October 9, 2025 • 24 mins
What if technology made classrooms feel more human, not less?
On this episode of Raising Kids in the Age of AI, we dive into real stories from the front lines of education to show how AI can help teachers fulfill diverse learning needs, increase engagement, and bring back joy to school so it doesn't turn into a screen-filled dystopia.
Alex and Dr. Aliza sit down with New York City special ed and tech teacher Shira Moskovitz, who transformed a disengaged science class by turning a traditional unit into a choice-driven project. With AI’s help, Shira's students built their own learning ecosystems and chose formats (posters, graphic novels, podcasts, videos, etc.) that matched their strengths. As a result, engagement in the class surged, work quality rose, and one student on the autism spectrum earned recognition at a district STEM fair — that’s the power of differentiation at scale.
We also hear from Jennie Magiera, Google’s Global Head of Education Impact who also is a former teacher. Jennie explains how AI can help teachers draft lesson plans, refresh well-worn units, and spot real-time insights to free up time for more meaningful work with students, like one-on-one help and more in-depth feedback. Think of it like a coaching headset: the teacher stays in control while AI quietly amplifies reach and responsiveness.
Across our conversations, we hear pushback on the fear that AI will replace teachers or isolate students. Instead, both guests keep the focus on equity, relevance, and authentic student-teacher connection. When used with intention, AI supports teacher-led classrooms, helps students build executive function, and turns “Why do I need this?” into “This finally clicks for me.”
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Episode Transcript
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SPEAKER_05 (00:05):
We're still a little bit stuck in this very
traditional, very old schoolmodel of teacher lectures and
student lessons, and that onlymeets the needs of certain
students.
This AI support allows a teacherwho's still tasked with those
traditional roles to flip thescript a little bit and say
(00:25):
students can learn in differentways, and I can be one person
and still provide multiplesupports for different students.
SPEAKER_02 (00:37):
Today we're headed into the classroom to see how
forward-thinking educators areusing AI to reach their students
and also modeling a take-chargeapproach to learning.
Welcome back to Raising Kids inthe Age of AI, a podcast from
AIEDU Studios and Googlededicated to helping parents
understand AI and how their kidsare going to encounter it.
I'm Alex Katran, founder and CEOof AIEDU, a nonprofit working to
(01:00):
ensure all students are ready tolive, work, and thrive in a
world where AI is everywhere.
SPEAKER_04 (01:04):
And I'm Dr.
Aliza Pressman, a developmentalpsychologist, author, and
parent, and host of the podcastRaising Good Humans.
I, for one, have been reallyeager to get to this episode to
learn how AI fits in atraditional classroom setting.
Because does it fit?
I think about the workload ofeducators, and I think about
(01:26):
whether or not teachers want AIor if AI tools are just adding
more to their plates.
SPEAKER_02 (01:33):
Yeah, and I can say my you know, my mom is in her
last year of teaching beforeretirement.
And people ask me, like, oh,does she have senioritis?
And the answer is she stillworks until 7 p.m., even 8 p.m.
some days.
And that's pretty much the norm.
Teachers work really, reallyhard and they're not really paid
that well.
Um, and so anytime that we'rereally excited about new stuff
(01:56):
uh for teachers, their questionis always gonna be, well, you
know, where am I gonna have thetime to figure this stuff out?
Because teachers are also reallyprotective of their classroom
and they, you know, want what'sbest for their kids and they
know that you can't just hopethat this technology works.
And so I think that's one of thekey questions that we're gonna
try to answer here is like, doesit work?
And if so, how should it looklike?
SPEAKER_04 (02:18):
And my mom was also an educator for many years,
though.
She's retired, and I rememberher working till the latest
hours and being so dedicated.
But if there was a way to havethat high-quality work and also
integrate AI to help supportthat work, that'd be amazing.
So that's why I'm so glad we'llbe hearing from two educators
(02:39):
today who are a step or two orthree ahead of the rest of us
and can give us an inside lookat what school with AI actually
would do.
SPEAKER_02 (02:49):
Yeah, we're gonna hear from a special education
and technology teacher who usesAI to reach a wide diversity of
learners.
And we're also gonna hear from aformer math teacher and the
current head of Global EducationImpact at Google about how
they're finding ways to amplifyand augment their own best
practices as educators with somenew possibilities that AI tools
offer.
SPEAKER_04 (03:09):
I think that's just the question I'm concerned with.
Who is driving this bus?
Is it technology, or areeducators and families still in
the driver's seat?
What are you seeing and hearingfrom teachers, Alex?
SPEAKER_02 (03:20):
Yeah, Lisa, that's the million-dollar question.
You know, this is really sort ofnew frontiers for everyone.
And most teachers are still inthe process of wrapping their
heads around, you know, how touse the technology themselves
and frankly how to keep up withtheir students who are also
figuring out for themselves howthey want to use the technology.
Um, and school systems arefiguring out what policies and
(03:43):
procedures they need to have inplace.
And I mean, I'm curious, youknow, how have you talked about
technology in educationalsettings with the parents that
you advise?
SPEAKER_04 (03:53):
I kind of go back to saying the same thing over and
over, which is the coreprinciples of parenting.
And it would be the same in therelationships with teachers and
educators.
Relationship, reflection,regulation, rules, and repair
are kind of the principles thatwe have to keep going back to.
How is the relationship betweenmyself and the student?
And when we inevitably makemistakes, which we will, this is
(04:15):
all brand new, and we makemistakes with things we're
perfectly fluent in and know alot about because we're human,
we make repairs and we come backto connection and we start
again.
