Rewiring the Brain: Reading, AI and the Science of Literacy
In this first episode of EdTechnical Season 3, Libby and Owen speak with Dr. Jason Yeatman from Stanford University about how the brain learns to read, the power of better assessment, and a broader look at how AI is beginning to reshape our relationship with reading itself. They touch on the science behind reading as a learned skill, the surprising overlap between visual and auditory processing, and the challenges schools face in teaching it well. ROAR (Rapid Online Assessment of Reading), a free online reading assessment tool developed by Dr. Yeatman’s lab, comes up as a practical way schools are identifying literacy gaps and supporting students at scale across the US. They reflect on what reading looks like in an AI-driven world in which technology can surface information instantly, reflecting that literacy remains essential for engaging with complexity, understanding detail, and maintaining equal access to opportunity and participation in society. LinksROAR (Rapid Online Reading Assessment) – Welcome to ROAR!Journal Article: The Virtuous Cycle between Education and Neuroscience, by Jason D. Yeatman and Maya Yablonski, published in Mind, Brain and Education (August 2025)BioDr. Jason Yeatman is an Associate Professor in the Graduate School of Education and Department of Psychology and the Division of Developmental and Behavioral Pediatrics at Stanford University. He earned his PhD in Psychology, focusing on the neurobiology of literacy and brain imaging methods to study learning and plasticity. As director of the Brain Development and Education Lab, his research aims to uncover how children learn to read, how this process differs in those with dyslexia, and how to design effective literacy interventions using structural and functional neuroimaging to explore how reading instruction shapes brain development.Join us on social media: BOLD (@BOLD_insights), Libby Hills (@Libbylhhills) and Owen Henkel (@owen_henkel) Listen to all episodes of Ed-Technical here: https://bold.expert/ed-technical Subscribe to BOLD’s newsletter: https://bold.expert/newsletter Stay up to date with all the latest research on child development and learning: https://bold.expert Credits: Sarah Myles for production support; Josie Hills for graphic design; Anabel Altenburg for content production.
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Assessment in Education: To AI or Not to AI?
In this episode of EdTechnical, Libby and Owen speak with assessment expert Dylan Wiliam, Emeritus Professor at UCL Institute of Education, about how formative assessment and AI are reshaping classroom practice. Dylan brings decades of experience in educational research and teacher development to a timely conversation about what works, what doesn’t, and what’s next for assessment. They cover: Why formative assessment remains underused despite its proven impact How AI is reshaping summative assessment and teacher workload The limits of AI in delivering meaningful feedback Rethinking homework in the age of AI Oral exams, conversational assessment, and the future of grading The potential for AI to shift the teacher-student dynamic for the better Links Book: Student Assessment: Better Evidence, Better Decisions, Better Learning Dylan and others explore how assessment can be redesigned to better support learning and decision-making in schools. Podcast episode: Formative Assessment, AI, and the Future of Teaching Dylan discusses how AI can support teacher growth and formative assessment, while cautioning against overreliance on tech. Join us on social media: BOLD (@BOLD_insights), Libby Hills (@Libbylhhills) and Owen Henkel (@owen_henkel) Listen to all episodes of Ed-Technical here: https://bold.expert/ed-technical Subscribe to BOLD’s newsletter: https://bold.expert/newsletter Stay up to date with all the latest research on child development and learning: https://bold.expert Credits: Sarah Myles for production support; Josie Hills for graphic design; Anabel Altenburg for content production.
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Is ChatGPT Rotting Your Brain?
In this short, Libby and Owen digest a recent MIT study attracting a lot of attention, ‘Your Brain on ChatGPT: Accumulation of Cognitive Debt When Using an AI Assistant for Essay Writing’. The study looked at how using tools like ChatGPT for writing essays affects people's brains and writing abilities compared to using search engines or just their own thinking. Is there a potential trade-off between making writing easier in the short term, but harming cognitive abilities and learning over time? This question is especially salient for students who are in the earlier stages of developing their essay writing skills. Link:Your Brain on ChatGPTJoin us on social media: BOLD (@BOLD_insights), Libby Hills (@Libbylhhills) and Owen Henkel (@owen_henkel) Listen to all episodes of Ed-Technical here: https://bold.expert/ed-technical Subscribe to BOLD’s newsletter: https://bold.expert/newsletter Stay up to date with all the latest research on child development and learning: https://bold.expert Credits: Sarah Myles for production support; Josie Hills for graphic design; Anabel Altenburg for content production.
