NAMLE 2025 Conference
Join us for the largest professional development conference dedicated to media literacy education in the U.S. on July 11-12, 2025.

From Pre-K to Higher Education, Community Education and Libraries, the conference provides valuable resources, technology, teacher practice and pedagogy, assessments, and core concepts of media literacy education.


 

These parents are ‘unschooling’ their kids. What does that mean? — from usatoday.com by Adrianna Rodriguez

“My goal for them is for them to love learning,” Franco said. “It’s realizing you can educate your child beyond the school model.”

Some parents say their children are thriving in the unschooling environment, fueling their confidence and desire to learn.

But not all students find success in unschooling. Some former students say the lack of structure and accountability can lead to educational neglect if parents don’t have the resources to make it work. Some kids who were unschooled feel they were left unprepared for adulthood and had fewer career opportunities.


What Is ‘Unschooling’ and Why Are More Parents Doing It? — from bckonline.com byTiffany Silva

Unschooling is a growing alternative education movement where children learn through life experiences instead of traditional classroom instruction. As more parents seek personalized and flexible learning paths, unschooling is gaining popularity across the U.S. and here’s what you need to know!

So, just what exactly is unschooling? Well, Unschooling is a form of homeschooling that breaks away from the idea of following a set curriculum. Instead, it centers the child’s interests, passions, and pace.

The belief is that learning doesn’t have to be separate from life because it is life. Unschooling functions on the premise that when kids are given the freedom to explore, they develop deep, authentic understanding and a lifelong love of learning.

 

Boys Are Struggling in School. What Can Be Done? — from edweek.org by Rick Hess
Scholar Richard Reeves says it’s time to take a hard look at gender equity

Rick: What kinds of strategies do you think would help?

Richard: In education, we should expand the use of male-friendly teaching methods, such as more hands-on and active learning approaches. We should also consider redshirting boys—starting them in school a year later—to account for developmental differences between boys and girls. We should also introduce more male mentors and role models in schools, particularly in elementary education, where male teachers are scarce. In the workforce, apprenticeship and vocational training programs need to be expanded to create pathways into stable employment for young men who may not pursue a four-year degree. Career counseling should also emphasize diverse pathways to ensure that boys who may not thrive in a traditional academic setting still have opportunities for success. Additionally, fatherhood policies should recognize the importance of male engagement in family life, supporting fathers in their role as caregivers and providers.


While on the topic of K12 education, also see:

How Electives Help All Students Succeed — from edutopia.org by Miriam Plotinsky
Giving students a choice of electives increases engagement and allows them to develop skills outside of core academic subjects.

I recently conducted a student focus group on the topic of school attendance. One of the participants, a high school junior who admitted to being frequently late or absent, explained why she still came to school: “I never want to miss Drama. My teacher is awesome. Her class is the reason I show up every day.” As the rest of the focus group chimed in with similar thoughts, I reflected on the power that elective courses hold for students of all ages.

These courses, from jazz band to yoga, cement students’ sense of self not just in their primary and secondary years, but also in their journey toward adulthood. In these tight economic times, schools or districts often slash electives to save money on staffing, which is highly detrimental to student success. Instead, not only should budget cuts be made elsewhere, but also elective offerings should increase to heighten student choice and well-being.


Learners need: More voice. More choice. More control. -- this image was created by Daniel Christian

 

“Student Guide to AI”; “AI Isn’t Just Changing How We Work — It’s Changing How We Learn”; + other items re: AI in our LE’s

.Get the 2025 Student Guide to Artificial Intelligence — from studentguidetoai.org
This guide is made available under a Creative Commons license by Elon University and the American Association of Colleges and Universities (AAC&U).
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AI Isn’t Just Changing How We Work — It’s Changing How We Learn — from entrepreneur.com by Aytekin Tank; edited by Kara McIntyre
AI agents are opening doors to education that just a few years ago would have been unthinkable. Here’s how.

Agentic AI is taking these already huge strides even further. Rather than simply asking a question and receiving an answer, an AI agent can assess your current level of understanding and tailor a reply to help you learn. They can also help you come up with a timetable and personalized lesson plan to make you feel as though you have a one-on-one instructor walking you through the process. If your goal is to learn to speak a new language, for example, an agent might map out a plan starting with basic vocabulary and pronunciation exercises, then progress to simple conversations, grammar rules and finally, real-world listening and speaking practice.

For instance, if you’re an entrepreneur looking to sharpen your leadership skills, an AI agent might suggest a mix of foundational books, insightful TED Talks and case studies on high-performing executives. If you’re aiming to master data analysis, it might point you toward hands-on coding exercises, interactive tutorials and real-world datasets to practice with.

The beauty of AI-driven learning is that it’s adaptive. As you gain proficiency, your AI coach can shift its recommendations, challenge you with new concepts and even simulate real-world scenarios to deepen your understanding.

