Summary: By 2125, the traditional division between “college-bound” and “non-college-bound” educational paths will be replaced by highly personalized, modular learning journeys designed around each learner’s interests, abilities, and neurocognitive profile. Rather than following set sequences, students navigate individualized “learning arcs,” guided by AI mentors and passion-discovery tools, with credentials verified by digital reputation, demonstrated skills, and decentralized learning records. For example, one student might pursue abstract, research-oriented challenges in AI-enhanced pods and global science guilds, while another engages in hands-on fabrication and applied apprenticeships, earning skill tokens through real-world projects. Career integration begins early—via immersive simulations and interdisciplinary collaborations—and learners fluidly move among paths as life circumstances and interests evolve. By career entry, both students achieve high expertise and agency in their domains, demonstrating that the binary educational divide of past centuries is obsolete, replaced by dynamic, purpose-driven paths accessible to all. (Perplexity)
Summary: By 2125, education is projected to be profoundly transformed by AI, global connectivity, biotechnology, and neuroscience, making traditional, place-bound schools largely obsolete. Instead, learners will engage in hyper-personalized experiences shaped by full-sensory immersive technology (like AR/VR and brain-computer interfaces) and superintelligent AI serving as mentors and administrators. For elementary education, children will learn in AI-coached community pods that emphasize real-time cognitive tracking, creative play, and global collaboration, often with digital or human emotional mentors. Secondary education will center on global learning guilds organized around interests, with students earning micro-certifications through real-world simulations and interdisciplinary projects, guided by both AI and human experts. Higher education evolves into “cognitive universes”—virtual or nature-based hubs supporting identity-driven, project-based learning, where reputation and demonstrable skill outweigh degrees. Some elite physical institutions may persist as heritage centers or community spaces, but most education becomes decentralized, lifelong, and inseparable from everyday life. (Perplexity)
My Query: Besides ChatGPT and Gemini, are there other free and reputable chatbots that provide similar services? If there are, please list them along with their strengths and weaknesses.
Yes, besides ChatGPT and Gemini, several other free and reputable AI chatbots offer similar services — such as writing assistance, tutoring, coding help, and general Q&A. Below is a curated list of top contenders, along with their strengths and weaknesses (as of mid-2025):
Summary: The article details the essential skills students need in 2025 to excel academically with the support of AI tools like ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude, and Copilot. AI-literate students collaborate strategically with chatbots, using them as cognitive partners rather than shortcuts. Key hallmarks include crafting precise, structured prompts; refining chatbot responses through iterative dialogue; understanding academic integrity by transparently disclosing AI usage; utilizing AI for research tasks like generating summaries and citations; and seamlessly integrating these tools into personal workflows for time management and productivity. Importantly, students must maintain critical thinking, questioning AI outputs for assumptions, accuracy, and bias, and ensuring their final work reflects their own analytical voice. The article provides concrete examples from real courses—ranging from English to Biology and Computer Science—showing how responsible AI use enhances brainstorming, research, style coaching, and technical problem-solving, while upholding originality and ethical standards. (Perplexity)
Summary: Limited access to high-speed, reliable internet is already a significant factor slowing the adoption of AI-powered teaching, research, and administration in higher education. This digital divide—especially pronounced at smaller, rural colleges and among low-income students—threatens to widen educational and opportunity gaps as institutions with robust infrastructure accelerate ahead. The article outlines several expected changes over the next two decades: substantial campus network upgrades (such as Wi-Fi 7, private 5G/6G networks, and on-premises edge computing) will support bandwidth-intensive AI uses. Colleges will expand direct residential broadband and device access for students, and new tuition models may bundle “connectivity fees” to fund off-campus internet solutions. Nationally, public and private initiatives—including BEAD funding, satellite internet, and 6G rollouts—will target universal broadband as a prerequisite for equitable AI integration. By 2045, remaining barriers will likely shift from raw access to persistent issues of affordability and skills, as technical limitations recede. (Perplexity)
