Learning from the Living [Class] Room

“A new L&D operating system for the AI Era?” [Hardman] + other items re: AI in our learning ecosystems

On 10/13/2025, in 21st century, 24x7x365 access, adjunct faculty, adult learning, animation, Artificial Intelligence/Agents/LLMs/and Related, assessment, bots, business, colleges, communities of practice, community colleges, content development, aggregation, repositories, corporate / business world, corporate universities / corporate training, creativity, credentialing, digital audio, digital learning, digital storytelling, digital video, education, education technology, educational games / serious games, emerging technologies, engagement / engaging students, experimentation, faculty/staff, future of higher education, game-changing environment, generational differences, higher education, human-computer interaction (HCI), ideas, innovation, instructional design, intelligent systems, intelligent tutoring, interactivity, K-12 related, learning, learning agents, learning ecosystem, Learning Experience Design, Learning from the Living [Class] Room, learning hubs & pods & microschooling, learning preferences, learning spaces, liberal arts, lifelong learning, pedagogy, personalized/customized learning, productivity / tips and tricks, professional development, skills, story, storytelling, student-related, teachers, teaching & learning, teaching online, technologies for your home, training / L&D, trends, United States, universities, vendors, vision/possibilities, workplace, writing, youth, by Daniel Christian

From 70/20/10 to 90/10 — from drphilippahardman.substack.com by Dr Philippa Hardman
A new L&D operating system for the AI Era?

This week I want to share a hypothesis I’m increasingly convinced of: that we are entering an age of the 90/10 model of L&D.

90/10 is a model where roughly 90% of “training” is delivered by AI coaches as daily performance support, and 10% of training is dedicated to developing complex and critical skills via high-touch, human-led learning experiences.

Proponents of 90/10 argue that the model isn’t about learning less, but about learning smarter by defining all jobs to be done as one of the following:

Delegate (the dead skills): Tasks that can be offloaded to AI.
Co-Create (the 90%): Tasks which well-defined AI agents can augment and help humans to perform optimally.
Facilitate (the 10%): Tasks which require high-touch, human-led learning to develop.

So if AI at work is now both real and material, the natural question for L&D is: how do we design for it? The short answer is to stop treating learning as an event and start treating it as a system.

My daughter’s generation expects to learn with AI, not pretend it doesn’t exist, because they know employers expect AI fluency and because AI will be ever-present in their adult lives.

— Jenny Maxell

The above quote was taken from this posting.

Unlocking Young Minds: How Gamified AI Learning Tools Inspire Fun, Personalized, and Powerful Education for Children in 2025 — from techgenyz.com by Sreyashi Bhattacharya

Table of Contents

Highlight

Gamified AI Learning Tools personalize education by adapting the difficulty and content to each child’s pace, fostering confidence and mastery.
Engaging & Fun: Gamified elements like quests, badges, and stories keep children motivated and enthusiastic.
Safe & Inclusive: Attention to equity, privacy, and cultural context ensures responsible and accessible learning.

How to test GenAI’s impact on learning — from timeshighereducation.com by Thibault Schrepel
Rather than speculate on GenAI’s promise or peril, Thibault Schrepel suggests simple teaching experiments to uncover its actual effects

Generative AI in higher education is a source of both fear and hype. Some predict the end of memory, others a revolution in personalised learning. My two-year classroom experiment points to a more modest reality: Artificial intelligence (AI) changes some skills, leaves others untouched and forces us to rethink the balance.

This indicates that the way forward is to test, not speculate. My results may not match yours, and that is precisely the point. Here are simple activities any teacher can use to see what AI really does in their own classroom.

4. Turn AI into a Socratic partner
Instead of being the sole interrogator, let AI play the role of tutor, client or judge. Have students use AI to question them, simulate cross-examination or push back on weak arguments. New “study modes” now built into several foundation models make this kind of tutoring easy to set up. Professors with more technical skills can go further, design their own GPTs or fine-tuned models trained on course content and let students interact directly with them. The point is the practice it creates. Students learn that questioning a machine is part of learning to think like a professional.

Assessment tasks that support human skills — from timeshighereducation.com by Amir Ghapanchi and Afrooz Purarjomandlangrudi
Assignments that focus on exploration, analysis and authenticity offer a road map for university assessment that incorporates AI while retaining its rigour and human elements

Rethinking traditional formats

1. From essay to exploration
When ChatGPT can generate competent academic essays in seconds, the traditional format’s dominance looks less secure as an assessment task. The future lies in moving from essays as knowledge reproduction to assessments that emphasise exploration and curation. Instead of asking students to write about a topic, challenge them to use artificial intelligence to explore multiple perspectives, compare outputs and critically evaluate what emerges.

Example: A management student asks an AI tool to generate several risk plans, then critiques the AI’s assumptions and identifies missing risks.

What your students are thinking about artificial intelligence — from timeshighereducation.com by Florencia Moore and Agostina Arbia
GenAI has been quickly adopted by students, but the consequences of using it as a shortcut could be grave. A study into how students think about and use GenAI offers insights into how teaching might adapt

However, when asked how AI negatively impacts their academic development, 29 per cent noted a “weakening or deterioration of intellectual abilities due to AI overuse”. The main concern cited was the loss of “mental exercise” and soft skills such as writing, creativity and reasoning.

The boundary between the human and the artificial does not seem so easy to draw, but as the poet Antonio Machado once said: “Traveller, there is no path; the path is made by walking.”

Jelly Beans for Grapes: How AI Can Erode Students’ Creativity — from edsurge.com by Thomas David Moore

There is nothing new about students trying to get one over on their teachers — there are probably cuneiform tablets about it — but when students use AI to generate what Shannon Vallor, philosopher of technology at the University of Edinburgh, calls a “truth-shaped word collage,” they are not only gaslighting the people trying to teach them, they are gaslighting themselves. In the words of Tulane professor Stan Oklobdzija, asking a computer to write an essay for you is the equivalent of “going to the gym and having robots lift the weights for you.”

