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 links

• Sanna 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

This week Owen and Libby reflect on two recent EdTech conferences in the US: SXSW Edu in March and ASUGSV in April. They discuss how much things have shifted for US education over this short time period, and three themes that stood out to them both: AI literacy, transformation versus efficiency, and the disruptive potential of AI for education.

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

Another live Ed-Technical episode! In this short, Owen does a deep dive on AI and discourse analysis (the study of how meaning is constructed through language) with three experts. The conversation explores the intersection between AI, particularly Large Language Models (LLMs), and the study of discourse.

This is a topical conversation as LLM capabilities continue to evolve. LLMs have mastered sentence level communication. However we know less about their ability to be useful over the course of a full conversation and complex and interactive processes (like learning) that require deeper appreciation of context.

Featuring:

• Pani Kendeu: Professor at the University of Minnesota, researching learning, cognition, and technology, and a former elementary school teacher.
• Alyssa Wise: Professor of Technology and Education at Vanderbilt University, directing the Live Learning Innovation Incubator which bridges technology with real-world classroom challenges.
• Art Graesser: Professor at the University of Memphis, co-founder of the Institute for Intelligent Systems and the Society for Text and Discourse.

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

Everyone is talking about AI’s power to provide answers, but what about your lingering questions? What does the latest research actually tell us? Join Libby and Owen for this live session from SXSW EDU as they delve into the latest research to uncover where AI is truly adding value in the educational landscape — and where it falls short. They’re joined by two expert guests: Kristen DiCerbo from Khan Academy and Assistant Professor Peter Bergman from University of Texas at Austin and Learning Collider. The group discusses the most pressing open questions and key findings from the latest research.

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

In this episode, Owen and Libby chat with Chris Agnew about Stanford's new generative AI hub for education. Chris leads this initiative within Stanford's SCALE program, which aims to be a trusted source for education system leaders on what works in AI and learning.

Chris walks us through their research repository of 181 papers examining AI's impact in K-12 education. He outlines their GenAI tools typology which breaks down AI applications into three categories: efficiency gains, improving student outcomes, and reimagining schooling. The conversation explores key research gaps, including how schools can productively engage with teachers' unions on AI adoption and understanding how students use AI tools for homework - the "elephant in the room" that keeps education leaders up at night.

Before joining Stanford, Chris worked in non-traditional learning environments from wilderness education to apprenticeship programs. He shares both aspirational and practical visions for AI in education over the next five years - though sadly, none involve Owen's hoped-for cyborg centaur tutors (yet).

Links:

• Stanford Accelerator for Learning SCALE Initiative
• Generative AI Research Repository

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

In this short, Owen and Libby discuss a recent World Bank blog post about a study in Nigeria that evaluated the impact of Microsoft Copilot (powered by ChatGPT) on student learning outcomes. In a six-week after school programme, students were supported to use Copilot. The full study hasn’t been published yet but the blog post reports “overwhelmingly positive effects on learning outcomes”. It reports that the learning improvement over the six-week programme was equivalent to nearly two years of typical learning. Owen has a few questions about this…

Link

World Bank blog post ‘From chalkboards to chatbots: Transforming learning in Nigeria, one prompt at a time’

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

In this episode, Libby and Owen interview Mike Frank, Professor at Stanford University and leading expert in child development. This episode has a different angle to the others, as it is more about AI as a scientific instrument rather than as a tool for learning. Libby and Owen have a fascinating discussion with Mike about language acquisition and what we can learn about language learning from large language models. Mike explains some of the differences between how large language models develop an understanding of human language versus how babies do this.

There are some big questions touched on here, including how much of the full human experience it’s possible to capture in data. Libby and Owen also make excellent use of Mike’s valuable time by asking for his expert view on why infants find unboxing videos - videos of other children opening gifts - so addictive.

Links

• Mike Frank’s biography
• New York Times piece about Mike’s work
• An interview with Mike about his research

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

In this short, Libby and Owen discuss a hot-off-the-press study that is one of the first to test how ChatGPT impacts the time science teachers spend on lesson preparation. The TLDR is that teachers who used ChatGPT, with a guide, spent 31% less time preparing lessons - that’s 25.3 minutes per week on average. This very promising result points to the potential for ChatGPT and similar generative AI tools to help teachers with their workload. However we encourage you to dig into the summary and report to go beyond the headline result (after listening to this episode) - this is a rich and rigorous study with lots of other interesting findings!

Links

• EEF summary
• Full study

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