Podcast
TeachLab with Justin Reich
Hosted by MIT Teaching Systems Lab · EN
TeachLab is a podcast that investigates the art and craft of teaching. There are 3.5 million K-12 teachers in America, and we want to explore how they can become even better at what they do. Hosted by Justin Reich, MIT Professor and director of the MIT Teaching Systems Lab.
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The Homework Machine Ep 4 "Busted!"
Aug 18Tap to summarizeStudents tell us that they know learning in schools is important. But sometimes, turning to ChatGPT to get their work done feels like the best option. AI might help with what they perceive as busy work, or they might be confused about what counts as a legitimate use, and what counts as cheating.And sometimes, students tell us, they know they’re crossing a line. When that happens, it’s usually because they’ve hit a wall in the learning process, and generative AI presents a quick and easy way through the blockage. For teachers, there is no single, off the shelf solution, that will ensure students make wise decisions, but understanding why students turn to AI can be a helpful starting point.This episode was produced by Andrew Meriwether Jesse Dukes. We had editing from Ruxandra Guidi and Alexandra Salomon. Reporting and research from Natasha Esteves, Holly McDede, Andrew Parsons, Marnette Federis, and Chris Bagg. Sound design and music supervision by Steven Jackson. Production help from Yebu Ji. Data analysis from Manee Ngozi Nnamani and Manasa Kudumu. Special thanks to Josh Sheldon and Eric Klopfer. Administrative support from Jessica Rondon.Featured guests include Miriam Reichenberg, Kaitleen Evangelista, as well as anonymous students. Thanks to InTandem for facilitating interviews.Thanks to Greer Murphy and Jessa Kirk, at UC Santa Cruz's Academic Integrity Office. Check out Greer Murphy's co-authored survey of academic integrity policies.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.
Transcribe →The Homework Machine Ep 3 "The Duplicitous Nature of Humanity"
Aug 12Tap to summarizeTeachers have all sorts of opinions about AI. Some are optimistic, some are pessimistic. But the most common topic that came up in our interviews was cheating.While students have always taken shortcuts to complete their work, ChatGPT and other generative AI have a historically unique power to quickly, convincingly and comprehensively do a students’ assignment. This is proving a powerful temptation to students.So how do teachers help their students make good decisions? Teachers know that schools have historically struggled to manage discipline fairly but they also recognize that letting students get away with cheating isn’t doing them a favor. Teachers share how they’re navigating the Scylla and Charybdis of school discipline in the AI age.Listen to a bleeped version of this episode (Coming soon!).Transcript coming soon!This episode was produced by Jesse Dukes with Yebu Ji.Editing: Alexandra Salomon and Ruxandra GuidiReporting and research from Natasha Esteves, Andrew Meriwether, Holly McDede, Andrew Parsons, Marnette Federis, and Chris Bagg.Sound design and music supervision by Steven Jackson.Production assistance from Nathan Ray.Data analysis from Manee Ngozi Nnamani and Manasa Kudumu.Special thanks to Josh Sheldon, Camila Lee, Liz Hutner, and Eric Klopfer.Administrative support from Jessica Rondon.Thanks to the teachers who spoke to us including Joe O'Hara, Alec Jensen, Schuyler Hunt, Anna Rose Pandey, Ray Salazar, and Jessica Petit-Frere. And thanks to all the teachers and students who partipated in our research.Thanks to Greer Murphy and Jessa Kirk, at UC Santa Cruz's Office of Academic Integrity. Check out Greer Murphy's co-authored survey of academic integrity policies.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.The Homework Machine is a program of the MIT Teaching Systems Lab, Justin Reich, director.
Transcribe →The Homework Machine Ep 2 "The Jagged Frontier"
Aug 5, 2025Tap to summarizeChatGPT is the most well known of the Large Language Models (LLMs) but what is an LLM? We go deep into how this remarkable new technology is built, and why their performance is inconsistent — or jagged — across similar tasks. We dive into the techniques AI engineers use to align these tools’ behavior with our values, and explain why they don’t always work, and sometimes we get hallucinations or biased output. This episode was produced by Steven Jackson and Jesse DukesEditing: Alexandra Salomon and Ruxandra Guidi Reporting and research from Holly McDede, Natasha Esteves, Andrew Parsons, Andrew Meriwether, Marnette Federis, and Chris Bagg.Sound design and music supervision by Steven Jackson. Production assistance from Yebu Ji and Nathan Ray. Data analysis from Manee Ngozi Nnamani and Manasa Kudumu. Special thanks to Josh Sheldon, Camila Lee, Liz Hutner, and Eric Klopfer. Administrative support from Jessica Rondon. 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. The Homework Machine is a program of the MIT Teaching Systems Lab, Justin Reich, director.