Deloitte will make Claude available to 470,000 people across its global network — from anthropic.com

As part of the collaboration, Deloitte will establish a Claude Center of Excellence with trained specialists who will develop implementation frameworks, share leading practices across deployments, and provide ongoing technical support to create the systems needed to move AI pilots to production at scale. The collaboration represents Anthropic’s largest enterprise AI deployment to date, available to more than 470,000 Deloitte people.

Deloitte and Anthropic are co-creating a formal certification program to train and certify 15,000 of its professionals on Claude. These practitioners will help support Claude implementations across Deloitte’s network and Deloitte’s internal AI transformation efforts.

How AI Agents are finally delivering on the promise of Everboarding: driving retention when it counts most — from premierconstructionnews.com

Everboarding flips this model. Rather than ending after orientation, everboarding provides ongoing, role-specific training and support throughout the employee journey. It adapts to evolving responsibilities, reinforces standards, and helps workers grow into new roles. For high-turnover, high-pressure environments like retail, it’s a practical solution to a persistent challenge.

AI agents will be instrumental in the success of everboarding initiatives; they can provide a much more tailored training and development process for each individual employee, keeping track of which training modules may need to be completed, or where staff members need or want to develop further. This personalisation helps staff to feel not only more satisfied with their current role, but also guides them on the right path to progress in their individual careers.

Digital frontline apps are also ideal for everboarding. They offer bite-sized training that staff can complete anytime, whether during quiet moments on shift or in real time on the job, all accessible from their mobile devices.

TeachLM: insights from a new LLM fine-tuned for teaching & learning — from drphilippahardman.substack.com by Dr Philippa Hardman
Six key takeaways, including what the research tells us about how well AI performs as an instructional designer

As I and many others have pointed out in recent months, LLMs are great assistants but very ineffective teachers. Despite the rise of “educational LLMs” with specialised modes (e.g. Anthropic’s Learning Mode, OpenAI’s Study Mode, Google’s Guided Learning) AI typically eliminates the productive struggle, open exploration and natural dialogue that are fundamental to learning.

This week, Polygence, in collaboration with Stanford University researcher Prof Dora Demszky. published a first-of-its-kind research on a new model — TeachLM — built to address this gap.

In this week’s blog post, I deep dive what the research found and share the six key findings — including reflections on how well TeachLM performs on instructional design.

The Dangers of using AI to Grade — from marcwatkins.substack.com by Marc Watkins
Nobody Learns, Nobody Gains

AI as an assessment tool represents an existential threat to education because no matter how you try and establish guardrails or best practices around how it is employed, using the technology in place of an educator ultimately cedes human judgment to a machine-based process. It also devalues the entire enterprise of education and creates a situation where the only way universities can add value to education is by further eliminating costly human labor.

For me, the purpose of higher education is about human development, critical thinking, and the transformative experience of having your ideas taken seriously by another human being. That’s not something we should be in a rush to outsource to a machine.

What’s happening with AI in L&D? Well, here it is — the 2025 edition. [Vinauskaite & Taylor]

On 10/01/2025, in adult learning, Artificial Intelligence/Agents/LLMs/and Related, business, content development, aggregation, repositories, corporate / business world, corporate universities / corporate training, digital learning, emerging technologies, experimentation, innovation, instructional design, intelligent systems, intelligent tutoring, learning, learning agents, learning ecosystem, Learning Experience Design, Learning from the Living [Class] Room, learning preferences, multimedia, Natural Language Processing (NLP), productivity / tips and tricks, skills, tools, training / L&D, United States, user experience (UX), vendors, vision/possibilities, workplace, by Daniel Christian

Two items from Stephen Downes

On 10/01/2025, in Artificial Intelligence/Agents/LLMs/and Related, blogs / blogging / vlogging, Canada, colleges, community colleges, faculty/staff, higher education, learning ecosystem, Learning from the Living [Class] Room, lifelong learning, skills, society, strategy, by Daniel Christian

From DSC:
As usual, here are some solid items and reflections from Stephen Downes:

The AI Tsunami Is Here: Reinventing Education for the Age of AI — from downes.ca by Stephen Downes

The framework seems reasonable, overall, but I would have to ask why the model, which includes things like “dynamic, adaptive content” and “multiple perspectives and sources” and “cultivation of self-directed learning” needs to happen in a university as such. Why not develop something like this as a society-wide initiative, removing the barriers for entry, and making it an ongoing part of people’s lives?

From DSC:
Why not develop something like this as a society-wide initiative, removing the barriers for entry, and making it an ongoing part of people’s lives?

Exactly.

Artificial Intelligence in Educational Research and Scholarship: Seven Framings — from downes.ca by Stephen Downes

There are those who draw a sharp distinction between formal academic papers and blog posts, and then there’s me, who reads something like this (16-page PDF), and sees nothing more than a set of short blog posts, where “writing was conducted in a sprint over the summer of 2025 using a shared Google doc.” I’m not saying this is bad (though the resulting article is a bit loose and unfocused) but I remind readers that academic research in this domain should properly consider, and credit, not only formal journal articles, but also the original blogs where so many of the ideas are originally posted.

From DSC:
Preach it Stephen! Blogging counts — big time! In fact, I wish that many more faculty members, staff, provosts, and presidents would blog to publically share their thinking, knowledge, and reflections.