Summary: Over the next 10–20 years, AI will significantly reshape human-development theories in higher education, pushing classic frameworks—from Piaget and Vygotsky to Chickering—toward more adaptive and hybrid models. Theories will move beyond viewing development as an individual process, instead conceptualizing learning and identity as co-evolving within human+AI ensembles. For example, “Hybrid Intelligence” frameworks see cognition as a collaboration between human and AI, redefining agency and self-authorship as relational and negotiated. Knowledge is shifting from being solely in the human mind to existing in interconnected networks that include both humans and intelligent algorithms, as depicted in emerging models like “Algorithmic Connectivism.” These changes demand new forms of metacognitive skills, ethical reasoning, and lifelong adaptability, as learners must critically assess, collaborate with, and leverage AI. Ultimately, future theories will focus on dynamic, co-participatory development, where AI acts not just as a tool but as an active partner in intellectual, moral, and identity growth. (Perplexity)
Introduction: I collaborated with ChatGPT and Gemini on this article. Prompt: In the next 10-20 years, how will AI impact jobs as college instructors, administrators, and staff? Will many lose their jobs? Will other types of jobs emerge? -js
ChatGPT’s Response
The next two decades in a nutshell
**AI will not make universities “teacher‑free,” but it will reshuffle the work. Routine, rules‑based tasks in teaching, administration and campus services are the first to go; work that is relational, strategic or creative becomes more valuable.
Summary: The article examines how AI is transforming peer review in online composition courses. Advanced AI systems now manage key aspects of the peer-review process: automated assignment and matching of peer reviewers, guided and scaffolded feedback prompts tailored to each draft’s needs, and real-time assistance to maintain clarity and constructiveness in comments. Drafts are shared seamlessly via integrated cloud-based platforms, supporting version control and flexible anonymity options. Reviewers use interactive, AI-enhanced interfaces for inline comments and complete adaptive rubrics generated by AI. All feedback undergoes quality assessment via AI, tracking specificity, tone, and usefulness, which is then logged and displayed on student and instructor dashboards. Human-centered initiatives like UC Davis’s PAIRR project blend traditional and AI review, fostering reflection and equity. Ultimately, the article presents a near future where hybrid human–AI peer review improves writing quality, engagement, and learning equity. (Perplexity)
Summary: The article explores whether AI tools like ChatGPT can meaningfully substitute for human writing teachers in college settings. Using a sample student error, the author shows how AI quickly and accurately identifies grammar, spelling, and punctuation mistakes, providing corrective explanations and revision tips. The discussion then shifts to educational implications: while AI can efficiently handle mechanical corrections and free instructors from time-consuming markups, key concerns arise around pedagogy and student learning. The article questions whether reliance on AI will truly help students internalize good writing habits or simply encourage dependency on automated fixes. Ultimately, the piece suggests that while AI’s language abilities can improve, its best use is as a supplement—handling routine errors—so that human instructors can devote more time to higher-order feedback, personal mentoring, and fostering critical thinking and creativity in writing, rather than being replaced outright. (Perplexity)
Summary: The article presents ChatGPT’s response to Stephen Marche’s essay, “The College Essay Is Dead,” focusing on its implications for college composition courses. Marche contends that widespread AI tools like ChatGPT make traditional essays—especially formulaic, five-paragraph formats—obsolete, urging instructors to rethink the essay’s role in teaching critical thinking. The article outlines several shifts: embracing more dynamic and authentic writing forms, teaching AI literacy and ethical use of generative tools, and revising assessment methods to prioritize process and in-class work. It concludes that, rather than ending writing instruction, Marche’s essay prompts much-needed pedagogical innovation and adaptation in higher education. (Perplexity)
By Harry Keller Former ETCJ Science Editor & President of SmartScience
In 1960, two people, 3,000 miles apart, began writing software. One had just graduated as the valedictorian of her 900-student class at Hunter College in New York City. The other was a freshman at Caltech, fooling around with a desk-sized computer off-hours. As fate would have it, they would meet four years later in New York City and bridge a gulf of more than distance.
