How AI Can Make Teaching More Human

In this episode, we sit down with Paul Matthews—an Australian classroom teacher, writer, TED Talk speaker, and leading voice at the intersection of AI and Christian education—to tackle the question so many educators are asking: Is AI going to harm learning…or can it actually help?

Paul shares the conviction that “AI should make education more human, not less,” and explains what that looks like in real classrooms. You’ll hear practical, approachable examples for teachers who are brand new to AI (including a simple way to differentiate texts in minutes), plus wise guidance for school leaders navigating student use, academic integrity, and clear expectations.

This conversation is hopeful, grounded, and deeply formative—because the goal of education isn’t just producing work, it’s producing a person. Whether you feel excited or anxious about AI, you’ll walk away with language, frameworks, and next steps to move forward with clarity and confidence under the lordship of Christ.

In this episode, you’ll learn:

• Why AI can make teaching more human (not less)
• A practical “first step” any teacher can try this week
• How to set clear AI expectations for students (without constant policing)
• Why foundational skills still matter more than ever
• How Christian faith shapes a wise, steady approach to tech change

Connect with Paul:

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/paulmatthewsai/
• Website: https://paulmatthews.ai/
• ChatGPT Features Guide: https://paulmatthewsai.gumroad.com/l/FeaturesGuide
• Ted Talk: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xgqiGuIV6-Q

Transcript

Opening And Guest Introduction;

Stephanie Shafer 0:02

Hi, this is Stephanie Shafer, and you're listening to the NorthStar Narrative, a podcast from NorthStar Academy. I want to thank you for joining us. I hope you're encouraged, challenged, and motivated by what you learned today. Enjoy the story. Welcome to today's episode. Super excited to have you here and to introduce you to another new friend that I have. It's always fun networking and finding new friends. And you're gonna really enjoy listening. I just pray that it encourages you and challenges you about AI, artificial intelligence. And so, a quote from our guest is AI should make education more human, not less human. That line captures the heart of today's conversation. In a moment when many educators feel anxious about artificial intelligence, our guest believes technology can actually help us see students more clearly, care for them more deeply, and teach them with greater creativity and intentionality. Today I'm joined by Paul Matthews, a classroom teacher in Australia, a writer, and a leading voice at the intersection of AI and Christian education. He has spoken on TED Talks and he writes regularly about education and technology. And he's a speaker, he speaks at Christian conferences, um, all over. He's also a third-generation educator, a dad to three young boys with another one on the way. And someone whose faith and passion for students shines through everything he does. And you're gonna hear that today. Paul, thank you for being here. We are so excited to learn from you today.

Paul Matthews 1:35

Well, Stephanie, I'm a big fan of the podcast, so it's a real treat to actually be talking with you right now. Usually it's coming through my AirPods as I go for a walk or I'm in the gym. So what an absolute treat it is to be speaking with you today.

Stephanie Shafer 1:48

Yes, so excited to get going. All right. I've just told everybody you're a teacher, you're a writer, you're an AI thought leader, but you're also a dad of three, and then another one on the way. So, how do you describe your life right now in this season?

Paul Matthews 2:04

Well, I tell you what, I feel like at this point in my life, Stephanie, more so than ever, there's a lot of good work to be done. I think one of my favorite verses in all of scripture is Ephesians 2.10, where it talks about um the fact that we are God's workmanship and God has created good works for us to do. And I feel like at this stage of life, there's a lot of good work to do. Uh, there's work in the morning when I'm writing and thinking, there's work during the day as I'm a middle leader at Calvin Christian School. And then I get home and there's three boys, five and under, and there's a lot of good work to do there as well. So it's a rich time of life, but I also feel like the treadmill is running pretty fast at the moment as well.

Stephanie Shafer 2:43

Yeah, so fun. Oh wow. I just have one boy, a couple girls, but uh I can't even imagine three boys. Do y'all know what the fourth one's gonna be? Boy, girl.

Paul Matthews 2:53

Look, um, I'm not gonna say the Lord has revealed it to me in a dream, but I have a gut feeling, Stephanie, that it will be a boy. And that's because um, ever since I've been a young boy, I've been praying that I would also have four boys. I'm one of four boys myself.

Stephanie Shafer 3:08

Oh wow.

Paul Matthews 3:09

And look, just to put my cards on the table, my whole life plan is effectively to become my dad and to have my same family back over again. So I would love nothing more than another boy just to complete the set, if nothing else.

