AI just changed again - what schools and universities need to know this week
AI in Education Podcast
This week delivered one of the biggest waves of AI news in recent memory - and Dan and Ray unpack what it all means for schools, universities and vocational education. From Microsoft’s upcoming Copilot upgrades to Google’s jaw-dropping Gemini 3 and Nano Banana Pro image model, the landscape for teachers shifted fast. They explore how these tools are already reshaping lesson design, image generation, student support and academic workflows - and why NotebookLM might quietly be the most important education tool Google has ever released. They also break down newly released case studies from...
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UNE’s AI Shake-Up: A Regional Uni Redefining the Rules?
AI in Education Podcast
In this episode, Ray sits down with , Director of at the , a regional Australian university making one of the boldest moves in higher education: giving every staff member and every student access to a full enterprise AI platform. Aaron shares how UNE has built , its white-labelled version of the platform, and why the university chose to go beyond standard tools like Copilot or ChatGPT for Education. With multi-model access, MCP connectors, and soon agentic capabilities, UNE staff have already created more than 3,000 AI assistants and reached an extraordinary 85% daily usage rate. The...
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Meet the weird new jobs AI just invented
AI in Education Podcast
In this episode of the AI in Education Podcast, Ray and Dan wrap up Series 14 with a packed news and research roundup. They start with the tricky world of AI governance in education, where Ray explains how schools and universities can simplify their policies instead of writing 26 new ones. The conversation then turns to a Washington Post piece on the rise of new AI-driven jobs - from conversation designers to human-AI collaboration leads - and what this means for the future of work and capability-building. They also unpack new insights from cechat about how teachers are creating and using AI...
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Education on Country: Peta-Anne Toohey on AI and Data Sovereignty
AI in Education Podcast
In this episode of the AI in Education Podcast, hosts Dan and Ray welcome , Social Reciprocity Manager at Indigital, Australia’s first Indigenous-owned digital training company. Together they explore how generative AI intersects with Indigenous knowledge systems, and why cultural safety, data sovereignty, and community-led design must be central to any tech or education initiative. Peta shares powerful stories from her work in Cape York, where communities are building digital skills on Country through augmented reality, drones, and caring-for-country technologies. She unpacks what it means...
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Inside the AI Classroom: Dan & Ray’s Big AI-in-Education Download
AI in Education Podcast
Inside the AI Classroom: Dan & Ray’s Big AI-in-Education Download In this fast-paced news roundup, Dan and Ray dive head-first into the latest research and developments shaping AI in education. From MIT’s Perspectives for the Perplexed guide for schools, to McKinsey’s take on “agentic AI,” to Google’s LearnLM experiments with AI-powered textbooks, the duo unpack what every educator needs to know right now. They explore what’s happening inside classrooms, universities, and edtech labs — including new findings on AI literacy, evolving assessment design, and why “policing AI...
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Becoming More Human in the Age of AI at University
AI in Education Podcast
Becoming More Human in the Age of AI at University What happens when AI knows everything - and humans must rediscover what makes us unique? In this episode, host Ray Fleming sits down with , to explore how artificial intelligence is reshaping not just libraries, but the very identity of education itself. Carlo shares how librarians are helping students and academics navigate AI’s rapid rise - guiding them to think critically, question deeply, and find their authentic voice in an age of infinite information. Together, they unpack how AI is pushing universities to move beyond expertise and...
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The AI Mayhem Episode
AI in Education Podcast
In this week’s episode of the AI and Education Podcast, Ray and Dan dive into one of the most chaotic – and entertaining – weeks in AI news so far. From councils losing millions to AI-powered scams to the idea of having a “family safe word,” this one swings between hilarious and hair-raising. They unpack what’s new in AI assessment research - including TEQSA’s AI guidance for universities, the “wicked problem” of AI and assessment, and why Turnitin’s detection tools are under fire (again). You’ll hear how South Australia’s EdChat report shows teachers and students...
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Humans in AI – Creativity, Wellbeing & Technology in Education
AI in Education Podcast
Humans in AI – Creativity, Wellbeing & Technology in Education a researchers perspective Guest: Dr Rebecca Marrone, Lecturer & Researcher, University of South Australia In this episode, Dan and Ray welcome Dr Rebecca Marrone to discuss the intersection of AI, creativity, and wellbeing in education. Her research explores how technology, especially AI, is transforming the educational landscape for both teachers and students. Key Topics AI’s Impact on Teacher & Student Wellbeing Creativity & Critical Thinking in the Age of AI Ethical Risks of AI in Education...
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Schools and universities fast-track AI rollouts: from Oxford to Australia
AI in Education Podcast
This week, Dan and Ray bring a whirlwind of AI news, research, and reflection from across the education world. From South Australia and New South Wales announcing state-wide AI chatbot rollouts for schools, to Oxford University embracing ChatGPT Education for all staff and students, the scale of adoption is hard to ignore. The hosts explore what these bold moves mean for schools, universities, and the future of assessment. They highlight contrasts between Australia’s rapid school-level deployments and the slower university approach, and compare these with global examples such as Arizona...
