AI in Edu: News, Tools, & Views (August 15)

Aug 15, 2025

Welcome to my weekly digest of AI in education news, tools, and views to help keep you informed. Let’s get started:

I Tried ChatGPT’s Study Mode And It’s Mostly Great

Tech&Learning reviews ChatGPT’s “Study Mode,” designed to transform the AI from a mere answer machine into an interactive tutor. Using techniques like Socratic questioning, scaffolding, and quizzes, it encourages reflection and understanding rather than delivering answers. The author praises its strong STEM tutoring and teaching value, though it notes that it can still be coaxed into completing writing tasks.

https://www.techlearning.com/how-to/i-tried-chatgpts-study-mode-and-its-mostly-great

How AI Has Changed Your Teaching

Tech&Learning reports that since ChatGPT’s debut in late 2022, AI has substantially reshaped teaching by enabling personalized lesson planning, differentiation for diverse learners (including special needs and multilingual classrooms), and interactive learning through chatbots. AI also streamlines administrative work like summarizing documents and enhancing presentations. Yet, growing concerns over academic dishonesty, especially in humanities, have prompted schools to implement clear AI usage policies, traffic-light systems and revert to paper-based assessments to preserve integrity.

https://www.techlearning.com/news/how-ai-has-changed-your-teaching

Want Teachers to Learn How to Use AI for Instruction? Let Them Design the Tools

Education Week reports on a pilot in California that involved 80+ educators co‑designing AI tools via six training sessions, guided by the Silicon Schools Fund’s “Exploratory AI” program. Participants built custom solutions to differentiate instruction, foster teacher collaboration, and enhance behavior support. The experiment showed teachers rapidly learned to create AI tools when focused on solving specific instructional problems, rather than adopting AI for efficiency’s sake. A clear instructional vision was key to meaningful integration.

https://www.edweek.org/technology/want-teachers-to-learn-how-to-use-ai-for-instruction-let-them-design-the-tools/2025/08

AI vs. The English Department

Tech&Learning notes that English and humanities educators often resist AI, viewing it as a facilitator of student cheating—especially in writing-focused instruction. Despite this resistance, some have adopted tools like Google’s NotebookLM for summarizing complex texts via podcasts, and AI-powered translation and text simplification to improve accessibility. The article argues that responsible integration—teaching ethical use and aligning AI with educational goals—can reconcile concerns and enrich English instruction.

https://www.techlearning.com/news/ai-vs-the-english-department

In partnership with Graded Pro

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What California Teachers Are Trying, Building, and Learning with AI

The 74 reports that in the 2024–25 school year, researchers from the Center on Reinventing Public Education partnered with Silicon Schools Fund to study AI pilots across 18 California schools. Though educators embraced AI tools, like tutoring bots, lesson generators, and grouping systems, success depended on alignment with a clear instructional vision and sustained relationships. While AI helped free time and spark creativity, some custom tools underperformed, highlighting the need for stronger support, alignment, and educator-informed design.

https://www.the74million.org/article/what-california-teachers-are-trying-building-and-learning-with-ai/

Risk Assessment: AI Teaching Assistants

This Common Sense Media report rates AI teacher assistants (e.g., Khanmigo, MagicSchool, Curipod, Gemini) as “moderate risk” overall. Benefits include saving time, supporting differentiation, and streamlining admin tasks. Risks involve bias, misinformation, automation bias, undermining curricula, overreliance by novice teachers, and “invisible influencer” effects. High-stakes uses like IEPs pose special concerns. Best results come when tools build on high-quality materials with expert oversight, clear policies, and safeguards for fairness, trust, and responsible data use.

https://www.commonsensemedia.org/ai-ratings/ai-teacher-assistants

How Artificial Intelligence Is Changing Education

Psychology Today reports that AI is transforming childhood and education, creating personalized, intuitive interactions from an early age and shifting expectations of technology. In schools, AI supports tutoring, grading, translation, and personalized learning, freeing teachers for mentorship and relationship-building. Benefits include accessibility, real-time feedback, and efficiency, but concerns remain over equity and overreliance. Experts stress using AI as a supportive tool, ensuring children develop essential human skills as automation advances.

https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/parenting-beyond-power/202508/how-artificial-intelligence-is-changing-education