EdTechnical

Owen Henkel & Libby Hills

Join two former teachers - Libby Hills from the Jacobs Foundation and AI researcher Owen Henkel - for the EdTechnical podcast series about AI in education. Each episode, Libby and Owen will ask experts to help educators sift the useful insights from the AI hype. They’ll be asking questions like - how does this actually help students and teachers? What do we actually know about this technology, and what’s just speculation? And (importantly!) when we say AI, what are we actually talking about? 

  1. ١٦ أكتوبر

    Is social media really destroying teen mental health?

    In this episode of EdTechnical, Libby and Owen speak with Candice Odgers, a psychologist and researcher studying how online experiences influence children's mental health. They revisit the debate around social media and teen wellbeing, questioning the claims that social media use  has caused rising rates of depression and anxiety. Candice calls for a more careful reading of the evidence and cautions against rushing into restrictive policies that may have unintended consequences or divert attention from more effective interventions. Candice also shares early findings from her recent research into AI in education. She finds surprisingly limited use of AI among young people, and mixed perceptions around what counts as cheating, which shapes how these tools are received. Notably, she found no clear socioeconomic divide in AI engagement, raising questions about how these tools might be designed to support more equitable learning. They discuss the challenge of designing rigorous studies in this space and the need for thoughtful, evidence-informed approaches to both social media and AI. Links: Adaptlab - Adaptation, Development and Positive Transitions Lab NYT Article: Panicking About Your Kids’ Phones? New Research Says Don’t Bio Candice Odgers is the Associate Dean for Research and Faculty Development and Professor of Psychological Science at the University of California Irvine. She also co-directs the Child & Brain Development Program at the Canadian Institute for Advanced Research and the CERES Network funded by the Jacobs Foundation. Her team has been capturing the daily lives and health of adolescents using mobile phones and sensors over the past decade. More recently, she has been working to leverage digital technologies to better support the needs of children and adolescents as they come of age in an increasingly unequal and digital world. Join us on social media: BOLD (@BOLD_insights), Libby Hills (@Libbylhhills) and Owen Henkel (@owen_henkel) Listen to all episodes of Ed-Technical here: https://bold.expert/ed-technical Subscribe to BOLD’s newsletter: https://bold.expert/newsletter Stay up to date with all the latest research on child development and learning: https://bold.expert Credits: Sarah Myles for production support; Josie Hills for graphic design; Anabel Altenburg for content production.

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  2. ١٨ سبتمبر

    Rewiring the Brain: Reading, AI and the Science of Literacy

    In this first episode of EdTechnical Season 3, Libby and Owen speak with Dr. Jason Yeatman from Stanford University about how the brain learns to read, the power of better assessment, and a broader look at how AI is beginning to reshape our relationship with reading itself. They touch on the science behind reading as a learned skill, the surprising overlap between visual and auditory processing, and the challenges schools face in teaching it well. ROAR (Rapid Online Assessment of Reading), a free online reading assessment tool developed by Dr. Yeatman’s lab, comes up as a practical way schools are identifying literacy gaps and supporting students at scale across the US. They reflect on what reading looks like in an AI-driven world in which technology can surface information instantly, reflecting that literacy remains essential for engaging with complexity, understanding detail, and maintaining equal access to opportunity and participation in society.  Links ROAR (Rapid Online Reading Assessment) – Welcome to ROAR!Journal Article: The Virtuous Cycle between Education and Neuroscience, by Jason D. Yeatman and Maya Yablonski, published in Mind, Brain and Education (August 2025)Bio Dr. Jason Yeatman is an Associate Professor in the Graduate School of Education and Department of Psychology and the Division of Developmental and Behavioral Pediatrics at Stanford University. He earned his PhD in Psychology, focusing on the neurobiology of literacy and brain imaging methods to study learning and plasticity. As director of the Brain Development and Education Lab, his research aims to uncover how children learn to read, how this process differs in those with dyslexia, and how to design effective literacy interventions using structural and functional neuroimaging to explore how reading instruction shapes brain development. Join us on social media: BOLD (@BOLD_insights), Libby Hills (@Libbylhhills) and Owen Henkel (@owen_henkel) Listen to all episodes of Ed-Technical here: https://bold.expert/ed-technical Subscribe to BOLD’s newsletter: https://bold.expert/newsletter Stay up to date with all the latest research on child development and learning: https://bold.expert Credits: Sarah Myles for production support; Josie Hills for graphic design; Anabel Altenburg for content production.

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  3. ١٤ أغسطس

    Assessment in Education: To AI or Not to AI?

    In this episode of EdTechnical, Libby and Owen speak with assessment expert Dylan Wiliam, Emeritus Professor at UCL Institute of Education, about how formative assessment and AI are reshaping classroom practice. Dylan brings decades of experience in educational research and teacher development to a timely conversation about what works, what doesn’t, and what’s next for assessment.  They cover:  Why formative assessment remains underused despite its proven impact How AI is reshaping summative assessment and teacher workload The limits of AI in delivering meaningful feedback Rethinking homework in the age of AI Oral exams, conversational assessment, and the future of grading The potential for AI to shift the teacher-student dynamic for the better Links  Book: Student Assessment: Better Evidence, Better Decisions, Better Learning  Dylan and others explore how assessment can be redesigned to better support learning and decision-making in schools. Podcast episode: Formative Assessment, AI, and the Future of Teaching  Dylan discusses how AI can support teacher growth and formative assessment, while cautioning against overreliance on tech.  Join us on social media: BOLD (@BOLD_insights), Libby Hills (@Libbylhhills) and Owen Henkel (@owen_henkel) Listen to all episodes of Ed-Technical here: https://bold.expert/ed-technical Subscribe to BOLD’s newsletter: https://bold.expert/newsletter Stay up to date with all the latest research on child development and learning: https://bold.expert Credits: Sarah Myles for production support; Josie Hills for graphic design; Anabel Altenburg for content production.

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حول

Join two former teachers - Libby Hills from the Jacobs Foundation and AI researcher Owen Henkel - for the EdTechnical podcast series about AI in education. Each episode, Libby and Owen will ask experts to help educators sift the useful insights from the AI hype. They’ll be asking questions like - how does this actually help students and teachers? What do we actually know about this technology, and what’s just speculation? And (importantly!) when we say AI, what are we actually talking about? 

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