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Finding Their Voice: Voice AI for Literacy Support
Voice AI is having a moment in education. As schools grapple with declining literacy scores and stretched teaching resources, voice-enabled tools have the potential to help. But what's already working in real classrooms, and what challenges remain?In this episode, Libby and Owen speak with Kristen Huff from Curriculum Associates and Amelia Kelly from SoapBox Labs about the emerging field of voice AI for literacy support and assessment. Together they explore how automatic speech recognition technology helps teachers identify reading challenges earlier, provide more frequent assessments, and give students personalized feedback on their oral reading.They discuss the practical realities of developing and implementing voice AI in education, from navigating noisy classroom environments to building teacher trust in AI-generated assessments.Links:Ed-Technical episode with TeachFX about voice AI and teacher feedback Ed-Technical episode with Professor Peter Foltz about voice AI Ed-Technical episode with Dr Carmen Strigel about use of voice technology for teacher feedback in low resource settings Guest biographies Kristen Huff, MEd, EdD, currently serves as the Head of Measurement at Curriculum Associates, where she works with a team of assessment designers, psychometricians, and researchers in the development of online assessments integrated with personalized learning and teacher-led instruction. Kristen has deep expertise in k-12 large scale assessment, and has presented and published consistently in educational measurement conferences and publications for over 25 years.Amelia Kelly, PhD, is an AI engineer and pioneer in voice technology with more than 15 years of experience in speech recognition and natural language understanding. She is a Fulbright Scholar and Eisenhower Fellow, holding a PhD and master’s in linguistics and speech technology. Amelia currently serves as chief technology officer of SoapBox Labs and vice president of data science at Curriculum Associates, where she leads the development of child-specific speech-recognition technologies.Join us on social media: BOLD (@BOLD_insights), Libby Hills (@Libbylhhills) and Owen Henkel (@owen_henkel) Listen to all episodes of Ed-Technical here: https://bold.expert/ed-technical Subscribe to BOLD’s newsletter: https://bold.expert/newsletter Stay up to date with all the latest research on child development and learning: https://bold.expert Credits: Sarah Myles for production support; Josie Hills for graphic design; Anabel Altenburg for content production.
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Coach or Crutch?: Using AI to hone self regulation (not outsource it)
In this episode, Libby and Owen talk to Sanna Järvelä and Inge Molenaar, two of the world’s leading scholars on self‑regulated learning (SRL). Together they cover SRL 101: what self-regulated learning is and why it is a valuable skill. Self-regulated learning is students setting their own goals and then monitoring their learning to achieve those goals. Self-regulation can come more naturally in informal learning settings like sports, but it can be harder to monitor your learning and know if you're on track in school. Sanna and Inge explain how technology can help to address this, and make the learning process more visible. AI systems offer valuable opportunities for better understanding and measuring of self-regulated learning, but need to be carefully designed. We want AI to be a coach not a crutch: AI systems need to reinforce self-regulated learning, not encourage students to offload it. They also touch on the increasingly important question about how we self-regulate our own use of AI. When do I need to proofread this, when do I use autocomplete, and when do I turn AI off?Guest biographies and linksSanna Järvelä is Professor of Learning Sciences & Educational Technology at the University of Oulu, Finland, where she leads the LET research unit. She is co-Director of CELLA, the Center for Learning and Living with AI supported by the Jacobs Foundation. Inge Molenaar is Professor of Education & Artificial Intelligence at Radboud University and founding Director of the Dutch National Education Lab AI (NOLAI). She is co-Director of CELLA the Center for Learning and Living with AI alongside Sanna. Join us on social media: BOLD (@BOLD_insights), Libby Hills (@Libbylhhills) and Owen Henkel (@owen_henkel) Listen to all episodes of Ed-Technical here: https://bold.expert/ed-technical Subscribe to BOLD’s newsletter: https://bold.expert/newsletter Stay up to date with all the latest research on child development and learning: https://bold.expert Credits: Sarah Myles for production support; Josie Hills for graphic design; Anabel Altenburg for content production.
Join two former teachers - Libby Hills from the Jacobs Foundation and AI researcher Owen Henkel - for the EdTechnical podcast series about AI in education. Each episode, Libby and Owen will ask experts to help educators sift the useful insights from the AI hype. They’ll be asking questions like - how does this actually help students and teachers? What do we actually know about this technology, and what’s just speculation? And (importantly!) when we say AI, what are we actually talking about?
South Africa