We take a closer look at one of the most repeated claims in AI and education: that AI is saving teachers hours every week. But instead of accepting the headline at face value, I ask a more important question: what should schools actually be optimizing for?

Topics covered in this episode:

• Why claims about AI “saving teachers time” deserve more scrutiny
• The limits of self-reported productivity data
• Why optimizing for efficiency can miss the real point of instruction
• A classroom example of students using AI feedback on writing
• Why AI should function as a thinking partner, not an authority
• The idea of transfer: when AI-supported practice helps students improve independently
• How structured feedback can build student metacognition
• Why students need to evaluate feedback, not just accept it
• What timely, specific feedback makes possible in writing instruction
• Why the best use of AI may be enabling more iteration, reflection, and ownership for students
• What educators risk losing when “time saved” becomes the main metric

Sources:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2026/02/22/ai-chatbots-teach-writing/

https://danmeyer.substack.com/p/i-dont-believe-this-finding-that