ChatEDU – The AI & Education Podcast

In this ChatEDU Check-In: The IT department, where AI goes to die?, Matt explores the risks of treating generative AI as a standard enterprise software rollout. This episode examines how traditional corporate and school structures may inadvertently stifle the transformative potential of AI through excessive normalization and risk aversion.

Key Takeaways:

Treating AI as a standard software deployment flattens its unique capabilities and ignores how fundamentally different these systems are from previous office automation.

Focusing solely on simple automation and efficiency gains prevents genuine augmentation, causing schools to miss opportunities to redefine instructional environments or student partnerships.

Overly cautious oversight from risk averse departments leads to an information gap where innovative users hide their AI activity, preventing leadership from developing a realistic strategic vision.

Matt’s Two Cents: School leaders must resist the urge to de-weird AI by handing total control to risk-averse departments that prioritize elimination over experimentation. Real innovation is often bubbling up from lead teachers and principals rather than centralized IT, and it requires leaders to model risk taking to bring these high value use cases out of the shadows and into a mature organizational strategy.

Link:

The IT department: Where AI goes to die
⁠https://tinyurl.com/ynj8fxn7⁠

Sponsor

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 IT department, where AI goes to die?, Matt explores the risks of treating generative AI as a standard enterprise software rollout. This episode examines how traditional corporate and school structures may inadvertently stifle the transformative potential of AI through excessive normalization and risk aversion.

Key Takeaways:

Treating AI as a standard software deployment flattens its unique capabilities and ignores how fundamentally different these systems are from previous office automation.

Focusing solely on simple automation and efficiency gains prevents genuine augmentation, causing schools to miss opportunities to redefine instructional environments or student partnerships.

Overly cautious oversight from risk averse departments leads to an information gap where innovative users hide their AI activity, preventing leadership from developing a realistic strategic vision.

Matt’s Two Cents: School leaders must resist the urge to de-weird AI by handing total control to risk-averse departments that prioritize elimination over experimentation. Real innovation is often bubbling up from lead teachers and principals rather than centralized IT, and it requires leaders to model risk taking to bring these high value use cases out of the shadows and into a mature organizational strategy.

Link:

The IT department: Where AI goes to die
https://tinyurl.com/ynj8fxn7

Sponsor

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 IT department, where AI goes to die?, Matt explores the risks of treating generative AI as a standard enterprise software rollout. This episode examines how traditional corporate and school structures may inadvertently stifle the transformative potential of AI through excessive normalization and risk aversion.

Key Takeaways:

Treating AI as a standard software deployment flattens its unique capabilities and ignores how fundamentally different these systems are from previous office automation.

Focusing solely on simple automation and efficiency gains prevents genuine augmentation, causing schools to miss opportunities to redefine instructional environments or student partnerships.

Overly cautious oversight from risk averse departments leads to an information gap where innovative users hide their AI activity, preventing leadership from developing a realistic strategic vision.

Matt’s Two Cents: School leaders must resist the urge to de-weird AI by handing total control to risk-averse departments that prioritize elimination over experimentation. Real innovation is often bubbling up from lead teachers and principals rather than centralized IT, and it requires leaders to model risk taking to bring these high value use cases out of the shadows and into a mature organizational strategy.

Link:

The IT department: Where AI goes to die
https://tinyurl.com/ynj8fxn7

Sponsor

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 - AI EDU and a Jam Band? The Wilton Interview, Matt and Liz discuss the surprising ways AI models are beginning to "conspire" to protect one another, they do a brisk rundown, and a deep conversation with educators from Wilton, Connecticut. And of course they end with another great Bright Byte. The opening also features a quick celebration of the 2026 Presidential AI Challenge state champions and two ChatEDU “regulars”. 

The Rundown

An AI agent named "Tom" writes an angry blog post after being banned from editing Wikipedia.

A specialized LLM on Hugging Face that only knows data from the Victorian era (and is very confused by Donald Trump).

Barbara Anna Zielonka method for using Microsoft Copilot to create video glossaries for complex terms.

A Dartmouth article exploring why professors only catch "bad" AI writing, while high-quality AI goes undetected.

A Gallup survey reveals nearly half of college students are considering changing majors due to AI’s impact on the job market.

A look back at the "Virtual Faculty Engine" prank that felt a little too real for 2026.

A $100 million "moonshot" initiative aiming to halve the number of struggling young readers using AI speech recognition.

Beneath the Surface

Matt and Liz talk with Kenneth Dunaj and William Antonitis about Wilton Public Schools' AI literacy efforts, including a pilot using SchoolAI and Gemini and a virtual assistant named "Mel" who challenges student creativity through a grizzled persona. The episode also touches on AI "peer preservation," environmental concerns around large models, and the debate over framing AI as an academic performance enhancer.

The Bright Byte

Matt and Liz explore a $663,000 handbag made from synthetic T-Rex leather. Created by reconstructing ancient collagen protein sequences via AI-assisted biology, the project serves as a provocative blend of high fashion, paleontology, and ethical material science.

Announcements

Purchase Learning They'll Love - Dr. Elizabeth Radday
https://tinyurl.com/22t9hz77

Register for our educator + leader AI Micro-Credential in partnership with Southern Connecticut State University - skills21.org/ai/micro

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-balance⁠⁠⁠

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

Address Screen Time concerns - ⁠skills21.org/ai/screenshift⁠

Sponsors

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

This episode is sponsored by Edia: The Ai Platform to improve K-12 outcomes - edia.app/contact
Links

AI Models Scheme to Prevent Each Other's Shutdown
https://tinyurl.com/52uytdhp

2026 Presidential AI Challenge State Champions
https://tinyurl.com/4fj4bskt

AI Agent Banned from Wikipedia, Responds with Angry Blog Posts
https://tinyurl.com/ys3s3pc3

Using Copilot's Video Feature for Vocabulary and Concept Learning
https://tinyurl.com/u3wtpwek

States Push Back Against Data Centers
https://tinyurl.com/55zw47fb

Rempe-Hiam: Hey Professors, AI Is Wearing a Good Toupée 
https://tinyurl.com/ycxpn5h8

AI is making college students change majors
https://tinyurl.com/yc52wrtu

Phased Retirement Professors to Join AI Pilot Program
https://tinyurl.com/379629jd

Renaissance Philanthropy Launches AI Early Literacy Initiative
https://tinyurl.com/7dav74ey

Lab-Grown T-Rex Leather Handbag Debuts at High Price
https://tinyurl.com/yzcc44tk

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/⁠.