Ironically, the very technology feared by workers can also be leveraged to help them. Rather than requiring expensive external training programs or lengthy in-person workshops, AI agents can deliver personalized, on-demand learning paths tailored to each employee’s role, skill level, and career aspirations. Given that 68% of employees find today’s workplace training to be overly “one-size-fits-all,” an AI-driven approach will not only cut costs and save time but will be more effective.


What’s the Future for AI-Free Spaces? — from higherai.substack.com by Jason Gulya
Please let me dream…

This is one reason why I don’t see AI-embedded classrooms and AI-free classrooms as opposite poles. The bone of contention, here, is not whether we can cultivate AI-free moments in the classroom, but for how long those moments are actually sustainable.

Can we sustain those AI-free moments for an hour? A class session? Longer?

Here’s what I think will happen. As AI becomes embedded in society at large, the sustainability of imposed AI-free learning spaces will get tested. Hard. I think it’ll become more and more difficult (though maybe not impossible) to impose AI-free learning spaces on students.

However, consensual and hybrid AI-free learning spaces will continue to have a lot of value. I can imagine classes where students opt into an AI-free space. Or they’ll even create and maintain those spaces.


Duolingo’s AI Revolution — from drphilippahardman.substack.com by Dr. Philippa Hardman
What 148 AI-Generated Courses Tell Us About the Future of Instructional Design & Human Learning

Last week, Duolingo announced an unprecedented expansion: 148 new language courses created using generative AI, effectively doubling their content library in just one year. This represents a seismic shift in how learning content is created — a process that previously took the company 12 years for their first 100 courses.

As CEO Luis von Ahn stated in the announcement, “This is a great example of how generative AI can directly benefit our learners… allowing us to scale at unprecedented speed and quality.”

In this week’s blog, I’ll dissect exactly how Duolingo has reimagined instructional design through AI, what this means for the learner experience, and most importantly, what it tells us about the future of our profession.


Are Mixed Reality AI Agents the Future of Medical Education? — from ehealth.eletsonline.com

Medical education is experiencing a quiet revolution—one that’s not taking place in lecture theatres or textbooks, but with headsets and holograms. At the heart of this revolution are Mixed Reality (MR) AI Agents, a new generation of devices that combine the immersive depth of mixed reality with the flexibility of artificial intelligence. These technologies are not mere flashy gadgets; they’re revolutionising the way medical students interact with complicated content, rehearse clinical skills, and prepare for real-world situations. By combining digital simulations with the physical world, MR AI Agents are redefining what it means to learn medicine in the 21st century.




4 Reasons To Use Claude AI to Teach — from techlearning.com by Erik Ofgang
Features that make Claude AI appealing to educators include a focus on privacy and conversational style.

After experimenting using Claude AI on various teaching exercises, from generating quizzes to tutoring and offering writing suggestions, I found that it’s not perfect, but I think it behaves favorably compared to other AI tools in general, with an easy-to-use interface and some unique features that make it particularly suited for use in education.

 

2025 EDUCAUSE Horizon Report | Teaching and Learning Edition — from library.educause.edu

Higher education is in a period of massive transformation and uncertainty. Not only are current events impacting how institutions operate, but technological advancement—particularly in AI and virtual reality—are reshaping how students engage with content, how cognition is understood, and how learning itself is documented and valued.

Our newly released 2025 EDUCAUSE Horizon Report | Teaching and Learning Edition captures the spirit of this transformation and how you can respond with confidence through the lens of emerging trends, key technologies and practices, and scenario-based foresight.

#teachingandlearning #highereducation #learningecosystems #learning #futurism #foresight #trends #emergingtechnologies #AI #VR #gamechangingenvironment #colleges #universities #communitycolleges #faculty #staff #IT

 

Encouraging Students’ Curiosity With Animal Observations — from edutopia.org by Shelby Guthrie
Watching animals—either outdoors or via an online live cam—is an engaging way for students to build their critical thinking skills.

A moment of stillness can spark a lifetime of curiosity. Watching animals—whether it’s a bird outside or a zoo cam online—helps learners slow down, notice patterns, and ask questions. Structured observation builds patience, critical thinking, and a stronger connection to nature.

More than just engaging, these small moments contribute to bigger ideas—like understanding ecosystems, animal behavior, and the ever-changing world. Observation teaches learners to care, question, and conserve. These skills are foundational not only for scientific thinking but also for fostering empathy and awareness. When students observe closely, they begin to notice patterns, ask better questions, and connect deeply with the natural world. This kind of curiosity-driven learning empowers them to take informed action, whether that means advocating for a local habitat, participating in citizen science, or simply seeing their environment through a more thoughtful lens.


3 Ways to Help Students Build Attention Stamina — from edutopia.org by Donna Phillips
These simple tools and strategies can improve focus in the classroom.

I set out to create some helpful tools and strategies for my students, who have diverse learning profiles, including processing delays, anxiety, attention challenges, and autism. I knew going in that whatever I came up with needed to be flexible. The goal was never perfection; it was access and agency.

What’s resulted are three classroom strategies that don’t feel like extra work for students. Instead, they help students own their attention. I named the strategies “The Listening Gym,” “The Noise Diet,” and “Focus GPS.”