Stephanie Shafer 3:22

Oh wow, that's awesome. One of our teachers has four boys um as well here at NorthStar, and I'm just I admire her. Uh yeah. Can't imagine. So you're all gonna have maybe a lot in common then. Um, all right, that's so cool. You're a third generation teacher. How has your family legacy shaped the way you think about education and your vocation today?

Paul Matthews 3:45

Oh, I think it is the biggest factor when it comes to how I think about what I do and who I am. We all know our family of origin is so important, isn't it? And I'm really blessed. Like I believe in God's faithfulness over generations. And one of the key metaphors I use with my friends when I'm explaining what I do and with my students all the time is that um it's like we're all going down a snow-covered hill in a toboggan. Now, in Australia, especially where I'm from, you don't get a lot of snow-covered hills. But the first generation goes down, they smooth a path, and I believe that by God's grace, it's the duty of the next generation to go further, to push on. We've had so much smoothed out for us, and we can actually press on into new ground, extend the faithfulness of our families and ourselves into new territory as we receive the legacy that's come before us and push into that new territory. So for me, that's actually quite easy because my father and my grandfather were in education. So I'm not trying to apply different concepts across disciplines. Um I know what faithfulness in education looks like. I know what it looks like to press the Lordship of Christ out into every area, every domain of human existence. And so I'm really thankful for that. I think growing up in a Christian family, though it's a privilege that not everyone has, is one of the richest blessings that the Lord offers us. So, yep, I love it. And I wouldn't um I wouldn't try and dissuade anyone from becoming a teacher. I think it is a fantastic job. And if there's anyone listening to this, I don't know, perhaps a student, Stephanie, and they're going, Oh, I'm not sure, I'm kind of on the fence. All I can say is go for it. It is one of the most soul-satisfying professions you can find yourself in.

Why Classrooms Feel Different Now;

Stephanie Shafer 5:23

Yeah, and have a conversation with Paul. He's all over the place. So you can you can uh grab him. I know that yeah, I'm so thankful to be able to um meet you and know you, and then we've had a conversation before, and um yeah, just uh incredible your passion. I mean, just is contagious. And so I love that that you shared that education is so important and people should still go in that career, not run from it. Or bail, or bell on it, right? Yeah. Yeah, okay. So moving on a little bit. What do you love most about being in the classroom right now?

Paul Matthews 6:03

Look, I think it's a time where not only are we doing a lot of teaching, and of course teachers are always teaching, but if I look back over my career, it's a time where I'm doing right now more learning as a teacher than I've ever done before. And I think there's an old saying I go by. It's not in the Bible, but I think it's true. Um if you if you stop growing, you stop going, right? If if you're not growing in what you do, um you you actually lose a sense of momentum and vitality and growth. And especially when it comes to the intersection of artificial intelligence and pedagogy and Christian worldview and Christian formation, um, man, that is a rapidly moving space. There things are evolving so quickly, so much is true today that wasn't true yesterday. Um, and then there'll be more going on next week and next month and next year that we're going to have to adapt to. And so I what I like is the opportunity to learn, the opportunity to think, how can I steward these young people that are in my care and in the care of this school as effectively as possible? Because certainly one of the big ideas I think is that technology changes the world. And rapid technology changes make vast amounts of difference in our lives. And so a lot that was true of teaching is no longer true. Not because um it was bad in the first place or it didn't work in the first place, it's just that in many ways, Stephanie, we're living in a different world now than we used to, and that's not to um try and be pessimistic or frustrated, it's just a great opportunity to show our students the very skill that we expect them to show up with every day, which is that of being a learner.

TED Talk: Cheater Or Tutor;

Stephanie Shafer 7:44

Yeah, love it. One of our core values at NorthStar, lifelong learner. Yeah, so important and so fun. Recently I got to watch your TED Talk. Now it was in 2024. Um, so I'm just wondering, it was great. I highly recommend it, but is there anything you would change if you were doing it now in 2026?