This is not a love-at-first-sight story, even though both were attractive young adults. The man from California had enrolled in graduate school, working toward a doctorate in chemistry. IBM had hired the young woman for a position at the prestigious Thomas J. Watson Laboratories office in uptown New York City. Then, IBM lent her to Columbia University across Broadway to teach computer programming courses.
The man, who had a deep interest in computers, enrolled in a series of non-credit courses taught by Mrs. Pisani. One of the lecture halls in the chemistry building featured a demonstration lab bench at the front of the classroom. Mrs. Pisani would sit at the edge of the bench, allowing her shapely legs to dangle while explaining the intricacies of FORTRAN. Her demeanor reflected that of an intelligent, generous, and kind person. She must have made a strong impression on everyone in the class, who paid attention as if expecting a test at the end of each session.
Imagine the man’s surprise when the next semester’s course was assigned to Miss Schmidt as the new instructor. Could this new teacher be an elderly (compared to the man) spinster or a young, attractive woman? Though immersed in a demanding series of required graduate courses at the time, he took the time to visit Mrs. Pisani’s office to inquire about the change but left feeling dissatisfied. The course began, and the instructor turned out to be none other than the recently divorced Mrs. Pisani, née Schmidt. First came shock. Then, dismay at the trick Jayne and her officemate had played on him. Nevertheless, he became interested in learning more about the lovely, fascinating Miss Schmidt.
By Harry Keller Former ETCJ Science Editor & President of SmartScience
I live in a mountain town in Southern California. My home lies within an FS1 zone. That’s Fire Safety One, which means it has the most danger of being consumed by a wildfire.
My new home has fantastic views in all directions. The oaks, pines, and live oaks that are native to this area fill the view with green under an almost violet sky you have to see to believe. The pines and live oaks remain green year-round. Because we are situated on a steep slope at the edge of town, our views are unobstructed by neighboring houses. It’s like heaven at times.
The air is fresh at 6200 feet and so dry that summer heat and winter cold don’t feel as harsh as the thermometer suggests. We sit just above the edge of the Mojave Desert, and this wonderful dryness lends itself to fires.
Birds frolic in the trees, providing constant entertainment for those who enjoy nature. A bear visits us, as do some deer. My wife and I bought two adjacent lots and combined them for a total space of nearly half an acre. There are no homes behind us to the South. We built a trail up the hill on that side to more readily reach the local Acorn Trail leading up to the Pacific Coast Trail.
Every year, we worry about wildfires. In 2016, the Blue Cut Fire threatened our tiny town of about 5,000, but firefighters prevented it from reaching the homes. The townspeople are thankful for our firefighters who risk their lives to save our village.
By Azure Acosta Student at Kapi’olani Community College University of Hawai’i
This memory goes back to the early 2010s. I was just a preteen in middle school and loved to spend countless hours of my free time playing video games. This hobby is where I connected with my ongoing best friend, Kelsy, of 9–10 years. We played many video games together and met a lot of new people along the way. Chatting with strangers around the world online through massive multiplayer games was, and still is, easy. We attempted to make friendships through the games that we played, but they never became ones that were long-term. This is a story about one of those people.
My memory is fuzzy as to who this person was, but I will refer to this stranger as Chad. The night that this happened was like any other night for me. I was sitting on my bed with my light blue Solo Beats by Dr. Dre headphones on and my laptop in front of me. Kelsy and I were chatting through Skype and playing a game called League of Legends. In one of the League of Legends games that we played, we met Chad. The first impression that we had of him in-game was that he seemed nice and chill to play with, so we ended up adding him to our friends list on the game. As a result, we also added him on Skype to chat with him in a call. To begin with, the conversation included standard introductory questions that we asked each other. We found out that he was around our age and lived on the mainland. Everything seemed normal until he asked us where we were from.
By Kaʻena Cervantes Student, University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa
The Maui Wildfires unleashed chaos and devastation and changed people’s lives forever. The fierce flames devoured acres of precious land in just a matter of seconds. People’s homes were lost, memories were lost, pets were lost, and worst of all, lives were lost. How could there be any beauty in what seems like the worst situation possible? Although at times it may seem impossible, there is beauty even in the ugliest times.