Keeping Students Engaged During Long Class Periods — from edutopia.org by Maggie Espinola
By chunking class time using gradual release of responsibility, teachers can vary their teaching strategies to help students maintain focus.

For a new teacher, figuring out how to manage a long class period can feel particularly daunting. In order to maximize the attention of your students during longer class periods, consider the following tips.

Creating a Student Leadership Program — from edutopia.org by Danica Derksen
These strategies for building leadership skills can be implemented as an elective or by creating other opportunities for students.

Running an effective student leadership program takes structure and vision from all levels of a school. When we create opportunities for students to lead, we are building competencies that they will take with them for the rest of their lives.

I currently co-teach a middle school student leadership elective each semester. I am passionate about teaching my students to lead by example, find solutions to problems, and make their school a place where all students know they belong. Here are four ideas to create a strong student leadership program or other student leadership opportunities.

 

Culminating Art Projects That Boost Students’ Confidence — from edutopia.org by Mary Beth Hertz
At the end of the year, high school students enjoy the opportunity to create a final product dictated by their own interests.


Boosting Engagement by Taking Math Outdoors — from edutopia.org by Sandy Vorensky
Bringing elementary students outside for math lessons provides a welcome change of pace and a chance for new activities.


Using a School Mural Project to Showcase Students’ Growth — from edutopia.org by Gloria Sevilla
Step-by-step instructions from an elementary school educator whose annual mural assignment is displayed at the spring open house.


How to Help Students Avoid Procrastinating — from edutopia.org by Sarah Kesty
A simple strategy can help students map out their assignments in manageable chunks so they can stay on top of their work.

Long-term projects and assignments present a unique challenge for many students, requiring several layers of executive function skills, like planning and time management, to be able to manage steps over an extended period of time. Much to our frustration, students may procrastinate or avoid working on an assignment when it seems overwhelming. This can lead to late, missing, or incomplete work, or it can push students into a stressful all-nighter, as they complete an assignment designed to take weeks in the span of just a few hours.

An effective way to address the challenges of overwhelm and procrastination—and a way that requires only a tweak to your teaching instead of another task on your plate—is to teach students to “scan and plan.” Scan and plans happen during the introduction of an assignment, usually one that takes more than a few steps. Teachers organically fold in the scan and plan approach as a layer to the assignment’s announcement to the class.

 

Reflections on “Are You Ready for the AI University? Everything is about to change.” [Latham]

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Are You Ready for the AI University? Everything is about to change. — from chronicle.com by Scott Latham

Over the course of the next 10 years, AI-powered institutions will rise in the rankings. US News & World Report will factor a college’s AI capabilities into its calculations. Accrediting agencies will assess the degree of AI integration into pedagogy, research, and student life. Corporations will want to partner with universities that have demonstrated AI prowess. In short, we will see the emergence of the AI haves and have-nots.

What’s happening in higher education today has a name: creative destruction. The economist Joseph Schumpeter coined the term in 1942 to describe how innovation can transform industries. That typically happens when an industry has both a dysfunctional cost structure and a declining value proposition. Both are true of higher education.

Out of the gate, professors will work with technologists to get AI up to speed on specific disciplines and pedagogy. For example, AI could be “fed” course material on Greek history or finance and then, guided by human professors as they sort through the material, help AI understand the structure of the discipline, and then develop lectures, videos, supporting documentation, and assessments.

In the near future, if a student misses class, they will be able watch a recording that an AI bot captured. Or the AI bot will find a similar lecture from another professor at another accredited university. If you need tutoring, an AI bot will be ready to help any time, day or night. Similarly, if you are going on a trip and wish to take an exam on the plane, a student will be able to log on and complete the AI-designed and administered exam. Students will no longer be bound by a rigid class schedule. Instead, they will set the schedule that works for them.

Early and mid-career professors who hope to survive will need to adapt and learn how to work with AI. They will need to immerse themselves in research on AI and pedagogy and understand its effect on the classroom. 

From DSC:
I had a very difficult time deciding which excerpts to include. There were so many more excerpts for us to think about with this solid article. While I don’t agree with several things in it, EVERY professor, president, dean, and administrator working within higher education today needs to read this article and seriously consider what Scott Latham is saying.

Change is already here, but according to Scott, we haven’t seen anything yet. I agree with him and, as a futurist, one has to consider the potential scenarios that Scott lays out for AI’s creative destruction of what higher education may look like. Scott asserts that some significant and upcoming impacts will be experienced by faculty members, doctoral students, and graduate/teaching assistants (and Teaching & Learning Centers and IT Departments, I would add). But he doesn’t stop there. He brings in presidents, deans, and other members of the leadership teams out there.

There are a few places where Scott and I differ.

  • The foremost one is the importance of the human element — i.e., the human faculty member and students’ learning preferences. I think many (most?) students and lifelong learners will want to learn from a human being. IBM abandoned their 5-year, $100M ed push last year and one of the key conclusions was that people want to learn from — and with — other people:

To be sure, AI can do sophisticated things such as generating quizzes from a class reading and editing student writing. But the idea that a machine or a chatbot can actually teach as a human can, he said, represents “a profound misunderstanding of what AI is actually capable of.” 

