Education Technology Society

Latest Episodes:

Agentic AI and education Jan 27, 2026

Show notes

Carlo Perrotta (University of Oxford) was researching GenAI in education long before it hit the headlines.

We talk about the latest hype around ‘Agentic AI’ and whether this is genuinely a game-changer or simply a desperate attempt to sustain the GenAI hype bubble.

Accompanying reference >>> Perrotta, C. (2024). Plug-and-play education: Knowledge and learning in the age of platforms and artificial intelligence. Routledge.

Are we seeing a digital backlash in education? Jan 10, 2026

Show notes

Efforts are growing in many countries to get devices out of classrooms and push for a general ‘de-digitisation’ of education.

Ingrid Forsler (Södertörn University) talks about recent developments in Sweden and how we can make sense of this growing turn against digital education.

Accompanying reference >>> Forlser, I. et al. (2025). Hijacking the digital backlash in education. Postdigital Science & Education, https://doi.org/10.1007/s42438-025-00601-9

Better AI in education … is regulation the answer? Dec 05, 2025

Show notes

We talk with legal expert Liane Colonna (Stockholm University) about the EU ‘AI Act’ and what it means for the use of AI in education.

To what extent can we rely on regulation to enforce safer and more beneficial forms of AI use in education?

Accompanying reference >>> Colonna, L. (2025). Artificial Intelligence in Education (AIED): Towards More Effective Regulation. European Journal of Risk Regulation, doi:10.1017/err.2025.10039

What values should be driving the EdTech of the future? Nov 22, 2025

Show notes

Professor Arathi Sriprakash (University of Oxford) wants us to reimagine edtech along radically different lines.

What might digital education look like if it was based around principles of reparation, sovereignty, care and democratisation?

Accompanying reference >>> Sriprakash, A., Williamson, B., Facer, K., Pykett, J. & Valladares Celis, C. (2025) Sociodigital futures of education: reparations, sovereignty, care, and democratisation, Oxford Review of Education, 51:4, 561-578

Why using GenAI in education is ‘pedagogically irresponsible’ Nov 08, 2025

Show notes

Philosopher Gene Flenady (Monash University) has strong reservations about the current push for GenAI into university teaching and learning.

If we accept that ChatGPT is an ‘irresponsible bullshitter’ then why is it being welcomed into universities … and what can we do about it?

Accompanying reference >>> Flenady, G. & Sparrow, R. (2025). Cut the bullshit: why GenAI systems are neither collaborators nor tutors. Teaching in Higher Education, 1-10.

Fostering autonomy in the platformised classroom Oct 22, 2025

Show notes

Niels Kerssens (Utrecht University) joins us to talk about the concept of 'platformisation' that came out of Utecht led by Jose Van Dijck in the 2010s and how this is now coming to bear on the classrooms and schools of 2025.

We also talk about Niels’ new concept of ‘digital autonomy innovators’ and the growing demand for more collaborative and non-corporate forms of ed-tech.

Accompanying reference >>> Kerssens, N. & van Es, K. (2025). Fostering autonomy in the digital classroom. in Governing the digital society. (pp. 227-244). Amsterdam University Press.

Should teachers use AI to write emails to parents? Oct 01, 2025

Show notes

AI tools are now being sold with the promise of doing all sorts of routine tasks for teachers.

We talk to Brad Robinson (Texas State University) about one such tool – MagicSchool AI – and the growing temptation for teachers to let GenAI do their work for them.

Accompanying reference >>> Robinson, B. & Leander, K. (2025). ‘I hope this email finds you well’: how synthetic affect circulates through MagicSchool AI. Learning, Media and Technology, 1-13

Techno-solutionism in education Sep 11, 2025

Show notes

Why does education keep falling for techno-solutionism, despite the fact that technology does not seem to drastically improve education?

Ezechiel Thibaud (The Education University of Hong Kong) guides us through the underpinning causes of techno-solutionism in education and stresses the need to better acknowledge the disappointments of digital education.

Accompanying reference >>> Thibaud, E. (2025). Reflections on techno-solutionism in education: Manifestations and causes. Educational Philosophy and Theory, 1-12.

Schools, datafication and the rise of EdTech ‘intermediaries’ Jun 10, 2025

Show notes

Schools are increasingly reliant on data infrastructures and platforms – leading to the growing significance of various ‘intermediary actors’ now playing key roles in the governance of digital education. Sigrid Hartong (Helmut-Schmidt-University Hamburg) joins us to talk about this fast changing aspect of ed-tech.

Accompanying reference >>> Hartong, S., Geiss, M. & Röhl, T. (2024). Intermediaries and the digital transformation of schooling: an introduction. Research in Education 120(1):3-13

Digital disinformation in the age of AI … what can schools do? May 26, 2025

Show notes

The growth of deliberately misleading and false information is one of the big concerns of the 2020s. Professor Olof Sundin (Lund University) has been researching students’ (dis)information literacy since the early 2000s. He joins us to talk about the latest developments in this area – particularly the trend of now using AI to both produce *and* retrieve information.

Accompanying reference >>> Haider, J. & Sundin, O. (2022). Paradoxes of media and information literacy: The crisis of information. Routledge

Our TOPPODCAST Picks

Follow Us

Stay Connected

Education Technology Society

Related Podcasts

Links

Stay Connected