And we're back! After a relaxing summer holiday Down Under (the school year finishes late December and doesn't restart until after the end of January in Australia) we've made it back to the studio to talk again.

In this first episode of the 2025 'AI in Education' podcast, hosts Dan Bowen and Ray Fleming reflect on the major events and developments in AI during 2024. They discuss the importance of continuously addressing the adoption gap, the evolution of AI tools, and the pace of change in AI technology, exemplified by recent announcements like Project Stargate and DeepSeq.

The episode transitions to predictions for 2025, where they foresee the year being dominated by the rise of AI agents, increased research on AI's efficacy, and the exploration of AI's role in education. They also emphasised the need for ongoing experiments and adaptability in organisations to keep up with rapid advancements.

We look back on the highlights of 2024, and the mass of stories, challenges and inspirations we had throughout the year. And what a year - AI in education has been moving so fast we even invited two digital AI podcasters to take over half the episode. And, worryingly, they did an amazing job - listen for yourself...

We're going to take a break over the Australian school holidays, but then we'll be back with at the end of January 2025. If you miss us, then please go and give us a rating or review in Spotify or Apple Podcasts, and that'll encourage us to return with even more energy for 2025!

We mention far too many stories and episodes to list them all, but one thing we mentioned a few times are the top five episodes from 2024, which in chronological order are:

Assessment and Swiss Cheese - Phill Dawson - Episode 9 of Series 9

• https://aipodcast.education/assessment-and-swiss-cheese-phill-dawson-episode-9-of-series-9

From Burnout to Breakthrough: Amanda Bickerstaff on AI's Role in Education

• https://aipodcast.education/from-burnout-to-breakthrough-amanda-bickerstaff-on-ais-role-in-education 

Jason Lodge - Guiding Through Assessments

• https://aipodcast.education/jason-lodge-guiding-through-assessments 

University of Sydney and the future of assessment

• https://aipodcast.education/university-of-sydney-and-the-future-of-assessment 

Is AI the saviour of teaching? Leanne Cameron's perspective on AI across the teaching profession

• https://aipodcast.education/leanne-camerons-perspective-on-time-saving-for-the-teaching-professions 

A heap of news stories this week means we didn't cover any research at all!

AI isn’t a tool, it’s an environment by Josh Thorpe https://wonkhe.com/blogs/ai-isnt-a-tool-its-an-environment/ 

Australian Senate report into Adoption of AI https://www.aph.gov.au/Parliamentary_Business/Committees/Senate/Adopting_Artificial_Intelligence_AI/AdoptingAI/Report 

Ethan Mollick's course on Coursera: "AI in Education: Leveraging ChatGPT for Teaching" https://www.coursera.org/learn/wharton-ai-in-education-leveraging-chatgpt-for-teaching  I'll also recommend his book - Co-Intelligence - as a great Christmas gift for yourself or a friend

Open AI announced Open AI Pro @ $200/m https://openai.com/index/introducing-chatgpt-pro/  We like Ethan Mollick's example that showed what it could do - solving this problem and creating a working app in 15 minutes - see here: https://bsky.app/profile/emollick.bsky.social/post/3lcldsn2grk2z  

Microsoft Copilot with vision for consumers  https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-copilot/blog/2024/12/05/copilot-vision-now-in-preview-a-new-way-to-browse Demo example: https://youtu.be/H3-hHiITH_g 

Sora released https://openai.com/index/sora-is-here/ 

ChatGPT's Advanced Voice Mode finally gets visual context on the 6th day of OpenAI https://www.zdnet.com/article/chatgpts-advanced-voice-mode-finally-gets-visual-context-on-the-6th-day-of-openai/ 

Apple released iOS 18.2 with integrated AI https://www.zdnet.com/article/ios-18-2-rolls-out-to-iphones-try-these-6-new-ai-features-today/ 

Google Gemini 2.0 with real time speech and vision https://aistudio.google.com/live 

We're on Bluesky  https://bsky.app/profile/aiineducation.bsky.social 

"The Carbon Emissions of Writing and Illustrating Are Lower for AI than for Humans"  https://arxiv.org/ftp/arxiv/papers/2303/2303.06219.pdf 

Microsoft's Zero-Water Solution for Data Centre Cooling https://sustainabilitymag.com/articles/microsoft-unveils-zero-water-cooling-for-ai-data-centres 

This week's episode discussed the new AI toolkit for generative AI strategies from Australia's Higher Education regulator, TEQSA 

The full toolkit is available here: https://www.teqsa.gov.au/guides-resources/resources/corporate-publications/gen-ai-strategies-australian-higher-education-emerging-practice 

During the episode we referenced some of the podcasts when we'd had the chance to interview some of the people from The University of Sydney who were used as case studies in the toolkit, and here's the link to previous podcast episodes that might be helpful to go back to for more depth:

