Educator Agents You Can Trust | Ep. 133

In this ChatEDU Check-In: Finland Halts Google Data Center, Liz explores criminal investigations into Google after the company cleared protected forest land for a new data facility. Regulators ordered early development halted across two properties due to bypassed environmental risk assessments and water management concerns. This episode highlights the mounting tension between aggressive artificial intelligence infrastructure expansion and regional environmental protection.Key Takeaways:Finnish authorities initiated a criminal inquiry into whether Google bypassed mandatory environmental reviews before beginning land clearance for a data facility.The clearing of hundreds of thousands of trees mobilized civic protests and petition drives, eroding public goodwill toward foreign technology investments.Expanding data infrastructure has intensified debate over whether high energy and land consumption offers meaningful domestic payoff to local communities.Liz’s Two Cents: As school districts rapidly expand their adoption of cloud-based digital platforms and artificial intelligence tools, leadership teams must look beyond vendor capability to consider the real-world ecological costs of data infrastructure. District leaders should use this moment to evaluate enterprise vendor sustainability commitments and help students understand the physical footprint behind the digital tools they use every day.Article:Finland launches criminal investigation into Google’s clearing of forest for datacentre sitehttps://tinyurl.com/54za3hvj

In this ChatEDU Check-In: CDs Are So Back!, Liz explores why music fans are leaving streaming platforms to buy CDs. As algorithmic curation and digital fatigue grow, listeners are increasingly turning toward physical media for deliberate and meaningful engagement. This episode highlights how the resurgence of compact discs reflects a wider desire to escape automated feeds and reclaim intentional ownership.Key Takeaways:Listeners are turning to physical albums to escape the endless decision paralysis and automated curation of digital platforms.Direct media purchases provide vital financial backing to creators and safeguard collections against disappearing digital licenses.Physical compact discs give listeners permanent ownership and a durable, affordable alternative to the high cost and delicate footprint of vinyl.Liz’s Two Cents: The growing pushback against algorithm-driven streaming offers a compelling lesson for school district leaders navigating digital learning environments. While infinite digital access provides undeniable convenience, it frequently creates cognitive overload and passive scrolling habits among students. School systems must strike a thoughtful balance by pairing digital literacy with intentional, focused offline experiences, helping students move past digital fatigue to build deep, sustained engagement.Article:‘Algorithms make everything predictable’: why the CD is making a comebackhttps://tinyurl.com/864u84wf

