Shows
Ed-TechnicalIs ChatGPT Rotting Your Brain?In this short, Libby and Owen digest a recent MIT study attracting a lot of attention, ‘Your Brain on ChatGPT: Accumulation of Cognitive Debt When Using an AI Assistant for Essay Writing’. The study looked at how using tools like ChatGPT for writing essays affects people's brains and writing abilities compared to using search engines or just their own thinking. Is there a potential trade-off between making writing easier in the short term, but harming cognitive abilities and learning over time? This question is especially salient for students who are in the earlier stages of developing their essay writ...2025-07-1715 minEd-TechnicalFinding Their Voice: Voice AI for Literacy SupportVoice AI is having a moment in education. As schools grapple with declining literacy scores and stretched teaching resources, voice-enabled tools have the potential to help. But what's already working in real classrooms, and what challenges remain?In this episode, Libby and Owen speak with Kristen Huff from Curriculum Associates and Amelia Kelly from SoapBox Labs about the emerging field of voice AI for literacy support and assessment. Together they explore how automatic speech recognition technology helps teachers identify reading challenges earlier, provide more frequent assessments, and give students personalized feedback on their oral reading.T...2025-06-1733 minEd-TechnicalCoach or Crutch?: Using AI to hone self regulation (not outsource it)In this episode, Libby and Owen talk to Sanna Järvelä and Inge Molenaar, two of the world’s leading scholars on self‑regulated learning (SRL). Together they cover SRL 101: what self-regulated learning is and why it is a valuable skill. Self-regulated learning is students setting their own goals and then monitoring their learning to achieve those goals. Self-regulation can come more naturally in informal learning settings like sports, but it can be harder to monitor your learning and know if you're on track in school. Sanna and Inge explain how technology can help to address this...2025-05-0630 minEd-TechnicalA1 sauce for all: Reflections from SXSW and ASUGSVThis week Owen and Libby reflect on two recent EdTech conferences in the US: SXSW Edu in March and ASUGSV in April. They discuss how much things have shifted for US education over this short time period, and three themes that stood out to them both: AI literacy, transformation versus efficiency, and the disruptive potential of AI for education. 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.exp...2025-04-2214 minEd-TechnicalMimicry versus meaning: why context is important for AI toolsAnother live Ed-Technical episode! In this short, Owen does a deep dive on AI and discourse analysis (the study of how meaning is constructed through language) with three experts. The conversation explores the intersection between AI, particularly Large Language Models (LLMs), and the study of discourse. This is a topical conversation as LLM capabilities continue to evolve. LLMs have mastered sentence level communication. However we know less about their ability to be useful over the course of a full conversation and complex and interactive processes (like learning) that require deeper appreciation of context. Featuring:Pa...2025-03-2622 minEd-TechnicalUntitled EpisodeJoin 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 2025-03-2522 minEd-TechnicalLive from SXSW EDU: Evidence Eats AI for BreakfastEveryone is talking about AI’s power to provide answers, but what about your lingering questions? What does the latest research actually tell us? Join Libby and Owen for this live session from SXSW EDU as they delve into the latest research to uncover where AI is truly adding value in the educational landscape — and where it falls short. They’re joined by two expert guests: Kristen DiCerbo from Khan Academy and Assistant Professor Peter Bergman from University of Texas at Austin and Learning Collider. The group discusses the most pressing open questions and key findings from the latest resear...2025-03-1731 minEd-Technical181 Papers Later: What We Know (and Don't) About GenAI in SchoolsIn this episode, Owen and Libby chat with Chris Agnew about Stanford's new generative AI hub for education. Chris leads this initiative within Stanford's SCALE program, which aims to be a trusted source for education system leaders on what works in AI and learning.Chris walks us through their research repository of 181 papers examining AI's impact in K-12 education. He outlines their GenAI tools typology which breaks down AI applications into three categories: efficiency gains, improving student outcomes, and reimagining schooling. The conversation explores key research gaps, including how schools can productively engage with teachers' unions on...2025-02-2515 minEd-TechnicalIs two years of learning possible in six weeks with AI?In this