• The University of Sydney's Cogniti AI bot https://aipodcast.education/the-university-of-sydneys-cogniti-ai-bot 
• The University of Sydney's Two Lane approach to assessment https://aipodcast.education/university-of-sydney-and-the-future-of-assessment 

We'd also recommend listening to conversations with two leaders on post-AI assessment

• Jason Lodge at the University of Queensland  https://aipodcast.education/jason-lodge-guiding-through-assessments 
• Phill Dawson at the CRADLE centre at Deakin University  https://aipodcast.education/website/assessment-and-swiss-cheese-phill-dawson-episode-9-of-series-9 

Everybody or Nobody is using AI - News and ResearchSeries 10, Episode 8

We explore quite a lot of news related to AI in Education that arrived this week, which meant we didn't get to cover nearly as many academic research papers as we'd hoped. Oh well, there's still 4 episodes left this year to catch up 😊

News

Open AI released a course for teachers https://www.commonsense.org/education/training/chatgpt-k12-foundations

The AI Art Turing Test Overview: https://www.astralcodexten.com/p/how-did-you-do-on-the-ai-art-turing Direct link to the AI Turing Test form

Avoiding the Discriminatory Use of Artificial Intelligence https://www.ed.gov/laws-and-policy/civil-rights-laws/avoiding-discriminatory-use-of-artificial-intelligence

Brisbane Catholic Education's announcement on "AI for everybody" https://www.bne.catholic.edu.au/news/Pages/Brisbane-Catholic-Education-making-significant-inroads-with-AI-enabled-teaching-and-learning-.aspx https://news.microsoft.com/en-au/features/brisbane-catholic-education-to-deploy-microsoft-365-copilot-to-12500-educators-and-support-staff-in-largest-rollout-for-k-12-globally/

New research from Google Workspace and The Harris Poll shows rising leaders are embracing AI to drive impact at work https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/new-research-from-google-workspace-and-the-harris-poll-shows-rising-leaders-are-embracing-ai-to-drive-impact-at-work-302314697.html

TEQSA Paper on GenAI Strategies for Higher Education https://www.teqsa.gov.au/guides-resources/resources/corporate-publications/gen-ai-strategies-australian-higher-education-emerging-practice 

Research

Unipa-GPT: Large Language Models for university-oriented QA in Italian https://arxiv.org/abs/2407.14246

Boosting Large Language Models with Socratic Method for Conversational Mathematics Teaching https://arxiv.org/abs/2407.17349

LessonPlanner: Assisting Novice Teachers to Prepare Pedagogy-Driven Lesson Plans with Large Language Models https://arxiv.org/abs/2408.01102

Automated Educational Question Generation at Different Bloom's Skill Levels using Large Language Models: Strategies and Evaluation https://arxiv.org/abs/2408.04394

Could ChatGPT get an Engineering Degree? Evaluating Higher Education Vulnerability to AI Assistants https://arxiv.org/abs/2408.11841

This week's episode is a discussion of the Australian Parliamentary report on AI in Education, "Studdy Buddy or Influencer?". The report highlights both the opportunities and challenges GenAI presents, focusing on student and teacher perspectives, ethical considerations, regulatory approaches, and potential solutions. The report makes many recommendations, with the very first being significant on many levels:

"The Committee recommends that the Australian Government: consider making the use of GenAI in education a national priority"

Dan and Ray are joined by guest, Miriam Scott, an Education Consultant for Generative AI for the Association of Independent Schools of NSW and also Marketing & Events Coordinator for the Association of Women Educators.

Miriam was previously Head of Digital Education at Hillbrook Anglican School, and has produced a number of resources for teachers that she shares on her personal website "Scotty Breaks It Down"

• An AI starter-kit for anyone looking to integrate generative AI in their school for education
• An AI professional development toolkit for teachers

Another News & Research episode this week, and lots of interesting links and research discussed. Here's the weblinks for everything!

News

Deception and Deepfakes - How genAI is Changing Cyber Safety Course: https://spsc.thinkific.com/courses/take/deceptionanddeepfakes/ 

Leon Furzes online course, where he made a free course about deepfakes hosted by a deepfake, with deepfake content about deepfakes https://leonfurze.teachable.com/p/this-course-is-ai-generated 

McKinsey surveyed 1363 working professionals across countries, industries, and demographics about the use of generative AI at their work places.  https://www.mckinsey.com/capabilities/quantumblack/our-insights/the-state-of-ai 

The Carbon Emissions of Writing and Illustrating Are Lower for AI than for Humans https://arxiv.org/ftp/arxiv/papers/2303/2303.06219.pdf 

Satya Nadella shared 200 examples globally of companies using AI https://blogs.microsoft.com/blog/2024/11/12/how-real-world-businesses-are-transforming-with-ai/ 