ChatGPT can write a solid essay in seconds, so the finished draft doesn’t prove much anymore. The founder of Revision History and two amazing educators argue that what counts now is watching the work happen and making thinking visible. First UpMatt tries to gift Liz a $499 Dyson CameraJet, a Wi-Fi toothbrush whose camera reads 28 images a second, finds the gaps and blasts them with mouthrinse. You can livestream it. She declines.Dyson puts AI in a $499 toothbrush: https://tinyurl.com/m7sm4hdm The RundownCanva and Common SenseCanva adds 60 free AI and digital literacy lessons: https://tinyurl.com/4stseefb Santiago Schnell resigns as provost of Dartmouth: https://tinyurl.com/4cfbyfa9 Teachers Pay TeachersTeachers Pay Teachers curriculum marketplace to ban AI-generated curriculum resources (credit Jacob Kantor): https://tinyurl.com/y2bjxcz3 Mixed MessagesWashington's message to AI execs: Please shut up: https://tinyurl.com/4vnekrs4 Anthropic's S-1 devotes 90 of its 300 pages to AI safety risks: https://tinyurl.com/yfn6tsdc Not So OpaqueDid the Hardest Problem in A.I. Just Get Much Easier?: https://tinyurl.com/3pab8t4b Hiring PhilosophersUniversities Have Gone on an AI Philosopher Hiring Spree: https://tinyurl.com/37y58ty8 Microsoft AI head calls out Anthropic for acting like Claude is conscious https://tinyurl.com/skdz3xr4 AI in Education Newsletter (Sid's Research Community): https://tinyurl.com/4m267jbk Safety StandardsHow we're building standards for AI with child-safety experts: https://tinyurl.com/y474v9xw Day of AI on TourDay of AI Hits the Road: https://tinyurl.com/2p4pnyvs Beneath the SurfaceBuzz Rubenstein, whose Revision History extension now reaches 250,000 teachers, with Holly Anza of Framingham High School and Erik Hanson of the Appleton eSchool. Why AI detectors broke trust, what the writing history actually shows, and how Byline turns it student facing with no chatbot by design.Revision History: https://tinyurl.com/ye2yrdue Byline, the student-facing companion to Revision History: https://tinyurl.com/2xfbekjz Appleton eSchool pilot: https://tinyurl.com/26b7v5re  Bright ByteMicrosoft Research built Probabilistic Bias Correction, which learns a weather model's past mistakes and corrects them, closing the stubborn two to six week gap. It improved the leading ECMWF subseasonal model on nearly all precipitation, temperature and pressure targets.New AI framework bridges a critical gap in mid-range weather forecasts: https://tinyurl.com/zfwuxuy9 AnnouncementsRegister for our Winter Microcredential and upcoming AI events: https://tinyurl.com/43jwkwypPurchase Learning They'll Love - Dr. Elizabeth Radday on Amazon: https://tinyurl.com/22t9hz77Check out our middle / high school Student AI Literacy course: www.skills21.org/ai/learnaiExplore Skills21’s FREE social media literacy curriculum: https://www.skills21.org/socialAddress Screen Time concerns: skills21.org/ai/screenshiftRead From Panic to Proof: A Data-Driven Approach to Screen Time (ASCD Educational Leadership): https://tinyurl.com/4pwdu68SponsorThe National Center for Next Generation Manufacturing: Bridging Education and Industry to Build Tomorrow’s Technical Workforce - https://www.nextgenmfg.orgRegistration Link: https://forms.gle/LeVh9FubGVY6BNuJ6. To learn more about the NCNGM, visit www.nextgenmfg.org 

In this ChatEDU Check-In: Meta Went After the Messenger, Matt explores unsealed court documents revealing Meta's internal discussions to launch a quiet campaign discrediting social psychologist Jonathan Haidt. The disclosures, emerging from ongoing litigation filed by school districts, detail how tech executives considered covert strategies to blunt criticism regarding youth mental health and social media. The episode highlights how grassroots academic critiques can rapidly escalate into nationwide policy shifts and intense corporate pushback.Key Takeaways:Court records show Meta staff debated a below-the-line whisper strategy to convince the academic community to disavow Jonathan Haidt rather than mounting a public debate.The discussions specifically explored enraging fellow researchers and commissioning takedown articles to weaken the credibility of Haidt's findings on teen screen usage.Columbia University professor Andrew Gelman was named in the internal notes as a potential author, though Gelman confirmed he was never approached or hired by Meta for such an effort.Matt’s Two Cents: District leaders must pay close attention to the mechanics of how digital wellness debates evolve from fringe research into mainstream institutional policy. As seen with Haidt and emerging voices like Jared Cooney Horvath, credible connectors can swiftly disrupt long-standing tech assumptions and drive sweeping mandates such as school cell phone bans. When major platforms feel threatened enough to target individual messengers, school leaders should critically evaluate outside corporate narratives and independently prioritize student well-being and intentional device management.Article:Meta discussed ‘whisper strategy’ against social media critic Jonathan Haidt, files show⁠https://tinyurl.com/3x6ycrpz⁠Sponsored by: Playground IEP AI for special education. Take advantage of our special offer: Free Account at ⁠app.playgroundiep.com/podcast⁠.

