Department of Technology Enhanced Learning MTU

In Conversation with Lawrie Phipps - Gen AI and Academic Practice with Prof. Lawrie Phipps Gen AI Seminar Series 5th March 13:00 - 16:00

As part of our ongoing GenAI seminar series, we are delighted to announce our next online event featuring @lawriephipps.co.uk this Thursday at 3pm Irish time.

👉 More about the event and registration: tel.cit.ie/events

(All welcome)

What does authentic assessment mean in the context of AI? To weather the AI storm, Charlotte von Essen argues that assessment needs to be both authentic and accountable.

"Authentic tasks without accountability can produce polished outputs that mask shallow understanding. Accountable assessment without authenticity risks becoming a series of interrogations detached from meaningful practice. Both are needed."

Agentic AI: Considerations for Educators A brief slide-deck style introduction to where we are now, based on recent presentations

Anna Mills on the challenge of agentic AI in education

"On today’s job market, instructional designers aren’t just competing with other professionals; they’re being evaluated against AI-enabled performance, and it’s increasingly plausible that employers will soon ask, “Why hire this person instead of relying on AI for this work?”."

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Why using AI to make more content may be the least interesting thing we can do with it Higher education is not short on content. It has lectures, readings, videos, activities, frameworks, rubrics, and resources in abundance. What it is increasingly short on is time, clarity, and spac…

" Used intentionally, AI can surface assumptions in student reasoning, expose gaps in understanding, challenge dominant perspectives, support reflective dialogue, and model disciplinary ways of thinking."

Designing Microlearning That Makes the Most of Attention Microlearning doesn’t ask us to do less as designers; it asks us to be more intentional.

"When we approach it with clarity, respect for attention, and a focus on use, microlearning becomes not just efficient but effective."

Focus on Speaking Is Ancient Answer to AI Writing (opinion) Returning to a focus on speaking offers distinct benefits.

"When we shift the emphasis to speaking instead of writing, suddenly the value of writing itself becomes present and urgent instead of vague and, if we can judge by AI’s increasing popularity, unconvincing."

How do people think AI works? (Some surprising findings) | Punya Mishra's Web by Punya Mishra | Thursday, January 15, 2026

"When asked what AI is actually doing when it responds to a prompt, a whopping 72% got it wrong, with only 28% correctly identifying that the system is “guessing what words should come next based on patterns it learned.” "

Teaching, Learning, Assessment and GenAI: Moving from Reaction to Intentional Practice – GenAI:N3 Generative AI has become part of higher education with remarkable speed.

"What is productive in one setting may be inappropriate in another. Students experience this inconsistency acutely, particularly when institutional policies feel disconnected from everyday teaching practice."

What Educators Need to Learn About GenAI in 2025 Discover what 3,000 educators crave to learn about GenAI, covering ethics, assessment rethinking, and effective professional development.

PODCAST: Leon Furze shares findings from a survey of approximately 3,000 educators related to GenAI.

The Nostalgia Machine: Why Ed Tech Research Keeps Missing the Point | Punya Mishra's Web by Punya Mishra | Monday, January 05, 2026

"Every technological shift involves tradeoffs. The question is which tradeoffs, and for whom. Simple zero-sum framings miss the complexity."

Teaching AI Ethics: New Book and Website Today I'm launching two things: a new Open Access eBook and a dedicated website for the Teaching AI Ethics project. Read more on the blog.

Leon Furze has launched an eBook and website on Teaching AI Ethics

Research centre Learnovate to launch responsible AI initiative Learning research centre Learnovate is going to launch RAIL, an initiative for responsible AI usage among educators and practitioners.

"The Responsible AI for Learning initiative will allow practitioners to share knowledge, interpret guidelines and comply with regulations."

Is Relying on AI Cognitive “Offloading” or “Outsourcing”? The terminology we use makes a difference.

"We should be clear on the difference between offloading and outsourcing, but the more fundamental message is that we’re on an AI train that appears to be heading off a cliff if someone doesn’t apply the brakes—and soon."

Man with a hand to his head leaning over a laptop on a table with a beverage cup beside the laptop.

A library database is an electronic collection of published works such as journals, magazines, and newspapers.
Find our databases under eResources on our Cork website (library.cit.ie/e-resources) and Online Resources on our Kerry website (library.ittralee.ie/collections/...).
@mtu.ie #AcademicSky

OECD Digital Education Outlook 2026 The OECD Digital Education Outlook 2026 explores emerging research on the use of generative AI in education and presents innovative tools and applications that show promise. The report examines the…

"Several studies indicate that although students with access to general-purpose GenAI tools produce higher-quality outputs than their peers, this advantage disappears – and sometimes reverses – in exams when access is removed."

