Learning Ecosystems

“Teachers ban it. Employers demand it.”

Also relevant/see:

The Shifting Career Ladder — from nafez.substack.com by Nafez Dakkak
AI is changing how work works and quietly removing the pathways through which young people learn to become experts.

AI is reshaping how people build skills, enter professions, and move along the career ladder and through the labour market.

In this conversation, I sit down with Matt Sigelmen founder of LightCast and now the President of Burning Glass Institute. Matt has dedicated his career to understanding the labor market and helping society improve the connections within in it.

Matt and I explore why people and opportunities are often only “a few skills apart,” why entry-level work may be losing its traditional role as the first rung of expertise, and why schools, universities, and employers now need to rethink the pathways that turn potential into mastery.

Educators need to be deeply aligned with what these changes are, and they need to shift the AI discourse from “how” questions to “what” questions. What do we need to teach? What do we need to keep in the curriculum?

LEGAL FUTURISMS: Consumer Legal Tech and the Soul of US Democracy

The “Dollar Legal” Thought Experiment

What if the salvation of our democratic enthusiasm doesn’t come from a political revolution, but a technological one? Enter the thought experiment of Dollar Legal.

Imagine a ubiquitous, consumer-facing legal tech platform—accessible from any smartphone—that commoditizes basic legal defense and assertion of rights. It is AI-driven legal agency for the masses, costing no more than a cup of coffee, or perhaps literally a single dollar.

Dollar Legal wouldn’t exist to litigate complex corporate mergers; it would exist to handle the agonizing friction of everyday survival. It instantly analyzes a notice to quit, drafts a legally sound response asserting warranty of habitability defenses, and files it electronically. It forces the bureaucratic machine to pause. It translates the raw, terrifying human experience of a legal threat into the cold rules and procedures that the justice system understands.

And the price, $1.00, at sufficient scale, would support the operation and maintenance of the service.

By deploying Dollar Legal, we fundamentally shift the balance of power. The democratization of legal leverage changes the calculus for bad actors who rely on the silent default judgments of the unrepresented.

Those folks who like fish, birds, and rabbits will like this artist’s work!

On 07/14/2026, in art, creativity, by Daniel Christian

Veks Van Hillik Suspends Fish, Insects, and Other Objects in Surreal Murals — from thisiscolossal.com by Veks Van Hillik and Kate Mothes

The Law School Deans Driving AI Innovation in Legal Education — from natlawreview.com by Shivani Vedhere, AI & the Law Newsletter; via Colin S. Levy

Artificial intelligence is no longer a peripheral issue for legal education. It is quickly becoming one of the central questions facing law schools: how to prepare future lawyers for a profession in which AI will affect research, client counseling, litigation strategy, access to justice, and the business of law.

For decades, law schools treated legal technology as an elective or a niche interest for students already inclined toward innovation. That era is ending. Law firms are adopting AI tools at scale and even investing in developing their own tools. Clients are asking harder questions about efficiency, cost, and competence. Courts are sanctioning lawyers and litigants for AI-generated hallucinations, with the number of identified cases in the United States now exceeding 1,000. Students entering the profession will be expected to keep up with this rapidly changing landscape.

The most forward-looking law schools are responding accordingly. That transformation is being driven in large part by a group of innovative law school deans who are treating AI not as a passing trend, but as a structural change in legal education.

These initiatives signal a broader shift in legal academia where law schools are no longer merely debating whether AI belongs in the curriculum. The more pressing question is how deeply, how early, and how responsibly AI should be integrated into legal education.

A Comprehensive Report on Teens, Tweens, and AI — from commonsensemedia.org

To find out what that actually looks like day-to-day, we surveyed more than a thousand 9- to 17-year-olds across the country. We asked them how they use AI, how often, and for what.

The Common Sense Media Census: AI Use by Tweens and Teens (2026) is the first in a series we’ll repeat every year to learn how this generation’s relationship with AI evolves over time.

A few things stood out:

Kids are using AI for many things. It’s not just a homework helper anymore. For some kids, AI has become a confidant, even though our research is clear that AI companionship is not safe for anyone under 18.
Guardrails are thin to nonexistent. Schools are talking about rules more than safety. Three-quarters of kids say their school has discussed what they can and cannot use AI for, but just over half have been taught how to use AI safely.
Just like we saw with smartphones and social media, the conversation is once again lagging behind the technology. Nearly half of kids have never had a conversation with their parents about AI safety.

Flipped Classrooms and Academic Achievement — from learningscientists.org by Megan Sumeracki

There are actually many, many ways to design a flipped classroom, and it has been fascinating to learn about the ways my colleague typically structures her hybrid, flipped-classroom courses. As a result, we’ve been able to engage in really interesting conversations about the best approach for this particular course, and why. As a result of some of these discussions, I came across a few recent meta-analyses related to the effects of flipped classrooms, the results of which I thought were worth sharing here (1, 2, 3).

Higher Education Can’t Wait for the Future to Arrive (Lev Gonick, Arizona State University) [Salisbury]

On 07/07/2026, in 21st century, 24x7x365 access, career development, change, changing business models, collaboration, colleges, community colleges, competency-based learning/education, faculty/staff, future, future of higher education, game-changing environment, heutagogy, higher education, innovation, instructional design, learning, learning agents, learning ecosystem, Learning Experience Design, Learning from the Living [Class] Room, learning preferences, liberal arts, more voice more choice more control, skills, society, student-related, teaching & learning, trends, United States, universities, vision/possibilities, by Daniel Christian

Higher Education Can’t Wait for the Future to Arrive (Lev Gonick, Arizona State University) — from humanistxyz.substack.com by Allison Dulin Salisbury
“The biggest risk we face as a sector is assuming we can wait out AI.”

