All season we’ve looked at the risks of AI and screens for kids’ thinking. This week we hear the other side. Cristine and Elicia talk with Dr. Kristen DiCerbo, Chief Learning Officer at Khan Academy, about what a good AI tutor should do, what it should never do, and why teachers aren’t going anywhere.

ABOUT OUR GUEST
Dr. Kristen DiCerbo sets the teaching and learning strategy at Khan Academy and led the launch of Khanmigo, its AI tutor for students and assistant for teachers. A former school psychologist with a PhD in educational psychology, she has also worked at Cisco and Pearson. She was named to the TIME100 AI list.

IN THIS EPISODE
(02:05) From school psychologist to ed tech: helping more learners learn more
(04:12) What Khan Academy and Khanmigo actually do
(06:26) Not all screen time is the same: about 30 minutes a week of practice leads to real gains
(08:58) How Khanmigo is built to tutor instead of giving answers
(12:03) “Explain Your Thinking”: getting students to justify their reasoning
(14:26) Guardrails, teacher flags, and full chat transcripts
(16:33) “IDK, IDK”: spotting kids who are just clicking through
(19:09) The WALL-E future and why AI should augment thinking, not replace it
(21:47) Can AI replace teachers? “Human high fives beat computer confetti”
(24:07) Can AI read students’ emotions?
(25:45) The line AI should never cross, and what gives her hope
(28:03) The AI-supported classroom 10 years from now

KEY TAKEAWAYS

• Not all screen time is equal. The question is what kids are doing on the screen.
• AI built for learning protects productive struggle. General chatbots usually just hand over the answer.
• A good AI tutor asks questions instead of giving answers, just like good teachers do.
• Teachers stay in control: flags, transcripts, and summaries show what students are doing.
• AI should augment kids’ thinking, not replace it. Help students understand why an assignment matters.
• Relationships matter most. Students with a caring adult at school are more likely to graduate and go to college.
• AI should never be used to manipulate students’ emotions or hook them the way social media does.

FOR TEACHERS: “ASK ME, DON’T TELL ME”
A K-5 lesson where students learn the difference between a helper who gives answers and a helper who helps you think, then take turns being the tutor. You’ll use Khanmigo, which is free for U.S. teachers, to build part of it.

FAMILY HOMEWORK: LEARNING OR BUSY?
Sit next to your child during screen time just once and ask yourself: is this learning or is this busy? If your child is in 3rd grade or up, try a Khanmigo session together and watch how it answers a question with a question. Tell us what happened!

Hosts: Cristine Davis and Elicia
The Copy Paste Generation, Episode 7

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“My Chromebook died.” “The Wi-Fi kicked me off.” We joke about the modern “dog ate my homework,” but for many families, getting schoolwork done online is a daily struggle. Cristine and Elicia talk with Dr. Vikki Katz, who has spent more than a decade studying digital equity, about what kids really need to learn at home, and how AI is changing the picture.

ABOUT OUR GUEST
Dr. Vikki Katz researches the homework gap and how families navigate technology together. Her work shows that digital equity is about more than owning a device. It’s also about reliable internet, digital skills, and support at home. To learn more about Dr. Katz, go to https://www.chapman.edu/our-faculty/vikki-katz.aspx.

IN THIS EPISODE
(02:50) What the homework gap is
(05:10) Why “digital divide” is outdated, and what it means to be underconnected
(06:30) “Dependable instability” and the stress teachers can’t see
(07:40) Why kids aren’t really digital natives
(09:11) Families as systems: everyone brings different skills
(12:48) Why smartphone-only families are at a big disadvantage
(14:10) Did Chromebooks fix the homework gap?
(15:30) How online homework can lock out parents who could help on paper
(16:54) AI, cognitive offloading, and protecting productive struggle
(20:10) Pen and paper as a learning technology
(21:38) AI teachers and a new kind of inequality
(23:10) The deeply human skills kids need
(26:11) What gives her hope: students writing their own AI rules

KEY TAKEAWAYS

• Many families have a device and internet that aren’t reliable enough for school. It’s a spectrum, not a yes-or-no gap.
• A family that could log on two weeks ago may not be able to today, and teachers won’t know unless families tell them.
• Kids may know the buttons, but parents help them make sense of what they find.
• No device is a silver bullet. Chromebooks help, but they don’t fix internet access or support at home.
• Good AI tools for school do one thing well and help kids work through hard problems instead of skipping them.
• Writing by hand and brainstorming before typing still matter.
• Bring kids to the table. They care deeply about fairness and want clear boundaries around AI.

