AI Companions: the risks and benefits, and what educators need to know
Shifting Schools: Conversations for K12 Educators
Release Date: 07/21/2025
Can we communicate with our pets? Leo Trottier on the Future of Interspecies Communication
Shifting Schools: Conversations for K12 Educators
What if our pets are communicating complex ideas—and technology is finally catching up? In this episode of the Shifting Schools Podcast, cognitive scientist and FluentPet founder Leo Trottier joins us to explore how breakthroughs in animal cognition, inter-species communication, and speech-button interfaces are reshaping the way humans understand pets. Trottier unpacks the science behind communication-enhancing tools for animals, drawing from research in cognitive psychology, comparative cognition, and linguistics to explain how dogs and cats may be expressing needs, feelings, and even...
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Crossing the Line of Falling Behind: Where Is Your School on the AI Curve?
Shifting Schools: Conversations for K12 Educators
Summary In this episode, Jeff Utecht discusses the critical importance of understanding where schools stand on the AI adoption curve. He emphasizes the need for leadership to actively engage with AI and for educators to integrate AI into their teaching practices. The conversation highlights the transformative potential of AI in education, urging schools to move from mere conversation to meaningful integration. Learn more about our amazing show sponsor: Takeaways AI adoption is crucial for schools today. Leadership must model AI usage and curiosity. Schools are on a curve of AI...
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How Generative AI Can Deepen Critical Thinking in K12, Not Replace It
Shifting Schools: Conversations for K12 Educators
Discover how educators are using generative AI not to automate, but to elevate critical thinking and collaboration in K-12 schools. In this episode of Shifting Schools, host Tricia Friedman shows how “disagreement by design” and intentional prompt-engineering transform student and leadership learning. What you’ll learn: What disagreement by design looks like in real classrooms and leadership teams How prompt engineering unlocks student curiosity and systems-thinking mindset in K-12 Why writing bespoke GPT bots might just be the 'new essay' of our times Who this episode is for:...
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Parenting, Picture Books, and the Practice of Wonder: Leadership Lessons in Creativity
Shifting Schools: Conversations for K12 Educators
A conversation that reminds us how curiosity, art, and iteration can reshape are necessary and may even be assets for our school leadership and the ways we nurture creative courage in young learners.... In this episode, Tricia Friedman sits down with author-illustrator Christy Mandin to explore what school leaders can learn from the creative process behind children’s literature. Together they unpack how curiosity fuels empathy, how messy iteration sparks innovation, and how embracing the dark and uncertain moments of creativity can make us more compassionate educators. What You’ll Learn ...
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Beyond Cheating: What AI Is Really Teaching Us About Students and Schools
Shifting Schools: Conversations for K12 Educators
The conversation about AI in education often starts—and stops—with cheating. But what if that’s the least interesting part of the story? In this episode, Tricia Friedman speaks with the team behind the new show: The Homework Machine, MIT’s Justin Reich and journalist Jesse Dukes. They unpack how generative AI is reshaping what we mean by integrity, creativity, and student voice. Together they explore how teachers can balance innovation with empathy, and what schools might learn from students already living in the AI age. Chapters 00:00 Introduction to The Homework Machine 02:47 The...
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Why vibe coding is such a vibe
Shifting Schools: Conversations for K12 Educators
In this episode talks listeners through an example of how she vibe coding an app from start to finish. Her vibe coding process of building an app blends AI literacy, digital humanities, and leadership design thinking. What does this tell us about the future of using generative AI for projects in K12? This episode is sponsored by our amazing friends at Join over 1 million educators using Poll Everywhere. Try it risk free for 30 days—we'll refund you if it's not a good fit. Listeners will gain insight into: how AI-assisted app design reshapes collaboration and imagination in schools what...
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The Future of Higher Education in America
Shifting Schools: Conversations for K12 Educators
Today, a college diploma is no guarantee that graduates have the competencies that businesses need, including using emerging technologies, communicating, working in teams, and other necessary skills. So, it’s fair to ask, “Do students really need a college degree”? Brandeis University President, and nationally respected higher education leader and researcher, Arthur Levine has been at the forefront of the changing role of higher education. Co-author of THE GREAT UPHEAVAL, HIGHER EDUCATIONS PAST PRESENT AND...