Transcribe →The Homework Machine Ep 1 "Buckle Up, Here it Comes!"
Jul 29, 2025Tap to summarizeIn late November of 2022, ChatGPT was released to the public as a free research preview. Students quickly realized ChatGPT was pretty good at doing their homework for them. Schools scrambled to figure out what to do: Ban it? Embrace it? Teachers and students found themselves adapting to a new reality. Buckle Up, Here it Comes kicks off “The Homework Machine” a mini series in the Teachlab podcast. Hosts Jesse Dukes and Justin Reich share stories of teachers and students reacting to the arrival of an exciting, alarming, and strange new technology. Producer: Jesse DukesEditors: Ruxandra Guidi and Alexandra Salomon.Reporting and research: Holly McDede, Natasha Esteves, Andrew Meriwether, and Chris Bagg. Sound design and music supervision: Steven Jackson. Data analysis: Manee Ngozi Nnamani and Manasa Kudumu. Special thanks to Josh Sheldon, Camila Lee, Liz Hutner, and Eric Klopfer. Administrative support from Jessica Rondon. 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. Additional support from Google’s Academic Research Awards program. InTandem facilitated some of our student interviews. Full episode transcript.
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Coming Soon: The Homework Machine
Jul 25, 2025Tap to summarizeGenerative AI is not like other education technologies, which schools often invite into the classroom. This one crashed the party. And then, it started re-arranging the furniture. We wanted to learn more, so in a little over a year, the Teaching Systems Lab has talked to over 90 teachers and 30 students about the impact of Generative AI. Some are excited about AI's potential to transform education for the better. Others are troubled by the temptations of a machine that can quickly and convincingly do many homework assignments. And some think AI is just a shiny object – a distraction from the much larger problems facing education.Over the next seven episodes, we'll try to answer the question: Is AI a game-changing tool, a threat to critical thinking, another ed tech fad? … or something else? Media requests can go to jpd009@mit.edu.
Transcribe →AI Summarizes Our Paper About AI
Dec 3, 2024Tap to summarizeJustin Reich and researcher and producer Jesse Dukes argue that AI in requires a new theoretical framework. Generative AI, unlike many teaching technologies, is an "arrival" technology, meaning it will be present in school environments regardless of what choices school leaders make about whether to adopt it. Their new preprint Toward a New Theory of Arrival Technologies: The Case of ChatGPT and the Future of Education Technology after Adoption explores the idea of "arrival technologies"But rather than summarize it, hey, why not let the arrival technology do it? So we turn to Google's new tool, Notebook LM for a "Deep Dive Conversation" to summarize the article. Thanks to the Spencer Foundation and the Social and Ethical Responsibilities of Computing initiative at MIT for funding our ongoing research into the arrival of generative AI in schools. Thanks to all of the teachers and administrators who have talked with us. This episode was produced by Jesse Dukes. We had research help from Chris Bagg, Manasa Kudumu, Natasha Esteves, and Andrew Meriwether. If you want to take our survey, or learn more about our research into Generative AI and K12 education, head over to tsl.mit.edu and if you want to volunteer for the sister study, in California, visit Jesse’s Linktree.
Transcribe →The Arrival of the Homework Machine
Apr 25, 2024Tap to summarizeJustin spoke at the Connecticut Association of Boards of Education in November of 2023. You can see his graphics and outline.tsl.mit.edu/AI/ has more generative AI related resources, including our SURVEY for educators, school leaders, students, and parents. Jesse Dukes is leading our current project about the experiences of teachers and students with generative AI this school year.
