelance jobs in Kenya's shrinking market have downgraded to low-paid editing and reviewing of machine output.

Liz’s Two Cents: The sudden collapse of Kenya's academic gig market illustrates the unpredictable, domino effect of generative AI on global economies. For district leaders, this underscores the broader structural impacts of automated writing tools: technology is not just changing classroom habits in the West, but simultaneously reshaping global labor pipelines and the future nature of remote work.

Article:
Kenyans Did College Students’ Homework for Years. Then AI Arrived. 
https://tinyurl.com/ypctxyzh

New York City and LA just barred students from AI, and more districts are lining up. What schools, parents and companies do now, and whose research holds up.

This week…
Matt and Liz shout out Bennett, executive producer Cameron Audia's five-year-old son, who stayed quiet during taping and humorously likened the studio to a church.

The Rundown
Voice in Google Apps
Use your voice to get more done in Gmail, Docs, and Keep: ⁠https://tinyurl.com/3t4amre3⁠
Why the Big City Bans Now?
SEN BERNIE SANDERS: Yes, we must hit the pause button on AI before it is too late: ⁠https://tinyurl.com/mvcurab7⁠
Americans Are United Against the Tech Takeover of Public Schools: ⁠https://tinyurl.com/yeher8m9⁠
Student Defense Report Highlights Lack of Policies Governing AI Use By College Admissions Offices: ⁠https://tinyurl.com/4789p5rp⁠
Schools Caught Flat-Footed After Google Makes Gemini Chatbot Available to All Students: ⁠https://tinyurl.com/mr2p3mfs⁠
What Actually Happened?
NYC school system unveils aggressive restrictions on AI amid nationwide push: ⁠https://tinyurl.com/sk62huw5⁠
LAUSD students barred from AI use, in a surprise to school board and parents: ⁠https://tinyurl.com/5cs8448d⁠
Chicago school board candidates sign pledge to ban AI use in schools: ⁠https://tinyurl.com/5a2y9jdf⁠

Beneath the Surface
Matt and Liz categorize upcoming work by responsibility, addressing AI safety standards for students, realistic efficacy claims by educators, and proactive family engagement in schools.
States urge schools to use AI, but leave teachers on their own to stop cheating: ⁠https://tinyurl.com/kxbkrnr9⁠
ChatEDU - Episode 103 (Casey Cuny): ⁠https://tinyurl.com/43tjwda3⁠
Spotlight: Gemini For Education And Gemini Notebook Support Teaching, Learning, And Administration In Higher Education: ⁠https://tinyurl.com/3fy7w5ay⁠
Desire2Learn study: Professors Say They Like Ai Best When It Is Embedded In The Learning Management System: ⁠https://tinyurl.com/3e8zzr8h⁠
ChatEDU: AI Studies Analysis: ⁠https://tinyurl.com/3m8ehdj3⁠
AI in Education Knowledge Base (aied.org): ⁠https://tinyurl.com/yv53d6zr⁠
Study: Chatbots are getting better at identifying suicide risk: ⁠https://tinyurl.com/4e7tfv53⁠
OpenAI says ChatGPT is safer for teens. Now it needs to show proof: ⁠https://tinyurl.com/bdhmkw58⁠
Stop Asking AI to Brainstorm for you…and other AI in Education Tips and Tricks: ⁠https://tinyurl.com/3e9fj4aw⁠
Even With Human Help, Kids Need Motivation to Use AI Tutors. The Question Is What: ⁠https://tinyurl.com/4jm39htm⁠
Student Voices in AI: ⁠https://tinyurl.com/27embht9⁠
The Same Page, In Practice: ⁠https://tinyurl.com/3jcf7sk5⁠
Dear Colleague Letter on screen time and technology, US Department of Education: ⁠https://tinyurl.com/yt7kwfv6⁠
CoSN 2025 Blaschke Report and Communications Toolkit: ⁠https://tinyurl.com/ydt86afx⁠
ChatEDU - Episode 124 (Charlie Huges): ⁠https://tinyurl.com/yjf2jwec⁠
ChatEDU - Episode 122 (Avyaay Rathi): ⁠https://tinyurl.com/mrx2rp66⁠