Nitta, who still holds deep respect for the Watson lab, admits, “We missed something important. At the heart of education, at the heart of any learning, is engagement. And that’s kind of the Holy Grail.”

— Satya Nitta, a longtime computer researcher at
IBM’s Watson
Research Center in Yorktown Heights, NY
.

By the way, it isn’t easy for me to write this. As I wanted AI and other related technologies to be able to do just what IBM was hoping that it would be able to do.

  • Also, I would use the term learning preferences where Scott uses the term learning styles.

Scott also mentions:

“In addition, faculty members will need to become technologists as much as scholars. They will need to train AI in how to help them build lectures, assessments, and fine-tune their classroom materials. Further training will be needed when AI first delivers a course.”

It has been my experience from working with faculty members for over 20 years that not all faculty members want to become technologists. They may not have the time, interest, and/or aptitude to become one (and vice versa for technologists who likely won’t become faculty members).

That all said, Scott relays many things that I have reflected upon and relayed for years now via this Learning Ecosystems blog and also via The Learning from the Living [AI-Based Class] Room vision — the use of AI to offer personalized and job-relevant learning, the rising costs of higher education, the development of new learning-related offerings and credentials at far less expensive prices, the need to provide new business models and emerging technologies that are devoted more to lifelong learning, plus several other things.

So this article is definitely worth your time to read, especially if you are working in higher education or are considering a career therein!


Addendum later on 4/10/25:

U-M’s Ross School of Business, Google Public Sector launch virtual teaching assistant pilot program — from news.umich.edu by Jeff Karoub; via Paul Fain

Google Public Sector and the University of Michigan’s Ross School of Business have launched an advanced Virtual Teaching Assistant pilot program aimed at improving personalized learning and enlightening educators on artificial intelligence in the classroom.

The AI technology, aided by Google’s Gemini chatbot, provides students with all-hours access to support and self-directed learning. The Virtual TA represents the next generation of educational chatbots, serving as a sophisticated AI learning assistant that instructors can use to modify their specific lessons and teaching styles.

The Virtual TA facilitates self-paced learning for students, provides on-demand explanations of complex course concepts, guides them through problem-solving, and acts as a practice partner. It’s designed to foster critical thinking by never giving away answers, ensuring students actively work toward solutions.

 

Uplimit raises stakes in corporate learning with suite of AI agents that can train thousands of employees simultaneously — from venturebeat.com by Michael Nuñez|

Uplimit unveiled a suite of AI-powered learning agents today designed to help companies rapidly upskill employees while dramatically reducing administrative burdens traditionally associated with corporate training.

The San Francisco-based company announced three sets of purpose-built AI agents that promise to change how enterprises approach learning and development: skill-building agents, program management agents, and teaching assistant agents. The technology aims to address the growing skills gap as AI advances faster than most workforces can adapt.

“There is an unprecedented need for continuous learning—at a scale and speed traditional systems were never built to handle,” said Julia Stiglitz, CEO and co-founder of Uplimit, in an interview with VentureBeat. “The companies best positioned to thrive aren’t choosing between AI and their people—they’re investing in both.”


Introducing Claude for Education — from anthropic.com

Today we’re launching Claude for Education, a specialized version of Claude tailored for higher education institutions. This initiative equips universities to develop and implement AI-enabled approaches across teaching, learning, and administration—ensuring educators and students play a key role in actively shaping AI’s role in society.

As part of announcing Claude for Education, we’re introducing:

  1. Learning mode: A new Claude experience that guides students’ reasoning process rather than providing answers, helping develop critical thinking skills
  2. University-wide Claude availability: Full campus access agreements with Northeastern University, London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE), and Champlain College, making Claude available to all students
  3. Academic partnerships: Joining Internet2 and working with Instructure to embed AI into teaching & learning with Canvas LMS
  4. Student programs: A new Claude Campus Ambassadors program along with an initiative offering API credits for student projects

A comment on this from The Rundown AI:

Why it matters: Education continues to grapple with AI, but Anthropic is flipping the script by making the tech a partner in developing critical thinking rather than an answer engine. While the controversy over its use likely isn’t going away, this generation of students will have access to the most personalized, high-quality learning tools ever.


Should College Graduates Be AI Literate? — from chronicle.com by Beth McMurtrie (behind a paywall)
More institutions are saying yes. Persuading professors is only the first barrier they face.

Last fall one of Jacqueline Fajardo’s students came to her office, eager to tell her about an AI tool that was helping him learn general chemistry. Had she heard of Google NotebookLM? He had been using it for half a semester in her honors course. He confidently showed her how he could type in the learning outcomes she posted for each class and the tool would produce explanations and study guides. It even created a podcast based on an academic paper he had uploaded. He did not feel it was important to take detailed notes in class because the AI tool was able to summarize the key points of her lectures.