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Teacher Speech and the New Divide: Book Bans
Aug 4, 2023Tap to summarizeIn the fifth episode of our new series, Teacher Speech and the New Divide, we’re taking a look at book bans in schools. We head off to Florida, the epicenter of this conflict, to find out more about what books are being removed, how this affects students, teachers, and the community, and the actions that educators are taking in the face of these controversial transformations in school libraries and classrooms. Our host Justin Reich is joined by former teacher and educational researcher Natasha Esteves, and accompanied by an interview with Brevard County teacher and founder of Foundation 451, Adam Tritt.Special thanks to our friends at Learning for Justice, and the Justice in Schools team at the Harvard Graduate School of Education for their collaboration on this work. Resources and LinksLearn more about Foundation 451Take our course on supporting youth activism at www.youthinfront.orgPre-Order Justin Reich’s new book Iterate: The Secret to Innovation in SchoolsWatch our documentary film We Have to Do Something Different Transcripthttps://teachlabpodcast.simplecast.com/episodes/teacher-speech-e5/transcript CreditsHost Justin ReichProduced by Aimee Corrigan and Garrett Beazley Recorded and Mixed by Garrett BeazleyFollow TeachLab on Twitter and YouTube
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Crossover: Upper Middlebrow - Summer Reading for Teens
Jul 20, 2023Tap to summarizeThis week, we’re giving the floor to our friends Jesse Dukes and Chris Bagg at UpperMiddleBrow to share one of their summer reading episodes. You’ll listen to teachers offer their summer reading recommendations for teens, and a great conversation about teaching literature. Heads Up: UpperMiddleBrow is a little salty, so there might be a curse word here or there. If you like what you hear, be sure to jump over to UpperMiddleBrow and subscribe to hear more episodes. Upper Middlebrow Notes:We’re joined by two veteran high school English teachers, each with a summer reading recommendation for a teenager. We talk about about how speculative fiction (including sci-fi, fantasy, horror, alt. history) engages teenagers in different ways, and why magic gets a bad rap among “literary” readers. Book recommendations: Never Let Me Go Kazuo IshiguroA Wizard of Earthsea Ursula K. LeGuinAs promised in the episode, we also have Lindsay’s self-syllabus for this summer of reading, both in image format and in a Notion template for your enjoyment!Notion Template: https://confirmed-gray-ae7.notion.site/d101bfaaec8f40848e8a6d3ae2faffd7?v=be5c29b11ad744a599e467cc39365ada&pvs=4 More Resources and LinksCheck out the Upper Middlebrow Podcast for more episodes!Take our course on supporting youth activism at www.youthinfront.orgPre-Order Justin Reich’s new book Iterate: The Secret to Innovation in SchoolsWatch our film We Have to Do Something DifferentPre-Order Justin Reich’s new book Iterate: The Secret to Innovation in Schools Produced by Upper Middlebrow Follow TeachLab on Twitter and YouTubeFollow our host Justin Reich on Twitter
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Crossover: Upper Middlebrow Discusses The Diamond Age
Jan 26, 2023Tap to summarizeTeachLab is doing a crossover episode with the book podcast Upper Middlebrow hosted by Jesse Dukes and Chris Bagg. Justin Reich was invited on as their guest and are graciously letting us repost the episode under TeachLab. Upper Middlebrow Notes:We hit pause on recapping, and talk the intersection of education and technology with a genuine educational technologist, Professor Justin Reich (and the man who introduced Dukes + Bagg). Justin considers Stephenson’s take on the ancient debate about whether education resembles “filling a pail” or “kindling a flame” and notes his preoccupation with the probabilistic nature of education tech. Justin is an associate professor of digital media in the Comparative Media Studies/Writing department at MIT and the director of the Teaching Systems Lab. He is the author of Failure to Disrupt: Why Technology Alone Can’t Transform Education, and the host of the TeachLab Podcast. Resources and LinksCheck out the Upper Middlebrow Podcast for more episodes!Watch our film We Have to Do Something DifferentExplore our Covid 19 Reports and ResourcesGet your copy of Justin Reich’s book Failure to Disrupt: Why Technology Alone Can't Transform Education Transcripthttps://teachlabpodcast.simplecast.com/episodes/upper-middlebrow/transcript Produced by Upper Middlebrow TeachLab edit by Garrett Beazley Follow TeachLab on Twitter and YouTubeFollow our host Justin Reich on Twitter
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