Tamagotchigogy: A Pedagogical Framework of Care, Feedback, and Responsiveness | Brainstorm in Progress Abstract Tamagotchigogy is a new pedagogical framework that uses the Tamagotchi digital pet as a metaphor for learning itself. It emphasizes care, feedback, responsiveness, and engagement as…

"In Tamagotchigogy, the learner’s understanding plays the role of the Tamagotchi. The educator’s role is to monitor signals, regulate input, support development, and promote active, sustained engagement."

The Paradox of AI Assistance: Better Results, Worse Thinking A student reflects on how generative artificial intelligence is reshaping learning and cognitive development, urging colleges and universities to guid

"As students increasingly integrate GenAI into their daily lives and study habits, it is imperative that they know how to apply it in ways that help them, not hurt them."

#ai

The University, the Chatbot, and a Call for a New Mission for Higher Education In the age of artificial intelligence, higher education institutions must move beyond simply transmitting knowledge and instead prioritize holistic hu

"The central project of this century may not be technical mastery but moral and systemic maturity: a collective effort to learn how to live and flourish within an interdependent web of human, ecological, and artificial intelligences."

What would AI regulation look like? – The Ed Techie Martin Weller’s blog on open education, digital scholarship & over-stretched metaphors

"By thinking about what a regulated usage system might look like it at least gets us to ask the questions of AI and its implementation that are missing from the current political gold rush."

Everything Educators Need to Know About GenAI in 2026 GenAI in education is a sprawling topic, so each January I try to distill it into a single post: what's changed, what's most important, and what you can actually do with the technology. This is…

Leon Furze has put together a post that what’s changed, what’s most important, and what you can actually do with the GenAI in 2026.

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In Praise of Assistance A response to the cognitive offloading literature and Terry Underwood's "The Humanities and AI: A Year of Reckoning"

"The cognitive offloading critique rests on a historical fiction: the autonomous learner, working in productive isolation, building cognitive muscle through solo effort. This student never existed, or existed only for the few."

How to Spot AI Hallucinations Like a Reference Librarian The verification tricks that would make fact-checkers weep with joy.

"The tell isn’t that fake citations look wrong. It’s that they look too right. Too convenient. Too perfectly aligned with whatever point the AI is making."

Environmental contradictions of large language models in higher Universities are racing to adopt AI, even as its environmental costs remain largely obscured. Can higher education pursue responsible innovation while upholding sustainability and its commitment to

"If students are to engage critically with AI, they must understand not only its functional capacities but also its ecological footprints."

Teachers are using software to see if students used AI. What happens when it's wrong? School districts from Utah to Ohio to Alabama are spending thousands of dollars on these tools, despite research showing the technology is far from reliable.

Read or listen to this story on the dangers of using AI detection tools on student work

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You Can’t AI-Proof the Classroom, Experts Say. Get Creative Instead. Artificial intelligence is here to stay. Faculty members explain how to keep students engaged in their own learning and prevent them from relying on AI.

Faculty members explain how to keep students engaged in their own learning and prevent them from relying on AI.

What Defined AI in Education in 2025? A Year in Review What Defined AI in Education in 2025? In this article, I reflect on some of the highlights from the blog, looking at trends in the technology, how attitudes towards AI hype have shifted, and where I…

Leon Furze discusses AI in education trends from 2025, how attitudes towards AI hype have shifted, and where he thinks the industry is taking us in 2026.

Higher education divide widens: Students see AI gains, but educators lose confidence | FE News | Higher education divide widens: Students see AI gains, but educators lose confidence

"Despite a decline in educator optimism about AI’s overall impact, faculty usage remains high. 68% say they use AI often or always in their work, broadly consistent with 69% in 2024. However, the proportion who use AI ‘all the time’ has risen from 21% to 33%."

#ai

Universities must respond to students’ emotional reliance on AI If a student feels remembered by a machine but overlooked by humans, something in the educational contract has broken, says Agnieszka Piotrowska

"We should treat AI conversations as opportunities for reflective learning, not private shame. And we must rebuild the basic infrastructure of attention in higher education, rather than outsourcing care to systems that cannot provide it safely."

#ai

Is it Possible to Make Learning as Addictive as TikTok? - EdSurge News Ever heard of homework FOMO? We haven’t either. Is it possible to make learning as addictive as the latest TikTok dance trend? And if so, should we?

"As educators, the goal is not to compete with short‑form platforms on sheer stickiness, but to design experiences where attention is channeled into thinking, problem‑solving, and revisiting ideas over time."