Azadeh and Guy on AI

In this episode, Guy and Azadeh talk with Nick Husbye, associate professor of literacy at the University of Nebraska–Lincoln and Guy’s co-host on Not That Kind of Doctor, about how he uses AI with preservice teachers. Nick’s guiding principle is that AI should amplify thinking rather than export it. Consumer models are good at organizing information, spotting patterns, and naming strengths and weaknesses in what we give them. They do not produce wisdom, and pedagogical content knowledge is a form of wisdom.

Nick describes how his students draft lesson plans by hand in class, photograph them, and then use AI to stress-test the plan through an instructional coach persona he built. He explains why that persona gave better feedback than a “veteran teacher” persona. The conversation turns to authorship, the em dash witch hunt, and why critical literacy frameworks that assume a human author cannot simply be extended to AI-generated text. Guy and Nick close on what AI exposes about five-paragraph templates and the assessments that drive them, and on the responsibility teacher educators carry for preparing teachers for the students they will teach.

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What does AI adoption look like when you're the principal, counselor, tech director, and social studies teacher all at once? In this episode, Guy sits down with Nick Ziegler, EdTech Specialist at ESU5, and Andrew Easton, Chief Learning Officer at the ESU Coordinating Council, to explore how Nebraska's Educational Service Units are helping rural schools navigate AI integration in education. From AI-generated images for world language classrooms to classroom observation devices trained on high-quality instructional materials, the conversation covers practical AI tools for teachers, digital citizenship frameworks, and an exciting statewide professional development event. If you care about educational equity and AI literacy, this one's for you.Link to TLI Professional Learning 2026-2027 ~ October 22, 2026:https://esupo.org/workshops/SectionDetails.aspx?SectionID=1960

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What happens when AI can finally deliver one-on-one tutoring at scale, but students use it to skip learning entirely? Azadeh and Guy sit down with Dr. Seyyed Ahmad Rahimi, Associate Professor of Learning Sciences and AI at Georgia Tech, to explore the tension between AI-powered performance and genuine learning. They unpack stealth assessment, productive failure, and the SAIL framework for safe AI integration in education. Dr. Rahimi also shares groundbreaking research on using large language models to assess creativity, and what it means to raise lifetime learners in an AI-driven world. If you care about the future of human thinking, this episode is essential listening.

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What happens when AI enthusiasts show up at an engineering education conference? Azadeh returns from the ASEE Midwest Conference with fresh insights on how engineers and faculty are grappling with artificial intelligence in the classroom. From agentic AI workshops to qualitative research on students delegating AI tasks, this episode unpacks the nuanced tension between AI support and AI replacing student thinking. Azadeh and Guy explore entrustment frameworks, longitudinal studies on generative AI use, and why a little technical knowledge still matters in an AI-powered world. If you care about AI literacy in higher education, this one's for you.

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What does it actually take to use AI well in a math classroom? In this season four premiere, Azadeh and Guy welcome Dr. Lorraine Males, Wyoming Excellence Chair in Mathematics Education, to explore AI integration in teacher preparation. Dr. Males shares insights from her NSF-funded research with Colleague AI, a human-centered platform designed to support, not replace, teacher judgment. The conversation covers why foundational pedagogical knowledge must come before AI tools, how a focus on process over product changes everything, and what math educators can learn from the calculator era. If you care about AI in education done right, this episode is for you. Link to Colleague AI:

https://www.colleague.ai/

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Season 4 of “Azadeh and Guy on AI” starts next week, and we are running it differently.

For three seasons, we built each episode around a topic, a paper, or a perspective we wanted to think through out loud. This season every episode is an interview. We are sitting down with instructors and students across higher education and K-12, from engineering, education, business, and the humanities, to hear how AI is being used in and out of their classrooms.

Three things we are trying to get right this season:

* Real classrooms over abstractions. We want the account from people teaching and learning right now, not another round of predictions about where this is headed.

* Both sides of the desk. We are talking with students as well as instructors, because the two often describe the same tool in ways that do not match. A student finds a use the instructor never intended. An instructor redesigns an assignment after watching AI walk through the old one in seconds.

* A range of fields. What counts as good use in a writing seminar and in an engineering lab are not the same thing, and the differences are worth naming.

We are recording on video for the first time this season, so you can watch the conversations if you would rather. When a guest shares something on screen, we will make it available to audio-only listeners too.

If you are teaching with AI, learning with it, or studying how it changes a classroom, I want to hear what is surprising you. What has worked, and what has failed?

First episode next week.

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As Season 3 wraps up, Guy shares firsthand insights from the Google Education AI series for higher education in Chicago—one of the most impactful professional learning experiences he's encountered. Guy and Azadeh dig into what it means for institutions to truly commit to AI integration (hint: it takes more than a policy), how faculty can use AI-enabled curriculum design to improve assignments, and why the "middle group" of hesitant educators may be the most important audience right now. Azadeh also shares a practical win using ChatGPT for academic manuscript organization. If you're navigating AI adoption in higher education, this episode is your roadmap.

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In this episode of Azadeh and Guy on AI, we welcome back Omid Tarashtwal for a deeper conversation about how artificial intelligence is transforming research, international development, and data-driven decision-making. We explore how AI, geographic information systems (GIS), and remote sensing can work together to address real-world challenges, from improving access to education and healthcare to informing infrastructure and policy decisions in developing countries. Omid explains how AI helps researchers identify meaningful patterns in large datasets, generate research ideas, and support evidence-based policymaking while emphasizing the continued importance of human expertise and validation. We also discuss the environmental impact of AI, the balance between innovation and sustainability, and AI's potential to advance the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. Whether you're an educator, researcher, policymaker, or simply interested in how AI can create positive global impact, this episode offers an insightful look at AI beyond the classroom.

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

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In this episode of Azadeh and Guy on AI, we welcome Omid Tarashtwal, a recent master's graduate in Agricultural Economics, to discuss how artificial intelligence can transform the graduate student experience. Omid shares how he strategically uses AI to identify professional development opportunities, secure competitive training programs at institutions such as Harvard, Oxford, and Yale, and build a career at the intersection of agriculture, climate change, and international development. We also explore the role of AI in graduate coursework, coding, research, and academic writing, emphasizing how AI can support learning without replacing critical thinking. The conversation highlights the importance of providing AI with meaningful context, using it as a personalized learning partner, and developing responsible AI practices that strengthen the educational process. We conclude by discussing AI's potential to address global challenges, including climate resilience and early warning systems for farmers. Whether you're a graduate student, educator, or researcher, this episode offers practical insights into using AI to learn more effectively, advance your career, and make a meaningful impact.

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In this episode of Azadeh and Guy on AI, Guy joins us from the Computer Science Teachers Association (CSTA) Conference in New Orleans to share the latest developments in AI and computer science education. We discuss the newly released CSTA standards and how they integrate artificial intelligence from middle school onward, balancing AI literacy, ethics, and computational thinking. The conversation explores how educators are navigating generative AI, concerns about cognitive offloading, the role of machine learning in helping students understand AI, and the challenges of teaching increasingly sophisticated AI systems. We also reflect on Nebraska's efforts to prepare more computer science teachers, examine the environmental debates surrounding AI, and share practical ways we each used AI during the week—from planning a conference schedule to improving professional writing. Whether you're an educator, researcher, or simply curious about the future of AI in schools, this episode offers thoughtful insights from one of the largest gatherings of computer science educators.

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