SPEAKER_02 (04:28):
Okay, so we've got a lot of good things to keep in
mind as we hear from our firstguest.
She's a public school teacher inone of the largest school,
actually the largest schooldistrict in the country, New
York City Public Schools.
SPEAKER_05 (04:38):
My name is Shira Moswith, and I am a special
education and technology teacherin New York City.
I teach in a predominantlyEnglish language learner
population.
One of the things that I get todo in my school is a tech coach.
So teachers can come to me anddiscuss challenges that they're
having in the classroom, and Ican find tech ways to sometimes
(04:59):
solve what isn't alwaysnecessarily a technology
problem.
SPEAKER_02 (05:03):
Shera isn't only working with students with
different abilities and needs,she's also working closely with
subject area teachers to helpthem make use of tech, including
AI tools in the classroom.
And she told us one story thatreally stuck out to me.
It was a teacher who came upwith a problem.
His class was just not into thelesson.
SPEAKER_05 (05:20):
So this past year, the science teacher, we were
working through a coachingcycle, and he had some behavior
management challenges in hisclassroom combined with some
engagement issues.
Students weren't completingtasks, they weren't
participating, answeringquestions.
I said, let's take a step backand think about engagement.
Let's think about how do we makethis content relevant,
(05:42):
relatable, and also appropriatefor all the different types of
learners in his class.
So what I showed him how to dowas to take his current unit,
feed it into AI, and create aproject-based learning
curriculum, an assignment forthe entire unit.
(06:02):
And instead of taking atraditional science test at the
end of the unit, they createdtheir own ecosystem.
And one of the features that wewere able to design through this
AI output was a choice board.
So every student was able tohave a selection of options for
what they wanted to create.
And there were options fortraditional posters, mind maps,
(06:24):
graphic novels, podcasts,videos, animations.
The students were very engagedfrom the very beginning.
So that was one shift that thisteacher noticed right away.
At the end of the unit, some ofthe students' work was selected
to be presented at our districtSTEM fair.
And what was so beautiful aboutthis project was one of the
(06:45):
students was a student diagnosedwith autism.
And he was a very brilliantstudent, but was often not
recognized for his brilliance.
He was recognized for thosechallenges and the barriers that
he had to learning.
So to say that he was able toidentify his strength,
demonstrate that he had masteredthis science content just like
his peers, and then becelebrated for it at a district
(07:06):
fair and receive an award forhis work was so beautiful.
And it was something thatwouldn't have necessarily been
feasible for the science teacherto create all these different
options and these rubrics andall these different materials on
his own.
So if we look back, this teachercame to me with something that
was not a technical issue perse.
(07:28):
He came with the classicbehavior management challenge,
and I presented him with atechnology solution, but it
actually addressed his challengeand more.
The behavior was better, theengagement was better, his
scores were actually higher.
So I view AI as really a toolfor equity.
It really means that morestudents can acquire knowledge
(07:50):
in a way that's accessible tothem.
And it means that every studentsitting in the class can learn
something.
I often find that if we go backto that more traditional model
of schooling, that there arecertain things we're just not
teaching children.
We're expecting them to acquireit naturally, be it
communication skills, executivefunctioning, organization, any
(08:11):
of those things.
And there's not really acurriculum to teach it.
So two years ago, actually, Ihad a group of fifth graders who
were all struggling withexecutive function.
And no one prepared me to havethe assignment of teaching them
executive function.
I said, I have these studentswho present with these
challenges.
I want a lesson and a game to gowith each of these skills.
(08:36):
And it created it for me.
It's giving me both digital andanalog tools to support students
in these areas.
And before this access to AI, Inever would have been equipped
to do that.
And some of these skills, thestudents would never be equipped
to practice them.
There's this gut reaction thatadults feel because we didn't go
(08:58):
to school with this technology,that giving technology to
students, specifically giving AIto students, is taking away
their ability to acquireknowledge.
Honestly, it's the same thingwith spellcheck.
There's still people who getvery upset that students have
access to spellcheck.
SPEAKER_02 (09:19):
Yeah, Shear is amazing.
Um and I think what what standsout to me the most is she's
describing an application orapproach where AI isn't the
centerpiece of her teaching.
It's it's a tool that she isusing to adapt her own role in
the classroom, but it'sultimately a teacher-centered
(09:41):
classroom.
And I think that is absolutelycritical to answering this
question of like what does AIlook like in the school?
Really, the question we shouldbe asking is what does good
teaching look like in school?
And you can sort of reverseengineer the role that AI can
play.
In this case, you know, helpdesign differentiated activities
or lessons for students toengage them.
(10:02):
But at the end of the day, youknow, all the most powerful
examples that I've ever seen ofAI being used in the classrooms
are at the hands of a reallycapable teacher.
But also she's actually uhstriking a chord on this sort of
like meta concept, which istechnology is going to change
and we can't resist it entirely.
We have to also think about howdo we adapt learning and also
(10:24):
the way that we live and work uhto take advantage of uh the
possibilities that the tooloffers.
Aliso, I'm curious if you heardanything else that I'm missing
in Shira's stories.
SPEAKER_04 (10:35):
I mean, I'm I'm just letting it all land.
I think it's so cool to be ableto think about different kinds
of learners and how they mightbenefit in ways that would never
occur to me.
On the other hand, when I thinkabout what are executive
function skills, and you know, atraditional way of describing
executive function skills wouldbe kind of the air traffic
control system of the brain.
(10:57):
And those skills are housed inthe part of the brain that is,
you know, where we manage ourcommunication skills, our
organizing, our mem workingmemory, our attention skills,
our self-regulation, like wetalked about, but also things
like empathy.
You know, I think to myself,like, can we use AI to teach
(11:21):
skills that are particularlyimportant for humans right now?
Um and I think about what shesaid about spell check.
And it's true.
On the other hand, I think abouthow rushed it is to have spell
check and how much more youlearn.
And that when that annoyinganswer of like, there's a
dictionary where you can go lookit up and you're gonna have to
(11:43):
see it and you remember a littlebit more.
And so I think it's to yourpoint, Alex, it's a both and
because we can't just lean sofar into the technology that we
forget that there are there arethings that we still need to do
a little bit more slowly, notbecause we're trying to torture
kids or people, but because ofthe all of the wildly useful
(12:07):
skills that are developing inthose moments.
SPEAKER_02 (12:10):
I love your example of like the process of actually
going to the dictionary.
It's not just about learning thespelling, but you're actually
reinforcing your memory and yourability to recall that word.
SPEAKER_04 (12:21):
And your frustration tolerance.
SPEAKER_02 (12:22):
Yeah, it's it right, it is annoying to have to go
through the dictionary, but youalso learn how to like look up
an index and go through denseinformation.
Um, I'm curious from yourperspective as a psychologist,
just like advice that youprovide educators in terms of,
you know, how to form authenticrelationships and and what's
your take on the role that AIshould or shouldn't play there?
SPEAKER_04 (12:43):
Well, I think in this case, this was a great
example of cultivating anauthentic relationship by
saying, Hey, I think I see whatyou need, and it's different
than what you're getting.
And I think AI is gonna help usget there.
That to me is when you use thetechnology for good.
And that helps build authenticrelationships instead of the
(13:05):
thing that we're afraid of,which is that instead of an
authentic relationship, lean tolean into AI.
SPEAKER_02 (13:11):
Totally.
I think another big questionthat we get a lot is is it
actually gonna make teacherseven less important full stop?
It's something that we're gonnahear more about from our next
guest, Jenny McGura.
SPEAKER_03 (13:22):
Hi, my name is Jenny McGuar.
I'm the global head of educationimpact at Google, and I'm also
the mom of a rising secondgrader and a three-year-old.
SPEAKER_02 (13:30):
Jenny has more than a decade of experience as an
educator, and this backgroundgives her a unique perspective
on how AI can free up teachersand give them more time back and
really unlock that teacheradvantage.
SPEAKER_03 (13:41):
From my first year of teaching to my 10th year of
teaching, one thing that wasconsistent was I felt like there
was never enough time.
I used to do all these differentthings with technology before AI
to try and clone myself andextend my reach, like create
in-flipping, like videos ofmyself in the classroom that my
students would watch in smallgroups while I met with other
students at the, so to speak,kidney table.
(14:04):
But with AI, I don't need tospend the hours and hours I
would do every night filmingmyself and re-recording the same
lesson at six different levels.
I can use these AI tutors andsupports to extend my reach and
amplify the impact that I canhave with the students in the
same number of hours.
There's so many ways that AI isbeing used in the classroom.
(14:27):
It starts before the kids are inthe classroom.
So, you know, that teachersitting in their um in their
room late at night, early in themorning during their prep, if
they're lucky and they have aprep, um using generative AI,
getting on Gemini to build alesson plan from scratch or to
take a lesson plan that is triedand true and they've used every
(14:49):
year and make it even better.
Say, like, hey, I've taught thislesson for the past 10 years.
How do I refresh it?
How do I differentiate it so Ican meet different students'
learning needs?
Then when the students are inthe classroom, it's helping me
understand where they're at.
So as I'm walking the room, asI'm engaging with students to
(15:10):
understand what are the commonmisconceptions, it's giving me
that feedback.
It's almost like I'm the headcoach of a, you know, you know,
Big Ten football team, and I'vegot like all the other assistant
coaches in my ear telling me,like, hey, you need to go over
here.
Hey, this is happening.
Hey, let's, you know, pause thislesson and regroup because
they're they're not getting it.
We need a timeout.
(15:31):
So that's really magical.
A lot of times when people talkabout the future of education
with technology, with AI, um,they're they're thinking a lot
of different visions.
But I will tell you what Ireally don't want it to be.
I don't want AI to replace theteacher.
I don't want AI or technology tobecome the way singular that
(15:51):
students learn, or even themajority way that students
learn.
I am a huge sci-fi nerd.
I am a Trekkie.
Um, but there is that reboot,the J.J.
Abrams reboot of Star Trek.
And in one of his films, theyshow the Vulcan Academy and they
show um young Spock there.
And it's it's essentially like ahuge amphitheater with sunken
(16:15):
holes in the ground with360-degree screens, and all the
little Vulcans are alone inthese holes, surrounded by
screens, learning.
This is like a nightmaredystopian version of education.
Technology should be ubiquitous,yes, but also invisible.
It shouldn't be the focus of theclassroom.
It should be elevating that umimpact of the teacher, that
(16:38):
voice of the teacher, the voiceof the student, allowing them
all to have those deeperinteractions with each other so
that no matter how far into thefuture we go, no matter how AI
evolves, humans are still thestars of the show.
SPEAKER_02 (16:52):
Okay, so Jenny doesn't see AI replacing
teachers, but she does talkabout helping teachers spend
more time directly helpingstudents without overextending
themselves.
SPEAKER_03 (17:01):
I remember being that kid who, you know, always
had my hand up.
I was hand up Hannah.