Showing Up for the Future: Why Educators Can’t Sit Out the AI Conversation — from marcwatkins.substack.com with a guest post from Lew Ludwig

The Risk of Disengagement
Let’s be honest: most of us aren’t jumping headfirst into AI. At many of our institutions, it’s not a gold rush—it’s a quiet standoff. But the group I worry most about isn’t the early adopters. It’s the faculty who’ve decided to opt out altogether.

That choice often comes from a place of care. Concerns about data privacy, climate impact, exploitative labor, and the ethics of using large language models are real—and important. But choosing not to engage at all, even on ethical grounds, doesn’t remove us from the system. It just removes our voices from the conversation.

And without those voices, we risk letting others—those with very different priorities—make the decisions that shape what AI looks like in our classrooms, on our campuses, and in our broader culture of learning.



Turbocharge Your Professional Development with AI — from learningguild.com by Dr. RK Prasad

You’ve just mastered a few new eLearning authoring tools, and now AI is knocking on the door, offering to do your job faster, smarter, and without needing coffee breaks. Should you be worried? Or excited?

If you’re a Learning and Development (L&D) professional today, AI is more than just a buzzword—it’s transforming the way we design, deliver, and measure corporate training. But here’s the good news: AI isn’t here to replace you. It’s here to make you better at what you do.

The challenge is to harness its potential to build digital-ready talent, not just within your organization but within yourself.

Let’s explore how AI is reshaping L&D strategies and how you can leverage it for professional development.


5 Recent AI Notables — from automatedteach.com by Graham Clay

1. OpenAI’s New Image Generator
What Happened: OpenAI integrated a much more powerful image generator directly into GPT-4o, making it the default image creator in ChatGPT. Unlike previous image models, this one excels at accurately rendering text in images, precise visualization of diagrams/charts, and multi-turn image refinement through conversation.

Why It’s Big: For educators, this represents a significant advancement in creating educational visuals, infographics, diagrams, and other instructional materials with unprecedented accuracy and control. It’s not perfect, but you can now quickly generate custom illustrations that accurately display mathematical equations, chemical formulas, or process workflows — previously a significant hurdle in digital content creation — without requiring graphic design expertise or expensive software. This capability dramatically reduces the time between conceptualizing a visual aid and implementing it in course materials.
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The 4 AI modes that will supercharge your workflow — from aiwithallie.beehiiv.com by Allie K. Miller
The framework most people and companies won’t discover until 2026


 

Outsourcing Thought: The Hidden Cost of Letting AI Think for You — from linkedin.com by Robert Atkinson

I’ve watched it unfold in real time. A student submits a flawless coding assignment or a beautifully written essay—clean syntax, sharp logic, polished prose. But when I ask them to explain their thinking, they hesitate. They can’t trace their reasoning or walk me through the process. The output is strong, but the understanding is shallow. As a professor, I’ve seen this pattern grow more common: AI-assisted work that looks impressive on the surface but reveals a troubling absence of cognitive depth underneath.

This article is written with my students in mind—but it’s meant for anyone navigating learning, teaching, or thinking in the age of artificial intelligence. Whether you’re a student, educator, or professional, the question is the same: What happens to the brain when we stop doing our own thinking?

We are standing at a pivotal moment. With just a few prompts, generative AI can produce essays, solve complex coding problems, and summarize ideas in seconds. It feels efficient. It feels like progress. But from a cognitive neuroscience perspective, that convenience comes at a hidden cost: the gradual erosion of the neural processes that support reasoning, creativity, and long-term learning.

 

Cultivating Speaking and Listening Skills in the Primary Grades — from edutopia.org by Rachel Scheer
Early elementary teachers can use these strategies to help students improve their oral communication skills.

The good news? There are many engaging and effective strategies to develop these interpersonal skills, and most are easy to incorporate into daily classroom routines. I use the strategies below to directly teach, model, and practice these essential communication skills at a developmentally appropriate level: turn-taking, small group speaking and listening, whole group speaking and listening, and accountable talk.

From DSC:
I love the parts about practicing how to LISTEN. We need more of that in our communications with one another…as well as when we are praying to God.


Teaching Students About Corporate Influences in a Curriculum — from edutopia.org by Elaine Alvey
By uncovering any hidden interests in a curriculum, teachers can open important discussions about media literacy with students.

These instances underscore the need for educators to be vigilant in vetting materials, recognizing that even seemingly reputable sources can harbor hidden agendas, necessitating a robust approach to media and information literacy both for ourselves and for students.

How to Spot Corporate Influences in Your Curriculum
So, how do we, as educators, navigate this minefield? Media literacy strategies offer important tools to equip ourselves and our students to analyze information landscapes intentionally, including the curricular resources we evaluate for use in our classrooms.
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From DSC:
I would encourage you to take a look at the work my sister Sue Ellen Christian has been doing re: media literacy, news literacy, and more. She created the Wonder Media website to discuss those topics. Plus she collaborated with several other people and organizations to develop a large, professionally-done exhibit re: these important topics.
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Boosting Engagement in World Language Classes With Games — from edutopia.org by Rachelle Dené Poth
Middle school teachers can use a variety of tech and no-tech games to help students build skills in the target language.

