I'm excited to be in DC this week for QS Global Skills Week, learning about the future of education and work (naturally I'm curious about how AI is playing a role). www.qs.com/conferences/...

What if most of your co-workers were AI agents? Or your boss was a bot? How should colleges help students prepare for an AI work world? The latest episode of Learning Curve podcast features Evan Ratliff from Shell Game. One answer: Take a philosophy class. learningcurve.fm/episodes/how...

Should educators emphasize memorization as an antidote to the rush of AI tools? A small but growing number of experts are making that case. Check out the latest episode of Learning Curve -- which features a 6-time US memory champion and an expert on how to learn. learningcurve.fm/episodes/the...

Can Parents Really Protect Kids From the A.I. Robots? I joined the hosts of Slate’s Care and Feeding parenting podcast to talk about that question. It was a blast. slate.com/podcasts/car...

Student journalists at the U of Minnesota are donning bullet-proof vests and gas masks and attending trainings designed for war correspondents to cover the ICE surge. One of their professors worries AI-doctored images make it harder to sort real from misinformation learningcurve.fm/episodes/les...

Australia recently passed a law banning kids under 16 from using social media. Will similar laws come to the U.S.? And should age restrictions be placed on new generative AI tools as well? We dive in on the latest Learning Curve podcast: learningcurve.fm/episodes/is-...

What kind of guardrails should AI companies build to protect learning? I talked w/ @annamillsoer.bsky.social for the latest Learning Curve podcast about her argument that agentic AI browsers offer a clear case of how AI & edtech companies can help protect learning. learningcurve.fm/episodes/wha...

Even hands-on trades are getting infused with AI, and in some surprising ways. That's what I learned when I visited an auto tech class experimenting with the technology. learningcurve.fm/episodes/is-...

It's becoming common for students to have AI friends. I've been curious to try to understand what this phenomenon means for how students and teachers view the AI tools used in education. I dove in on the latest episode of Learning Curve podcast: learningcurve.fm/episodes/why... #ai #education

Student newspaper editors at Notre Dame are calling on college leaders to revamp all assignments in required courses to make it so AI can't easily be used to complete them. It's essentially a call by students to make them work harder and learn more: learningcurvepodcast.substack.com/p/can-colleg...

Is AI Becoming the Next Polarizing Issue on Campuses? learningcurvepodcast.substack.com/p/is-ai-beco...

AI is causing fear and anxiety for many students. That's what I heard when I set up a table in front of the student center at U of Minnesota and interviewed undergrads for Learning Curve podcast. I teamed up with the student newspaper to help produce this one: learningcurve.fm/episodes/why...

Can AI Avatars Make Class Time More Human? The latest episode of Learning Curve podcast explores colleges who see AI as a key tool for expanding "flipped classroom" approaches by making it easy to create teaching videos. Some students find it creepy, though. learningcurve.fm/episodes/can...

If a critical mass of profs enter their lecture notes into AI tools to save a few minutes making their slides, is that giving away the store as far as their intellectual property? Are companies like Gamma amassing valuable sets of lecture notes? learningcurvepodcast.substack.com/p/is-my-prof...

Is My Professor Using AI to Teach? learningcurve.fm/episodes/is-...

Learning Curve learningcurvepodcast.substack.com?r=61y900&utm...

AI-Generated “Workslop” Is Destroying Productivity hbr.org/2025/09/ai-g... In my own reporting I keep asking folks for examples of cost savings and significant improvements from AI, and I find folks hard-pressed to give concrete examples... this article in HBR digs into this issue more deeply...

I've started a Substack for Learning Curve podcast. I hope you'll sign up! open.substack.com/pub/learning...

“Like students facing hard exam questions, large language models sometimes guess when uncertain, producing plausible yet incorrect statements instead of admitting uncertainty," say researchers in a new study showing AI hallucinations are fundamental to the tech www.computerworld.com/article/4059...

Will AI Bring More Student Disengagement? This just dropped - latest episode of Learning Curve podcast. I talked with Rebecca Winthrop, co-author of The Disengaged Teen - and a high school student giving her view on the pros and cons of AI for student motivation. learningcurve.fm/episodes/wil...

