My newest, at @edsource.org--I really worry about the impact of AI on k-12 schools. Here, I talk about my concern, drawing on our recent survey data, and offer a couple ideas for what leaders can do to support educators and reduce the risks of disaster edsource.org/2026/ai-revo...
Great piece! Seeing it going around a lot.
One thing education leaders should know is that AI products are designed for business but are being used by students for learning. This causes problems.
On a related note.
Critically, this is what their product is designed to do. The CEO talked about how business users will upload work notes and documents, generate presentation, then refine it. Previous versions created hard to edit slides. This one, easily edited. Seems like a good work product. Bad learning tool.
It was surprisingly good. It met all the syllabus criteria. Of note, my syllabus is extremely detailed. Lists and explains 8 key questions a research presentation should address.
More detailed syllabus = better instruction for students and AI.
Last year, Canva AI would Fail.
This year, Pass.
Some of the slides have odd choices, both design and content wise, but nothing that would be out of place in a student presentation.
Agentic AI is coming for your student research presentation.
This is Canva 1.0
2.0 announced.
Conclusion slide stating recommendations based on the research
Introdution slide stating the research challenge
Research challenge and take home recommendation slides.
I did this as a test to see what was possible, used my own research and my syllabus.
CEO of Canva went on Decoder with @reckless.bsky.social and said their product is great for education.
Canva AI enables students to create full presentations based on just one prompt.
Business products should not be educational tools.
Canva AI chat interface with prompt saying create presentation based on this paper and syllabus
Canva AI creates an outline of presentation that can be edited with prompts, which will be used to create presentation.
Canva AI giving summary of presentation, how it meets syllabus guidelines and 25 minute time limit, and provides two style choices for the presentation
A slide from the final presentation with an interactive graph showing the main effect for the first research question in the study.
Do your students use Canva for presentations?
In 1 prompt, Canva AI will generate full presentation based on the syllabus and the research article
Starts with an outline you prompt for edits.
Final includes, related images, INTERACTIVE GRAPHS of key results, take home message.
< 5 minutes.
Amazing
News story saying Ontario government buys private jet for premier of Ontario on April 17th.
News story saying Ontario government sells Premier of Ontario’s private jet on April 19h.
Journalism and accountability: A tale in two photos. 🇨🇦
Agreed! I wrote on this a few weeks back. Would like to know what you think.
Still more exciting @aera-motsig.bsky.social programming to come today and tomorrow! Check it out at the link below #AERA2026
NEW Just a few years ago Sal Khan was predicting that AI was poised to revolutionize education. But his experience launching an AI-powered tutor, Khanmigo, has been sobering, he says.
The hope that it would quickly become a super-tutor still seems a long way off.
www.chalkbeat.org/2026/04/09/s...
Working on a test to measure spatial thinking in middle school kids #CDS2026
Here's some of what @mileslab.bsky.social members will be up to Friday (tomorrow!) & Saturday at #AERA2026 --see you there! And don't miss @sanheeta.bsky.social presenting on Belonging Opportunity Structures bright & early on Friday: tinyurl.com/32p8bxxj
We’re hiring at McGill (ECP) — Assistant Professor in Human Development
Come work with us 🙂
Genuinely great group, collaborative culture, amazing students, and Canada!
Focus on early childhood but is open. Must study development
Happy to chat if you’re considering applying or know someone great.
Agreed! Here 👇, I argue the AI students use are untested, broken products designed around maximizing use and not learning. To me, thinking of AI as a product, to be marketed and sold, helps us see why these systems are not helping students
Using cognitive science to design tools that promote learning, not offloading performance. Basing the responses on expert knowledge and pedagogical content knowledge. Learning from work on intelligent tutoring systems. All promising ways to design effective #GenAI
wapo.st/4ds9lND
This happened with educational games. Most games on the market are not well designed and do not work. But, researchers only study the good games and the ones we design. This created a disconnect between the promise we researchers see and the reality students and teachers live.
Researchers should build better tools for students, ones based on learning/cognitive sciences. But, we must equally critique and push for better versions of the products in their hands. This means addressing the reality that the tools we make are not the products students use.
Making LLMs useful will require identifying heuristics and fine tuning; intelligent tutor systems research show us this is hard, requires deep expertise, and is hard to scale. This is all antithetical to the value proposition general purpose LLMs pose to companies.
To me, companies are disincentivized to spend the time/money to build better products. Historically, they promise personalized systems but build practice drills, see Alpha School.
God! Y’all need unions. The set rate is 11,800 per class for a course lecturer at McGill. That’s $8450 USD.
“When it comes to the tutor side of things, critically, there’s very little to almost no research on the efficacy of these tools for elementary and high school students,”