Rose Luckin's Beyond the Hype report  https://www.educateventures.com/beyond-the-hype 

Brad Smith shares a Digital Twin of St Peters Basilica in Rome https://youtu.be/5dQI_TXYJbU 

Research

Spotting Research Fraud - a website that's fascinating https://www.academ-ai.info/ 

AI or Human? Evaluating Student Feedback Perceptions in Higher Education https://osf.io/preprints/osf/6zm83 

Teacher Learning Network Journal - AI in Education special https://tln.org.au/Web/Web/TLN-Journals/TLN%20Journal%20Public.aspx 

Adoption and Impact of ChatGPT in Computer Science Education: A Case Study on a Database Administration Course https://arxiv.org/abs/2407.12145 

Follow-Up Questions Improve Documents Generated by Large Language Models https://arxiv.org/abs/2407.12017 

Educational Personalized Learning Path Planning with Large Language Models https://arxiv.org/abs/2407.11773 

In September, the Toddle team organised "AI for AussieEd", a week-long series of professional development sessions for teachers, which had thousands of attendees for the virtual sessions.

This episode "Driving Innovation in Australian Schools" was part of the week, and brings you the experiences of three educators, in conversation with podcast hosts Dan and Ray

The guests are:

• Rachel Saunders, Primary School Learning Leader at Concordia College in Adelaide
• Ryan Elwell, Director of Digital Pedagogies & Online Safety Education at the ACT Education Directorate
• Matt Heinrich, Director of Learning Technologies and ICT at St Michaels Grammar School in Melbourne

It was a great discussion, and because it was recorded as a live webinar, we had lots of audience questions coming in online, so in the second half of the episode, you're going to hear questions coming in the chat from live listeners. 

As usual, hosts Dan and Ray brought along their own contributions to the discussion:

Dan came with his deep pedagogical knowledge and insightful education conversation.

Ray brought his Buzzword Bingo card

This week's episode has a lot more news than research. But the research that we spend a bit of time on is the insights on how students in Australian universities are using AI. Really good insights for any educator or leader!

News

AI Detectors Falsely Accuse Students of Cheating—With Big Consequences https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2024-10-18/do-ai-detectors-work-students-face-false-cheating-accusations 

Empowering Education Leaders Toolkit https://tech.ed.gov/education-leaders-ai-toolkit/ 

TEQSA Guidance for universities Danny Liu video https://bit.ly/students-ai 

Researchers say an AI-powered transcription tool used in hospitals invents things no one ever said https://www.independent.co.uk/news/openai-ap-san-francisco-experts-microsoft-b2635996.html 

More than a quarter of new code at Google is generated by AI - The Verge https://www.theverge.com/2024/10/29/24282757/google-new-code-generated-ai-q3-2024 

Apple are launching their first devices with Apple Intelligence  https://www.wsj.com/video/series/joanna-stern-personal-technology/full-interview-apples-software-chief-craig-federighi-on-future-of-iphone-ai/756B8727-5FFB-422C-AE63-C4600272BD94?msockid=0a3b30f5f88b6061226e245bf9b96140 

Watch out for the Earning reports:  Google just released and Microsoft do this week too.  Always have a listen to these to find out about the momentum in AI.  Alphabet Q3 earnings call: CEO Sundar Pichai's remarks Microsoft Fiscal Year 2025 First Quarter Earnings Conference Call

Research

A Systematic Mapping Review at the Intersection of Artificial Intelligence and Self-Regulated Learning A call for increased theoretical grounding focus on motivation and diversifying context https://www.researchgate.net/publication/382870027 

Students perspectives on AI in higher education Project website: https://aiinhe.org  Survey highlights: https://aiinhe.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/aiinhe_surveyinsights.pdf  Guidance for students: https://itali.uq.edu.au/files/31707/how-students-use-ai-guide-students.pdf  Guidance for academics: https://itali.uq.edu.au/files/31702/How-students-talk-about- gen-ai-guide-academics.pdf  

This week's episode is an interview with Dr Anna Denejkina, who's an interdisciplinary researcher and Associate Director at The Insight Centre. We discuss her research on youth engagement with generative AI. The conversation explores the multifaceted impact of AI technology in education, addressing benefits such as upskilling and accessibility, as well as concerns related to academic misconduct, job displacement, and misinformation. Key themes include gender disparity in confidence using AI, the importance of critical and empathetic thinking, and the evolving landscape of education assessments. The dialogue also highlights issues of loneliness, anxiety, and the growing equity gap driven by differences in AI adoption across various educational institutions.

Anna talks about her previous research on Young People's Perception and Use of Generative AI, which is a collaboration between The Insight Centre and YouthInsight. Here's a good summary article at The Research Society, and the full research here

We also mentioned the STEM tracker research, which is published by the Dept of Industry here

You can find all of Anna's research publications here