short, Owen and Libby discuss a recent World Bank blog post about a study in Nigeria that evaluated the impact of Microsoft Copilot (powered by ChatGPT) on student learning outcomes. In a six-week after school programme, students were supported to use Copilot. The full study hasn’t been published yet but the blog post reports “overwhelmingly positive effects on learning outcomes”. It reports that the learning improvement over the six-week programme was equivalent to nearly two years of typical learning. Owen has a few questions about this…LinkWorld Bank blog post ‘Fr...2025-02-1008 minEd-TechnicalBabies & AI: what can AI tell us about how babies learn language?In this episode, Libby and Owen interview Mike Frank, Professor at Stanford University and leading expert in child development. This episode has a different angle to the others, as it is more about AI as a scientific instrument rather than as a tool for learning. Libby and Owen have a fascinating discussion with Mike about language acquisition and what we can learn about language learning from large language models. Mike explains some of the differences between how large language models develop an understanding of human language versus how babies do this. There are some big questions touched o...2025-01-2735 minEd-TechnicalTeachers & ChatGPT: 25.3 extra minutes a weekIn this short, Libby and Owen discuss a hot-off-the-press study that is one of the first to test how ChatGPT impacts the time science teachers spend on lesson preparation. The TLDR is that teachers who used ChatGPT, with a guide, spent 31% less time preparing lessons - that’s 25.3 minutes per week on average. This very promising result points to the potential for ChatGPT and similar generative AI tools to help teachers with their workload. However we encourage you to dig into the summary and report to go beyond the headline result (after listening to this episode) - this is a r...2025-01-1310 minEd-TechnicalHow & why did Google build an education specific LLM? (part 2/3)This episode is the second in our three-part mini-series with Google, where we find out how one of the world’s largest tech companies developed a family of large language models specifically for education, called LearnLM. This instalment focuses on the technical and conceptual groundwork behind LearnLM. Libby and Owen speak to three expert guests from across Google, including DeepMind, who are heavily involved in developing LearnLM. One of the problems with out-of-the-box large language models is that they’re designed to be helpful assistants, not teachers. Google was interested in developing a large language model better suite...2024-12-1638 minEd-TechnicalAI tutoring part 2: How good can it get?In this episode, Owen and Libby chat about AI tutoring with guests, Ben Kornell, Managing Partner at Common Sense Growth Fund, and Alex Sarlin, a veteran in the edtech industry. Both co-founded Edtech Insiders, a leading newsletter and podcast covering the growing Edtech industry. Ben and Alex differentiate between AI-powered search and true AI tutoring, and discuss trends like AI-enhanced human tutors, hybrid models, and fully autonomous AI bots. The conversation highlights the need for AI to integrate- and learn from traditional education in developing key elements, such as targeting the right zone of proximal development. Human t...2024-12-0221 minEd-TechnicalInside the black box: How Google is thinking about AI & education (part 1 of 3)This episode is the first of a three part mini-series with Google. There is a lot of interest in how big tech companies are engaging in AI and education and what their future plans are - in this mini-series, hear the latest directly from Google. The genesis of this mini-series was a short Ed-Technical episode from earlier this year. Libby and Owen discussed a paper Google released about the work they had done to fine-tune a LLM called LearnLM to make it more useful for education. This work was motivated by a realisation that some of the c...2024-11-1836 min
Edtech InsidersBridging AI and Human Connection in Education with Libby Hills and Owen Henkel of Ed-Technical PodcastSend us a textLibby Hills co-leads the Jacobs Foundation’s global EdTech investment portfolio, focusing on the intersection of technology, research, and education. With over 15 years in education, including roles in teaching, tech leadership, and charity boards, she also co-hosts the Ed-Technical podcast. Libby holds degrees in Education and Social Business from Oxford and LSE.Owen Henkel is an AI in Education researcher at the University of Oxford, specializing in natural language processing for foundational literacy and numeracy. He leads the R&D team for...2024-11-0434 minEd-TechnicalBig data and algorithmic bias in education: what is it and why does it matter?This episode, Owen and Libby speak to Ryan Baker, a leading expert in using big data