Agentic AI & the New Era of Corporate Learning [Warner], Aibrary, + other items re: AI in our learning ecosystems

On 09/23/2025, in 21st century, 24x7x365 access, adult learning, Artificial Intelligence/Agents/LLMs/and Related, bots, business, corporate / business world, corporate universities / corporate training, digital learning, emerging technologies, experimentation, heutagogy, human-computer interaction (HCI), innovation, instructional design, intelligent systems, intelligent tutoring, learning, learning agents, learning ecosystem, Learning Experience Design, Learning from the Living [Class] Room, lifelong learning, microlearning, Microsoft, mobile learning, new media literacies, online learning, online media, online tutoring, personalized/customized learning, platforms, podcasting, policy, simulations, student-related, teaching & learning, tools, training / L&D, United States, using teams, vendors, by Daniel Christian

Agentic AI and the New Era of Corporate Learning for 2026 — from hrmorning.com by Carol Warner

That gap creates compliance risk and wasted investment. It leaves HR leaders with a critical question: How do you measure and validate real learning when AI is doing the work for employees?

Designing Training That AI Can’t Fake
Employees often find static slide decks and multiple-choice quizzes tedious, while AI can breeze through them. If employees would rather let AI take training for them, it’s a red flag about the content itself.

One of the biggest risks with agentic AI is disengagement. When AI can complete a task for employees, their incentive to engage disappears unless they understand why the skill matters, Rashid explains. Personalization and context are critical. Training should clearly connect to what employees value most – career mobility, advancement, and staying relevant in a fast-changing market.

Nearly half of executives believe today’s skills will expire within two years, making continuous learning essential for job security and growth. To make training engaging, Rashid recommends:

Delivering content in formats employees already consume – short videos, mobile-first modules, interactive simulations, or micro-podcasts that fit naturally into workflows. For frontline workers, this might mean replacing traditional desktop training with mobile content that integrates into their workday.
Aligning learning with tangible outcomes, like career opportunities or new responsibilities.
Layering in recognition, such as digital badges, leaderboards, or team shout-outs, to reinforce motivation and progress

Microsoft 365 Copilot AI agents reach a new milestone — is teamwork about to change? — from windowscentral.comby Adam Hales
Microsoft expands Copilot with collaborative agents in Teams, SharePoint and more to boost productivity and reshape teamwork.

Microsoft is pitching a recent shift of AI agents in Microsoft Teams as more than just smarter assistance. Instead, these agents are built to behave like human teammates inside familiar apps such as Teams, SharePoint, and Viva Engage. They can set up meeting agendas, keep files in order, and even step in to guide community discussions when things drift off track.
…
Unlike tools such as ChatGPT or Claude, which mostly wait for prompts, Microsoft’s agents are designed to take initiative. They can chase up unfinished work, highlight items that still need decisions, and keep projects moving forward. By drawing on Microsoft Graph, they also bring in the right files, past decisions, and context to make their suggestions more useful.

Chris Dede’s comments on LinkedIn re: Aibrary

As an advisor to Aibrary, I am impressed with their educational philosophy, which is based both on theory and on empirical research findings. Aibrary is an innovative approach to self-directed learning that complements academic resources. Expanding our historic conceptions of books, libraries, and lifelong learning to new models enabled by emerging technologies is central to empowering all of us to shape our future.
.

Also see:

Aibrary.ai

Why AI literacy must come before policy — from timeshighereducation.com by Kathryn MacCallum and David Parsons
When developing rules and guidelines around the uses of artificial intelligence, the first question to ask is whether the university policymakers and staff responsible for implementing them truly understand how learners can meet the expectations they set

Literacy first, guidelines second, policy third
For students to respond appropriately to policies, they need to be given supportive guidelines that enact these policies. Further, to apply these guidelines, they need a level of AI literacy that gives them the knowledge, skills and understanding required to support responsible use of AI. Therefore, if we want AI to enhance education rather than undermine it, we must build literacy first, then create supportive guidelines. Good policy can then follow.

AI training becomes mandatory at more US law schools — from reuters.com by Karen Sloan and Sara Merken

Sept 22 (Reuters) – At orientation last month, 375 new Fordham Law students were handed two summaries of rapper Drake’s defamation lawsuit against his rival Kendrick Lamar’s record label — one written by a law professor, the other by ChatGPT.

The students guessed which was which, then dissected the artificial intelligence chatbot’s version for accuracy and nuance, finding that it included some irrelevant facts.

The exercise was part of the first-ever AI session for incoming students at the Manhattan law school, one of at least eight law schools now incorporating AI training for first-year students in orientation, legal research and writing courses, or through mandatory standalone classes.

ChatGPT: the world’s most influential teacher [Hardman]

On 09/20/2025, in 21st century, 24x7x365 access, adult learning, Artificial Intelligence/Agents/LLMs/and Related, assessment, bots, cloud-based computing / apps / other cloud-related, colleges, communities of practice, community colleges, corporate / business world, corporate universities / corporate training, digital learning, education, education technology, emerging technologies, faculty/staff, future, future of higher education, game-changing environment, generational differences, heutagogy, higher education, homeschooling/homeschoolers, human-computer interaction (HCI), instructional design, intelligent systems, intelligent tutoring, internet, IT in HE, K-12 related, law schools, learner profiles, learning, learning agents, learning ecosystem, Learning Experience Design, Learning from the Living [Class] Room, learning hubs & pods & microschooling, learning preferences, learning spaces, learning theories, liberal arts, library / librarians, lifelong learning, memory, metacognition / metacognitive skills, Open AI, pedagogy, personalized/customized learning, platforms, productivity / tips and tricks, society, student-related, teachers, teaching & learning, technologies for your home, tools, training / L&D, trends, United States, universities, vendors, web-based collaboration, by Daniel Christian

ChatGPT: the world’s most influential teacher — from drphilippahardman.substack.com by Dr. Philippa Hardman; emphasis DSC
New research shows that millions of us are “learning with AI” every week: what does this mean for how (and how well) humans learn?

This week, an important piece of research landed that confirms the gravity of AI’s role in the learning process. The TLDR is that learning is now a mainstream use case for ChatGPT; around 10.2% of all ChatGPT messages (that’s ~2BN messages sent by over 7 million users per week) are requests for help with learning.