In this ChatEDU Check-In: Good for Thee and for Me, Matt explores whether faculty members should be required to disclose their own artificial intelligence use. The University of Illinois Chicago recently released updated guidelines requiring instructors to explicitly declare their AI usage across syllabi, course design, and grading support. This policy shift highlights the growing emphasis on mutual transparency as artificial intelligence becomes deeply integrated into higher education.Key Takeaways:Course syllabi must explicitly state which student AI uses are acceptable or prohibited.Faculty are required to disclose their own use of artificial intelligence for teaching, grading, or course design.Policies must align with academic integrity standards while providing clear templates via campus groups like CATE and LTS.Matt’s Two Cents: Generative artificial intelligence is a general-purpose technology that impacts every aspect of our work, eroding trust between faculty and students if accountability flows in only one direction. Establishing transparency guidelines for both sides helps heal campus divisions and fosters a balanced approach to digital literacy in higher education.Article:Artificial Intelligence (AI) Use and Disclosure Statementhttps://tinyurl.com/56kw6u4tSponsored by: Playground IEP AI for special education. Take advantage of our special offer: Free Account at app.playgroundiep.com/podcast.

An AI agent can log into a student's Canvas and do the whole assignment. A writing professor on who is actually learning, and the process steps that work.First UpCornell researchers found chatbots keep writing the same story, down to the names Mara, Elias and Elara in 88 percent of them. Liz ran one prompt through Claude, Gemini and ChatGPT and got three keepers of lost things, three bakeries and three villages tucked between sleepy hills.Why Do Chatbots Keep Telling Stories About Someone Named 'Elias Thorne'?: https://tinyurl.com/ydewzeav Elvis estate sues Anthropic over training on Elvis recordings: https://tinyurl.com/3u56sbkw The RundownGemini NotebookTeacher-led Gemini Notebook in Google Classroom: Insight Summaries and Trusted Domain Sharing: https://tinyurl.com/mds89n2d The CrackdownThe New Nanny State: https://tinyurl.com/3hcxsm2s 'Checkmate' looms for traditional tests amid smart glasses epidemic: https://tinyurl.com/byc4ybsw The Hardware BillThe Memory Shortage Comes for Schools: https://tinyurl.com/4ukmzxf5 Agents Meet the Real WorldWebsites are closing their doors to AI agents: https://tinyurl.com/e5jp4y6d Scoop: Unvetted AI agents are accessing U.S. bank accounts: https://tinyurl.com/2w2bpjuf Moving Beyond the AI Cop-Out: How I Got My Students to Write Their Own Tech Policies: https://tinyurl.com/m859uvf9 AI in Education Newsletter (Sid's Research Community): https://tinyurl.com/4m267jbk Beneath the SurfaceBay Area writing instructor Anna Mills discusses AI agents completing coursework autonomously, why companies haven't blocked them, and her classroom response: student topic choice, process credit, peer and AI review, and treating AI detection as a dialogue.MLA Statement on Educational Technologies and AI Agents: https://tinyurl.com/4sf3ptdh AI and College Writing: An Orientation (Anna Mills): https://tinyurl.com/3drp9hjb The Peer & AI Review + Reflection Project (PAIRR): https://tinyurl.com/3dajfab7 AI Is Problematic. Why Does PAIRR Use It? An Ethics Statement: https://tinyurl.com/jne7japz Designing for Agency and Critical AI Literacy: The PAIRR Project (LTHEchat): https://tinyurl.com/2s36p45z MLA Framework for AI-Resilient Assessment and Grading: https://tinyurl.com/mvtvswdz Anna Mills on LinkedIn: https://tinyurl.com/4h38utbm Bright ByteHugging Face released Carbon-X, an open model trained on DNA sequences alongside English, so researchers can ask in plain language what a genetic change might do. It reads DNA in six-letter chunks and runs locally on a laptop.Hugging Face's New AI Model Lets You Chat With DNA: https://tinyurl.com/3e34pvnx AnnouncementsRegister for our Winter Microcredential and upcoming AI events: https://tinyurl.com/43jwkwypPurchase Learning They'll Love - Dr. Elizabeth Radday on Amazon: https://tinyurl.com/22t9hz77Check out our middle / high school Student AI Literacy course: www.skills21.org/ai/learnaiExplore Skills21’s FREE social media literacy curriculum: https://www.skills21.org/socialAddress Screen Time concerns: skills21.org/ai/screenshiftRead From Panic to Proof: A Data-Driven Approach to Screen Time (ASCD Educational Leadership): https://tinyurl.com/4pwdu68SponsorThe National Center for Next Generation Manufacturing: Bridging Education and Industry to Build Tomorrow’s Technical Workforce - https://www.nextgenmfg.orgRegistration Link: https://forms.gle/LeVh9FubGVY6BNuJ6. To learn more about the NCNGM, visit www.nextgenmfg.org 