We have an opportunity right now to reorient the university around student experience—not as an aspiration, but as a necessity. I’m calling this shift TechEd, which I explore in detail in my LinkedIn series The TechEd Revolution.

AI poses a fundamental shift in how technology might empower students to own their discovery and educational journey, and to drastically reduce the friction that makes college so unappealing to so many.

To that end, we need to urgently redesign systems and opportunities around skills and competencies. That work should be far more advanced than it currently is. And one of the hardest challenges is rethinking how we operate as a workforce in academia.

Instructional Design Trends: What’s Shaping The Future Of Learning? [Pappas] + “The Future Of Personalized Learning And The Leaders Being Trained To Deliver It” [Ayers]

On 07/06/2026, in analytics, content development, aggregation, repositories, corporate / business world, corporate universities / corporate training, educational games / serious games, elearning, emerging technologies, engagement / engaging students, future, game-changing environment, human-computer interaction (HCI), ideas, immersion, innovation, instructional design, intelligent systems, intelligent tutoring, leadership, organizational change, personalized/customized learning, skills, strategy, traditional / tradition, training / L&D, trends, user experience (UX), by Daniel Christian

Instructional Design Trends: What’s Shaping The Future Of Learning? — from elearningindustry.com by Christopher Pappas

Table of contents

1. Why Instructional Design Is Entering A New Era
2. The State Of Instructional Design Today
3. Top Instructional Design Trends Shaping 2026
4. The Future Of Instructional Design And Technology

Also from elearningindustry.com, see:

The Future Of Personalized Learning And The Leaders Being Trained To Deliver It — by Ryan Ayers

Table of contents

1. Personalized Learning For Future Leaders
2. Where Personalized Learning Is Heading
3. What Implementing Personalized Learning At Scale Actually Requires
4. The Educational Leaders Being Trained To Deliver This Future
5. Conclusion

“Tech & Learning Announces Winners of Best of Show at ISTE 2026” + “Best Sites for Blended Learning”

On 07/06/2026, in blended learning, hybrid learning, platforms, tools, vendors, by Daniel Christian

Tech & Learning Announces Winners of Best of Show at ISTE 2026 — from techlearning.com
These annual awards celebrate the groundbreaking products exhibited at ISTE that are transforming education in schools around the world.

Also from techlearning.com, see:

Best Sites for Blended Learning — by Diana Restifo
Blended learning websites help teachers combine traditional instruction with online learning.

Blended learning is a teaching approach that combines both traditional in-class instruction with digital technologies for lessons, assessments, feedback and more. In other words, face-to-face teaching is supplemented and supported by online lessons and content.

The advantages of blended learning include flexibility, student engagement, and the ability to personalize lessons.

The following blended learning sites, many of which are fully free, provide a variety of features through which educators can implement their blended learning approach.

NotebookLM’s 60-second videos turned my doomscrolling curse into something useful [Sood]

On 07/06/2026, in Artificial Intelligence/Agents/LLMs/and Related, digital audio, digital learning, digital video, education technology, emerging technologies, experimentation, faculty/staff, platforms, productivity / tips and tricks, student-related, tools, by Daniel Christian

NotebookLM’s 60-second videos turned my doomscrolling curse into something useful — from digitaltrends.com by Shimul Sood

Google has announced Short Video Overviews for NotebookLM, a feature that turns dense documents and complicated sources into 60-second vertical videos that explain key ideas. Instead of staring at pages of notes, you get a quick visual walkthrough of the concept you’re trying to understand.

Doom scrolling but make it educational ?

Introducing Short Video Overviews in NotebookLM! Turn your most complex sources into 60-second, vertical videos that deep dive into any concept.

Rolling out now to Google AI Ultra and Pro subscribers on mobile & web (free users soon!) pic.twitter.com/vaOa4ELbw4

— NotebookLM (@NotebookLM) June 30, 2026

Harvard Law Today: America Unfinished

On 07/06/2026, in Legal operations, legal reform, legal technologies, legislatures / government / legal, society, United States, universities, by Daniel Christian

Harvard Law Today: America Unfinished — from linkedin.com by various authors

In this issue:

A new essay collection contemplates the past, present, and future of the U.S.
Explore exhibits and talks at Harvard Law School marking the semiquincentennial.
Meet the editors behind “America Unfinished: 250 Years of Law and Governance.”

Everything colleges and universities need to know about the collapse of the youth labor market, internships and entry-level jobs… [Busteed]

On 07/06/2026, in business side of he, career development, change, colleges, community colleges, faculty/staff, higher education, parents/guardians, society, student-related, trends, United States, universities, by Daniel Christian

Brandon’s posting on LinkedIn.com

Learning Ecosystems

Those folks who like fish, birds, and rabbits will like this artist’s work!

Instructional Design Trends: What’s Shaping The Future Of Learning? [Pappas] + “The Future Of Personalized Learning And The Leaders Being Trained To Deliver It” [Ayers]

“Tech & Learning Announces Winners of Best of Show at ISTE 2026” + “Best Sites for Blended Learning”

Harvard Law Today: America Unfinished

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