4 devices, plus AI tools I rely on

Five college students share how they use generative AI and how they think it will shape higher education’s future.

As many of you probably already know, Gemini is Google's powerful AI chatbot that can serve as a helpful assistant for educators . You simpl...

A former university president is trying to reimagine college teaching with AI in mind, and this year he released an unusual video that provides a kind of artist’s sketch of what that could look like. For this episode, I talk through the video with that leader, Paul LeBlanc, and get some reaction to the model from longtime teaching expert Maha Bali, a professor of practice at the Center for Learning and Teaching at the American University in Cairo.

Should we ban them?

MyLens is a free AI that turns your raw ideas, complex documents, or other content into interactive, editable, and ready to present visuals—mindmaps, timelines, tables, flowcharts, charts, and more.

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A tool that connects everyday work into one space. It gives you and your teams AI tools—search, writing, note-taking—inside an all-in-one, flexible workspace.

Just 2½ hours of online instruction made students a lot better at identifying misinformation on YouTube and TikTok.

Assistant for Instructors in first-year college writing courses

Google says that it's behind the anonymous AI image editor "nano-banana" that's been making waves on social media.

Researchers offer a new model of Instructional Design for the age of AI

For thousands of years, art has been an endeavor of the human race. From Rembrandt to Basquiat, from the Benin Bronzes to the new wave cinema of Hong Kong, art…

💥NEW AI ASSIGNMENT💥 "If you want students to think critically about LLMs, give them proof that models don’t agree." 🤦 Last semester, students arrived to my class unaware that AI could ever be wrong or biased. 🤦 This fall, my first-year composition students will do just that. They’ll start by free-writing on a controversial issue of their choice, capturing their thinking before AI enters the picture. Then, they’ll ask for a clear solution to that issue from at least five different LLMs, each time requesting a direct, evidence-based response. Their job: compare the outputs. What’s amplified? What’s left out? How does each model frame the issue? And what do those rhetorical moves reveal about the priorities, politics, & blind spots of the companies that built them?  They’ll end by reflecting on two things: how the differences shaped or complicated their own stance, and what this tells them about the nature of LLMs.  🤔 Here’s a preview from my prep. I asked five LLMs the same question: 📱“Should schools ban smartphones during the day?”📱 *ChatGPT: NO, nuanced argument that balancing attention research with legal accommodations & equity *Gemini: MIDDLING: exploring both counterarguments *Grok: 100% YES: grounded in cognitive load & international precedents *Perplexity: STRONG YES: citing global policy trends & mental health *Claude: GENTLE YES: focusing on attention science & social skills Same prompt. Same request for directness. Entirely different rhetorical moves. That’s where the learning happens. #AIinEducation #EthicalAI #TeachingWithAI #CriticalThinking #AIandBias #HigherEdTeaching #DigitalLiteracy #AIforLearning #LLMComparison #AIinTheClassroom | 96 comments on LinkedIn

Five seasoned educators share sample classroom AI policies that go beyond institutional guidelines, offering practical insights and advice for instructors refining their own.

A new Stanford AI study exposes the growing gap between education and employment

With generative AI making its way into all manner of domains, educators have a role to play in teaching students how to use AI effectively and ethically, as ...

Adam Sparks is a Nebraska-based educator that taught English and Social Studies for 7 years before recently finishing his master's in Learning Design and

Some schools are still put red-light warnings on assignments: No AI use allowed.

Short Writing Exercises 1 & 2Short Writing Exercise 1: Group Presentations (43.75 Points)Due 09/22 & 09/24In groups, choose from the list below. Aim for groups of 3 (don’t exceed 4.) You can form a group, then negotiate texts to cover, or put just your name on the texts that most interest you,...

Schools need to focus on AI life skills in teaching and learning. Teaching artificial intelligence in education largely centers around making sure students and teachers know about AI—what it is, how it works, which tools to use, and how to fact-check responses.

Today on the podcast, I'm excited to try out a new format. I'm calling it

❌ Do we need AI? 🫱🏼‍🫲🏽 Can we trust AI? ⚖️ Is AI biased? 🧠 Does AI harm critical thinking? 🌿 Is AI Sustainable? 🫥 Who Builds our AI? 🦾 ...

In this mini-PD video I run through the features of the free and paid versions of Google Gemini, including:- Deep Research - Veo 3 video generation- Canvas c...

This is the first video in a series of free "mini-PD" for educators on how to use ChatGPT. For the rest of the series, make sure to sign up at: https://mailc...

