Priten Soundar-Shah

What can we do to actually make progress on critical thinking?

#MarginOfThought #AIinEducation #CriticalPedagogy #EdTechEthics #DigitalSafety #EdPodcast

For those wanting resources to start asking the right questions, pre-ordering includes access to downloadable discussion guides at ethicaledtech.org.

We start by asking the right questions together with a common language.

When districts pays for AI platforms where teachers save time, students build relationships with chatbots, wealthier schools get more accurate models, and parents discover they can't opt out. How do we balance that clash of principles?

In my upcoming book, I introduce five principles borrowed from bioethics and adapted for education to help us frame our ethical problems: Beneficence, Non-maleficence, Autonomy, Care, & Justice

We keep defaulting to the same question: "Does this tool work?" But, that question is incomplete.

I know I keep posting questions. But, unfortunately, ethics starts with better questions, and not half-baked answers. #EthicalEdTech #education #ai #philosophyofeducation #edusky

How Can AI Support Writing Instruction? - Kim Cowperthwaite In this episode, Priten speaks with Kim Cowperthwaite, an English...

🎙️ Just published a new episode of Margin of Thought with Priten: How Can AI Support Writing Instruction? - Kim Cowperthwaite. Have a listen:

Is the absence of emotional appreciation toward AI something to protect?

My call to action for Silicon Valley inspired by Kipling.

#poetry #technology #ai

Sources:
edworkforce.house.gov/news/documen...

readlion.com/a-moms-group...

calmatters.org/economy/tech...

www.nytimes.com/2026/02/26/u...

Ethical Ed Tech | Resources for Educators Pre-order Ethical Ed Tech and get lifetime resources for educators navigating AI and digital safety in K-12 schools.

For a starting point for consensus building, pre-order my upcoming book at ethicaledtech.org

Before we can make better decisions together, we need to be able to name what we're actually aiming for. What is each group looking for when it talks about and uses technology? And then, how do we build consensus about our aims before we approach the tools?

The teacher sees a time-saving lesson planner. The parent sees unexplained data collection. The vendor sees scale of impact. The student is concerned with career-readiness. These all target different stakes of education.

Parents, teachers, administrators, policymakers, and tech companies all have different values and priorities. We talk past each other because we don't have a common language for the ethical stakes that we are most concerned with.

So, many people are talking about the “technology” in education technology. But, we *really* have to talk about what education is *for* first.

And, a superintendent’s house was raided over a contract with an AI tutor company.

In California, a school-approved AI image generator produced sexualized images when a child prompted for a book cover.

And, Moms for Liberty (M4L), a parent advocacy group, released a toolkit demanding opt-in consent.

Last week, Congress held a hearing called "Building an AI-Ready America: Teaching in the AI Age." They cited studies that 60% of teachers are using AI, 90% don't feel prepared to use it responsibly, and 74% said it helped with admin work.

We need to talk about the “education” in education technology first.
#education #edtech #philosophyofeducation #ai #EthicalEdTech #edusky

AI oral exams: relational activity made extractive.

Should Students Be Trusted With Phones During Exams? - Dini Arini In this episode, Priten speaks with Dini Arini, a PhD candidate in...

🎙️ Just published a new episode of Margin of Thought with Priten: Should Students Be Trusted With Phones During Exams? - Dini Arini. Have a listen:

Attendance dropped by half. Families terrified. What does a superintendent do next? A normative case study.

This week's newsletter where I think about the god in the machine, conscientious students, professional development, and Einstein.

MIT Report: tsl.mit.edu/wp-content/u...

I hope more schools make time for this kind of thoughtful reflection, and my upcoming book will hopefully serve as both an argument for why we should do that and a playbook on how to do it. You can pre-order it now at ethicaledtech.org!

What would it look like if we took the infrastructure part seriously by building the shared reasoning that makes the rules actually mean something in our lived experiences?

Sustainable ethics requires exactly this! We need to center our policymaking on values we can articulate, commitments we actually enforce, and reflection we build time for. Anything less becomes performative in the form of a checkbox exercise that makes us feel better without changing anything.

One school leader explained their process: "We structured the conversations to center around our core values: 'Why did we go into teaching?' and ‘What non-negotiables were important to our disciplines?’"