As a world language educator, I’ve always sought innovative ways to engage my students through meaningful learning experiences as they build their language skills. One way we do this is through gameplay. The benefits of games go far beyond simply learning and increased retention of vocabulary or grammar. Games can also foster collaboration, critical thinking, creativity, and problem-solving skills, making learning fun for students.


How Administrators Can Respond—Instead of React—in Tough Situations — from edutopia.org by Jessica Cabeen
These strategies can help school leaders stay self-regulated in the middle of frustrating and stressful moments.

Conversations That Might Be Better Left for Later
Not every conversation needs to happen in the heat of the moment. Some of the most productive conversations happen after we’ve given ourselves time to regulate. Here are a few categories of conversations that might benefit from a pause:

  • Difficult feedback conversations. If emotions are running high, it might be best to wait until you can approach the discussion with clarity and empathy. A rushed or reactive conversation can shut down dialogue rather than encourage growth.
  • Conflict resolution. When two parties are upset, stepping in immediately to mediate can sometimes escalate tensions. A brief pause allows for perspective-taking and a calmer, solution-oriented approach.
  • Big-picture decisions. When stress is high, it’s easy to make decisions based on immediate pressures rather than long-term goals. Giving yourself space to step back ensures that decisions align with your leadership vision.
  • Personal or emotional responses. If you feel personally triggered by a comment, criticism, or situation, take time to process before responding. Self-awareness in these moments can prevent regretful words or actions.

So the next time frustration creeps in, take a breath. Pause before you speak, type, or react. Because more often than not, the best response isn’t the fastest one—it’s the one that comes from a place of clarity, patience, and purpose.

 

8 Weeks Left to Prepare Students for the AI-Enhanced Workplace — from insidehighered.com by Ray Schroeder
We are down to the final weeks left to fully prepare students for entry into the AI-enhanced workplace. Are your students ready?

The urgent task facing those of us who teach and advise students, whether they be degree program or certificate seeking, is to ensure that they are prepared to enter (or re-enter) the workplace with skills and knowledge that are relevant to 2025 and beyond. One of the first skills to cultivate is an understanding of what kinds of services this emerging technology can provide to enhance the worker’s productivity and value to the institution or corporation.

Given that short period of time, coupled with the need to cover the scheduled information in the syllabus, I recommend that we consider merging AI use into authentic assignments and assessments, supplementary modules, and other resources to prepare for AI.


Learning Design in the Era of Agentic AI — from drphilippahardman.substack.com by Dr Philippa Hardman
Aka, how to design online async learning experiences that learners can’t afford to delegate to AI agents

The point I put forward was that the problem is not AI’s ability to complete online async courses, but that online async courses courses deliver so little value to our learners that they delegate their completion to AI.

The harsh reality is that this is not an AI problem — it is a learning design problem.

However, this realisation presents us with an opportunity which we overall seem keen to embrace. Rather than seeking out ways to block AI agents, we seem largely to agree that we should use this as a moment to reimagine online async learning itself.



8 Schools Innovating With Google AI — Here’s What They’re Doing — from forbes.com by Dan Fitzpatrick

While fears of AI replacing educators swirl in the public consciousness, a cohort of pioneering institutions is demonstrating a far more nuanced reality. These eight universities and schools aren’t just experimenting with AI, they’re fundamentally reshaping their educational ecosystems. From personalized learning in K-12 to advanced research in higher education, these institutions are leveraging Google’s AI to empower students, enhance teaching, and streamline operations.


Essential AI tools for better work — from wondertools.substack.com by Jeremy Caplan
My favorite tactics for making the most of AI — a podcast conversation

AI tools I consistently rely on (areas covered mentioned below)

  • Research and analysis
  • Communication efficiency
  • Multimedia creation

AI tactics that work surprisingly well 

1. Reverse interviews
Instead of just querying AI, have it interview you. Get the AI to interview you, rather than interviewing it. Give it a little context and what you’re focusing on and what you’re interested in, and then you ask it to interview you to elicit your own insights.”

This approach helps extract knowledge from yourself, not just from the AI. Sometimes we need that guide to pull ideas out of ourselves.

 

All of the articles listed below are from edutopia.org


4 Ways to Boost Students’ Self-Efficacy — by Tyler Rablin
These strategies help students see what they have learned so they believe they can be successful in school in the future.

Self-efficacy, on the other hand, focuses on outcomes to drive beliefs. In essence, self-efficacy involves intentionally providing students with evidence of early success to help them build the belief that they can be successful in the future.

Self-efficacy has been a powerful focus for me because it helps me to be more intentional as a teacher. It requires me to be mindful of how I structure assessments, feedback, etc., to provide students with evidence of their successes early on to help them see potential future successes.

