ChatEDU – The AI & Education Podcast

In this ChatEDU Check-In: An Unusual Response to AI in the Classroom, Liz explores a professor's decision to award perfect scores and cancel a final assignment after discovering widespread AI use. The episode highlights the growing tension between authentic student learning and AI detection in education.

Key Takeaways:
A professor gave all students full credit to avoid becoming a punitive detective focused on surveillance rather than teaching.

Outsourcing academic writing to AI deprives students of essential long-term communication, reasoning, and advocacy skills.

The unearned perfect scores were intended as a severe warning about future professional and personal consequences rather than a reward.

Liz’s Two Cents: When grading becomes an adversarial game of AI detection, the core purpose of teaching degrades. If education is treated as a purely transactional exercise where students use shortcuts, educators cannot be expected to care more about the learning process than the students themselves. District leaders must confront how AI integration threatens to shift the focus from genuine feedback to counterproductive policing.

Article:
Professor gives his class perfect scores after realizing most were cheating on their final papers
https://bit.ly/4giwL9E

In this episode of ChatEDU Keeping Student Thinking Visible: Why AI is Making Classrooms Harder (In a Good Way), Matt and Liz kick it off with an informal pop quiz distinguishing Artificial General Intelligence (AGI) from Artificial Super Intelligence (ASI) and then Artificial Slider Intelligence (ASI-2 - as in burgers). They dive into a study from NPJ Science of Food detailing this new ASI coined by Ethan Mollick where researchers utilized a two-stage generative AI diffusion model to analyze human food data and successfully generate optimized, nutritious, and sustainable burger recipes.

The Rundown

The state passed a comprehensive piece of artificial intelligence legislation establishing a statewide AI academy and a higher education alliance, while requiring every public school district to integrate computer science and AI into its curriculum.

A major sweep of ecosystem updates from Orlando includes new Gemini features like study notebooks and expanded exam prep, alongside fresh Chromebook tool locks and massive google.org funding investments for non-profits like AIEDU.

Spurred by a listener tip and an analytical piece in Wired Magazine, the hosts discuss a growing European movement to establish localized tech platforms and break free from a reliance on American big tech infrastructure.

The Beneath the Surface

High school English teacher and Connecticut Teacher of the Year semifinalist Kate Avcollie joins the show to discuss her classroom strategies for shifting student focus away from simple compliance and toward authentic cognition. She details how she utilizes custom chatbot "Gems" as structured interventions to pressure test student ideas, requiring them to unpack and annotate their logic. This process ultimately makes student thinking entirely visible and elevates classroom rigor during live evaluations like Socratic seminars and shark tank presentations.

The Bright Byte

The episode closes with a positive look at Intercept, a new 500 million dollar philanthropic initiative aiming to eliminate common respiratory infections like colds and the flu. The project relies heavily on advanced AI protein design tools like AlphaFold to engineer specialized molecules and create broad spectrum treatments without harmful side effects.

Announcements

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

Seeing through the Machine – Teaching Bias as an Equity Practice in AI - Dr. Elizabeth Radday - https://tinyurl.com/4ybwkn7a

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

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

Links

The Visible Thinker
thevisiblethinker.com

Generative artificial intelligence creates burgers
https://tinyurl.com/mw4cjy2w

Connecticut AI law could reshape how students learn from kindergarten to college
https://tinyurl.com/5n6nekdp

Google for Education Launch Guide: ISTE Orlando 2026
https://tinyurl.com/37uu4nvk

Google.org is funding three long-term partners on education and AI
https://tinyurl.com/4txc8cax

Patricia Rootsaert
https://tinyurl.com/yc62h3pc

CIV AI
www.civai.eu

Europe Is Fed Up and Wants Its Own AI
https://tinyurl.com/3n8kk24h

Intercept: Ending Respiratory Infections
https://tinyurl.com/mrxxfbk5

In this episode of ChatEDU, Silicon Over Ivy - The Shift from the Traditional B-School MBA, Matt and Liz kick it off with a hilarious look at the "In the Weights" web app, a tool that reveals how people are represented inside AI models when offline. They discover that the app identifies their boss, Jon Costa, as a prominent Brazilian funk singer from Rio de Janeiro known by his stage name, John John.

The Rundown

Overture Games, an after-school program in Chicago and Boston, teaches elementary students foundational AI concepts with paper and pencil instead of screens.

The National Council of Teachers of English released a first-of-its-kind framework guiding ELA educators on critical thinking and ethical AI integration.

A group of UK teenagers trained a private AI model on two decades of past exam papers to predict up to 90% of their national exam questions.

Norway introduced a near-total ban on generative AI for elementary students while allowing cautious, supervised use for secondary learners.

A grant-funded partnership between The College of New Jersey and Mercer County Technical Schools trains high school students in AI and robotics for the workforce.