And after a while, you do thattripod thing where like you're
like propping your hand up andthen you slump and you slump and
your hand's falling asleep andyou're losing blood circulation.
And by the time someone calledon me as a kid, I kind of forgot
why my hand was up or what I wasanswering.
(17:21):
And now with AI, it's reallyinteresting because we can
engage the students a lot morequickly.
So if it's like they have aquestion, they don't have to
wait for the one teacher to beable to call on them.
They can engage with that AI,ask the question, get that
real-time support.
And then when they get to thathigher level synthesis or more
difficult or complex challenge,they could bring that to the
(17:43):
teacher.
So they're bringing a much morefinished product or a much more
workshopped question to theinstructor, to the teacher.
And it's building thatresilience in the student.
It's allowing them to say, like,hey, I have the tools and the
agency and the ability and thepower to help myself, which is
good for them in life.
Another thing I hear a lot fromother parents is, oh no, we
(18:07):
shouldn't use AI.
It's gonna stupefy our children,they're gonna overrely on it.
I definitely hear it.
Um, and I wanna say we're we'realways thinking about that too.
And there is an entire team atGoogle called the pedagogy team
and or pedagogy team.
I know it's a big thing.
Is it pedagogy?
Is it pedagogy?
But for those of you who don'tknow that word, it's like the
(18:29):
science of teaching andlearning.
And they have worked withlearning science experts to
build these like five learningscience principles.
And I'm I'm not gonna read themall to you, but some of the
things is like, you know,encouraging metacognition, the
thinking about your thinking.
So, like as you're consideringsomething like, why am I
thinking that way?
How did I get to that?
Another one is um managingcognitive load, which is really
(18:55):
good.
Productive struggle is soimportant.
And I think that's where um itreally addresses some of those
concerns of like, oh, are wegonna like stupefy our students?
Um, but it's gonna say, like,hey, let me not just give you
the answer, let me prompt you tohelp um engage with the model,
with the AI, because we want itto get you to think and use
(19:16):
those uh neural pathways, but wedon't want you to be so
frustrated that you like throwyour Chromebook out the window.
And all those learning scienceprinciples are baked into Gemini
now in a model version calledlearn LM.
So it's not just like, you know,parking a kid in front of uh a
Chromebook, turning on Geminiand being like, have at it,
(19:36):
learn, peace out, I'm gonna goeat my sandwich in the corner.
It's how am I determining whenand how I introduce AI into my
classroom?
How do I have the studentsintentionally and thoughtfully
interact with it?
Human in the loop, parent in theloop, uh teacher in the loop.
The model's trained forlearning, and we have to be
intentional with how we use it.
(19:57):
And if all those things continueto be true, it's going to get
them even further becausethey're going to be able to ask
deeper and more complexquestions.
SPEAKER_04 (20:08):
It's a big if and it's an important if that
parents and educators stay inthe loop and that we use these
big new exciting AI toolsincredibly intentionally, and
that we're working specificallywith the tools that really are
built for learning.
It's definitely not areplacement for teachers, and I
think we're hearing that moreand more.
(20:29):
In fact, in the absence ofteachers, it would be it, it
couldn't work.
SPEAKER_02 (20:35):
But it's worth noting that, you know, this is
not necessarily like a broadlyheld perspective.
There's a lot of folks who arereally pushing for AI, and their
vision is that AI is going tototally replace teachers.
Um, and we're in a bit of abattle for, you know, what does
the future of sort of AI in inschools look like?
I really like the example of theVulcan Academy from Star Trek.
(20:57):
Um, because I think this is whatparents really worry about.
You know, accumulating knowledgeis a part of education, no
doubt.
But I think when you reallyclose your eyes and imagine the
future of school, um, yeah, mostpeople are still imagining a
building with people in it.
I think parents also, if asked,you know, maybe separately,
without AI being a part of theconversation, um, you know, how
(21:19):
do you feel about school today?
I think a lot of folks, andcertainly kids, will say it
doesn't feel very relevant.
You'll often hear from kidslike, why do I even need to
learn this?
And so, you know, addressingthis sort of question of how do
we make learning more relevantand engaging, you know, that's a
really big part of the answer tolike how do we need to transform
schools for the future?
And, you know, if AI can have apart in that, I think we really
(21:42):
need to make sure that teacherscan really harness it.
But I think for me, it's um it'sit's heartening that you know,
we're we're we're continuing tosee and hear about the
importance of humanity in all ofthis.
SPEAKER_04 (21:54):
I could not agree more.
From my perspective, when youmarry humanity with you know
forward thinking, you're gonnacapture the attention of young
people much more than if youjust kind of make it us against
them.
Thank you so much for listening.
Join us again next week when wetake a look at AI, not as a
(22:17):
writer, but as a writer's aidand how it may or may not change
the way we think, learn, andwrite in the future.
We'll hear from sci-fi writerand creative tech builder Amit
Gupta.
SPEAKER_01 (22:28):
Writing is thinking, like that um at its core, that
that's what you're doing.
But I think having aconversation is thinking too.
So when you're havingconversation with someone about
an idea, you're also figuringout what you really believe.
SPEAKER_02 (22:40):
And Google's Maureen Heymans returns to the podcast
to discuss the power of AI as acollaborative tool for
brainstorming and pushing yourthinking.
SPEAKER_00 (22:48):
I think a lot of people think of AI as a way to
save time and it's like a bigproductive boost.
But most importantly, I think itcan elevate the quality of your
thought.
SPEAKER_02 (22:58):
So find out where AI is going to take us and future
generations next on raising kidsin the age of AI.