Maintaining Students’ Focus in the Spring — by Miriam Plotinsky
Teachers can use these small ‘upgrades’ or tweaks to their regular practices to help keep students focused and involved.

As a recent MindShift article notes, “The second semester brings a lot of potential challenges to teachers’ regularly scheduled programming because of standardized testing, graduation events, and student burnout.” These challenges may be complex, but they are not insurmountable. With subtle shifts in practice, classrooms can remain safe and productive spaces—even in the spring.

She recommends a “coping jar” to help students identify moments of angst and manage their feelings. Fagell explains that when students find an effective coping mechanism, they write their idea on one side of a Popsicle stick and explain how it works on the other side. As students add ideas to the jar, they have an increased awareness of coping strategies and the importance of helping one another.

10 Picture Books That Showcase Collaboration — by Kristin Rydholm
These entertaining stories feature collaboration and social-emotional skills to highlight the benefit of working together to accomplish a goal.

Are you an early childhood teacher in search of relationship-building resources to help unify your classroom? Have I got a book list for you! In the verbiage of 1970s infomercials: “This collection has everything!” The main characters are early childhood students, the setting is the school, and each plot requires the class to work collaboratively. The characters are united in curiosity, determination, and mission to work on accomplishing projects together that they couldn’t possibly do alone.

What a 30-Day Break From AI Taught Me About My Teaching — by James Bedford
Using AI became second nature for this educator. A month without the tools gave him an opportunity to pause, reflect, and recalibrate.

My goal is to try to preserve the messy, creative core of what it means to be an educator: curiosity, critical thinking, and the grit and energy to solve problems without always resorting to shortcuts—technological or otherwise. My hope is that my students will do the same.

Unplug and reconnect: Challenge yourself and your students to embark on an AI detox. Step away from AI tools where possible, and rediscover the power of human creativity and independent thought. Start a journal to document the journey, exploring questions like “How does it feel to rely solely on my own intellect?” or “What challenges arise when AI isn’t there to assist? This activity can foster resilience, raise self-awareness, and cultivate a deeper appreciation for the human capacity to think, create, problem-solve, and innovate.

 

AI in K12: Today’s Breakthroughs and Tomorrow’s Possibilities (webinar)
How AI is Transforming Classrooms Today and What’s Next


Audio-Based Learning 4.0 — from drphilippahardman.substack.com by Dr. Philippa Hardman
A new & powerful way to leverage AI for learning?

At the end of all of this my reflection is that the research paints a pretty exciting picture – audio-based learning isn’t just effective, it’s got some unique superpowers when it comes to boosting comprehension, ramping up engagement, and delivering feedback that really connects with learners.

While audio has been massively under-used as a mode of learning, especially compared to video and text, we’re at an interesting turning point where AI tools are making it easier than ever to tap into audio’s potential as a pedagogical tool.

What’s super interesting is how the solid research backing audio’s effectiveness is and how well this is converging with these new AI capabilities.

From DSC:
I’ve noticed that I don’t learn as well via audio-only based events. It can help if visuals are also provided, but I have to watch the cognitive loads. My processing can start to get overloaded — to the point that I have to close my eyes and just listen sometimes. But there are people I know who love to listen to audiobooks and prefer to learn that way. They can devour content and process/remember it all. Audio is a nice change of pace at times, but I prefer visuals and reading often times. It needs to be absolutely quiet if I’m tackling some new information/learning. 


In Conversation With… Ashton Cousineau — from drphilippahardman.substack.com by Dr. Philippa Hardman
A new video series exploring how L&D professionals are working with AI on the ground

In Conversation With… Ashton Cousineau by Dr Philippa Hardman

A new video series exploring how L&D professionals are working with AI on the ground

Read on Substack


The Learning Research Digest vol. 28 — from learningsciencedigest.substack.com by Dr. Philippa Hardman

Hot Off the Research Press This Month:

  • AI-Infused Learning Design – A structured approach to AI-enhanced assignments using a three-step model for AI integration.
  • Mathematical Dance and Creativity in STEAM – Using AI-powered motion capture to translate dance movements into mathematical models.
  • AI-Generated Instructional Videos – How adaptive AI-powered video learning enhances problem-solving and knowledge retention.
  • Immersive Language Learning with XR & AI – A new framework for integrating AI-driven conversational agents with Extended Reality (XR) for task-based language learning.
  • Decision-Making in Learning Design – A scoping review on how instructional designers navigate complex instructional choices and make data-driven decisions.
  • Interactive E-Books and Engagement – Examining the impact of interactive digital books on student motivation, comprehension, and cognitive engagement.
  • Elevating Practitioner Voices in Instructional Design – A new initiative to amplify instructional designers’ contributions to research and innovation.