The research shows that about 10.2% of all messages are tutoring/teaching, and within the “Practical Guidance” category, tutoring is 36%. “Asking” interactions are growing faster than “Doing” and are rated higher quality by users. Younger people contribute a huge share of messages, and growth is fastest in low- and middle-income countries (How People Use ChatGPT, 2025).

If AI is already acting as a global tutor, the question isn’t “will people learn with AI?”—they already are. The real question we need to ask is: what does great learning actually look like, and how should AI evolve to support it? That’s where decades of learning science help us separate “feels like learning” from “actually gaining new knowledge and skills”.

Let’s dive in.

“The next chapter in learning’s evolution” [Gonick] + other items re: AI in our learning ecosystems

On 09/17/2025, in 21st century, 24x7x365 access, adjunct faculty, Artificial Intelligence/Agents/LLMs/and Related, change, cloud-based computing / apps / other cloud-related, CMS/LMS, colleges, community colleges, content development, aggregation, repositories, corporate / business world, corporate universities / corporate training, digital learning, education technology, emerging technologies, faculty/staff, future, future of higher education, game-changing environment, generational differences, Google, higher education, human-computer interaction (HCI), ideas, innovation, instructional design, intelligent systems, intelligent tutoring, IT in HE, K-12 related, law schools, learning, learning agents, learning ecosystem, Learning Experience Design, Learning from the Living [Class] Room, learning preferences, learning spaces, liberal arts, lifelong learning, Microsoft, online learning, Open AI, productivity / tips and tricks, professional development, skills, student-related, teaching & learning, teaching online, technologies for your home, tools, training / L&D, trends, United States, universities, user experience (UX), vendors, vision/possibilities, youth, by Daniel Christian

From EdTech to TechEd: The next chapter in learning’s evolution — from linkedin.com by Lev Gonick

A day in the life: The next 25 years
A learner wakes up. Their AI-powered learning coach welcomes them, drawing their attention to their progress and helping them structure their approach to the day. A notification reminds them of an upcoming interview and suggests reflections to add to their learning portfolio.

Rather than a static gradebook, their portfolio is a dynamic, living record, curated by the student, validated by mentors in both industry and education, and enriched through co-creation with maturing modes of AI. It tells a story through essays, code, music, prototypes, journal reflections, and team collaborations. These artifacts are not “submitted”, they are published, shared, and linked to verifiable learning outcomes.

And when it’s time to move, to a new institution, a new job, or a new goal, their data goes with them, immutable, portable, verifiable, and meaningful.

From DSC:
And I would add to that last solid sentence that the learner/student/employee will be able to control who can access this information. Anyway, some solid reflections here from Lev.

AI Could Surpass Schools for Academic Learning in 5-10 Years — from downes.ca with commentary from Stephen Downes

I know a lot of readers will disagree with this, and the timeline feels aggressive (the future always arrives more slowly than pundits expect) but I think the overall premise is sound: “The concept of a tipping point in education – where AI surpasses traditional schools as the dominant learning medium – is increasingly plausible based on current trends, technological advancements, and expert analyses.”

The world’s first AI cabinet member — from therundown.ai by Zach Mink, Rowan Cheung, Shubham Sharma, Joey Liu & Jennifer Mossalgue

The Rundown: In this tutorial, you will learn how to combine NotebookLM with ChatGPT to master any subject faster, turning dense PDFs into interactive study materials with summaries, quizzes, and video explanations.

Step-by-step:

Go to notebooklm.google.com, click the “+” button, and upload your PDF study material (works best with textbooks or technical documents)
Choose your output mode: Summary for a quick overview, Mind Map for visual connections, or Video Overview for a podcast-style explainer with visuals
Generate a Study Guide under Reports — get Q&A sets, short-answer questions, essay prompts, and glossaries of key terms automatically
Take your PDF to ChatGPT and prompt: “Read this chapter by chapter and highlight confusing parts” or “Quiz me on the most important concepts”
Combine both tools: Use NotebookLM for quick context and interactive guides, then ChatGPT to clarify tricky parts and go deeperPro Tip: If your source is in EPUB or audiobook, convert it to PDF before uploading. Both NotebookLM and ChatGPT handle PDFs best.

Claude can now create and edit files — from anthropic.com

Claude can now create and edit Excel spreadsheets, documents, PowerPoint slide decks, and PDFs directly in Claude.ai and the desktop app. This transforms how you work with Claude—instead of only receiving text responses or in-app artifacts, you can describe what you need, upload relevant data, and get ready-to-use files in return.

Also see:

Microsoft to lessen reliance on OpenAI by buying AI from rival Anthropic — from techcrunch.com byRebecca Bellan
Microsoft will pay to use Anthropic’s AI in Office 365 apps, The Information reports, citing two sources. The move means that Anthropic’s tech will help power new features in Word, Excel, Outlook, and PowerPoint alongside OpenAI’s, marking the end of Microsoft’s previous reliance solely on the ChatGPT maker for its productivity suite. Microsoft’s move to diversify its AI partnerships comes amid a growing rift with OpenAI, which has pursued its own infrastructure projects as well as a potential LinkedIn competitor.

Ep. 11 AGI and the Future of Higher Ed: Talking with Ray Schroeder

In this episode of Unfixed, we talk with Ray Schroeder—Senior Fellow at UPCEA and Professor Emeritus at the University of Illinois Springfield—about Artificial General Intelligence (AGI) and what it means for the future of higher education. While most of academia is still grappling with ChatGPT and basic AI tools, Schroeder is thinking ahead to AI agents, human displacement, and AGI’s existential implications for teaching, learning, and the university itself. We explore why AGI is so controversial, what institutions should be doing now to prepare, and how we can respond responsibly—even while we’re already overwhelmed.

Best AI Tools for Instructional Designers — from blog.cathy-moore.com by Cathy Moore

Data from the State of AI and Instructional Design Report revealed that 95.3% of the instructional designers interviewed use AI in their daily work [1]. And over 85% of this AI use occurs during the design and development process.