Until then, don't forget tofollow the podcast on Spotify,
Apple Podcasts, YouTube, orwherever you listen so you don't
miss an episode.
SPEAKER_04 (23:12):
And we want to hear from you.
Take a minute to leave us arating and review on your
podcast player of choice.
Your feedback is important tous.
Raising kids in the age of AI isa podcast by AIEDU in
collaboration with Google.
It's produced by Kaleidoscope.
For Kaleidoscope, the executiveproducers are Kate Osborne and
(23:33):
Lizzie Jacobs.
Our lead producer is Molly Soshawith production assistance from
Irene Bantiguay with additionalproduction from Louisa Tucker.
Our video editor is IlyaMagazanen, and our theme song
and music were composed by KyleMurdoch, who also mixed the
episode for us.
See you next time.
We're still a little bit stuck in this very
traditional, very old schoolmodel of teacher lectures and
student lessons, and that onlymeets the needs of certain
students.
This AI support allows a teacherwho's still tasked with those
traditional roles to flip thescript a little bit and say
(00:25):
students can learn in differentways, and I can be one person
and still provide multiplesupports for different students.
SPEAKER_02 (00:37):
Today we're headed into the classroom to see how
forward-thinking educators areusing AI to reach their students
and also modeling a take-chargeapproach to learning.
Welcome back to Raising Kids inthe Age of AI, a podcast from
AIEDU Studios and Googlededicated to helping parents
understand AI and how their kidsare going to encounter it.
I'm Alex Katran, founder and CEOof AIEDU, a nonprofit working to
(01:00):
ensure all students are ready tolive, work, and thrive in a
world where AI is everywhere.
SPEAKER_04 (01:04):
And I'm Dr.
Aliza Pressman, a developmentalpsychologist, author, and
parent, and host of the podcastRaising Good Humans.
I, for one, have been reallyeager to get to this episode to
learn how AI fits in atraditional classroom setting.
Because does it fit?
I think about the workload ofeducators, and I think about
(01:26):
whether or not teachers want AIor if AI tools are just adding
more to their plates.
SPEAKER_02 (01:33):
Yeah, and I can say my you know, my mom is in her
last year of teaching beforeretirement.
And people ask me, like, oh,does she have senioritis?
And the answer is she stillworks until 7 p.m., even 8 p.m.
some days.
And that's pretty much the norm.
Teachers work really, reallyhard and they're not really paid
that well.
Um, and so anytime that we'rereally excited about new stuff
(01:56):
uh for teachers, their questionis always gonna be, well, you
know, where am I gonna have thetime to figure this stuff out?
Because teachers are also reallyprotective of their classroom
and they, you know, want what'sbest for their kids and they
know that you can't just hopethat this technology works.
And so I think that's one of thekey questions that we're gonna
try to answer here is like, doesit work?
And if so, how should it looklike?
SPEAKER_04 (02:18):
And my mom was also an educator for many years,
though.
She's retired, and I rememberher working till the latest
hours and being so dedicated.
But if there was a way to havethat high-quality work and also
integrate AI to help supportthat work, that'd be amazing.
So that's why I'm so glad we'llbe hearing from two educators
(02:39):
today who are a step or two orthree ahead of the rest of us
and can give us an inside lookat what school with AI actually
would do.
SPEAKER_02 (02:49):
Yeah, we're gonna hear from a special education
and technology teacher who usesAI to reach a wide diversity of
learners.
And we're also gonna hear from aformer math teacher and the
current head of Global EducationImpact at Google about how
they're finding ways to amplifyand augment their own best
practices as educators with somenew possibilities that AI tools
offer.
SPEAKER_04 (03:09):
I think that's just the question I'm concerned with.
Who is driving this bus?
Is it technology, or areeducators and families still in
the driver's seat?
What are you seeing and hearingfrom teachers, Alex?
SPEAKER_02 (03:20):
Yeah, Lisa, that's the million-dollar question.
You know, this is really sort ofnew frontiers for everyone.
And most teachers are still inthe process of wrapping their
heads around, you know, how touse the technology themselves
and frankly how to keep up withtheir students who are also
figuring out for themselves howthey want to use the technology.
Um, and school systems arefiguring out what policies and
(03:43):
procedures they need to have inplace.
And I mean, I'm curious, youknow, how have you talked about
technology in educationalsettings with the parents that
you advise?
SPEAKER_04 (03:53):
I kind of go back to saying the same thing over and
over, which is the coreprinciples of parenting.
And it would be the same in therelationships with teachers and
educators.
Relationship, reflection,regulation, rules, and repair
are kind of the principles thatwe have to keep going back to.
How is the relationship betweenmyself and the student?
And when we inevitably makemistakes, which we will, this is
(04:15):
all brand new, and we makemistakes with things we're
perfectly fluent in and know alot about because we're human,
we make repairs and we come backto connection and we start
again.
SPEAKER_02 (04:28):
Okay, so we've got a lot of good things to keep in
mind as we hear from our firstguest.
She's a public school teacher inone of the largest school,
actually the largest schooldistrict in the country, New
York City Public Schools.
SPEAKER_05 (04:38):
My name is Shira Moswith, and I am a special
education and technology teacherin New York City.
I teach in a predominantlyEnglish language learner
population.
One of the things that I get todo in my school is a tech coach.
So teachers can come to me anddiscuss challenges that they're
having in the classroom, and Ican find tech ways to sometimes
(04:59):
solve what isn't alwaysnecessarily a technology
problem.
SPEAKER_02 (05:03):
Shera isn't only working with students with
different abilities and needs,she's also working closely with
subject area teachers to helpthem make use of tech, including
AI tools in the classroom.