In this ChatEDU Check-In: Students take up to 88 standardized tests before high school, but more testing doesn't improve learning, Liz explores how high-volume standardized testing impacts educational outcomes and school operations. Federal mandates have driven school districts to restructure daily schedules and reallocate instructional time toward tested subjects like math and reading. However, this increased focus on assessment has not translated into improved academic performance.Key Takeaways:Federal testing mandates led 44 percent of school districts to cut time from non-tested subjects like the arts.Increased testing volume fails to produce measurable achievement gains in core academic subjects.High-stakes test pressure decreases teacher job satisfaction and contributes to educator attrition.Liz’s Two Cents: Over-testing creates an environment where evaluation overshadows actual instruction, forcing districts to narrow their curriculum at the expense of well-rounded learning. School leaders must carefully weigh the administrative and operational burdens of excessive assessment against the lack of tangible academic gains.Article:Students take up to 88 standardized tests before high school, but more testing doesn't improve learninghttps://tinyurl.com/4n3ab88tSponsored by: Playground IEP AI for special education. Take advantage of our special offer: Free Account atapp.playgroundiep.com/podcast.

In this ChatEDU Check-In: From academia to Hollywood: Blazing a trail for computer-animated hair, Liz explores how a new mathematical framework helps animate realistic coiled hair textures. Traditional animation tools have historically struggled with non-straight hair patterns, but recent research from Yale University changes how studios handle complex hair physics.Key Takeaways:Animation software has historically lacked the foundational tools required to render tightly coiled textures, leaving non-straight hair patterns underserved in major films.Simulating realistic strand movement depends on solving the underlying physics of material resistance, specifically bending and torsion forces.Academic research transitioned unusually fast into commercial filmmaking because open publications solve persistent algorithmic bottlenecks for studio industries.Liz’s Two Cents: This breakthrough highlights how foundational math and physics research can directly solve long-standing creative bottlenecks in media production, offering schools a great example of interdisciplinary learning in action.Article:From academia to Hollywood: Blazing a trail for computer-animated hairhttps://tinyurl.com/3usvdhrbSponsored by: Playground IEP AI for special education. Take advantage of our special offer: Free Account at app.playgroundiep.com/podcast.

