AI in the Classroom - Daily

Dan Cogan-Drew
  • 0.0 (0)
  • Education
  • Updated Daily

AI in the Classroom – Daily helps educators make sense of AI without the hype. This daily podcast explores what responsible AI in the classroom really looks like for teachers, school leaders, and district administrators. Each episode translates the latest AI news, research, and policy debates into clear, practical insight — what's changing, why it matters, and what to do next. I use AI as a thinking partner in preparing each episode, because the best way to talk honestly about AI in education is to work with it openly. Co-Founder & Chief Academic Officer, Newsela dan.cogandrew@newsela.com

  1. 2d ago

    Is This the Better Way to Prove Student Authorship?

    In this episode we explore a practical classroom response to one of the hardest problems AI has created for teachers: how to know whether a student actually understands the work they submitted. Rather than relying on unreliable AI detectors, we look at an emerging approach from educators like AJ Giuliani: using a student’s submitted paper to generate a short comprehension quiz that helps reveal whether the student truly knows the material. Topics covered: Why AI detectors are often unreliable for judging student authorshipHow quiz-based authentication can help teachers assess whether students know the work they submittedAJ Giuliani’s classroom approach to AI-era authorship questionsNick Potkolitsky’s distinction between “ownership” and “formation”Why retention, transfer, and agency matter in student learningWhat “generate before you delegate” means for student writingHow oral explanation, reflection, and defense of ideas can strengthen assessmentWhy classroom bots may be useful for probing student understanding, not just catching misusePractical implications for teachers, instructional coaches, and district leaders Sources: https://ajjuliani.beehiiv.com/p/the-easiest-way-to-stop-ai-plagiarizing https://nickpotkalitsky.substack.com/p/is-ownership-the-best-metaphor-for

    8 min

  2. 3d ago

    When the University Goes All In

    In this episode we explore California State University’s large-scale AI licensing deal with OpenAI, and what it reveals about the tension between institutional policy, classroom practice, and pedagogical purpose. CSU set out to become the nation’s first “AI-powered university system,” offering ChatGPT enterprise access across its campuses. But a year later, many licenses went unused, faculty pushed back, and the deeper question became clear: providing access to AI is not the same as knowing what AI is for in teaching and learning. Topics covered: CSU’s $17 million OpenAI agreement and what happened after rolloutWhy enterprise AI access can be an administrative decision, but classroom AI use is a pedagogical oneFaculty resistance, unused licenses, and the limits of top-down implementationThe difference between AI as institutional branding and AI as a teaching toolWhat K–12 leaders can learn from CSU’s rolloutHow districts should think about AI licenses, adoption, teacher agency, and purposeThe risk of confusing workforce preparation with meaningful learningSource: https://www.nytimes.com/2026/06/01/magazine/ai-university-college-california.html

    9 min

  3. 4d ago

    Students Need to Think About Their Thinking

    In this episode we explore what effective feedback looks like in AI-assisted classrooms, and why the design of that feedback matters more than the novelty of the tool. Topics covered: Why many teachers are still receiving little guidance on classroom AI useWhat new research suggests about metacognitive feedback and student learningThe difference between feedback that supports transfer and feedback that simply encouragesHow teachers can design AI feedback that prompts student reflectionWhy custom teacher-built chatbots need clearer instructional guardrailsWhat instructional coaches should ask when evaluating AI feedback toolsWhy district leaders should make feedback behavior part of AI procurement and professional developmentThe risk of AI tools optimizing for engagement instead of learning Sources: https://news.gallup.com/poll/710534/teachers-receive-no-formal-guidance.aspx https://www.nature.com/articles/s41539-025-00311-8

    8 min

  4. 5d ago

    The Problem With Branding a School Around AI

    In this episode we explore the debate around a Georgia school marketed as the nation’s first AI-themed high school, and what its story reveals about the gap between AI branding and actual classroom practice. Topics covered: The Seckinger High School debate and the risks of branding a school around AILarry Cuban’s “oversold and underused” pattern in education technologyWhy AI may create a harder accountability problem than earlier classroom technologiesThe difference between durable skills and actual AI integrationWhen AI speeds up learning versus when it short-circuits important thinkingThe limits of student self-awareness when using AI toolsWhat district leaders should ask before making AI part of a school’s identityWhy good teaching may matter more than the AI label attached to a school Sources: https://www.nytimes.com/2026/05/30/opinion/ai-high-school.html

