Welcome to episode 350 (“AI as Thought Partner”) of the EdTech Situation Room from April 16, 2025, where technology news meets educational analysis. This week, Dr. Jason Neiffer (aicentrist.com) and Dr. Wesley Fryer (wesfryer.com) explored the transformative role of AI in teaching, learning, and instructional design. Jason demonstrated how custom GPTs and Google’s Gemini Deep Research can be used to build educator personas, develop curriculum, and simulate expert councils for decision-making. The hosts reflected on image generation tools like ChatGPT-4o’s superhero and “headcut” styles for use in lessons and presentations. Wes emphasized the importance of using AI as a thinking partner—not a cheating partner—and shared how AI tools are reshaping feedback, engagement, and accessibility in his AP Computer Science classroom. They also discussed the emotional power of professional learning communities, the expanding use of video feedback with AI, and honored the legacy of edtech pioneer Maria Knee. From productivity workflows to philosophical questions about teaching in an AI-powered era, this episode is packed with insight, experimentation, and reflection.

Our show was live-streamed and archived on YouTube Live via StreamYard.com and auto-archived to YouTube. We are now publishing from Substack too! Subscribe to us with your favorite podcast listening app, or directly on or https://www.youtube.com/@edtechSR. Follow our EdTechSR page on Facebook, mastodon.education/@edtechsr on Mastodon for updates, and join LIVE on Wednesday nights if you can. All show notes are available at edtechSR.com/links.

🔗 Links We Discussed

* The AI Authoring Advantage: Balancing Speed and Substance in Course Creation

* Google Used AI To Block Three Times More Fraudulent Advertisers In 2024 (Ars Technica, 3 April 2025)

* Microsoft Is Putting Privacy-Endangering Recall Back Into Windows 11 (Ars Technica, 26 April 2025)

* Follow Stephan Bauchard on AI

* DeepSeek AI

* PlayLab AIWes’ Geek of the Week:• Wes and Shelly Share Ep 33: Sources of Joy and Summer Plans• Multi-Segment Audio Podcast Lesson

🧭 Links We Did NOT Discuss

* Obituary for Maria Knee

* Deep Research tools: Create a dossier about individuals using Gemini Deep Research

🔗 For a complete list of links from this episode, visit edtechsr.com/links

Episode 350 is also available also on YouTube: