Learning With AJ

Learning With AJ Exploring the future of learning through thoughts, posts, articles, and videos.

One mistake I see in almost every school AI policy:It's written for one audience.Teachers need to know what to do on Mon...
10/07/2026

One mistake I see in almost every school AI policy:

It's written for one audience.

Teachers need to know what to do on Monday. Students need to know what's allowed on this assignment. Parents need to know what's happening and why.

Those are three different documents. When you mash them into one, nobody reads it.

Segment by audience. It's more work up front and a lot less confusion later.

We all know AI plagiarism detectors don't work.Universities are moving away from them. Schools across the country are dr...
10/06/2026

We all know AI plagiarism detectors don't work.

Universities are moving away from them. Schools across the country are dropping them. The false positive problem alone (flagging real student writing as AI-generated) makes the whole thing more trouble than it's worth.

The best AI detector has always been the same thing.

Knowing your students' work.

Everything else is a backup plan.

One of the six connective instruction behaviors in Kristy Cooper's research is "relating through humor."Not class-clown ...
10/06/2026

One of the six connective instruction behaviors in Kristy Cooper's research is "relating through humor."

Not class-clown humor. Not sarcasm.

The kind of humor that tells a kid, "I actually enjoy being around you."

Students are remarkably perceptive about this. They know pretty quickly whether you like them or whether you tolerate them. And that difference shows up in everything else you ask them to do.

I've written a lot of blog posts this year about AI, learning science, screen time, engagement, and policy.If I had to b...
10/05/2026

I've written a lot of blog posts this year about AI, learning science, screen time, engagement, and policy.

If I had to boil all of it down to one sentence, it'd be this:

The tools are changing faster than ever, and what kids need from the adults in their lives hasn't changed at all.

Everything else is details.

Most schools aren't short on data.They're short on time to make sense of it.Attendance, assessments, surveys, grades. Al...
10/05/2026

Most schools aren't short on data.

They're short on time to make sense of it.

Attendance, assessments, surveys, grades. All sitting in different systems, mostly unread until someone needs a slide for a board meeting.

This is one of the most practical places for AI in schools right now. Not replacing judgment. Getting leaders to the part where judgment matters faster.

You can engineer a bridge.You can't engineer understanding.Every PD session, every onboarding program, every unit plan t...
10/04/2026

You can engineer a bridge.

You can't engineer understanding.

Every PD session, every onboarding program, every unit plan that assumes otherwise is going to disappoint the people who built it (believe me, I know from experience).

We have to design the conditions. Then pay attention to what actually happens.

The subtitle of my new book is "The Fight for Human Learning in the AI Age."I chose "fight" on purpose.Nobody's going to...
10/04/2026

The subtitle of my new book is "The Fight for Human Learning in the AI Age."

I chose "fight" on purpose.

Nobody's going to hand us a future where kids still do the hard thinking. The easy path is right there on every device. Protecting human learning is going to take intention, design, and some stubbornness.

Learning 3.0 comes out this fall.

"What kind of wrong you were when you were wrong."That phrase has been stuck in my head for months.Two kids can miss the...
10/03/2026

"What kind of wrong you were when you were wrong."

That phrase has been stuck in my head for months.

Two kids can miss the same problem for completely different reasons. One has a misconception. One rushed. One guessed. One knew it and second-guessed themselves.

A right/wrong gradebook treats them the same.

Good teachers never have. Now some of our tools don't have to either.

Confession: I'm a crammer.Late night and you'll catch me runinng through the material again and again until it feels fam...
10/03/2026

Confession: I'm a crammer.

Late night and you'll catch me runinng through the material again and again until it feels familiar. Walk in the next morning feeling reasonably prepared.

It works just well enough to keep doing it.

That's the trap.
Familiar isn't the same as learned. The feeling of recognizing something is different than being able to retrieve it when it counts.

I've known the research for years. I still catch myself doing it.

Here's the pattern I've watched for twenty years.A good idea backed by good evidence enters a school system. The system ...
10/02/2026

Here's the pattern I've watched for twenty years.

A good idea backed by good evidence enters a school system. The system absorbs it. Neutralizes it. Then returns to its default settings.

Retrieval practice, or spacing, or even formative feedback. All are well supported, and all still rare in schools

I'm hopeful about AI because it might finally put pressure on those defaults.

I'm worried about AI because it might just become the newest thing the system absorbs.

That's the love/hate.

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