Differentiated Instruction by Way of AI
John Orlando
November 17, 2025
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When generative AI (GenAI) appeared on the higher education landscape, the general reaction ranged from enthusiasm and curiosity to grave concern around how a technology that was not designed for education would impact our lives as educators and the lives of learners. The uncertainty educators
Not one. Not two. Eleven. That’s how many times my fellow panelists and I touted our university’s low faculty–student ratios during a recent session for prospective students. But how could we resist? Each time we invoked those magic numbers, parents smiled (“My child will be
The flipped classroom has become something of a buzzword in higher education, often praised as a silver bullet for engagement and learning. Walk through any teaching conference, and you’ll find sessions promising that simply moving content delivery online will transform your courses. But having experimented
The integration of generative AI into education is an exciting opportunity to transform how we learn and teach. I embraced this potential by introducing an assignment using Google’s Notebook LM. Unlike other AI tools, Notebook LM lets users upload their own resources—articles, videos, even YouTube
Why do students come to class? We may hope it’s for the love of learning, because of our inspirational teaching, or because they know it will help them get jobs or live happier lives in the long run. Of course, these are not the common
Learning management systems (LMSs) are, on one level, another space—beyond the classroom—to “interface” with students, both cognitively and metacognitively. They are spaces, as Merriam-Webster defines the noun interface, where “independent and often unrelated systems meet and act on or communicate with each other”—a function that
Nearly all educational apps have incorporated AI in some way to enhance their functionality, and many new educational AI apps have emerged over the past year. This plethora of choices can leave teachers bewildered as to what to choose, but now we are starting to
The Transparency in Learning and Teaching (TILT) Framework (Winkelmes, 2012, 2016) provides a helpful way to inform and communicate choices about using generative AI tools in higher education. Educators who engage their students in reciprocal, transparent communication about the purposes, processes, and criteria around their
If we named the purposes of college, chief among them would be ideas surrounding the transfer of knowledge and content delivery. This is accurate but incomplete. A more exhaustive list of college goals would also include growth and transformation. Change happens all around, and within,