to study learners and learning interactions with educational software. Ryan is a Professor in the Graduate School of Education at the University of Pennsylvania, and is Director of the Penn Center for Learning Analytics. Ryan provides an overview of educational data mining (otherwise known as EDM) and explains how insights from EDM can help improve learner engagement and outcomes. Libby and Owen also explore the technical aspects of algorithmic bias with Ryan, discussing why it matters, how it is...2024-10-2125 minEd-TechnicalThink aloud or think before you speak?: OpenAI’s new model for advanced reasoningIn this short episode, Libby and Owen discuss OpenAI’s new model for advanced reasoning, o1. They talk about its new capabilities and strengths, and what they think about its significance for education after an initial play around. They talk through the benefits of ‘think aloud’ versus ‘think before you speak’ approaches in education, and how this relates to o1. Links:OpenAI’s announcement about o1Join us on social media: BOLD (@BOLD_insights), Libby Hills (@Libbylhhills) and Owen Henkel (@owen_henkel) Listen to all episodes of E...2024-10-0810 minEd-TechnicalMisconceptions about misconceptions: How AI can help teachers understand & tackle student misconceptionsIn this episode, Libby and Owen are joined by Craig Barton, Head of Education at Eedi and host of the Mr Barton Maths and Tips for Teachers podcasts, along with Simon Woodhead, Director of Research at Eedi. Together, they explore the world of educational misconceptions—what they are, why they matter and how AI and data science can help tackle them. Links: Craig Barton biography Simon Woodhead biography Eedi’s research Join us on social media: BOLD (@BOLD_insights), Libby Hills (@Libbylhhills) and Owen Henke...2024-09-2334 minEd-TechnicalWhy Language Models are suck ups and how this can be bad for learningIn this short, Libby and Owen discuss recent research from Anthropic looking at sycophancy – the tendency to agree with users – in large language models (LLMs), and key research from educational psychology about how important feedback is for learning. Libby and Owen connect the two papers and explore why sycophancy is especially a problem when it comes to using LLMs for educational purposes. Links:Anthropic paper on sycophancy in language models John Hattie and Helen Timberley’s paper, The Power of Feedback Join us on social media: BOLD...2024-09-0911 minEd-TechnicalPassionate about planning (and Tim Walz): automated lesson planning toolsIn this short, Libby and Owen discuss automated lesson planning tools (after Owen stops talking about his Tim Walz crush). There’s now a growing number of lesson planning tools out there for teachers who are using AI: Khanmigo, Magic School, Diffit and Oak National Academy (who will soon release a lesson planning tool) to name a few. Libby and Owen cover what some of the automated tools do and what some of their features are. They share their thoughts about the value and benefits of the tools. They also do a quick primer on lesson plans an...2024-08-2613 minEd-TechnicalShort: Generative AI Can Harm Learning - our quick takesIn this short, Libby and Owen discuss a recent paper that has generated interest and discussion called ‘Generative AI Can Harm Learning’. The paper presents the findings from a thought-provoking study of nearly 1,000 students in Turkey. The study tested the effects of giving students access to two different versions of GPT-4 while studying math: one was essentially ChatGPT and the other was a version of GPT-4 that had been tailored for tutoring with a thin prompt wrapper – so it didn’t just give students the answer. The main finding (that the title is based on) is that access to...2024-08-1210 minEd-TechnicalTangerines & loquats: Building AI EdTech for low resource settingsThis episode, Owen and Libby speak to Carmen Strigel, Senior Director of Education Technology at RTI, a non-profit global research organisation. Carmen has been the driving force behind a number of successful EdTech products built and used in low resource settings. Carmen tells Owen and Libby about Tangerine, data collection software used in more than 60 countries, and Loquat, a machine learning tool that provides feedback to teachers on their classroom talk. This episode builds on earlier interviews this season about voice AI with Alyssa van Kamp from TeachFX and Peter Foltz from the Institute of Cognitive Science a...2024-07-2929 minEd-TechnicalShort episode: What do teachers, parents, and students really think about AI chatbots?In our second short episode of the season, Owen and Libby chat about the recently released results of a US poll (conducted on behalf of Walton Family Foundation and Renaissance Philanthropy) looking at the views of teachers, parents, and students on AI chatbots. There were some surprising findings: more than 8 in 10 