AI Gone Wild, Canva Code, and ChatGPT Tennis: 15 Edtech News

You know what time it is — it’s the end of the week, and that means it’s time for your 10-minute edtech news briefing from a real classroom. I’m Vicki Davis, a full-time teacher, instructional tech coach, and IT director, bringing you the stories I’m actually sharing with my students this week — the prompts, tools, and questions we’re exploring in real time.

Teaching Artificial Intelligence is unlike anything we’ve done before — because it’s evolving faster than any curriculum, textbook, or PD schedule can keep up. That’s why I started sharing these weekly updates: to offer a classroom-grounded view of what’s working, what’s changing, and what needs our attention.

We need more teachers — the ones in front of students every day — adding their voices to the AI conversation. My hope is that by sharing what I see and do, I encourage you to do the same. Whether it’s in the breakroom, on social, or in a staff meeting — your insights matter. The only way we guide this well is together.

So, let’s get into this week’s filtered, teacher-tested stories: a new AI protocol that could change how we connect tools, Canva’s leap into code generation, a viral badger phrase that’s surprisingly useful for teaching AI hallucinations, and a word of caution about “ChatGPT Tennis.” And I also take a moment to give a celebratory shout out to a beloved edublogging legend for many of us — Larry Ferlazzo on his retirement.

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⏰ Episode Chapters (with Time Stamps)

1. Introduction (00:00)
2. The Emergence of the MCP (Model Context Protocol) and Why It Matters for Educators — A new open standard could let your AI assistant pull data across platforms like calendars, lesson plans, and gradebooks. Read more (00:19)
3. Microsoft Releases an AI Agent to Help You Fix Your Windows 11 Computer — An AI assistant for system settings shows how AI could soon support teachers’ tech troubleshooting. Read more (01:43)
4. Fun End of Year Activity with Lifetoon — Turn student memories into free, comic-style visuals. Great for projects or classroom celebrations. Check it out (02:13)
5. Popular Edublogger Larry Ferlazzo Retires from Teaching — Larry’s blog has inspired thousands. Read his announcement (02:26)
6. How to Use the Viral Phrase ‘You Can’t Lick a Badger Twice’ to Teach AI Hallucination — A great activity to teach students how generative AI makes up definitions. See it on BlueSky Google example (02:35)
7. Canva Code Can Make Websites and Apps — Canva’s new feature allows students to create interactive projects. Try Canva Code (04:24)
8. Gemini 2.5 Pro Is Building Better Websites Than Ever — This model is outperforming others in web dev quality. Read about the leaderboard (04:30)
9. Why AI-Created Code Still Needs Programmer Supervision — Teachers need to help students evaluate AI-generated code. (04:57)
10. When AI Behaves Unethically in Real Use — Rolling Stone reports eerie behavior from AI models. Read more (05:15)
11. AI’s Role in Content Creation and Spirituality — AI influencing beliefs? Yup. Teachers should guide students in digital discernment. (05:45)
12. How Many Files Can You Upload to Claude, Gemini, and GPT-4? — A feature breakdown for teaching research with AI. (07:48)
13. o1 and o3 Models Don’t Support Attachments or Memory — Know which AI tools do what before your students start using them. (08:15)
14. Don’t Play ChatGPT Tennis in Schools — Paul Matthews warns against outsourcing all teaching and learning tasks to AI. Read more (08:38)
15. Teach Students to Use AI Feedback for Self-Assessment — Pair AI suggestions with teacher rubrics to foster authentic learning. (09:15)