Dead Ideas in Teaching and Learning

In this episode, we sit down with Dr. Madisson Whitman, Director of Undergraduate Studies and Assistant Director of Curriculum Development at Columbia University's Center for Science and Society, and Lecturer in the Department of Anthropology. Drawing on her work in Science and Technology Studies (STS), Whitman challenges one of the most pervasive assumptions of our moment: that AI in higher education is a foregone conclusion.In her recent letter to the editor in the Columbia Spectator, a student-run campus newspaper, Whitman offered a direct rebuttal to the sentiment that "AI is here to stay, so what does that mean for Columbia?" Instead, she invites us to resist the sense of "technological inevitability" that pervades so much of today's academic dialogue and to ask what we might be foreclosing when we don’t question AI’s presence in education.Together, we trace the through-lines between pandemic-era surveillance, "dysfunction creep," and the quiet ways AI is being folded into the learning management systems. We also consider what it looks like to teach with AI rather than through it. Dr. Whitman reminds us that progress is never as linear as it's sold. Educators must keep learning at the center of the conversation, even when urgency and marketing do their best to crowd it out.Other materials referenced in this episode: "AI Is Here to Stay: What Does That Mean for Columbia?" (https://www.columbiaspectator.com/opinion/2025/10/28/ai-is-here-to-stay-what-does-that-mean-for-columbia/) — Columbia Spectator"Letter to the Editor: AI Is Not Inevitable" (https://www.columbiaspectator.com/opinion/2025/11/09/letter-to-the-editor-ai-is-not-inevitable/) — Madisson Whitman"A Rant About Technology" (https://www.ursulakleguin.com/a-rant-about-technology) — Ursula K. Le Guin

In this episode, we talk with Dr. Lucy Appert, Senior Director of Teaching Excellence & Innovation at NYU Arts & Science, and host of the new NYU Office of Teaching Excellence and Innovation’s podcast, What Learning Looks Like. As an academic with 25+ years of teaching experience and a deep commitment to student-centered practices, Lucy shared with us her insights on what learning truly means in an age of AI-driven "efficiency."Together, we discuss a key problem in higher education: while educators may accept the messy, developmental nature of learning, students are being marketed an idealized reality where AI-supplemented education is frictionless and instantaneous. The What Learning Looks Like podcast offers a counter-messaging to this misleading EdTech and AI marketing. Instead, true learning involves struggle, synthesis, and personal transformation. Lucy also challenges one of higher education's most persistent “Dead Ideas”: that we cannot change. From pandemic pivots to new faculty communities exploring AI in the classroom, it is clear that higher education is very capable of fluctuation and change. Explore the What Learning Looks Like podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/what-learning-looks-like/id1839490516 (https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/what-learning-looks-like/id1839490516) Other materials referenced in this episode: Learning Objectives & Bloom’s Taxonomy (https://business.columbia.edu/samberg/teaching-strategies/learning-objectives-blooms-taxonomy)

In this episode, we talk with Mike Whitenton, Director of Academic Initiatives at Interfaith America (IA). Mike works at the intersection of rhetoric, religious narrative, and cognitive sc...

Welcome to Season 11! In our opening episode, we sit down with Karen Costa, a faculty development facilitator specializing in online pedagogy, trauma awareness, and course/community design. Our conversation focused on her forthcoming book, An Educator's Guide to ADHD: Designing and Teaching for Student Success, to be published in January 2026. In this conversation, Karen challenges educators to rethink how we frame ADHD in the classroom. In reframing ADHD as a normal variant of the human experience rather than a disorder to be corrected, we can avoid ableist language that undermines our pedagogical aims in the classroom. Karen also shared practical strategies for supporting ADHD students, including offering multiple assignment formats and providing clear task lists and deadlines. Both of these approaches strike a delicate balance between creative freedom and helpful constraints in course design. Throughout our discussion, Karen reminds us that reducing shame in the classroom and celebrating students' diverse strengths may be the most powerful tools we have as educators.Learn more about Karen Costa’s work in her forthcoming book:Costa, K. (2026). An Educator's Guide to ADHD: Designing and Teaching for Student Success (https://www.press.jhu.edu/books/title/53916/educators-guide-adhd). Johns Hopkins University Press.Other materials referenced in this episode include:Costa, K. (2020). 99 Tips for Creating Simple and Sustainable Educational Videos: A Guide for Online Teachers and Flipped Classes (https://www.routledge.com/99-Tips-for-Creating-Simple-and-Sustainable-Educational-Videos-A-Guide-for-Online-Teachers-and-Flipped-Classes/Costa/p/book/9781642670851). Routledge. Karen Costa’s website: https://www.100faculty.com/ (https://www.100faculty.com/)

In this episode, we sit down with Dr. Robert Gray, Associate Professor of University Pedagogy at the University of Bergen in Norway, to explore a fundamental question about the purpose of higher education: should learning be an act of consumption or production? Maybe the best learning experiences don't simply ask students to absorb information—they invite students to actively re-write and co-create knowledge with the teacher.Dr. Gray's research draws on Roland Barthes' concepts of "readerly" and "writerly" texts, arguing that valuable learning happens when students are encouraged to "re-write" their classroom materials and become active producers of meaning. We discuss how students bring diverse perspectives and contexts to shared texts and lectures, creating something new and innovative from the materials we provide. As educators, we are challenged to foster an active, collaborative campus culture where learning becomes genuinely additive and co-creative.Learn more about Dr. Gray’s research in his article: “Learning Is [Like] an Act of Writing: The Writerly Turn in Teaching and Learning in Higher Education (https://www.researchgate.net/publication/391383875_Learning_Is_Like_an_Act_of_Writing_The_Writerly_Turn_in_Teaching_and_Learning_in_Higher_Education)”Other materials referenced in this episode include:Barthes, R. (1975). The pleasure of the text (https://www.amazon.com/Pleasure-Text-Roland-Barthes/dp/0374521603)(R. Miller, Trans.). Hill and Wang. (Original work published 1973).