Ep 2 of Learning Curve just dropped! This one looks at a new model for teaching with AI proposed by Paul LeBlanc, former president of SNHU, plus some reaction from longtime teaching expert Maha Bali. Can AI bots be part of teaching w/o cutting off human connection? learningcurve.fm/episodes/wha...

Trump wants to add jobs in manufacturing, but colleges are already having difficult recruiting and keeping up w/ companies’ fast-changing needs. I traveled to Lorain County Community College to check out their efforts to sell students on manufacturing programs. hechingerreport.org/colleges-str...

I'm starting a podcast! I'm focusing on AI and education, exploring what it means to teach and learn when chatbots and other generative AI can do work that was once thought to be uniquely human. The podcast is called Learning Curve and the first episode is up. learningcurve.fm

My latest article for The Chronicle of Higher Ed - a look at AI and cybersecurity. Turns out profs are particularly prone to deepfake attacks because they often have samples of their image and voice on YouTube clips of them giving talks or online lecture videos. www.chronicle.com/ci/insights/...

The story of how generative AI arrived on college campuses is far more complicated and troubling than purchasing a single app, like ChatGPT. Updates in existing contacts don’t require a clearly defined decision making processes or go through shared governance marcwatkins.substack.com/p/your-campu...

So is Gen AI already taking away white-collar jobs? One expert I talked to from Georgetown Center on Education and the Workforce says no, but this NYTimes column by ‪@kevinroose.com‬ argues that the job losses area already happening, and that new college grads are feeling it. What do folks think?

UAE’s AI University Aims to Become Stanford of the Gulf "The UAE is on a mission to become a global player in AI. The country appointed the world’s first AI minister back in 2017, and mandated this month that all primary schools add AI-based topics like algorithmic bias and prompt engineering..."

Here's a must read from Leah Fabel: Medicaid cuts could push more kids into unpaid family caregiving roles "Young caregivers report more depression, anxiety, and stress than their peers. Their physical health tends to be worse, too." and their educational outcomes are greatly impacted.

It seems like everyone has seen the video of Turkish PhD student Rumeysa Ozturk getting arrested on the street because of an op-ed she co-wrote for the campus newspaper criticizing the university's response to Israel's war in Gaza. After six weeks of detention, she is now free after a judge's order

It's the day students decide which campus they're committing to, and colleges expect the number of international students to be down significantly because of recent Trump administration visa cancellations. And that will be a big financial blow to higher ed. hechingerreport.org/internationa...

The EdSurge Podcast is back with our first episode of the new year. The question is what to do about student cheating with AI, focusing on a new book by a longtime expert on academic integrity. I was surprised by some of the advice here: www.edsurge.com/news/2025-01...

Does School Choice Need a Lemon Law? www.edsurge.com/news/2024-12...

The latest EdSurge Podcast is kind of hard to explain, but in a good way. Our search for a new podcast theme song led to this unexpected conversation about the importance of creativity in teaching and in life. And it's about free music online. www.edsurge.com/news/2024-12...

I kind of thought that one thing AI wouldn't be doing was actually interviewing human subjects in social science research. Well... some profs are trying it: www.edsurge.com/news/2024-11...

Latest episode of the EdSurge Podcast just dropped: Want to Find Highly-Engaged Students at 4-year Colleges? Look at Transfer Students. It boosted my mood to hear this student talk about campus as an academic Disneyland and how he couldn't wait to learn. www.edsurge.com/news/2024-11...

I recently started a Bluesky account, and I'm putting together a starter pack of people and publications that cover AI in education who have accounts on the platform. If you'd like to be on it, just let me know in the comments here or at [email protected] lnkd.in/g4vSX3_H

Reports: Trump Picks McMahon as Education Secretary The former WWE executive has served on the board of Sacred Heart University since 2004 but has few other ties to higher ed.

I'm putting together a starter pack of people and publications that cover AI in education who have accounts on this platform. If you'd like to be on it, just let me know in a reply or at [email protected] go.bsky.app/SYuRWxV

When it comes to new AI tools, there’s a tension in education between the efficiency prized in productivity features and the friction necessary for learning that sticks. Excited to have this @edsurge.bsky.social article republished in Fast Company. www.edsurge.com/news/2024-11...