I asked Vicki Davis one question to open this episode: what’s the biggest mistake teachers make with AI? Her answer is five words: teaching like it doesn’t exist.
Vicki spent 24 years in the classroom, including teaching AP Computer Science with AI, and today she hosts the 10 Minute Teacher podcast and Cool Cat Teacher Talk, a radio and TV show she says reaches about a million people a week. We go back a long way.
What struck me is how close she is to what I’m doing. Her classroom rule: everything a student turns in, they should be ready to defend out loud. If AI helped write their code, they have to explain every line. We talk about why AI detection doesn’t work, why a revision history isn’t proof of learning, and the tools that make a student’s AI use visible in a draft. We also disagree a little. She’s skeptical of AI tutoring, and I’m still using AI for practice. If you’ve been wondering what oral assessment looks like for someone who isn’t a science teacher, start here.
Key moments:
0:00 Cold open: the biggest AI mistake
1:01 Her 1,000th episode, and being interviewed by her son
3:03 Why outrage travels farther than help online
5:51 Her policy: if you turn it in, be ready to defend it
13:09 “That could be your mama at the computer”
16:24 The integrity gap
28:49 AI as a magnifier of what you already know
31:56 Why she’s skeptical of AI tutoring
38:54 What oral assessments do for relationships with students