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From Learning to Earning: Education in an AI Age with David Yip
AI in Education Podcast
In this episode of the podcast, Dan and Ray sit down with - former Salesforce Director for Education in APAC, UNSW Business School advisory board member, and host of the Relearning Work podcast. Together, they explore how education must adapt in a world shaped by AI, where learning and earning can no longer be separate. David shares insights from his work in big tech, his leadership with the Future Skills Organisation, and his new platform , designed to bridge the gap between study and employment. This conversation unpacks themes of scale, the need to shift from finding answers to asking...
info_outlineThe season-ending episode for Series 7, this is the fifteenth in the series that started on 1st November last year with the "Regeneration: Human Centred Educational AI" episode. And it's an unbelievable 87th episode for the podcast (which started in September 2019).
When we come back with Series 8 after a short break for Easter, we're going to take a deeper dive into two specific use cases for AI in Education. The first we'll discuss is Assessment, where there's both a threat and opportunity created by AI. And the second topic is AI Tutors, where there's more of a focus on how we can take advantage of the technology to help improve support for learning for students.
This episode looks at one key news announcement - the EU AI Act - and a dozen new research papers on AI in education.
News
EU AI Act
https://www.europarl.europa.eu/news/en/press-room/20240308IPR19015/artificial-intelligence-act-meps-adopt-landmark-law
The European Parliament approved the AI Act on 13 March and there's some stuff in here that would make good practice guidance. And if you're developing AI solutions for education, and there's a chance that one of your customers or users might be in the EU, then you're going to need to follow these laws (just like GDPR is an EU law, but effectively applies globally if you're actively offering a service to EU residents).
The Act bans some uses of AI that threaten citizen's rights - such as social scoring and biometric identification at mass level (things like untargeted facial scanning of CCTV or internet content, emotion recognition in the workplace or schools, and AI built to manipulate human behaviour) - and for the rest it relies on regulation according to categories.
High Risk AI systems have to be assessed before being deployed and throughout their lifecycle.
In the High Risk AI category it includes critical infrastructure (like transport and energy), product safety, law enforcement, justice and democratic processes, employment decision making - and Education. So decision making using AI in education needs to do full risk assessments, maintain usage logs, be transparent and accurate - and ensure human oversight. Examples of decision making that would be covered would be things like exam scoring, student recruitment screening, or behaviour management.
General generative AI - like chatgpt or co-pilots - will not be classified as high risk, but they'll still have obligations under the Act to do things like clear labelling for AI generated image, audio and video content ; make sure there's it can't generate illegal content, and also disclose what copyright data was used for training.
But, although general AI may not be classified as high risk, if you then use that to build a high risk system - like an automated exam marker for end-of-school exams, then this will be covered under the high risk category.
All of this is likely to become law by the middle of the year, and by the end of 2024 prohibited AI systems will be banned - and by mid-2025 the rules will start applying for other AI systems.
Research
Another huge month. I spent the weekend reviewing a list of 350 new papers published in the first two weeks of March, on Large Language Models, ChatGPT etc, to find the ones that are really interesting for the podcast
Adapting Large Language Models for Education: Foundational Capabilities, Potentials, and Challenges
A Study on Large Language Models' Limitations in Multiple-Choice Question Answering
Dissecting Bias of ChatGPT in College Major Recommendations
Evaluating Large Language Models in Analysing Classroom Dialogue
The Future of AI in Education: 13 Things We Can Do to Minimize the Damage
https://osf.io/preprints/edarxiv/372vr
Scaling the Authoring of AutoTutors with Large Language Models
https://arxiv.org/abs/2402.09216
Role-Playing Simulation Games using ChatGPT
https://arxiv.org/abs/2402.09161
Economic and Financial Learning with Artificial Intelligence: A Mixed-Methods Study on ChatGPT
https://arxiv.org/abs/2402.15278
A Study on the Vulnerability of Test Questions against ChatGPT-based Cheating
https://arxiv.org/abs/2402.14881
Incorporating Artificial Intelligence Into Athletic Training Education: Developing Case-Based Scenarios Using ChatGPT
https://meridian.allenpress.com/atej/article/19/1/42/498456
Incorporating Artificial Intelligence Into Athletic Training Education: Developing Case-Based Scenarios Using ChatGPT
https://meridian.allenpress.com/atej/article/19/1/42/498456
RECIPE4U: Student-ChatGPT Interaction Dataset in EFL Writing Education
https://arxiv.org/abs/2403.08272
Comparison of the problem-solving performance of ChatGPT-3.5, ChatGPT-4, Bing Chat, and Bard for the Korean emergency medicine board examination question bank
Comparing the quality of human and ChatGPT feedback of students’ writing
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0959475224000215