AI in Education Podcast

Welcome to our first episode of 2026. In this heavy-hitting season opener, hosts Dan and Ray are joined by Dr. Mark Bassett, Academic Lead for AI at Charles Sturt University and a "superhero" of AI activism. Mark's an ally in our long standing mantra on the podcast, as we know you've got tired of hearing just Dan and Ray say "AI detectors don't work".
Dr. Bassett breaks down his landmark paper, "Heads We Win, Tails You Lose: AI Detectors in Education" which we describe (hopefully) as the final 'silver nail in the coffin' for detection software. We move past the surface-level "they don't work" argument and dive into the legal, ethical, and systemic risks universities face by relying on "black box" algorithms. Mark compares current AI detection to using a deck of tarot cards to determine a student's future - arguing that these tools have no place in a fair academic integrity process.
We also explore the S.E.C.U.R.E. framework, a tool-agnostic approach to integrating AI into education safely. If you're an educator, student, or leader wondering how to move from suspicion to capability-building, this is the blueprint you've been waiting for.
Links 
The Research Paper: Heads We Win, Tails You Lose: AI Detectors in Education

The Framework: The SECURE Framework for AI Integration

Find Mark Bassett online via his website and LinkedIn

Referenced Study: University of Reading's "Turing Test" paper on AI in Exams

AI in Education's Christmas Special: Hallucinations, Headbands, and Bad Ideas
In this end-of-year Christmas special, Ray and Dan squeeze in one final episode to reflect on a whirlwind year in AI and education - with a healthy dose of festive chaos.
They unpack the latest AI news, including Australia's National AI Plan, OpenAI's Australian data centre and teacher certification course, major university rollouts of ChatGPT, and global experiments like nationwide AI tools in schools and targeted funding for AI-assisted teaching.
But this episode quickly moves beyond policy and platforms into something more fun - and more unsettling! Ray challenges Dan with a "Real or Hallucinated?" quiz featuring AI products that may (or may not) exist, from focus-monitoring headbands and robot teachers to pet translators and laugh-track smart speakers.
Along the way, they explore what these products reveal about current AI practice, the risks of anthropomorphising technology, and why education must keep humans firmly at the centre of learning - even as experimentation accelerates.
It's a light-hearted but thoughtful way to wrap up 2025, and a reminder that just because AI can do something, doesn't always mean it should.
 
News Items in the episode
 
Tech companies advised to label and 'watermark' AI-generated content
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-12-01/ai-guidance-label-watermark-ai-content/106083786 
 
El Salvador announces national AI program with Grok for Education
https://x.ai/news/el-salvador-partnership 
 
Hong Kong schools to get HK$500,000 (about AU$100K/ US$65K) each under AI education plan
https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/education/article/3336600/hong-kong-schools-get-hk500000-each-under-hk500-million-ai-education-plan 
 
OpenAI to open Australian hosted service
https://www.afr.com/technology/openai-becomes-major-tenant-in-7b-data-centre-deal-20251204-p5nkr4 
 
OpenAI ChatGPT for Teachers foundations course
https://www.linkedin.com/posts/chatgpt-for-education_new-for-k-12-educators-chatgpt-foundations-activity-7404242317718487042-He9H 
 
La Trobe chooses ChatGPT Education
https://www.latrobe.edu.au/news/articles/2025/release/openai-collaboration-drives-inclusion,-innovation 
 
Australia's Nation AI Plan
https://www.industry.gov.au/publications/national-ai-plan

In this special end-of-year episode, Ray and Dan unwrap the biggest moments, ideas, guests, and breakthroughs that shaped AI in education in 2025. From standout tools to unforgettable interviews, they look back at a year defined by rapid change, bold experimentation, and extraordinary people driving meaningful impact.
[If you want to see, rather than just hear, this episode, then come over and join us on YouTube at https://youtu.be/IhGwPPuWA4o - this episode is a visual treat with bonus Dad humour]

They reveal their AI Product of the Year (NotebookLM), the worst offenders in AI hype, and their most loved - and most hated - research papers. And then they revisit the year's most-downloaded episode, celebrate exceptional system-level leadership from Brisbane Catholic Education, and honour powerful student voices from Caitlin and the All Hallows' cohort.
The awards extend to professional learning champions Lee Barrett & Prem Radhakrishnan, Indigenous perspectives with Peta-Anne Toohey, and reflective insights from Carlo Iacono on what it means to stay human in an AI-saturated world.
Finally, Ray and Dan name their overall winners of 2025 - and map out the essential episodes to revisit over the holidays.
Full Awards list
AI in Education Product of the Year: Notebook LM
Research Paper of the Year: "Heads we win, tails you lose: AI Detectors in Education" from Mark A Bassett et al.
Most downloaded Episode of the Year: "Learning Designers Meet AI" with Minh Huynh & Cory Dal Ponte
K–12 Leadership & Vision Award: Leigh Williams and team at Brisbane Catholic Education
Best AI Professional Development Work: Lee Barrett & Prem Radhakrishnan
Award for "Voices Representing a Billion people": To the students we had in Series 12, especially Caitlin, and Abby, Abby, Miranda, Eloise, Charlotte, Annie
Most Nerve-Wracking Interview / Indigenous Voice Award: Peta-Anne Toohey
Making AI Human Award: Carlo Iacono
Researcher of the Year: Dr Anna Denejkina 
Runners Up
People not on the podcast this year, but who  we feel have been influential in the AI in Education community
Community Leaders in AI & Education: Simone Kirsch & Julianne Peloche; Sarah Ratner & the A-I-E-O-U team
Education Leader Runner-Up of the Year: Jason Lodge 
And finally, Winner of Winners 