And she told us one story thatreally stuck out to me.
It was a teacher who came upwith a problem.
His class was just not into thelesson.
SPEAKER_05 (05:20):
So this past year, the science teacher, we were
working through a coachingcycle, and he had some behavior
management challenges in hisclassroom combined with some
engagement issues.
Students weren't completingtasks, they weren't
participating, answeringquestions.
I said, let's take a step backand think about engagement.
Let's think about how do we makethis content relevant,
(05:42):
relatable, and also appropriatefor all the different types of
learners in his class.
So what I showed him how to dowas to take his current unit,
feed it into AI, and create aproject-based learning
curriculum, an assignment forthe entire unit.
(06:02):
And instead of taking atraditional science test at the
end of the unit, they createdtheir own ecosystem.
And one of the features that wewere able to design through this
AI output was a choice board.
So every student was able tohave a selection of options for
what they wanted to create.
And there were options fortraditional posters, mind maps,
(06:24):
graphic novels, podcasts,videos, animations.
The students were very engagedfrom the very beginning.
So that was one shift that thisteacher noticed right away.
At the end of the unit, some ofthe students' work was selected
to be presented at our districtSTEM fair.
And what was so beautiful aboutthis project was one of the
(06:45):
students was a student diagnosedwith autism.
And he was a very brilliantstudent, but was often not
recognized for his brilliance.
He was recognized for thosechallenges and the barriers that
he had to learning.
So to say that he was able toidentify his strength,
demonstrate that he had masteredthis science content just like
his peers, and then becelebrated for it at a district
(07:06):
fair and receive an award forhis work was so beautiful.
And it was something thatwouldn't have necessarily been
feasible for the science teacherto create all these different
options and these rubrics andall these different materials on
his own.
So if we look back, this teachercame to me with something that
was not a technical issue perse.
(07:28):
He came with the classicbehavior management challenge,
and I presented him with atechnology solution, but it
actually addressed his challengeand more.
The behavior was better, theengagement was better, his
scores were actually higher.
So I view AI as really a toolfor equity.
It really means that morestudents can acquire knowledge
(07:50):
in a way that's accessible tothem.
And it means that every studentsitting in the class can learn
something.
I often find that if we go backto that more traditional model
of schooling, that there arecertain things we're just not
teaching children.
We're expecting them to acquireit naturally, be it
communication skills, executivefunctioning, organization, any
(08:11):
of those things.
And there's not really acurriculum to teach it.
So two years ago, actually, Ihad a group of fifth graders who
were all struggling withexecutive function.
And no one prepared me to havethe assignment of teaching them
executive function.
I said, I have these studentswho present with these
challenges.
I want a lesson and a game to gowith each of these skills.
(08:36):
And it created it for me.
It's giving me both digital andanalog tools to support students
in these areas.
And before this access to AI, Inever would have been equipped
to do that.
And some of these skills, thestudents would never be equipped
to practice them.
There's this gut reaction thatadults feel because we didn't go
(08:58):
to school with this technology,that giving technology to
students, specifically giving AIto students, is taking away
their ability to acquireknowledge.
Honestly, it's the same thingwith spellcheck.
There's still people who getvery upset that students have
access to spellcheck.
SPEAKER_02 (09:19):
Yeah, Shear is amazing.
Um and I think what what standsout to me the most is she's
describing an application orapproach where AI isn't the
centerpiece of her teaching.
It's it's a tool that she isusing to adapt her own role in
the classroom, but it'sultimately a teacher-centered
(09:41):
classroom.
And I think that is absolutelycritical to answering this
question of like what does AIlook like in the school?
Really, the question we shouldbe asking is what does good
teaching look like in school?
And you can sort of reverseengineer the role that AI can
play.
In this case, you know, helpdesign differentiated activities
or lessons for students toengage them.
(10:02):
But at the end of the day, youknow, all the most powerful
examples that I've ever seen ofAI being used in the classrooms
are at the hands of a reallycapable teacher.
But also she's actually uhstriking a chord on this sort of
like meta concept, which istechnology is going to change
and we can't resist it entirely.
We have to also think about howdo we adapt learning and also
(10:24):
the way that we live and work uhto take advantage of uh the
possibilities that the tooloffers.
Aliso, I'm curious if you heardanything else that I'm missing
in Shira's stories.
SPEAKER_04 (10:35):
I mean, I'm I'm just letting it all land.
I think it's so cool to be ableto think about different kinds
of learners and how they mightbenefit in ways that would never
occur to me.
On the other hand, when I thinkabout what are executive
function skills, and you know, atraditional way of describing
executive function skills wouldbe kind of the air traffic
control system of the brain.
(10:57):
And those skills are housed inthe part of the brain that is,
you know, where we manage ourcommunication skills, our
organizing, our mem workingmemory, our attention skills,
our self-regulation, like wetalked about, but also things
like empathy.
You know, I think to myself,like, can we use AI to teach
(11:21):
skills that are particularlyimportant for humans right now?
Um and I think about what shesaid about spell check.
And it's true.
On the other hand, I think abouthow rushed it is to have spell
check and how much more youlearn.
And that when that annoyinganswer of like, there's a
dictionary where you can go lookit up and you're gonna have to
(11:43):
see it and you remember a littlebit more.
And so I think it's to yourpoint, Alex, it's a both and
because we can't just lean sofar into the technology that we
forget that there are there arethings that we still need to do
a little bit more slowly, notbecause we're trying to torture
kids or people, but because ofthe all of the wildly useful
(12:07):
skills that are developing inthose moments.