These figures showcase the immense impact AI is already having on the instructional design world.

If you’re an L&D professional still on the fence about adding AI to your workflow or an AI convert looking for the next best tools, keep reading.

This guide breaks down 5 of the top AI tools for instructional designers in 2025, so you can streamline your development processes and build better training faster.

But before we dive into the tools of the trade, let’s address the elephant in the room:

3 Human Skills That Make You Irreplaceable in an AI World — from gettingsmart.com/ by Tom Vander Ark and Mason Pashia

Key Points

Update learner profiles to emphasize curiosity, curation, and connectivity, ensuring students develop irreplaceable human skills.
Integrate real-world learning experiences and mastery-based assessments to foster agency, purpose, and motivation in students.

“…students to use AI to help businesses solve ‘real world’ challenges” [McVicar] + other items re: AI in our learning ecosystems

On 09/09/2025, in adjunct faculty, adult learning, Artificial Intelligence/Agents/LLMs/and Related, bots, business, career development, change, cloud-based computing / apps / other cloud-related, collaboration, colleges, communities of practice, community colleges, content development, aggregation, repositories, copyright/ownership/NFTs, corporate / business world, corporate universities / corporate training, curriculum, data related items, digital audio, digital learning, digital storytelling, digital video, education technology, emerging technologies, experimentation, faculty/staff, future, future of higher education, game-changing environment, generational differences, higher education, homeschooling/homeschoolers, human-computer interaction (HCI), ideas, innovation, instructional design, intelligent systems, intelligent tutoring, IT in HE, K-12 related, leadership, learner profiles, learning, learning agents, learning ecosystem, Learning Experience Design, Learning from the Living [Class] Room, learning preferences, liberal arts, multimedia, personalized/customized learning, platforms, productivity / tips and tricks, real-world assignments, reinvent, skills, society, staying relevant, student-related, teachers, teaching & learning, trends, United States, universities, vendors, vision/possibilities, workplace, by Daniel Christian

GRCC students to use AI to help businesses solve ‘real world’ challenges in new course — from www-mlive-com.cdn.ampproject.org by Brian McVicar; via Patrick Bailey on LinkedIn

GRAND RAPIDS, MI — A new course at Grand Rapids Community College aims to help students learn about artificial intelligence by using the technology to solve real-world business problems.
…
In a release, the college said its grant application was supported by 20 local businesses, including Gentex, TwistThink and the Grand Rapids Public Museum. The businesses have pledged to work with students who will use business data to develop an AI project such as a chatbot that interacts with customers, or a program that automates social media posts or summarizes customer data.

“This rapidly emerging technology can transform the way businesses process data and information,” Kristi Haik, dean of GRCC’s School of Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics, said in a statement. “We want to help our local business partners understand and apply the technology. We also want to create real experiences for our students so they enter the workforce with demonstrated competence in AI applications.”

As Patrick Bailey said on LinkedIn about this article:

Nice to see a pedagogy that’s setting a forward movement rather than focusing on what could go wrong with AI in a curriculum.

Forecast for Learning and Earning in 2025-2026 report — from pages.asugsvsummit.com by Jennifer Lee and Claire Zau

In this look ahead at the future of learning and work, we aim to define:

Major thematic observations
What makes this moment an inflection point
Key predictions (and their precedent)
Short- and long-term projected impacts

The LMS at 30: From Course Management to Learning Management (At Last) — from onedtech.philhillaa.com; a guest post from Matthew Pittinsky, Ph.D.

As a 30 year observer and participant, it seems to me that previous technology platform shifts like SaaS and mobile did not fundamentally change the LMS. AI is different. We’re standing at the precipice of LMS 2.0, where the branding change from Course Management System to Learning Management System will finally live up to its name. Unlike SaaS or mobile, AI represents a technology platform shift that will transform the way participants interact with learning systems – and with it, the nature of the LMS itself.

Given the transformational potential of AI, it is useful to set the context and think about how we got here, especially on this 30th anniversary of the LMS.

LMS at 30 Part 2: Learning Management in the AI Era — from onedtech.philhillaa.com; a guest post from Matthew Pittinsky, Ph.D.

Where AI is disruptive is in its ability to introduce a whole new set of capabilities that are best described as personalized learning services. AI offers a new value proposition to the LMS, roughly the set of capabilities currently being developed in the AI Tutor / agentic TA segment. These new capabilities are so valuable given their impact on learning that I predict they will become the services with greatest engagement within a school or university’s “enterprise” instructional platform.

In this way, by LMS paradigm shift, I specifically mean a shift from buyers valuing the product on its course-centric and course management capabilities, to valuing it on its learner-centric and personalized learning capabilities.

AI and the future of education: disruptions, dilemmas and directions — from unesdoc.unesco.org

This anthology reveals how the integration of AI in education poses profound philosophical, pedagogical, ethical and political questions. As this global AI ecosystem evolves and becomes increasingly ubiquitous, UNESCO and its partners have a shared responsibility to lead the global discourse towards an equity- and justice-centred agenda. The volume highlights three areas in which UNESCO will continue to convene and lead a global commons for dialog and action particularly in areas on AI futures, policy and practice innovation, and experimentation.

As guardian of ethical, equitable human-centred AI in education.
As thought leader in reimagining curriculum and pedagogy
As a platform for engaging pluralistic and contested dialogues

AI, copyright and the classroom: what higher education needs to know — from timeshighereducation.com by Cayce Myers
As artificial intelligence reshapes teaching and research, one legal principle remains at the heart of our work: copyright. Understanding its implications isn’t just about compliance – it’s about protecting academic integrity, intellectual property and the future of knowledge creation. Cayce Myers explains

The School Year We Finally Notice “The Change” — from americanstogether.substack.com by Jason Palmer

Why It Matters
A decade from now, we won’t say “AI changed schools.” We’ll say: this was the year schools began to change what it means to be human, augmented by AI.