Dan's pick: Leigh Williams from Brisbane Catholic Education
Ray's pick: Students in general

This week delivered one of the biggest waves of AI news in recent memory - and Dan and Ray unpack what it all means for schools, universities and vocational education. From Microsoft's upcoming Copilot upgrades to Google's jaw-dropping Gemini 3 and Nano Banana Pro image model, the landscape for teachers shifted fast. They explore how these tools are already reshaping lesson design, image generation, student support and academic workflows - and why NotebookLM might quietly be the most important education tool Google has ever released.
They also break down newly released case studies from the Australian Industry Group, discuss Claude's expansion through Azure, and look at how sectors like health, logistics and vocational training are adopting AI at speed.
In the second half, the episode dives into three significant peer-reviewed research papers - including new evidence of gender bias in AI explanations, emerging AI-pedagogy frameworks, and fresh insights into how students actually use (and feel about) AI in their studies.

News
 
Microsoft
 
Microsoft rolling more into the free version of Microsoft 365 Copilot Chat
https://www.theverge.com/news/822789/microsoft-copilot-chat-outlook-word-excel-powerpoint 


Microsoft and NVIDIA invest $15 billion in Anthropic - and Anthropic agree to buy $30B of Microsoft's Azure 
https://www.anthropic.com/news/microsoft-nvidia-anthropic-announce-strategic-partnerships 
Google
Useful review of Gemini 3 by Ethan Mollick
https://www.oneusefulthing.org/p/three-years-from-gpt-3-to-gemini 


Examples of the infographics we created with Google's NotebookLM can be found on these two links:
The podcast episode infographic from the Aaron Driver, of UNE, interview
https://www.linkedin.com/posts/ai-in-education-podcast_aiineducation-notebooklm-podcast-activity-7398861734071083008-08GD
The podcast series infographic from Series 14 "the Humans of AI"
https://www.linkedin.com/posts/rayfleming_aiineducation-podcast-notebooklm-activity-7398515648089468928-vOUS 



NotebookLM announcements
https://x.com/notebooklm/status/1989078069454270649?s=46&t=p57lLRpTCXGNBiwhIjsl7Q 

Google announce new Gemini certifications for education
https://blog.google/outreach-initiatives/education/gemini-certifications-education/ 

Cogniti
29 teachers sharing their stories about using AI with students
https://cogniti.ai/2025-cogniti-mini-symposium-resources/ 

Anthropic
 
Anthropic partners with Rwandan Government and ALX to bring AI education to hundreds of thousands of learners across Africa
https://www.anthropic.com/news/rwandan-government-partnership-ai-education 


The London School of Economics has provided all students with access to Claude for Education
https://www.lse.ac.uk/news/latest-news-from-lse/d-april/lse-partners-with-anthropic-to-shape-the-future-of-ai-in-education 
OpenAI
 
OpenAI announce "ChatGPT for teachers" for US school teachers - and makes it free until the middle of 2027
https://openai.com/index/chatgpt-for-teachers/
https://help.openai.com/en/articles/12844995-chatgpt-for-teachers 


First ChatGPT Edu deployment in Australian Vocational Education
https://connectweb.com.au/news.aspx?id=1038171&headline=nexted-launches-australias-first-chatgpt-edu-deployment-in-vocational-education 
 
Australian Industry Group
Report: AI positive for companies, their people and Australian industry
https://www.australianindustrygroup.com.au/news/reports/2025/artificial-intelligence-positive-for-companies-their-people-and-australian-industry/ 

 
Research
 
Gender equity in GenAI science explanations
https://www.ase.org.uk/resources/school-science-review/issue-395/gender-equity-in-genai-science-explanations
https://www.linkedin.com/posts/victoriamhedlund_biasaware-aiineducation-genderbias-activity-7394637681978212352-1UUB 
 
Bonus research mentioned: Sexist textbooks: Automated analysis of gender bias in 1,255 books from 34 countries
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC11463758/ 
 
A dialogic theoretical foundation for integrating generative AI into pedagogical design
https://bera-journals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/bjet.70026 
 
Time, emotions and moral judgements: how university students position GenAI within their study
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/07294360.2025.2580616

In this episode, Ray sits down with Aaron Driver, Director of LabNext70 at the University of New England (UNE), a regional Australian university making one of the boldest moves in higher education: giving every staff member and every student access to a full enterprise AI platform.
Aaron shares how UNE has built Madgwick, its white-labelled version of the SIMTheory AI platform, and why the university chose to go beyond standard tools like Copilot or ChatGPT for Education. With multi-model access, MCP connectors, and soon agentic capabilities, UNE staff have already created more than 3,000 AI assistants and reached an extraordinary 85% daily usage rate.
The conversation dives into UNE's four big reasons for giving AI to all students - safety, job readiness, equity, and privacy - and how this move positions graduates for a job market where AI capability is no longer optional.
Aaron also lifts the curtain on UNE's rapid cultural transformation, their sector-leading AI literacy programs, and the regional impact they hope to create by becoming Australia's most AI-enabled university.
A fascinating look at a university rewriting the rulebook in real time.
Bonus Links
Aaron mentioned the SIMTheory Academy that his team runs, and recommended the free AI Quick Wins course for a good overview of what SIM Theory can do