On the 13th of August, 2023, it was about one week since the Maui wildfires took over Lāhainā. It was a beautiful day; there were blue skies with not a cloud in sight. It was just past noon, and this was my first time seeing Lāhainā in person rather than through a phone screen. I clenched my boyfriend’s hand while riding in the backseat of his dad’s truck. As soon as we got on the Lāhainā Bypass, his cheerful, outgoing personality shifted to shyness. He sat there, staring out the window, with his hood on to hide his emotions. I knew this ride would be even harder for him, as it was where he grew up and sadly lost four family members to the fire.
By Elizabeth Sánchez Student at Kapi’olani Community College University of Hawai’i
It was 2008, and my family had just endured the move to Virginia from Mississippi. After a month of attending our new schools, my brother and I were finally getting comfortable with this new environment. It was a day that petered on the edge of summer and autumn. The day was balmy, but the breeze carried the promise of winter, and the leaves were tinged with vibrant scarlet and citrine not seen among the muddy oranges of Mississippi flora. More importantly, it was the day I learned that some rules could be broken.
I never expected to be pulled out of class only ten minutes before we were released. I turned toward my fourth grade teacher, Mr. Flint, in confusion. I did not have a doctor’s appointment today. Even with my backpack already containing my homework that day, I still hesitated to move. I had severely sprained my right ankle three weeks prior and did not want to move unless necessary. Couldn’t she wait a bit longer?
Lauren Arakaki Student, Kapi’olani Community College University of Hawai’i
We are often asked, “What are you planning to do after high school?” For many of us, the answer is usually “I plan to attend college.” My mom, Ardis, shares her story on how college was for her in the 1980s and early 1990s. College was quite different in the past, compared to college today. Some of these differences included price, enrollment numbers, and the number of years it took a student to graduate. Considering that I am attending college right now, what better way to show the evolution of college life than reflecting on her personal accounts and experiences when she was my age? Because of these differences, I am reflecting on my own experiences and how they are considerably different from my mom’s.
It was a Saturday afternoon. The sun was glistening through the white beams of our porch. My mom was going through her late aunty’s belongings, looking to see what should be kept and what should be donated. I came out and sat next to her when she found a black and white photograph of her aunty and father as young teenagers. My mom, five feet two inches tall with fair skin and long black hair, has always been someone I looked up to. Despite the fact that she was my mom, from the time I was old enough to understand the many hardships of life, I was quick to learn that she is one of the most independent and hard-working people I know.
Sarah Pae Student, Kapi’olani Community College University of Hawai’i
Living in South Korea in the 1970s could be described as very poverty-racked and unsophisticated, or, in other words, a lot of Korean people lived a simple yet rough life. Back then, your economic background would have a huge impact on your lifestyle. To clarify, in Korea at the time, there was a countryside and a city side. Due to the poor economy, the people in the city lived a more comfortable life.
My mother lived in the countryside, so she’s had many hard challenges to overcome from being able to take warm, hot showers, receiving fresh bread from the market on special occasions and only being able to write letters, or using beepers to receive messages. It is fascinating how you can see technology being developed so quickly throughout the years, from writing and receiving letters to using smartphones and being able to look up anything on the Internet. Living in South Korea in the 1970s is best described as very different and not as complex as today.
By Lynn Zimmerman
Associate Editor
Editor, Teacher Education
Like many people in the gig economy, I do most of my work online. I sit at home in front of my computer screen where I can interact with students and others without having to wear a mask. I just wear one when I make my quick runs to a store.
A few weeks ago, I was invited to do a two-hour workshop face-to-face, which meant that, for the first time, I had to wear a mask for an extended period of time. Altogether I had it on for about 2.5 hours. Although I didn’t talk for that entire time, I did talk more than I normally do with a mask on.
It had not dawned on me that my cloth mask would get wet from my respiration. I realized, then, that if I were working face-to-face for several hours as most people do, I’d need to have several masks on hand to change as needed.