SPEAKER_02 (12:10):
I love your example of like the process of actually
going to the dictionary.
It's not just about learning thespelling, but you're actually
reinforcing your memory and yourability to recall that word.
SPEAKER_04 (12:21):
And your frustration tolerance.
SPEAKER_02 (12:22):
Yeah, it's it right, it is annoying to have to go
through the dictionary, but youalso learn how to like look up
an index and go through denseinformation.
Um, I'm curious from yourperspective as a psychologist,
just like advice that youprovide educators in terms of,
you know, how to form authenticrelationships and and what's
your take on the role that AIshould or shouldn't play there?
SPEAKER_04 (12:43):
Well, I think in this case, this was a great
example of cultivating anauthentic relationship by
saying, Hey, I think I see whatyou need, and it's different
than what you're getting.
And I think AI is gonna help usget there.
That to me is when you use thetechnology for good.
And that helps build authenticrelationships instead of the
(13:05):
thing that we're afraid of,which is that instead of an
authentic relationship, lean tolean into AI.
SPEAKER_02 (13:11):
Totally.
I think another big questionthat we get a lot is is it
actually gonna make teacherseven less important full stop?
It's something that we're gonnahear more about from our next
guest, Jenny McGura.
SPEAKER_03 (13:22):
Hi, my name is Jenny McGuar.
I'm the global head of educationimpact at Google, and I'm also
the mom of a rising secondgrader and a three-year-old.
SPEAKER_02 (13:30):
Jenny has more than a decade of experience as an
educator, and this backgroundgives her a unique perspective
on how AI can free up teachersand give them more time back and
really unlock that teacheradvantage.
SPEAKER_03 (13:41):
From my first year of teaching to my 10th year of
teaching, one thing that wasconsistent was I felt like there
was never enough time.
I used to do all these differentthings with technology before AI
to try and clone myself andextend my reach, like create
in-flipping, like videos ofmyself in the classroom that my
students would watch in smallgroups while I met with other
students at the, so to speak,kidney table.
(14:04):
But with AI, I don't need tospend the hours and hours I
would do every night filmingmyself and re-recording the same
lesson at six different levels.
I can use these AI tutors andsupports to extend my reach and
amplify the impact that I canhave with the students in the
same number of hours.
There's so many ways that AI isbeing used in the classroom.
(14:27):
It starts before the kids are inthe classroom.
So, you know, that teachersitting in their um in their
room late at night, early in themorning during their prep, if
they're lucky and they have aprep, um using generative AI,
getting on Gemini to build alesson plan from scratch or to
take a lesson plan that is triedand true and they've used every
(14:49):
year and make it even better.
Say, like, hey, I've taught thislesson for the past 10 years.
How do I refresh it?
How do I differentiate it so Ican meet different students'
learning needs?
Then when the students are inthe classroom, it's helping me
understand where they're at.
So as I'm walking the room, asI'm engaging with students to
(15:10):
understand what are the commonmisconceptions, it's giving me
that feedback.
It's almost like I'm the headcoach of a, you know, you know,
Big Ten football team, and I'vegot like all the other assistant
coaches in my ear telling me,like, hey, you need to go over
here.
Hey, this is happening.
Hey, let's, you know, pause thislesson and regroup because
they're they're not getting it.
We need a timeout.
(15:31):
So that's really magical.
A lot of times when people talkabout the future of education
with technology, with AI, um,they're they're thinking a lot
of different visions.
But I will tell you what Ireally don't want it to be.
I don't want AI to replace theteacher.
I don't want AI or technology tobecome the way singular that
(15:51):
students learn, or even themajority way that students
learn.
I am a huge sci-fi nerd.
I am a Trekkie.
Um, but there is that reboot,the J.J.
Abrams reboot of Star Trek.
And in one of his films, theyshow the Vulcan Academy and they
show um young Spock there.
And it's it's essentially like ahuge amphitheater with sunken
(16:15):
holes in the ground with360-degree screens, and all the
little Vulcans are alone inthese holes, surrounded by
screens, learning.
This is like a nightmaredystopian version of education.
Technology should be ubiquitous,yes, but also invisible.
It shouldn't be the focus of theclassroom.
It should be elevating that umimpact of the teacher, that
(16:38):
voice of the teacher, the voiceof the student, allowing them
all to have those deeperinteractions with each other so
that no matter how far into thefuture we go, no matter how AI
evolves, humans are still thestars of the show.
SPEAKER_02 (16:52):
Okay, so Jenny doesn't see AI replacing
teachers, but she does talkabout helping teachers spend
more time directly helpingstudents without overextending
themselves.
SPEAKER_03 (17:01):
I remember being that kid who, you know, always
had my hand up.
I was hand up Hannah.
And after a while, you do thattripod thing where like you're
like propping your hand up andthen you slump and you slump and
your hand's falling asleep andyou're losing blood circulation.
And by the time someone calledon me as a kid, I kind of forgot
why my hand was up or what I wasanswering.
(17:21):
And now with AI, it's reallyinteresting because we can
engage the students a lot morequickly.
So if it's like they have aquestion, they don't have to
wait for the one teacher to beable to call on them.
They can engage with that AI,ask the question, get that
real-time support.
And then when they get to thathigher level synthesis or more
difficult or complex challenge,they could bring that to the
(17:43):
teacher.
So they're bringing a much morefinished product or a much more
workshopped question to theinstructor, to the teacher.
And it's building thatresilience in the student.
It's allowing them to say, like,hey, I have the tools and the
agency and the ability and thepower to help myself, which is
good for them in life.
