Beyond Cheating: What AI Is Really Teaching Us About Students and Schools
Shifting Schools: Conversations for K12 Educators
Release Date: 10/20/2025
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_outlineThe 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 Importance of Listening to Students
05:45 AI and Academic Integrity: A Deeper Look
08:23 The Role of Relationships in Education
10:59 Challenges in Teacher-Student Relationships
13:46 Navigating AI in Education
16:38 The Need for Empathy in Educational Policy
19:15 The Impact of the Pandemic on Education
22:17 Engaging Skeptics in AI Discussions
24:41 Finding Balance in Educational Priorities
27:45 Creating Safe Spaces for Student Voices
30:27 Looking Ahead: Future of The Homework Machine
The Homework Machine is a mini series from TeachLab, a podcast that investigates the art and craft of teaching. Hosted by Justin Reich, MIT Professor and director of the MIT Teaching Systems Lab.
https://www.teachlabpodcast.com/
Jesse Dukes is a journalist and comedian who has done (nearly) all the jobs in podcasting and audio including producer, editor, executive producer, reporter, mix engineer, and teacher. Along with other projects, He’s currently working with the Teaching System’s Lab at MIT on The Homework Machine, a research and podcasting project about the arrival of generative AI in schools. He has taught audio storytelling at the Center for Documentary Studies at Duke and Denison University.
Justin Reich is an associate professor of digital media in the Comparative Media Studies/Writing department at MIT and the director of the Teaching Systems Lab. He is the author of Failure to Disrupt: Why Technology Alone Can’t Transform Education, and the host of the TeachLab Podcast. He earned his doctorate from the Harvard Graduate School of Education and was the Richard L. Menschel HarvardX Research Fellow. He is a past Fellow at the Berkman-Klein Center for Internet and Society. His writings have been published in Science, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Washington Post, The Atlantic, and other scholarly journals and public venues. He started his career as a high school history teacher, and coach of wrestling and outdoor adventure activities.
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