participants think technology in education has had a positive impact, and parents want to see AI chatbots used more in their child’s education. Listen in to hear more highlights from the poll. LinksReport on the results of the pollEdWeek article about the poll res...2024-07-1509 minEd-TechnicalFrom biscuits to AI: Teacher Tapp's surprising insights on teacher preferencesIn this episode of Ed-Technical, Owen and Libby speak with Becky Allen, co-founder of Teacher Tapp, a survey tool that polls a representative sample of teachers about what's happening in their schools, classrooms, and lives at the end of every school day. The conversation covers a range of topics related to AI and education, including how teachers are currently using large language models, the potential for AI to address the "lockstep problem" in education (that all students are expected to progress together, despite their differences) and the future role of technology in schools.Becky shares insights from...2024-07-0134 minEd-TechnicalVoice AI for teacher feedback: navigating noisy classrooms and building teachers' trustIn the second episode of season two Owen and Libby speak to Alyssa Van Camp, Head of Research at EdTech start-up TeachFX. TeachFX is an app for teachers that uses voice AI (a combination of automated speech recognition and natural language processing) to analyse classroom talk and then provide automated feedback to teachers. Owen and Libby talk to Alyssa about the challenges with transcribing and analysing classroom talk and how TeachFX is overcoming some of these issues. Alyssa also shares some interesting reflections about how TeachFX approaches data privacy, and navigates the tension between b...2024-06-1728 minEd-TechnicalShort episode: Google's newest research on genAI for education, and the problem with hypotenuses...In the first short episode of season two, Owen and Libby share their warm takes on two big releases from OpenAI and Google. They reflect on the OpenAI demo video of Sal Khan’s (Khan Academy’s founder) son using their latest model (GPT-4o) as a maths tutor, and Google’s paper describing how they trained and evaluated a fine-tuned version of Gemini for educational purposes. Share your takes on these announcements with us over social media or in the comments!Links:Google paper on LearnLM-TutorKey Ex...2024-06-0311 minEd-TechnicalSeason 2 : Three decades of AI in education: assessment to classroom collaborationThis season Libby Hills from the Jacobs Foundation and AI researcher Owen Henkel continue to speak with leading researchers, practitioners and educators on the Ed-Technical podcast series about the cutting edge of AI in education. They will break down complex AI concepts into non-technical insights to better understand what the research says and help educators sift the useful insights from the AI hype. In the first episode of Season 2, Libby and Owen speak with Peter Foltz about his work at the intersection of cognitive science, AI, and education over the past few decades. Peter discusses his experience b...2024-05-2037 minEd-TechnicalSeason 1 Highlights & Lingering QuestionsIn this final episode of season 1 Owen and Libby pull out highlights from each episode. They reflect on some of the common themes, and their lingering questions after season 1. They ask, if a model’s not perfect, how good does it have to be before it stops being useful at all? And they share their appreciation for their many guests who are ex-teachers. Owen also shares his personal wish for more adversarial discussions in season 2, which Libby may or may not grant. We'll be back for season 2 in May! Join for our long promised epi...2024-04-0837 minEd-TechnicalShort 3: What out-there EdTech idea would you buy or sell?This week we're doing our third short episode - a chat between Libby and Owen about the more speculative or out-there EdTech ideas they could get behind (or not). Listen to find out who’s into calculators and who’s into roboteachers……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 deve...2024-03-2107 minEd-TechnicalBehind the scenes of building AI EdTech for schoolsIntroduction: Join two former teachers - Libby Hills from the Jacobs Foundation and AI researcher Owen Henkel - for the Ed-Technical 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? In the second part of this episo...2024-03-1238 minEd-Technical(Short) Behind the scenes: How impactful can an AI tutor be?This week we're doing our second short episode - a behind the scenes chat about a recent paper of Owen’s that has been generating some interest online. In the paper Owen and his co-authors present the impact of an AI tutor (Rori) on maths performance of around 1,000 students. Listen in for a summary of the study, what they found (TL;DR - the results are very promising!) and some probing (but not too probing, as Owen’s still recovering from his trouncing by Libby in their