FAMILY HOMEWORK: Plan Before You Plug In
In this episode, Dr. Vikki Katz explained that owning a device and having Wi-Fi isn't the whole story. It also matters whether your child can get online when they need to, and whether someone at home can help when the technology gets in the way. Back in Episode 2, we talked about executive function: the brain's planning, remembering, and self-control skills. Those two ideas meet at the kitchen table. When the laptop is shared, the hotspot runs out, or the school portal won't load, kids who can plan around the problem keep going. This week's activities build that skill.

FOR TEACHERS: Plan Before You Plug In
Dr. Vikki Katz's research shows that the homework gap goes beyond whether a student has a device. It includes unreliable or shared access, phone-only connections, and whether anyone at home can help navigate school technology. In Episode 2 we covered executive function. This lesson brings the two together: students learn to separate the screen parts of an assignment from the parts they can do anywhere, plan around their real access, and have a strategy ready when technology fails.

Hosts: Cristine Davis and Elicia
The Copy Paste Generation, Episode 6

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We hand kids a device designed to be impossible to put down, then act surprised when they can't put it down. Cristine and Elicia talk with Hannah Chidekel of the Digital Wellness Lab at Boston Children's Hospital and Dr. Linda Charmaraman of the Youth Media and Wellbeing Research Lab at the Wellesley Centers for Women about how screens and social media shape kids. The answer isn't throwing every phone in a lake. It's driver's ed: practice, coaching, guardrails, and an adult in the passenger seat.

ABOUT OUR GUESTS

Hannah Chidekel is a clinical research coordinator at the Digital Wellness Lab, a nonprofit research center studying healthy digital media use from infancy through young adulthood.

Dr. Linda Charmaraman has studied social media, smartphones, gaming, and AI for nearly 20 years. She co-wrote the APA's guidance on teen social media use and submitted testimony to the Senate Judiciary Committee on protecting kids online.

IN THIS EPISODE

(02:50) The Digital Wellness Lab's balanced approach to kids and media

(04:47) Why Dr. Charmaraman bet on social media research early

(07:20) Design problem or developmental problem?

(09:54) Does social media replace friendships or add to them?

(12:13) Three kinds of heavy users, and when screen use signals something deeper

(15:34) The middle school brain and the "imaginary audience"

(17:14) The high school brain: guardrails instead of lockdowns

(19:31) Why digital literacy belongs in every teacher's training

(21:52) Phone policies work better when students help write them

(23:37) The "learning to drive" mindset

(25:35) Teaching teen girls to take control of their algorithms

(27:55) What age-based social media bans miss

(29:48) Why there's no "magic age" for a first phone

(31:48) What real progress could look like in five years

KEY TAKEAWAYS

Kids with strong offline friendships are more likely to feel they belong online too.

Watch for what screen time crowds out: sleep, homework, and friends.

Middle schoolers feel like everyone is watching, so online drama hits hard.

Teens need guardrails, not lockdowns, to practice self-regulation.

Students accept phone policies more when they help create them.

There's no magic age. Readiness depends on the kid and the family.

The goal is balance, not zero tech or unlimited tech.

FAMILY HOMEWORK: DRIVER'S ED FOR THE DIGITAL AGE

Family screen time check: everyone guesses their number, then checks the real one.

Conversation starters for the car.

48-hour challenge: parents turn off their own notifications.

FOR TEACHERS: "WHO'S DRIVING YOUR BRAIN?"

Students try the Ding Challenge, focusing while the teacher interrupts with silly questions, then redesign an app to be good for their brains and pitch it Shark Tank style.

RESOURCES

Digital Wellness Lab: digitalwellnesslab.org

Youth Media and Wellbeing Research Lab: youthmediawellbeing.org

Instagram: @youthmediawellbeing

Hosts: Cristine Davis and Elicia

The Copy Paste Generation, Episode 5

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