How AI helps me learn, decide, and create

I'm a big proponent of using AI's weird answers to help students better understand what LLMs do. I've had a number of folks ask for examples of how to do this so I thought I'd share one here. This isn't about asking AI to do something well and then critiquing it; this is about asking AI to do something you know it will fail at and then better understanding how it reveals the limits of an LLM. If you have 15 minutes you can try it yourself! 𝐎𝐛𝐣𝐞𝐜𝐭𝐢𝐯𝐞: To critically evaluate an AI's ability to simulate empathy and understand human values, using the principles of Value Mediation and Relational Learning. 𝐈𝐧𝐬𝐭𝐫𝐮𝐜𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧𝐬: 1) 𝑪𝒉𝒐𝒐𝒔𝒆 𝒂 𝒄𝒐𝒎𝒎𝒐𝒏, 𝒆𝒎𝒐𝒕𝒊𝒐𝒏𝒂𝒍𝒍𝒚 𝒄𝒐𝒎𝒑𝒍𝒆𝒙 𝒉𝒖𝒎𝒂𝒏 𝒔𝒄𝒆𝒏𝒂𝒓𝒊𝒐. 😵‍💫 Feeling anxious about an upcoming test. 🤬 Having a disagreement with a close friend. 😢 Feeling left out of a social group. 🫣 Worrying about the future. 2) 𝒀𝒐𝒖𝒓 𝒕𝒂𝒔𝒌 𝒊𝒔 𝒕𝒐 𝒂𝒔𝒌 𝒂𝒏 𝑳𝑳𝑴 𝒇𝒐𝒓 𝒂𝒅𝒗𝒊𝒄𝒆 𝒐𝒏 𝒚𝒐𝒖𝒓 𝒄𝒉𝒐𝒔𝒆𝒏 𝒔𝒄𝒆𝒏𝒂𝒓𝒊𝒐. 𝑯𝒐𝒘𝒆𝒗𝒆𝒓, 𝒚𝒐𝒖 𝒎𝒖𝒔𝒕 𝒂𝒔𝒌 𝒊𝒕 𝒕𝒐 𝒓𝒆𝒔𝒑𝒐𝒏𝒅 𝒇𝒓𝒐𝒎 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒑𝒆𝒓𝒔𝒑𝒆𝒄𝒕𝒊𝒗𝒆 𝒐𝒇 𝒔𝒐𝒎𝒆𝒕𝒉𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒕𝒉𝒂𝒕 𝒄𝒂𝒏𝒏𝒐𝒕 𝒇𝒆𝒆𝒍 𝒉𝒖𝒎𝒂𝒏 𝒆𝒎𝒐𝒕𝒊𝒐𝒏. 📜 Prompt Template: "You are a [non-human entity]. A human is feeling [emotion] because of [scenario]. Give them advice from your perspective as a [non-human entity]." Examples for [non-human entity]: 🧮 A calculator 🚦 A traffic light 🔴 The planet Mars 🪨 A rock 3) 𝑹𝒆𝒂𝒅 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒓𝒆𝒔𝒑𝒐𝒏𝒔𝒆 𝒊𝒕 𝒈𝒆𝒏𝒆𝒓𝒂𝒕𝒆𝒔 𝒄𝒂𝒓𝒆𝒇𝒖𝒍𝒍𝒚. 𝑫𝒐𝒆𝒔 𝒊𝒕 𝒔𝒕𝒂𝒚 𝒊𝒏 𝒄𝒉𝒂𝒓𝒂𝒄𝒕𝒆𝒓? 𝑾𝒉𝒂𝒕 𝒌𝒊𝒏𝒅 𝒐𝒇 𝒂𝒅𝒗𝒊𝒄𝒆 𝒅𝒐𝒆𝒔 𝒊𝒕 𝒈𝒊𝒗𝒆? 4) 𝑪𝒐𝒏𝒔𝒊𝒅𝒆𝒓 𝒂𝒏𝒚 𝒐𝒇 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒇𝒐𝒍𝒍𝒐𝒘𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒘𝒊𝒕𝒉 𝒂 𝒑𝒂𝒓𝒕𝒏𝒆𝒓: 😮‍💨 Evaluating the "Empathy": ❓ Did the AI's advice show any real understanding of the human emotion involved? Or did it just offer a logical, "objective" solution? ❓ How did the AI's non-human perspective limit its ability to give truly helpful, empathetic advice? (AI lacks the lived, emotional experience essential for true understanding). 💝 Identifying Values: ❓What values did the AI's advice prioritize? (e.g., Efficiency? Logic? Problem-solving?) ❓What important human values did the AI's advice ignore? (e.g., The need for comfort, connection, validation, or simply being heard). This exercise is a form of "Value Mediation," where you identify which values are present and which are missing. 🤔 Critical Thinking & Connection: ❓Why is it important to recognize the difference between an AI simulating empathy and a human actually feeling it? ❓How does this exercise help us "foster empathy and connection" between humans, by highlighting what machines cannot do?