A school district gave staff their own AI agents, living inside Google Chat. Its CIO on the guardrails, and why he made none of it mandatory. First UpMatt pitches Meta's Muse using a WIRED piece about a reporter’s NSFW chat with the agent without policy violations, but Liz isn't convinced. Gemini Pro also got another redesign.Meta Says That's Totally Fine: https://tinyurl.com/yhetjccj Gemini pro redesign: Scheduled Actions and Tasks, formerly Spark:https://tinyurl.com/yk9nzwtp  The RundownListener MailbagListener call-in: Rabbi Tzvi Pittinsky on the "blip" (voice memo) Ebb and the Riptide Beach, Rob Wilson's cybersecurity escape room (Goodwin University): https://tinyurl.com/2assvftk Prompt CraftAndrej Karpathy's New suggestion - Ask AI output in ASD-STE100 format and not in Text format: https://tinyurl.com/bddm4bcz Live Voice Chat: the mic button in the Gemini Notebook app: https://tinyurl.com/2hh4x7ku Audio recorder: the record button in the Gemini Notebook app: https://tinyurl.com/bdhx5huu Google releases a new local-first Granola competitor: https://tinyurl.com/59naxfxc School RulesFairfax Co. rolls out Google AI blocker on school-issued laptops: https://tinyurl.com/5798dvrf ChatEDU Ep. 132, on Common Sense Media's unacceptable risk ratings: https://tinyurl.com/53he8xpn Attorney General Brenna Bird Announces Lawsuit against OpenAI for Deceiving Iowa Parents and Iowans: https://tinyurl.com/8e5s9x2x Work and Words4 seats AI can occupy at the negotiating table: https://tinyurl.com/yc8kks7z Book Publishers Are Quietly Using More AI. Staff Are Revolting: https://tinyurl.com/m52pv5vuSetting Ed Tech and AI Policy for Young Children: https://tinyurl.com/4dy929d3 Oklahoma AI Family Guide for K-2 Parents: https://tinyurl.com/ykbuphj8 Miami DadeMiami Dade College Pairs AI Students With Companies: https://tinyurl.com/2p9um3ep Creator's CornerPeninsula School District CIO Kris Hagel highlights AWS-powered, zero-retention Google Chat AI agents. With role-based data protections and artifact publishing via "Atrium," 240 staff voluntarily adopted them in a month, streamlining budget reporting and creating tools like chemistry mahjong.Peninsula School District AI resources: https://tinyurl.com/yvsjj2sx  Bridging Innovation & Implementation (Kris Hagel): https://tinyurl.com/yc5fw975Kris Hagel LinkedIn: https://tinyurl.com/4t9th69c  Bright ByteResearchers validated EpiScreen, an AI analyzing clinical notes to distinguish epilepsy from psychogenic non-epileptic seizures. AI Helps Neurologists Distinguish Epilepsy From Functional Seizures: https://tinyurl.com/324pn77n AnnouncementsRegister for our Winter Microcredential and upcoming AI events: https://tinyurl.com/43jwkwypPurchase Learning They'll Love - Dr. Elizabeth Radday on Amazon: https://tinyurl.com/22t9hz77Check out our middle / high school Student AI Literacy course: www.skills21.org/ai/learnaiExplore Skills21’s FREE social media literacy curriculum: https://www.skills21.org/socialAddress Screen Time concerns: skills21.org/ai/screenshiftRead From Panic to Proof: A Data-Driven Approach to Screen Time (ASCD Educational Leadership): https://tinyurl.com/4pwdu68SponsorThe National Center for Next Generation Manufacturing: Bridging Education and Industry to Build Tomorrow’s Technical Workforce - https://www.nextgenmfg.orgRegistration Link: https://forms.gle/LeVh9FubGVY6BNuJ6. To learn more about the NCNGM, visit www.nextgenmfg.org 

In this ChatEDU Check-In: Data Center = Teacher Bonus?, Matt explores how hyperscalers and tech companies are offering financial concessions to local communities to secure approval for new data centers. As computing expansion faces political and public resistance, tech firms are funding local initiatives and infrastructure to build goodwill. These investments range from workforce training programs to direct cash payouts and local school support.Key Takeaways:Tech companies face growing opposition over the energy, water, and cost footprints of expanding data centers.Firms like Amazon are pledging commitments including transparent resource reporting and over $1 billion for free community college, trades training, and energy efficiency upgrades.Local communities are leveraging their approval power to extract payouts, including teacher bonuses in Louisiana funded by Meta and direct household cash proposals.Matt’s Two Cents: Since creativity thrives under constraints, limits on data center construction will force tech companies to innovate toward efficiency in chip design, energy, and water usage, while school districts and communities can leverage their positioning to secure strategic investments.Article:Amazon launches new data center commitmentshttps://tinyurl.com/bde22fbxSponsored by: Playground IEP AI for Special Education designed to help educators write IEP goals, manage case loads, and track progress. Take advantage of our special offer: Free for individual educators at https://tinyurl.com/4f3ekn9k.