    8 min

  5. 6d ago

    The Question the Tool Didn't Ask

    In this episode we explore a live “AI usage teardown” of a reflective tool created by educator Amelia King, designed to help students think more clearly about how they are using AI in academic work. Topics covered: How students can reflect on whether their work is genuinely their ownThe difference between AI assistance and cognitive surrenderWhy “how much AI did you use?” is often harder to answer than it seemsWhat teachers should notice about student ownership, comprehension, and verificationWhy the timing of AI use matters in the writing and thinking processHow reflective tools can help restore student agency Sources: https://poe.com/AI_Usage_Review_2.0 https://www.amelia-king.com/about

    12 min

  6. May 29

    When AI Took the Parsing, the Teacher Took the Argument

    In this episode, we explore a fascinating (and counterintuitive) finding from a large-scale study of AI writing tools in Brazilian high schools: adding human graders to AI feedback didn’t improve student outcomes—but that’s not the real story. We challenge the common narrative about AI “doing the teaching” and instead ask a more important question: what happens when AI handles the routine work so teachers can focus on what matters most? In this episode, we explore: How an AI writing tool improved student outcomes—even without human gradersWhy the biggest gains showed up in complex thinking, not surface-level writingThe concept of “task reallocation” and why it matters more than automationHow teachers used AI to shift toward more meaningful one-on-one conversationsWhy more writing + more feedback didn’t require more teacher timeThe critical role of sequencingWhy the lowest-performing students saw no benefitThe limits of AI as a “last mile” solution for feedbackWhat educators should really ask before adopting any AI tool Source: https://www.povertyactionlab.org/sites/default/files/research-paper/working-paper_5806_Artificial-Intelligence-Teacher-Tasks-Pedagogy_Brazil_Feb2021_0.pdf

    9 min

  7. May 28

    The Invisible Slippage of Cognitive Surrender

    In this episode we explore the idea of cognitive surrender in AI education: what happens when students, teachers, or professionals begin relying on AI not just for support, but for the thinking itself. How do we use AI as a thinking partner without gradually losing our own voice, judgment, and generative ability? Topics covered: What “cognitive surrender” means in the context of AI and educationWhy AI dependence is harder to detect than plagiarismThe difference between recognizing your thinking and producing it independentlyHow AI can subtly reshape voice, judgment, and creative workWhat teachers should consider before using AI for lesson plans, feedback, or writing supportWhy districts should pay attention to the defaults being set by AI toolsHow schools can encourage intentional AI use rather than reflexive dependence Source: https://www.oneusefulthing.org/p/choosing-to-stay-human

    9 min

  8. May 27

    Assistant to the Teacher, Not the Reader

    In this episode we explore a sharper way to think about AI in literacy instruction: not as a shortcut that makes texts easier for students, but as a teacher’s assistant that helps educators identify where complex texts may challenge readers. Topics covered: Tim Shanahan’s argument for using AI as a teacher-facing toolHow AI can identify complex sentences and vocabulary in classroom textsThe difference between useful AI analysis and noisy or overly technical outputWhy teacher judgment still matters when interpreting AI suggestionsWhat AI handles well in text analysis — and where it strugglesWhy text complexity is more than a single readability scoreWhat this means for teachers choosing and teaching complex textsSources: https://www.shanahanonliteracy.com/blog/ai-and-the-teaching-of-reading-comprehension-part-2 https://app.newsela.com/view/cmlldktks00083b6qi19cz2vu/?levelId=cmlldktor0kt708ncdns10m6r&activityPanel=annotations

    9 min
See All (56)

About

AI in the Classroom – Daily helps educators make sense of AI without the hype. This daily podcast explores what responsible AI in the classroom really looks like for teachers, school leaders, and district administrators. Each episode translates the latest AI news, research, and policy debates into clear, practical insight — what's changing, why it matters, and what to do next. I use AI as a thinking partner in preparing each episode, because the best way to talk honestly about AI in education is to work with it openly. Co-Founder & Chief Academic Officer, Newsela dan.cogandrew@newsela.com

Information

You Might Also Like