A German court ruled that Google is legally liable for misinformation appearing in its automated AI search summaries, rejecting traditional free speech protections for the technology.

48 state attorneys general are examining OpenAI regarding model sycophancy and related platform problems for consumers and citizens in the US. 

Anthropic announced a 150 million dollar national fellowship program to place 1,000 early career professionals inside American non profit organizations to expand AI infrastructure.

The Beneath the Surface

Matt talks with MasterClass founder and CEO David Rogier about generative AI and education: how language models are reshaping business, challenging the traditional MBA, and creating new opportunities and risks for organizations.

The Bright Byte

The episode closes with Dr. Francesca Dominici's Harvard National Institute of Health lecture on her lab's foundation model, which merges health records, census data, and US Medicare data to forecast extreme-weather adaptation while reckoning with data-center energy use.

Announcements

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

Seeing through the Machine – Teaching Bias as an Equity Practice in AI - Dr. Elizabeth Radday - https://tinyurl.com/4ybwkn7a

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

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

Links

MasterClass Executive
https://mstr.cl/ExecutiveChatEDU

In the Weights
https://tinyurl.com/4xdktpdh

After-school program teaching kids to use ai without screens
https://tinyurl.com/ya3r7htr

Artificial Intelligence English Language Arts Framework for ELA Teachers in Grades 6-12
https://tinyurl.com/4tsfhsca

How a group of teens might have just used AI to accurately predict this year’s exam questions
https://tinyurl.com/2v5hn2dc

Norway imposes near ban on AI in elementary school
https://tinyurl.com/ynxer75e

TCNJ and Mercer County Technical Schools launch AI and robotics dual enrollment pathway to build New Jersey’s future workforce
https://tinyurl.com/5n8bw5ck

A Court Has Ruled That Google Is Liable for False Statements Generated by AI Overviews
https://tinyurl.com/5akf55xy

OpenAI Investigated by Coalition of State Attorneys General
https://tinyurl.com/bp9c8uv7

Reducing Burden, Increasing Impact
https://tinyurl.com/2sb4yprv

Introducing Claude Corps
https://tinyurl.com/2syyz8rd

AI: Solution or Obstacle for Healthy Adaptation to Extreme Weather Events?
https://tinyurl.com/573f553m

In this ChatEDU Check-In: Teens, Tweens, and AI Part Two: AI Use Outside of School, Matt explores how youth are interacting with artificial intelligence platforms outside the classroom for personal, social, and emotional reasons. The discussion centers on data from the 2026 Common Sense Media study, highlighting both the risks of social isolation and the potential for productive tool use.

Key Takeaways:
Frequent AI use correlates with increased feelings of social isolation among teenagers, suggesting digital platforms may be replacing traditional face-to-face coping mechanisms.

Youth are increasingly bypassing peers and adults, relying on automated systems for personal advice, health queries, and long-term life guidance.

A significant literacy gap exists, as only about one third of students realize AI cannot distinguish between fact and fiction, leading to unearned trust in chatbot accuracy.

Matt’s Two Cents: While schools have heavily focused on creating policies around AI cheating, there is a glaring oversight regarding AI literacy and general digital fluency. District leaders need to recognize that students are turning to AI as life coaches and health advisors without understanding how these systems work. Because nearly half of students have never discussed AI with their families, districts must expand their instructional focus beyond academic integrity to help students critically evaluate AI outputs and safely navigate these tools outside of school.

Article:
A Comprehensive Report on Teens, Tweens, and AI
https://tinyurl.com/f8s35yyz

In this ChatEDU Check-In: The Common Sense Media Census: AI Use by Tweens and Teens (2026), Matt explores how students are leaning on AI to complete their schoolwork. A substantial majority of children are incorporating these automated platforms regularly into their daily routines. This rapid integration is fundamentally changing how students approach their assignments both at home and within the classroom.

Key Takeaways:
An overwhelming 85 percent of kids who utilize AI use it for homework, with 30 percent of high school students relying on it on a daily basis.

Students facing academic difficulty, particularly regarding focus and persistence, report a significantly higher frequency of turning to AI for help.

Schools are prioritizing plagiarism prevention and policy disclosures over deeper digital literacy, leaving half of students without training on how to evaluate information accuracy.

Matt’s Two Cents: The speed of AI adoption is drastically outpacing institutional instruction, leaving a dangerous gap in student fluency. While districts are quick to lay down restrictive guardrails and policy guidelines, they are failing to have meaningful adult conversations with students about navigating these tools safely. School leaders need to move beyond simple acceptable use boundaries and actively teach students how to question and verify automated output, transforming AI from a blind shortcut into an intentional learning coach.

Article:
A Comprehensive Report on Teens, Tweens, and AI
https://tinyurl.com/f8s35yyz