This transformation isn’t about efficiency alone. It’s about dignity, creativity, and discovery, and connecting education more directly to human flourishing. The industrial age gave us schools to produce cookie-cutter workers. The digital age gave us knowledge anywhere, anytime. The AI age—beginning now—gives us back what matters most: the chance for every learner to become infinitely capable.

This fall may look like any other—bells ringing, rows of desks—but beneath the surface, education has begun its greatest transformation since the one-room schoolhouse.

How should universities teach leadership now that teams include humans and autonomous AI agents? — from timeshighereducation.com by Alex Zarifis
Trust and leadership style are emerging as key aspects of teambuilding in the age of AI. Here are ways to integrate these considerations with technology in teaching

Transactional and transformational leaderships’ combined impact on AI and trust
Given the volatile times we live in, a leader may find themselves in a situation where they know how they will use AI, but they are not entirely clear on the goals and journey. In a teaching context, students can be given scenarios where they must lead a team, including autonomous AI agents, to achieve goals. They can then analyse the situations and decide what leadership styles to apply and how to build trust in their human team members. Educators can illustrate this decision-making process using a table (see above).

They may need to combine transactional leadership with transformational leadership, for example. Transactional leadership focuses on planning, communicating tasks clearly and an exchange of value. This works well with both humans and automated AI agents.

The Rise Of AI Agents: Teaching At Scale [Sivalingam]

On 09/05/2025, in 21st century, 24x7x365 access, adult learning, Artificial Intelligence/Agents/LLMs/and Related, bots, business, cloud-based computing / apps / other cloud-related, corporate / business world, corporate universities / corporate training, curriculum, digital learning, emerging technologies, engagement / engaging students, human-computer interaction (HCI), innovation, instructional design, intelligent systems, intelligent tutoring, learning, learning agents, learning ecosystem, Learning Experience Design, Learning from the Living [Class] Room, lifelong learning, personalized/customized learning, productivity / tips and tricks, professional development, reinvent, skills, staying relevant, tools, training / L&D, United States, vision/possibilities, workplace, by Daniel Christian

From Content To Capability: How AI Agents Are Redefining Workplace Learning — from forbes.com by Nelson Sivalingam

Real, capability-building learning requires three key elements: content, context and conversation.

The Rise Of AI Agents: Teaching At Scale
The generative AI revolution is often framed in terms of efficiency: faster content creation, automated processes and streamlined workflows. But in the world of L&D, its most transformative potential lies elsewhere: the ability to scale great teaching.

AI gives us the means to replicate the role of an effective teacher across an entire organization. Specifically, AI agents—purpose-built systems that understand, adapt and interact in meaningful, context-aware ways—can make this possible. These tools understand a learner’s role, skill level and goals, then tailor guidance to their specific challenges and adapt dynamically over time. They also reinforce learning continuously, nudging progress and supporting application in the flow of work.

More than simply sharing knowledge, an AI agent can help learners apply it and improve with every interaction. For example, a sales manager can use a learning agent to simulate tough customer scenarios, receive instant feedback based on company best practices and reinforce key techniques. A new hire in the product department could get guidance on the features and on how to communicate value clearly in a roadmap meeting.

In short, AI agents bring together the three essential elements of capability building, not in a one-size-fits-all curriculum but on demand and personalized for every learner. While, obviously, this technology shouldn’t replace human expertise, it can be an effective tool for removing bottlenecks and unlocking effective learning at scale.

CrashCourse on YouTube — via Matt Tower’s The EdSheet Vol. 18

Description:
At Crash Course, we believe that high-quality educational videos should be available to everyone for free! Subscribe for weekly videos from our current courses! The Crash Course team has produced more than 50 courses on a wide variety of subjects, ranging from the humanities to sciences and so much more! We also recently teamed up with Arizona State University to bring you more courses on the Study Hall channel.

And as Matt stated:

Hank Green’s 16M+ subscriber Crash Course Youtube channel is one the largest educational content providers in the world. Last week we learned that Green’s platform partnership with ASU generated 13,000 course enrollments and 2,000+ credits earned.

From DSC:
I wasn’t familiar with this “channel” — but I like their mission to help people learn…very inexpensively! Along these lines, I, too, pray for the world’s learning ecosystems — especially those belonging to children.

Back to School in the AI Era: Why Students Are Rewriting Your Lesson Plan — from linkedin.com by Hailey Wilson

As a new academic year begins, many instructors, trainers, and program leaders are bracing for familiar challenges—keeping learners engaged, making complex material accessible, and preparing students for real-world application.

But there’s a quiet shift happening in classrooms and online courses everywhere.

This fall, it’s not the syllabus that’s guiding the learning experience—it’s the conversation between the learner and an AI tool.

From bootcamp to bust: How AI is upending the software development industry — from reuters.com by Anna Tong; via Paul Fain
Coding bootcamps have been a mainstay in Silicon Valley for more than a decade. Now, as AI eliminates the kind of entry-level roles for which they trained people, they’re disappearing.

Coding bootcamps have been a Silicon Valley mainstay for over a decade, offering an important pathway for non-traditional candidates to get six-figure engineering jobs. But coding bootcamp operators, students and investors tell Reuters that this path is rapidly disappearing, thanks in large part to AI.

“Coding bootcamps were already on their way out, but AI has been the nail in the coffin,” said Allison Baum Gates, a general partner at venture capital fund SemperVirens, who was an early employee at bootcamp pioneer General Assembly.

Gates said bootcamps were already in decline due to market saturation, evolving employer demand and market forces like growth in international hiring.

