We keep saying that most ed tech is invited into schools, but generative AI crashed the party. But the truth in, some teachers have invited AI into schools. Some think it’s been great, and others see opportunities as well as challenges.

We visit four classrooms where students and teachers are using AI in ways they say are innovative, fulfilling, and effective: a student in Oregon who worked with her teacher to expand the scope of her assignments with AI; a Southern California instructor using AI to bypass busywork and focus on the creative aspects of filmmaking; a teacher in Illinois deploying AI to provide targeted feedback; and, finally, a former engineer whose students use AI coding tools to make circuitboards…play Rick Astley?

And we ask the question: What are the human teachers doing to create conditions in which AI can support learning?

This episode was produced by Jesse Dukes. We had editing from Alexandra Salomon and Ruxandra Guidi. Reporting and research from Chris Bagg, and Andrew Parsons. Additional reporting from Andrew Meriwether, Holly McDede, Natasha Esteves, and Marnette Federis. Sound design and music supervision by Steven Jackson.

Thanks to Jerry Shaw for digging up some of those Arduino Uno songs. The “Uptown Funk” was a simulation, created in our studios.

Production help from Yebu Ji. Data analysis from Manee Ngozi Nnamani and Manasa Kudumu. Administrative support from Jessica Rondon. Special thanks to Josh Sheldon and Eric Klopfer.

Original music for this series was created by Steven Jackson, Andrew Meriwether and Jesse Dukes, as part of the music project Cue Shop. Thanks to Will Grueb, Andy Wilds, and the MIT Music Department for letting us use the MIT Harpsichord.
The research and reporting you heard in this episode was supported by the Spencer Foundation, the Kapor Foundation, the Jameel World Education Lab, the Social and Ethical Responsibility of Computing initiative at MIT, and the RAISE initiative, Responsible AI for Social Empowerment and Education also at MIT.

We had support from Google’s Academic Research Awards program.