Another thing I hear a lot fromother parents is, oh no, we
(18:07):
shouldn't use AI.
It's gonna stupefy our children,they're gonna overrely on it.
I definitely hear it.
Um, and I wanna say we're we'realways thinking about that too.
And there is an entire team atGoogle called the pedagogy team
and or pedagogy team.
I know it's a big thing.
Is it pedagogy?
Is it pedagogy?
But for those of you who don'tknow that word, it's like the
(18:29):
science of teaching andlearning.
And they have worked withlearning science experts to
build these like five learningscience principles.
And I'm I'm not gonna read themall to you, but some of the
things is like, you know,encouraging metacognition, the
thinking about your thinking.
So, like as you're consideringsomething like, why am I
thinking that way?
How did I get to that?
Another one is um managingcognitive load, which is really
(18:55):
good.
Productive struggle is soimportant.
And I think that's where um itreally addresses some of those
concerns of like, oh, are wegonna like stupefy our students?
Um, but it's gonna say, like,hey, let me not just give you
the answer, let me prompt you tohelp um engage with the model,
with the AI, because we want itto get you to think and use
(19:16):
those uh neural pathways, but wedon't want you to be so
frustrated that you like throwyour Chromebook out the window.
And all those learning scienceprinciples are baked into Gemini
now in a model version calledlearn LM.
So it's not just like, you know,parking a kid in front of uh a
Chromebook, turning on Geminiand being like, have at it,
(19:36):
learn, peace out, I'm gonna goeat my sandwich in the corner.
It's how am I determining whenand how I introduce AI into my
classroom?
How do I have the studentsintentionally and thoughtfully
interact with it?
Human in the loop, parent in theloop, uh teacher in the loop.
The model's trained forlearning, and we have to be
intentional with how we use it.
(19:57):
And if all those things continueto be true, it's going to get
them even further becausethey're going to be able to ask
deeper and more complexquestions.
SPEAKER_04 (20:08):
It's a big if and it's an important if that
parents and educators stay inthe loop and that we use these
big new exciting AI toolsincredibly intentionally, and
that we're working specificallywith the tools that really are
built for learning.
It's definitely not areplacement for teachers, and I
think we're hearing that moreand more.
(20:29):
In fact, in the absence ofteachers, it would be it, it
couldn't work.
SPEAKER_02 (20:35):
But it's worth noting that, you know, this is
not necessarily like a broadlyheld perspective.
There's a lot of folks who arereally pushing for AI, and their
vision is that AI is going tototally replace teachers.
Um, and we're in a bit of abattle for, you know, what does
the future of sort of AI in inschools look like?
I really like the example of theVulcan Academy from Star Trek.
(20:57):
Um, because I think this is whatparents really worry about.
You know, accumulating knowledgeis a part of education, no
doubt.
But I think when you reallyclose your eyes and imagine the
future of school, um, yeah, mostpeople are still imagining a
building with people in it.
I think parents also, if asked,you know, maybe separately,
without AI being a part of theconversation, um, you know, how
(21:19):
do you feel about school today?
I think a lot of folks, andcertainly kids, will say it
doesn't feel very relevant.
You'll often hear from kidslike, why do I even need to
learn this?
And so, you know, addressingthis sort of question of how do
we make learning more relevantand engaging, you know, that's a
really big part of the answer tolike how do we need to transform
schools for the future?
And, you know, if AI can have apart in that, I think we really
(21:42):
need to make sure that teacherscan really harness it.
But I think for me, it's um it'sit's heartening that you know,
we're we're we're continuing tosee and hear about the
importance of humanity in all ofthis.
SPEAKER_04 (21:54):
I could not agree more.
From my perspective, when youmarry humanity with you know
forward thinking, you're gonnacapture the attention of young
people much more than if youjust kind of make it us against
them.
Thank you so much for listening.
Join us again next week when wetake a look at AI, not as a
(22:17):
writer, but as a writer's aidand how it may or may not change
the way we think, learn, andwrite in the future.
We'll hear from sci-fi writerand creative tech builder Amit
Gupta.
SPEAKER_01 (22:28):
Writing is thinking, like that um at its core, that
that's what you're doing.
But I think having aconversation is thinking too.
So when you're havingconversation with someone about
an idea, you're also figuringout what you really believe.
SPEAKER_02 (22:40):
And Google's Maureen Heymans returns to the podcast
to discuss the power of AI as acollaborative tool for
brainstorming and pushing yourthinking.
SPEAKER_00 (22:48):
I think a lot of people think of AI as a way to
save time and it's like a bigproductive boost.
But most importantly, I think itcan elevate the quality of your
thought.
SPEAKER_02 (22:58):
So find out where AI is going to take us and future
generations next on raising kidsin the age of AI.
Until then, don't forget tofollow the podcast on Spotify,
Apple Podcasts, YouTube, orwherever you listen so you don't
miss an episode.
SPEAKER_04 (23:12):
And we want to hear from you.
Take a minute to leave us arating and review on your
podcast player of choice.
Your feedback is important tous.
Raising kids in the age of AI isa podcast by AIEDU in
collaboration with Google.
It's produced by Kaleidoscope.
For Kaleidoscope, the executiveproducers are Kate Osborne and
(23:33):
Lizzie Jacobs.
Our lead producer is Molly Soshawith production assistance from
Irene Bantiguay with additionalproduction from Louisa Tucker.
Our video editor is IlyaMagazanen, and our theme song
and music were composed by KyleMurdoch, who also mixed the
episode for us.
See you next time.
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