first short episode - a debate about “hallucinations” are in large lan...2024-02-2610 minEd-TechnicalInvesting in the Future of Learning: Can AI Unlock New Learning Experiences?In the seventh episode of this series, Libby and Owen talk to six EdTech investors about their views on AI in education. Guests join from Rethink Education, Educapital, Achieve Partners, Sparkmind, Brighteye Ventures and Reach Capital for a two part episode. In this first part, investors tell us what opportunities they see for AI potentially improving the student learning experience. Join to hear their views about how AI could help develop teacher support tools, as well as longer term possibilities such as delivering personalised learning experiences for students. Fear not, we don’t take an overly simplistic vie...2024-02-1335 minEd-Technical(Short) Owen's Spicy Take on Hallucinations and Libby's Strong DisagreeThis week, we're trying something a bit different and doing a short episode. The gloves come off as Libby and Owen engage in a lively debate about the "hallucinations" in large language models (e.g. unexpected and hard to explain errors) and their impact on building educational products.They spar on the nuances of model hallucinations, discussing the various forms and potential consequences. Owen presents a "spicy take" on the matter, advocating for the value of engagement and interaction even if it means accepting a certain level of inaccuracy. Libby, however, expresses concerns about the a...2024-01-3009 minEd-TechnicalNavigating Assessment in the Age of AI: What Counts as Cheating?In the sixth episode of this series, Libby and Owen talk to Matt Glanville, Director of Assessment at the International Baccalaureate (IB). The IB works with over 5,000 schools worldwide in 160 countries to offer a range of curriculum programmes and qualifications. Early last year they shared their progressive stance on AI – rather than banning AI tools to try to prevent cheating, they recognize that they will become part of everyday life, and therefore students need support to use them ethically, transparently, and safely. Matt (another ex-teacher ❤) talks about IB’s position and how they deal with cheating. We discuss...2024-01-1530 minEd-TechnicalThe quest to save teachers’ Sunday evenings with AIIntroduction: Join two former teachers - Libby Hills from the Jacobs Foundation and AI researcher Owen Henkel - for the Ed-Technical 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? In the fifth episode of this series, Libby and Owen talk to Si...2023-12-1729 minEd-TechnicalHelping Teachers One AI Experiment at a TimeIn the fourth episode of this series, Libby and Owen talk to John Roberts, co-founder and Director of Product and Engineering at Oak National Academy. Oak was originally created as an online classroom in 2020 as a rapid response to the coronavirus outbreak. They have delivered over 150 million lessons in their online classroom. They have now become a new national body supporting curriculum and providing free resources to teachers of 4- to 16-year-olds in England.Oak National Academy recently launched a couple of AI experiments (a quiz designer and lesson planner) designed to help teachers save time...2023-12-0328 minEd-TechnicalThe Inside Story Behind Khan Academy's AI Tutor KhanmigoJoin two former teachers - Libby Hills from the Jacobs Foundation and AI researcher Owen Henkel - for the Ed-Technical 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? In the third episode of this new series, Libby and Owen talk to Kr...2023-11-1929 min
Teachers' VoicesWhat are the most useful AI tools for teachers?In episodes 2 and 3 of Teachers’ Voices season 3, Nina explored lots of questions about AI in the classroom. What are teachers’ concerns about AI, and what opportunities do they see? How can AI adapt to individual students? And how can teachers take a human-centred approach to AI?This special mini episode briefly introduces some AI resources that might help in the classroom. Nina hears from Harvey Spencer, ex-teacher and host of the podcast AI for Teachers based in Australia. Harvey recommends starting the integration of AI into your practice by reflecting on the challenges you want to address with...2023-11-1405 minEd-TechnicalIs AI the answer to quicker, better feedback for teachers?Join two former teachers - Libby Hills from the Jacobs Foundation and AI researcher Owen Henkel - for the Ed-Technical 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? In this episode, Libby and Owen talk to Dr. Dora Demszky, Assistant Profe...2023-08-3125 min
Ed-TechnicalShould ChatGPT replace teachers’ red pens?Join two former teachers - Libby Hills from the Jacobs Foundation and AI researcher Owen Henkel - for the Ed-Technical 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? In the first episode of this new series, Libby and Owen talk to as...2023-08-3128 min