Bringing the best of AI to college students for free [Pichai] + plus other items re: AI in our LE’s

On 08/13/2025, in 21st century, 24x7x365 access, Artificial Intelligence/Agents/LLMs/and Related, bots, colleges, communities of practice, community colleges, content development, aggregation, repositories, corporate / business world, digital learning, education technology, emerging technologies, experimentation, faculty/staff, future, future of higher education, game-changing environment, generational differences, Google, higher education, homeschooling/homeschoolers, human-computer interaction (HCI), ideas, innovation, instructional design, intelligent systems, intelligent tutoring, IT in HE, K-12 related, learning, learning agents, learning ecosystem, Learning Experience Design, Learning from the Living [Class] Room, learning hubs & pods & microschooling, learning spaces, liberal arts, library / librarians, lifelong learning, multimedia, online media, online tutoring, personalized/customized learning, platforms, productivity / tips and tricks, skills, society, student-related, teachers, teaching & learning, technologies for your home, tools, training / L&D, trends, United States, universities, vendors, vision/possibilities, by Daniel Christian

Bringing the best of AI to college students for free — from blog.google by Sundar Pichai

Millions of college students around the world are getting ready to start classes. To help make the school year even better, we’re making our most advanced AI tools available to them for free, including our new Guided Learning mode. We’re also providing $1 billion to support AI education and job training programs and research in the U.S. This includes making our AI and career training free for every college student in America through our AI for Education Accelerator — over 100 colleges and universities have already signed up.
…
Guided Learning: from answers to understanding
AI can broaden knowledge and expand access to it in powerful ways, helping anyone, anywhere learn anything in the way that works best for them. It’s not about just getting an answer, but deepening understanding and building critical thinking skills along the way. That opportunity is why we built Guided Learning, a new mode in Gemini that acts as a learning companion guiding you with questions and step-by-step support instead of just giving you the answer. We worked closely with students, educators, researchers and learning experts to make sure it’s helpful for understanding new concepts and is backed by learning science.

Google introduces Guided Learning [Zau] + other items re: AI in our learning ecosystems

On 08/09/2025, in 21st century, 24x7x365 access, adjunct faculty, adult learning, Apple, Artificial Intelligence/Agents/LLMs/and Related, bots, career development, cloud-based computing / apps / other cloud-related, colleges, communities of practice, community colleges, content development, aggregation, repositories, corporate / business world, corporate universities / corporate training, digital learning, education, education technology, emerging technologies, experimentation, faculty/staff, game-changing environment, Google, heutagogy, higher education, homeschooling/homeschoolers, human-computer interaction (HCI), innovation, instructional design, intelligent systems, intelligent tutoring, IT in HE, K-12 related, law schools, learning, learning ecosystem, Learning Experience Design, Learning from the Living [Class] Room, learning hubs & pods & microschooling, learning spaces, liberal arts, lifelong learning, online tutoring, personalized/customized learning, platforms, productivity / tips and tricks, research, skills, student-related, teachers, teaching & learning, teaching online, tools, training / L&D, trends, United States, universities, user experience (UX), vendors, vision/possibilities, by Daniel Christian

BREAKING: Google introduces Guided Learning — from aieducation.substack.com by Claire Zau
Some thoughts on what could make Google’s AI tutor stand out

Another major AI lab just launched “education mode.”

Google introduced Guided Learning in Gemini, transforming it into a personalized learning companion designed to help you move from quick answers to real understanding.

Instead of immediately spitting out solutions, it:

Asks probing, open-ended questions
Walks learners through step-by-step reasoning
Adapts explanations to the learner’s level
Uses visuals, videos, diagrams, and quizzes to reinforce concepts

This Socratic style tutor rollout follows closely behind similar announcements like OpenAI’s Study Mode (last week) and Anthropic’s Claude for Education (April 2025).

How Sci-Fi Taught Me to Embrace AI in My Classroom — from edsurge.com by Dan Clark

I’m not too naive to understand that, no matter how we present it, some students will always be tempted by “the dark side” of AI. What I also believe is that the future of AI in education is not decided. It will be decided by how we, as educators, embrace or demonize it in our classrooms.

My argument is that setting guidelines and talking to our students honestly about the pitfalls and amazing benefits that AI offers us as researchers and learners will define it for the coming generations.

Can AI be the next calculator? Something that, yes, changes the way we teach and learn, but not necessarily for the worse? If we want it to be, yes.

How it is used, and more importantly, how AI is perceived by our students, can be influenced by educators. We have to first learn how AI can be used as a force for good. If we continue to let the dominant voice be that AI is the Terminator of education and critical thinking, then that will be the fate we have made for ourselves.

AI Tools for Strategy and Research – GT #32 — from goodtools.substack.com by Robin Good
Getting expert advice, how to do deep research with AI, prompt strategy, comparing different AIs side-by-side, creating mini-apps and an AI Agent that can critically analyze any social media channel

In this issue, discover AI tools for:

Getting Expert Advice
Doing Deep Research with AI
Improving Your AI Prompt Strategy
Comparing Results from Different AIs
Creating an AI Agent for Social Media Analysis
Summarizing YouTube Videos
Creating Mini-Apps with AI
Tasting an Award-Winning AI Short Film

GPT-Building, Agentic Workflow Design & Intelligent Content Curation — from drphilippahardman.substack.com by Dr. Philippa Hardman
What 3 recent job ads reveal about the changing nature of Instructional Design

In this week’s blog post, I’ll share my take on how the instructional design role is evolving and discuss what this means for our day-to-day work and the key skills it requires.
…
With this in mind, I’ve been keeping a close eye on open instructional design roles and, in the last 3 months, have noticed the emergence of a new flavour of instructional designer: the so-called “Generative AI Instructional Designer.”

Let’s deep dive into three explicitly AI-focused instructional design positions that have popped up in the last quarter. Each one illuminates a different aspect of how the role is changing—and together, they paint a picture of where our profession is likely heading.

Designers who evolve into prompt engineers, agent builders, and strategic AI advisors will capture the new premium. Those who cling to traditional tool-centric roles may find themselves increasingly sidelined—or automated out of relevance.

