My recent work has very much deepened my understanding of just how much is happening at the intersection of AI and education. That experience inspired me to start curating weekly updates to help others make sense of the rapid developments in this space. There’s a lot of noise, and my goal is to surface what’s most relevant, actionable, or thought-provoking.
ISTE Live 2025: AI Takes Center Stage in Education
This past week was ISTE Live and AI was a bit more than center stage all week. We are probably still focusing too heavily on the low-hanging fruit with a tad bit of an obsession on “cool tools” — however, there were some great thinkers and doers whom I was thankful to learn from.
Here’s what stood out this week (some from ISTE Live, some just on my radar).
A few things that are top of mind for me this week.
Brookings Commentary on AI’s Emotional Services Shift
This new Brookings commentary on the recent paper out of Harvard. I mentioned this study during a few of my presentations last week and noted the shift from automation to emotional services marks a significant trajectory in AI deployment — a shift we need to think carefully about. One of the highlight quotes for me was, “Silicon Valley’s biggest players are racing to monetize the emotional void… engineered by companies driven by profit and our attention, not accountability or well‑being.” This is a really well written piece that is worth a few minutes of your time. Read more at https://www.brookings.edu/articles/what-happens-when-ai-chatbots-replace-real-human-connection/
Global AI Education Survey: Your Voice Matters in Policy Making
An important data collection is underway from a few friends working collaboratively on a. global level. This survey focuses on how generative AI is impacting teaching and learning. This survey is available in English, Spanish, Portuguese, Arabic, French, and Chinese. As my buddy Mary Burns noted, “your voice is essential in shaping how policymakers understand the opportunities and risks of AI in schools. You can access the survey at https://ee.kobotoolbox.org/single/5f9634a89d9f61c20d19dec601811335
Profile of an AI-Ready Graduate: ISTE CEO’s Vision
Richard Culatta, CEO of ISTE, shared some ideas on a Profile of an AI-ready Graduate (image below). He 100% declared this a draft — how would you shift this? And, how does the profile connect with what you have already adopted as a profile of a graduate? Richard also shared these important words in a recent GovTech article: “I think schools had to go through this like, ‘wow, what is AI?’ And then [they’re] very tool focused: How do you use it? How do you explain it? How is it safe?” he said. “And then there’s this third phase: ‘OK, now let’s get back to caring about learning and our end goals, but using AI as a tool to do that.’ I think we’re starting to push into that this year.” Read more at https://www.govtech.com/education/k-12/iste-ceo-schools-to-redefine-learning-in-the-age-of-ai
AI in Education from Canada: Canada’s AI Education Research: 2,800 Teachers Share Insights
The Ministry of Education in Alberta, Canada shared research based on feedback from over 2,800 Alberta K — 12 teachers and school leaders. Among statistical findings they also shared emerging questions. Read more at https://teachers.ab.ca/sites/default/files/2025-05/infographic-artificialintelligence.pdf
AI in Education updates from the United States: White House AI Education Pledge: Tech Giants Commit to Educational Support
Google announced a variety of new features for its Classroom software suite, including free Gemini AI tools for educators and NotebookLM for users under 18. Many of you have heard me speak about Notebook as an interesting tool with several use cases in education, either this news those deepened a bit. Read more at https://blog.google/outreach-initiatives/education/gemini-iste-2025/
If you didn’t catch this in the news cycle yesterday — you should take a few minutes to read through it. Some companies (Adobe, Amazon, Cisco, Dell, Google, Intel, McGraw Hill, Microsoft, NVIDIA, OpenAI, Oracle and Workday) have already signed the pledge to make various contributions ranging from grants to curricula, to educator training, to employability resources and workforce tools. A lot to think about with this one. Read more at https://www.axios.com/pro/tech-policy/2025/06/30/white-house-announces-ai-education-pledge
AI in Education updates from Africa: African AI Innovation + GPU Access and Agricultural Solutions
Also important to note, UK-based Cassava Technologies are partnering with the South Africa AI Association to boost GPU access and AI R&D across the continent. Cassava will grant over 3,000 AI entrepreneurs, researchers and business leaders access to high-performance data centre GPUs. This comes on the heels of Cassava’s. announcement of plans to establish Africa’s first AI factory. Read more at https://apanews.net/cassava-technologies-saaia-to-expand-ai-access-across-africa/
The Africa AI Literacy Week Hackathon, brought together young minds to develop practical, AI-driven solutions for real-world problems. The top prize went to a team that developed an AI platform to forecast market prices for agricultural goods. Read more about “How African Students are Using AI to Solve Agricultural Challenges” at https://tech-ish.com/2025/07/03/ai-africa-agri-tech-sector/
AI in Education updates from Latin America: Latin America’s Call for Regional AI Regulation
One author took some important words to their new article, published in The Americas Quarterly. Arguing that Latin America should develop its own regulatory approach to AI, with an emphasis on flexibility, inclusion, regional coordination, and capacity-building. There are some important calls to action in this article, you can read more at https://americasquarterly.org/article/regulating-ai-on-latin-americas-terms/
Remember that the future of education is being shaped now and we need more voices that are informed, thoughtful, and equity-driven. Subscribe to Jody’s newsletter to get weekly updates delivered right to your in-box.