Bright Byte
Google DeepMind and Google Research launched WeatherNext 3, a satellite-based model delivering 5x higher resolution hourly forecasts on Search, Gemini, and Google Maps.
Introducing WeatherNext 3: ⁠https://tinyurl.com/y5rdpvwd⁠

Announcements
Fall AI Conference: October 2, 2026: ⁠https://tinyurl.com/4k6x9scx⁠
Purchase Learning They'll Love - Dr. Elizabeth Radday on Amazon: ⁠https://tinyurl.com/22t9hz77⁠
Check out our middle / high school Student AI Literacy course: ⁠www.skills21.org/ai/learnai⁠
Explore Skills21’s FREE social media literacy curriculum: ⁠https://www.skills21.org/social⁠
Address Screen Time concerns: ⁠skills21.org/ai/screenshift⁠
Read From Panic to Proof: A Data-Driven Approach to Screen Time (ASCD Educational Leadership): ⁠https://tinyurl.com/4pwdu68⁠

Sponsor
The National Center for Next Generation Manufacturing: Your Gateway to Next Generation Advanced Manufacturing -⁠https://www.nextgenmfg.org⁠

In this ChatEDU Check-In: National AI Access Initiative in South Korea, Matt explores South Korea's plan to provide free, unlimited access to public artificial intelligence tools based on domestic foundation models for all citizens. Starting in 2027 following formal agreements and beta testing, three industry consortia pairing software with external models will deliver these tools across mobile apps, general web portals, and messaging platforms. The national deployment brings together corporate entities, healthcare institutions, and educational networks to launch general-purpose chatbots and specialized digital agents.

Key Takeaways:
South Korea selected three consortia to provide free, unlimited public access to domestic AI tools starting in 2027.

Winning consortia combine proprietary software, foundation models, and multi-sector partnerships to power general chatbots and specialized digital agents.

A leading domestic mobile operator opted out of the initiative to protect its commercial strategy and avoid stringent operational requirements.

Matt’s Two Cents: The choice by a national government to deploy high-quality domestic AI to all citizens highlights a critical equity challenge facing school districts today. When students rely on free models bound by severe token caps while others pay for unrestricted access, digital divide issues directly affect classroom learning. Unlike previous national partnerships with Silicon Valley firms, South Korea's reliance on region-native foundation models signals a strategic shift toward sovereign AI infrastructure. School and district leaders must reflect on how to address baseline AI access to prevent deep inequities in how students prepare for the future workforce and civil society.

Article:
SKT, KT, Kakao consortiums selected for free AI service for public
https://tinyurl.com/5ywaummw

In this ChatEDU Check-In: Young Workers Pursue Heritage Trades to AI-Proof Careers, Matt explores how early-career professionals are abandoning entry-level digital roles to pursue traditional physical trades. Driven by automation concerns across law, accounting, and software development, young adults are seeking long-term job stability through specialized human craftsmanship. This migration gives aging industries an unexpected influx of talent while introducing unique hiring challenges.

Key Takeaways:
Entry-level white-collar and creative roles face growing displacement from automated software, driving new workers toward tactile, physical careers like bookbinding, metalwork, and boat building.

Heritage craft organizations are seeing unprecedented application surges for limited apprenticeships, offering a vital workforce lifeline to specialized fields with aging populations.

Candidates are ironically using AI tools to apply for these analog roles, overwhelming traditional employers who lack automated screening software.

Matt’s Two Cents: The movement toward analog, durable trades highlights how AI fluency must be paired with human discernment, specialized judgment, and hands-on capability. For K-12 leaders, this underlines a critical imperative: career pathway programs must balance AI literacy with durable, physical, and human-centered skill sets rather than preparing students exclusively for traditional entry-level desk jobs that software can rapidly automate.

Article:
AI-proof? Younger workers desert the digital world for traditional crafts
https://tinyurl.com/3jue43z5