Thinking out loud about AI, pedagogy, and learning culture. Written by Colleen Ferguson, with occasional guests.
The reflex to ban AI is understandable. It's just not a strategy.
Colleen Ferguson · 18 September 2026
As big school districts ban AI again, why the reflex is understandable but not a strategy, and a middle path that teaches students to look at the technology clearly and protect their own learning.
Ten Moves to Keep AI From Stealing Productive Struggle (Part 2 of 2)
Colleen Ferguson · 19 August 2026
The second five of ten teacher moves, turning from the classroom climate to the task itself. Reflection woven through the work, productive failure, red teaming your own assessments, and the one blue sky problem a year that AI cannot shortcut.
Ten Moves to Keep AI From Stealing Productive Struggle (Part 1 of 2)
Colleen Ferguson · 14 July 2026
The first five of ten teacher moves for building productive struggle back into a task. What you count, what you say out loud, and the habits students bring to the work before they start.
What oral assessment knows that AI has helped us remember
Colleen Ferguson · 15 May 2026
AI hands students the map and lets them skip the territory. Why orality exposes the difference, and what a spoken answer reveals that a written one can hide.
Learning to See the Water
Colleen Ferguson · 26 April 2026
David Foster Wallace’s young fish did not know what water was. AI literacy teaches students to use the tool. An AI-native education protects the person doing the using.
Why AI cheating is a design problem, not an ethics one
Colleen Ferguson · 15 March 2026
Every student now has a counterfeit printer, and better walls will not stop it. What changes when you stop defending the currency and start giving value to the thinking instead.
Why AI Detection is Teaching Students the Wrong Lesson
Colleen Ferguson · 18 December 2025
A reader ran her writing through a detector and it came back AI. On false positives, the chilling effect, and why monitoring for learning beats policing for compliance.
Motivating students to do hard things when AI makes everything easy.
Colleen Ferguson · 13 November 2025
We tell students to keep the human in the loop. This asks the harder question: who is that human, and what makes them want to stay there when AI makes everything easy?
The truth we earn (even with AI)
Colleen Ferguson · 17 October 2025
Writing a eulogy for her brother taught her something she now sees everywhere. Meaning is not delivered, it is discovered, and effort is the key that unlocks it.
Answers are easy. Learning takes effort.
Colleen Ferguson · 17 October 2025
The first post. What slantwise means, why understanding has to be built rather than handed over, and what this space is for.