In this podcast episode, Phil tells Mat about his adventures at the TESOL 2026 Convention in Salt Lake City, March 24-27. Phil talked with exhibitors and attended as many AI-focused presentations, panels, and posters as he could to get a sense of how AI, especially GenAI, is being presented by and to professional English language teachers.
Here I will just mention one presentation, about which Phil spoke highly:
Jane Freeman (University of Toronto), using a puppet-puppeteer analogy, discussed the difference between cognitive offloading (for learners, AI as a shortcut to task completion—human is the puppet) and distributed cognition (AI as a collaborative partner—human is the puppeteer). She also noted (correctly) that “None of us are AI literate.” https://submissions.mirasmart.com/TESOL2026/Itinerary/EventsAAG.aspx
Enjoy the half-hour conversation of Phil and Mat. Many more resources and practical takeaways get mentioned in this podcast episode. Play it above or use your favorite podcast app.
Share this:
Discover more from Panta Rhei Enterprise
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.
Salt Lake halls, a digital quest,
To put GenAI to the teacher test.
Is it a shortcut, the puppet blind play?
Or partner in thought to lead the way?
None are literate, Freeman decreed,
We all are learners in this new speed.
Phil and Mat unpack the spark,
Navigating AI to light up the dark.