Deep Reasoning, Agentic AI & the Continued Rise of Specialised AI Research & Tools for Education — from learningfuturesdigest.substack.com by Dr. Philippa Hardman

Here’s a quick teaser of key developments in the world of AI & learning this month:

  • DeepSeek R-1, OpenAI’s Deep Seek & Perplexity’s ‘Deep Research’ are the latest additions to a growing number of “reasoning models” with interesting implications for evidence-based learning design & development.
  • The U.S. Education Dept release an AI Toolkit and a fresh policy roadmap enabling the adoption of AI use in schools.
  • Anthropic Release “Agentic Claude”, another AI agent that clicks, scrolls, and can even successfully complete e-learning courses…
  • Oxford University Announce the AIEOU Hub, a research-backed research lab to support research and implementation on AI in education.
  • “AI Agents Everywhere”: A Forbes peek at how agentic AI will handle the “boring bits” of classroom life.
  • [Bias klaxon!] Epiphany AI: My own research leads to the creation of a specialised, “pedagogy first” AI co-pilot for instructional design marking the continued growth of specialised AI tools designed for specific industries and workflows.

AI is the Perfect Teaching Assistant for Any Educator — from unite.ai by Navi Azaria, CPO at Kaltura

Through my work with leading educational institutions at Kaltura, I’ve seen firsthand how AI agents are rapidly becoming indispensable. These agents alleviate the mounting burdens on educators and provide new generations of tech-savvy students with accessible, personalized learning, giving teachers the support they need to give their students the personalized attention and engagement they deserve.


Learning HQ — from ai-disruptor-hq.notion.site

This HQ includes all of my AI guides, organized by tool/platform. This list is updated each time a new one is released, and outdated guides are removed/replaced over time.



How AI Is Reshaping Teachers’ Jobs — from edweek.org

Artificial intelligence is poised to fundamentally change the job of teaching. AI-powered tools can shave hours off the amount of time teachers spend grading, lesson-planning, and creating materials. AI can also enrich the lessons they deliver in the classroom and help them meet the varied needs of all students. And it can even help bolster teachers’ own professional growth and development.

Despite all the promise of AI, though, experts still urge caution as the technology continues to evolve. Ethical questions and practical concerns are bubbling to the surface, and not all teachers feel prepared to effectively and safely use AI.

In this special report, see how early-adopter teachers are using AI tools to transform their daily work, tackle some of the roadblocks to expanded use of the technology, and understand what’s on the horizon for the teaching profession in the age of artificial intelligence.

 

Four objectives to guide artificial intelligence’s impact on higher education — from timeshighereducation.com by Susan C. Aldridge
How can higher education leaders manage both the challenge and the opportunity artificial intelligence presents? Here are four objectives to guide the way

That’s why, today, the question I’m asking is: How best can we proactively guide AI’s use in higher education and shape its impact on our students, faculty and institution? The answer to that broad, strategic question lies in pursuing four objectives that, I believe, are relevant for many colleges and universities.


In This Week’s Gap Letter — by Ryan Craig

Learning to use business software is different from learning to think. But if the software is sufficiently complex, how different is it really? What if AI’s primary impact on education isn’t in the classroom, but rather shifting the locus of learning to outside the classroom?

Instead of sitting in a classroom listening to a teacher, high school and college students could be assigned real work and learn from that work. Students could be matched with employers or specific projects provided by or derived from employers, then do the work on the same software used in the enterprise. As AI-powered digital adoption platforms (DAPs) become increasingly powerful, they have the potential to transform real or simulated work into educational best practice for students only a few years away from seeking full-time employment.

If DAPs take us in this direction, four implications come to mind….


The Impact of Gen AI on Human Learning: a research summary — from drphilippahardman.substack.com by  Dr. Philippa Hardman
A literature review of the most recent & important peer-reviewed studies

In this week’s blog post, I share a summary of five recent studies on the impact of Gen AI on learning to bring you right up to date.

Implications for Educators and Developers

For Educators:

  • Combine ChatGPT with Structured Activities: …
  • Use ChatGPT as a Supplement, Not a Replacement:…
  • Promote Self-Reflection and Evaluation:

For Developers:

  • Reimagine AI for Reflection-First Design: …
  • Develop Tools that Foster Critical Thinking: …
  • Integrate Adaptive Support: …

Assessing the GenAI process, not the output — from timeshighereducation.com by Paul McDermott, Leoni Palmer, and Rosemary Norton
A framework for building AI literacy in a literature-review-type assessment

In this resource, we outline our advice for implementing an approach that opens AI use up to our students through a strategy of assessing the process rather than outputs.

To start with, we recommend identifying learning outcomes for your students that can be achieved in collaboration with AI.


What’s New: The Updated Edtech Insiders Generative AI Map — from edtechinsiders.substack.com by Sarah Morin, Alex Sarlin, and Ben Kornell
A major expansion on our previously released market map, use case database, and AI tool company directory.

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Tutorial: 4 Ways to Use LearnLM as a Professor — from automatedteach.com by Graham Clay
Create better assessments, improve instructions and feedback, and tutor your students with this fine-tuned version of Gemini.

I cover how to use LearnLM

  • to create sophisticated assessments that promote learning
  • to develop clearer and more effective assignment instructions
  • to provide more constructive feedback on student work, and
  • to support student learning through guided tutoring
 
© 2025 | Daniel Christian