One of my jobs is teaching an online class to people who want to teach abroad. In a discussion board, they were asked to talk about some challenging learning environments. Several students were concerned about having to work in a climate that was hot, and one student brought up the added challenge of wearing a mask in such conditions. I was able to weigh in with my recent experience. The students agreed that having more than one mask with them when they arrive at their teaching assignment was a worthwhile idea.
What has your experience been? What advice would you offer to anyone who has a wear a mask for a period of time?
By Harry Keller
Former ETCJ Science Editor
& President of SmartScience
Ed, my son, and I carried one half-wall up that steep hill and decided that one was enough.
May 11, 12:32 PM. I convinced my athletic son to come along on the next trip. The time was changed from 8:30 am to 10:00 am due to factory issues. My wife, my son, and I arrived on time, and the two installers from Tuff Shed were there. I had talked to them about helping with the dome installation on their last visit. Once the walls were up, we had to install the trusses and braces before adding on covers, the dome support ring with rotation wheels, and the dome itself.
This time, the walls were in halves. Ed, my son, and I carried one half-wall up that steep hill and decided that one was enough. One of the installers carried a similar wall piece up alone — at 6,200 feet altitude! He was a bit winded after this exertion. Within an hour, the walls were up. To me, they were beautiful. They spent some time with the trim and touching up the paint. On to the dome!
The observatory walls.
We had many holes to drill as well as various bolts, nuts, and screws to install. It took hours, and we decided to call it quits around 5pm. We paid the two guys cash, including a nice bonus. They really were worth it. Everything was up except for the dome itself. Our future included lifting 180 pounds of dome and attached equipment eight feet onto the top of that shed. I definitely had some trepidation regarding this effort. How many people would be necessary for the lift? Would we incur any damage? Continue reading →
REGISTRATION IS OPEN
Learning Technologies Summer Forum 2020
A week of online learning collaboration, 13 – 17 July 2020
This year the 2020 Learning Technologies Summer Forum (#LTSF20) will take place online, looking at some of the key topics we examined at February’s conference. Once again, the Summer event is an opportunity to interact, experiment and try some new things together.
The Summer Forum has always focused on the practical and on sharing experience, and we’ve never been afraid to try out new things. This year, as well as going entirely online, we’re experimenting with the online conference format, providing a main structure around which other things will happen, including discussions on Twitter, the chance to catch up with speakers after their talks, and more.
We have great speakers and facilitators and over 20 sessions during the week covering all aspects of workplace learning. But the great content is only half the story. The L&D community is all about sharing, and we know that we’ll have great input from – and interaction with – everyone who attends. Continue reading →
June 19, 2020 – AASA, The School Superintendents Association, the nation’s premier organization representing and supporting superintendents and other public school district leaders, is pleased to release today a consensus-driven set of guidelines for reopening schools effectively in the COVID-19 environment.
“Perhaps the most striking outcome of the task force discussions is a universal commitment to transform the crisis we are facing into the opportunity to transform public education as we know it,” said Daniel A. Domenech, executive director, AASA. “We will continue to update this report as changes occur at federal, state and local levels. As part of this process, we invite superintendents and staff to share their success stories and updates on emerging issues confronting them in this process of reopening and transforming public education.” Continue reading →
By Harry Keller
Former ETCJ Science Editor
& President of SmartScience
Let me tell you about over-excavation in case you have never heard of it before.
May 10, 8:36 AM. With a building permit approved and issued, we could move ahead with ancillary structures, which meant our 10’x10′ observatory. Here’s how we arranged everything. We paid Tuff Shed for a 10’x10′ standard shed without a roof attached. Because of the extra charge for the awkward location, it cost about the same as it would have with the roof.
AWS (Amazon Web Services) Public Sector Online Summit
Deepen your cloud knowledge online
June 30, a day of complimentary, virtual learning from the comfort of your home. Learn about the latest cloud technology and build your skills in over 25 sessions. Dive into tech demos and chat live with local AWS experts. Whether you’re a beginner or a superuser – sign up to learn something new.
Educational Technology and Change Journal 
