Shifting Schools: Conversations for K12 Educators

Beyond Cheating: What AI Is Really Teaching Us About Students and Schools

12 snips

Oct 20, 2025

Guest

Jesse Dukes

Guest

Justin Reich

Justin Reich, an MIT associate professor and director of the Teaching Systems Lab, and journalist Jesse Dukes, explore the nuanced impacts of AI in education. They discuss how generative AI reshapes concepts of academic integrity and the importance of student voice. The duo emphasizes the need for empathy in educational policy and highlights the potential of AI as a tool for differentiation. They also address challenges like teacher-student relationships and the urgent need for schools to adapt in the wake of pandemic-induced changes.

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INSIGHT

Listen To Students First

Students are observant, thoughtful, and often wise about how AI affects their learning.
Listening to students is the best starting point for addressing changes in education.

ADVICE

Begin With School Life, Not AI

Start conversations about AI by asking broad questions about school life, not by immediately asking about cheating.
Let teachers and students bring up AI topics naturally after you learn about their routines.

INSIGHT

AI Reveals Education's Fragile Fixes

Generative AI exposes the brittle, improvised systems that hold education together.
This disruption invites useful redesign but also risks breaking carefully balanced interests.

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The conversation about AI in education often starts—and stops—with cheating. But what if that's the least interesting part of the story? In this episode, Tricia Friedman speaks with the team behind the new show: The Homework Machine, MIT's Justin Reich and journalist Jesse Dukes. They unpack how generative AI is reshaping what we mean by integrity, creativity, and student voice. Together they explore how teachers can balance innovation with empathy, and what schools might learn from students already living in the AI age.

Chapters

00:00 Introduction to The Homework Machine 02:47 The Importance of Listening to Students 05:45 AI and Academic Integrity: A Deeper Look 08:23 The Role of Relationships in Education 10:59 Challenges in Teacher-Student Relationships 13:46 Navigating AI in Education 16:38 The Need for Empathy in Educational Policy 19:15 The Impact of the Pandemic on Education 22:17 Engaging Skeptics in AI Discussions 24:41 Finding Balance in Educational Priorities 27:45 Creating Safe Spaces for Student Voices 30:27 Looking Ahead: Future of The Homework Machine

The Homework Machine is a mini series from TeachLab, a podcast that investigates the art and craft of teaching. Hosted by Justin Reich, MIT Professor and director of the MIT Teaching Systems Lab.

https://www.teachlabpodcast.com/

Jesse Dukes is a journalist and comedian who has done (nearly) all the jobs in podcasting and audio including producer, editor, executive producer, reporter, mix engineer, and teacher. Along with other projects, He's currently working with the Teaching System's Lab at MIT on The Homework Machine, a research and podcasting project about the arrival of generative AI in schools. He has taught audio storytelling at the Center for Documentary Studies at Duke and Denison University.

Justin Reich 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. He earned his doctorate from the Harvard Graduate School of Education and was the Richard L. Menschel HarvardX Research Fellow. He is a past Fellow at the Berkman-Klein Center for Internet and Society. His writings have been published in Science, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Washington Post, The Atlantic, and other scholarly journals and public venues. He started his career as a high school history teacher, and coach of wrestling and outdoor adventure activities.

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