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Collaboration: The Heart of Innovation
Shifting Schools: Conversations for K12 Educators
In this conversation, Tricia Friedman speaks with authors Dylan Thuras and Jennifer Swanson about their ambitious book that explores the evolution of invention and technology. They discuss the importance of collaboration in science, the interdisciplinary nature of learning, and how curiosity drives innovation. The conversation also highlights the role of play in the invention process and how everyday objects can inspire new perspectives. Dylan Thuras is the cofounder and creative director of Atlas Obscura. He lives in Rosendale, NY Jennifer Swanson is an...
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I know what you did last summer: Jeff and Tricia edition
Shifting Schools: Conversations for K12 Educators
On this episode Jeff and Tricia catch up on all the learning they did last summer. Hear them talk about gardening...and of course generative AI Learn more about how to catch them this year:
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Where is the current taking K12?
Shifting Schools: Conversations for K12 Educators
In this episode of Shifting Schools, Jeff Utecht and Tricia Friedman discuss their upcoming training sessions focused on integrating AI into education. They emphasize the importance of understanding AI's impact on the job market, the necessity of prompt engineering as a new skill for educators, and the need for AI literacy among students. The conversation also touches on the evolving nature of AI tools and the importance of addressing mental health concerns related to technology use among students. You can learn more about the five part series: Takeaways AI is reshaping the educational...
info_outlineHow do we prepare students—and ourselves—for a world where AI grief companions and "deadbots" are a reality?
In this eye-opening episode, Jeff Utecht sits down with Dr. Tomasz Hollanek, a critical design and AI ethics researcher at the University of Cambridge’s Leverhulme Centre for the Future of Intelligence, to discuss:
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The rise of AI companions like Character.AI and Replika
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Emotional manipulation risks and the ethics of human-AI relationships
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What educators need to know about the EU AI Act and digital consent
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How to teach AI literacy beyond skill-building—focusing on ethics, emotional health, and the environmental impact of generative AI
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Promising examples: preserving Indigenous languages and Holocaust survivor testimonies through AI
From griefbots to regulation loopholes, Tomasz explains why educators are essential voices in shaping how AI unfolds in schools and society—and how we can avoid repeating the harms of the social media era.
Dr Tomasz Hollanek is a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the Leverhulme Centre for the Future of Intelligence (LCFI) and an Affiliated Lecturer in the Department of Computer Science and Technology at the University of Cambridge, working at the intersection of AI ethics and critical design. His current research focuses on the ethics of human-AI interaction design and the challenges of developing critical AI literacy among diverse stakeholder groups; related to the latter research stream is the work on AI, media, and communications that he is leading at LCFI.
Connect with him:
https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s13347-024-00744-w
https://www.repository.cam.ac.uk/items/d3229fe5-db87-42ff-869b-11e0538014d8
https://www.desirableai.com/journalism-toolkit
📌 Key Takeaways
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Teenagers are vulnerable AI users. Many systems simulate empathy while bypassing meaningful regulation or safeguards.
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Consent needs a redesign. Hollanek proposes recurring consent mechanisms—a shift from passive pop-ups to informed, adaptive engagement.
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AI literacy ≠ prompt engineering. We must move from tool proficiency to critical awareness of data footprints, systemic manipulation, and long-term impact.
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Social AI is the new social media. Without thoughtful intervention, the pitfalls of social media could repeat—and intensify—with AI companions.
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AI for cultural preservation. Ethical use of AI offers promise for sustaining languages and stories that might otherwise disappear.
🧠 For Educators: Use This Episode To
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Spark classroom discussions on ethics, digital legacy, and emotional AI
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Reflect on policy decisions around edtech adoption and student data consent
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Explore speculative design as a student project to imagine future AI uses and risks
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Guide students in analyzing AI’s impact on mental health and community memory
Thank you to our show sponsor, Alongside.
Learn more about their critical research:
Inside the report:
> Teens are struggling with sleep more than ever
> School-life balance feels out of reach at every age
> Boys are looking for new ways to ask for help
> Confidential, self-guided tools are resonating deeply with students.
https://www.alongside.care/shifting?utm_campaign=Shifting