Google to Spend $1B on AI Training in Higher Ed — from insidehighered.com by Katherine Knott

Google’s parent company announced Wednesday (8/6/25) that it’s planning to spend $1 billion over the next three years to help colleges teach and train students about artificial intelligence.

Google is joining other AI companies, including OpenAI and Anthropic, in investing in AI training in higher education. All three companies have rolled out new tools aimed at supporting “deeper learning” among students and made their AI platforms available to certain students for free.

5 Predictions for How AI Will Impact Community Colleges — from pistis4edu.substack.com by Feng Hou

Based on current technology capabilities, adoption patterns, and the mission of community colleges, here are five well-supported predictions for AI’s impact in the coming years.

Universal AI Tutor Access
AI as Active Teacher
Personalized Learning Pathways
Interactive Multimodal Learning
Value-Centric Education in an AI-Abundant World

“One-size-fits-all learning is about to become completely obsolete.” [Miller] + other items re: AI in our LE’s

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One-size-fits-all learning is about to become completely obsolete. — from linkedin.com by Allie Miller

AI in the University: From Generative Assistant to Autonomous Agent This Fall — from insidehighered.com by
This fall we are moving into the agentic generation of artificial intelligence.

“Where generative AI creates, agentic AI acts.” That’s how my trusted assistant, Gemini 2.5 Pro deep research, describes the difference.
…
Agents, unlike generative tools, create and perform multistep goals with minimal human supervision. The essential difference is found in its proactive nature. Rather than waiting for a specific, step-by-step command, agentic systems take a high-level objective and independently create and execute a plan to achieve that goal. This triggers a continuous, iterative workflow that is much like a cognitive loop. The typical agentic process involves six key steps, as described by Nvidia:

AI in Education Podcast — from aipodcast.education by Dan Bowen and Ray Fleming

The State of AI in Education 2025 Key Findings from a National Survey — from Carnegie Learning

Our 2025 national survey of over 650 respondents across 49 states and Puerto Rico reveals both encouraging trends and important challenges. While AI adoption and optimism are growing, concerns about cheating, privacy, and the need for training persist.

Despite these challenges, I’m inspired by the resilience and adaptability of educators. You are the true game-changers in your students’ growth, and we’re honored to support this vital work.

This report reflects both where we are today and where we’re headed with AI. More importantly, it reflects your experiences, insights, and leadership in shaping the future of education.

Instructure and OpenAI Announce Global Partnership to Embed AI Learning Experiences within Canvas — from instructure.com

This groundbreaking collaboration represents a transformative step forward in education technology and will begin with, but is not limited to, an effort between Instructure and OpenAI to enhance the Canvas experience by embedding OpenAI’s next-generation AI technology into the platform.

IgniteAI announced earlier today, establishes Instructure’s future-ready, open ecosystem with agentic support as the AI landscape continues to evolve. This partnership with OpenAI exemplifies this bold vision for AI in education. Instructure’s strategic approach to AI emphasizes the enhancement of connections within an educational ecosystem comprising over 1,100 edtech partners and leading LLM providers.

“We’re committed to delivering next-generation LMS technologies designed with an open ecosystem that empowers educators and learners to adapt and thrive in a rapidly changing world,” said Steve Daly, CEO of Instructure. “This collaboration with OpenAI showcases our ambitious vision: creating a future-ready ecosystem that fosters meaningful learning and achievement at every stage of education. This is a significant step forward for the education community as we continuously amplify the learning experience and improve student outcomes.”

Faculty Latest Targets of Big Tech’s AI-ification of Higher Ed — from insidehighered.com by Kathryn Palmer
A new partnership between OpenAI and Instructure will embed generative AI in Canvas. It may make grading easier, but faculty are skeptical it will enhance teaching and learning.

The two companies, which have not disclosed the value of the deal, are also working together to embed large language models into Canvas through a feature called IgniteAI. It will work with an institution’s existing enterprise subscription to LLMs such as Anthropic’s Claude or OpenAI’s ChatGPT, allowing instructors to create custom LLM-enabled assignments. They’ll be able to tell the model how to interact with students—and even evaluate those interactions—and what it should look for to assess student learning. According to Instructure, any student information submitted through Canvas will remain private and won’t be shared with OpenAI.
…
Faculty Unsurprised, Skeptical
Few faculty were surprised by the Canvas-OpenAI partnership announcement, though many are reserving judgment until they see how the first year of using it works in practice.

AI and Higher Ed: An Impending Collapse [Niebuhr]

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AI and Higher Ed: An Impending Collapse — from insidehighered.com by Robert Niebuhr; via George Siemens; I also think George’s excerpt (see below) gets right to the point.
Universities’ rush to embrace AI will lead to an untenable outcome, Robert Niebuhr writes.

Herein lies the trap. If students learn how to use AI to complete assignments and faculty use AI to design courses, assignments, and grade student work, then what is the value of higher education? How long until people dismiss the degree as an absurdly overpriced piece of paper? How long until that trickles down and influences our economic and cultural output? Simply put, can we afford a scenario where students pretend to learn and we pretend to teach them?

This next report doesn’t look too good for traditional institutions of higher education either:

No Country for Young Grads — from burningglassinstitute.org

For the first time in modern history, a bachelor’s degree is no longer a reliable path to professional employment. Recent graduates face rising unemployment and widespread underemployment as structural—not cyclical—forces reshape entry?level work. This new report identifies four interlocking drivers: an AI?powered “Expertise Upheaval” eliminating many junior tasks, a post?pandemic shift to lean staffing and risk?averse hiring, AI acting as an accelerant to these changes, and a growing graduate glut. As a result, young degree holders are uniquely seeing their prospects deteriorate – even as the rest of the economy remain robust. Read the full report to explore the data behind these trends.

The above article was via Brandon Busteed on LinkedIn:

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