Paul Matthews 8:04

Look, that's a really good question. So the the TED talk itself was called AI, cheater or tutor, right? And the big idea was um, yes, it's easy to think of AI as a cheating machine and oh no, it's going to be the death of education. That was the early narrative, wasn't it? People saying it's the end of the essay and education has been destroyed. I was trying to cast a more hopeful narrative and say, well, actually, I think if we use it wisely, well, then there's some really big opportunities. And I drew on one of Benjamin Bloom's landmark studies. He's the same guy who gave this Bloom's taxonomy, but he found that there's a two-standard deviation improvement in student outcomes just compared to whole class learning if the student is tutored one-on-one. So I said, um the the thought I was, I guess, um putting forward was is there a way that we could use AI to put students in a more tailored, personalized and feedback-rich environment than ever before? Um I I stand by that. I think that's a good message, a hopeful message. All I would say is I've become more convinced over the last couple of years, Stephanie, that the foundational skills that we have been teaching students all along are more relevant than ever. I'm talking um brainstorming, I'm talking writing with paper, paper, and pen at times. I'm talking um the ability to analyze and compare and do that without AI. Because what I realize now, after many years of sort of teaching students AI, teaching teachers AI, and just being in the classroom myself, is you you can't automate what you don't understand. So technology is incredibly powerful. AI is an amazing tool. Um, but if students aren't bringing that original sort of capital of knowledge, if they don't have that base knowledge, it's going to be very hard to then sort of turn a profit on that technology and use it wisely. If you can't write well yourself, you can't really get AI to write well. If you're not very good at art, you won't be able to use AI to create great art. Because it's actually, as one person has said, it's amplified intelligence, not artificial intelligence, it amplifies what we're bringing to the table. So all that to say, I would make a big emphasis now, if I had another chance to do my TED talk, I would really emphasize the fact that we want our students to learn and grow and know those foundational skills because that's actually what's going to guide them in a future that has artificial intelligence in it.

Stephanie Shafer 10:25

Yeah, that's good. Good point. All right, what was it like being on the TED Talk? How did it how does one find themselves on that stage?

Behind The TED Stage;

Paul Matthews 10:33

Well, look, it was one of God's kindnesses in many ways. The call went out. Um, and at the time I was doing a lot of writing and thinking in the AI space. Um, and one of my friends tagged me in a LinkedIn post and said, Hey Paul, you should give this a crack. And so I submitted my proposal. I remember we had to put in a 60-second video, which had the core idea of our message. And um I was at uh in Australia we call it a shack, you might call it a cabin, um, a beach house or something like that in an island near Tasmania that's been in my family for a few generations, and my boys were crying in the other room and it was raining sideways out the window, and I was in my bedroom because it was the only place I could have that didn't have any noise, and I was sitting on the bed with the front-facing camera, going like, this is a pivotal moment. I really need to nail this because it was like half an hour till the deadline. And so uh by God's grace, they looked upon it favorably, and I got to do it. One of the things that you'll notice when you see TED talks is there are no cue cards, no teleprompters, no notes. So I had about two and a half thousand words that I wanted to get exactly right, and it had to come from my head. Um, it I it just had to be baked in there, and that in many ways is quite useful as a practice to have done because now when I try and get my students to memorize a list of 16 things, I say, hey guys, look, my memory's not that great either, but I manage a couple thousand words, I know you can do 16.

Stephanie Shafer 11:53

Yeah, wow, it's cool. Where do you record the TED Talks?

Paul Matthews 11:58

We had it yet down in Hobart, Tasmania, in a big amphitheater, and yeah, it was an amazing day, a really amazing day. I loved it. And uh, truth be told, I actually don't remember much of my talk itself. I don't really remember looking at, I use a technique called the memory palace. I don't know if you've heard of it. It's where you take ideas and you pair them with a place that you know and you create a symbol that represents those ideas. So the introduction of the talk was about a girl called Jess who is great, um, a great girl, but really struggled with maths and reading. And so I imagine someone I know called Jess at the front of my house on a desk crying. And so that triggered the memory. So all that to say is my talk was effectively just as a mental tour around my house with all kinds of different crazy images that would spring to mind and remind me of what I was gonna say. So I was up on stage, I watched the video, but all I actually remember from that time was taking a little mental walk around my own home.

Stephanie Shafer 12:57

Wow, that's cool. Yeah, that's an amazing experience. Um, thanks for sharing that. And that makes me think because when I watched it, I was like, oh, how do you get on TED Talk? Because here's somebody I know that did one. But then also LinkedIn. So you are posting on LinkedIn all the time. So, listeners, if you want to know Paul more, just jump on. So many resources, so many um quotes you can take away and and his experience. But so kind of along the same lines, LinkedIn. So many people I've recommended get on LinkedIn and they're like, Well, I don't need a job. Um, so LinkedIn, it might have just been for jobs, but now it's great for networking, um, for PD, just you know, learning. But um help me and help others that might be a little intimidated about jumping on and sharing like your voice, getting in a rhythm to do that. I find that really hard with being so busy, but I know it is a great place. So, do you have any tips on really engaging in LinkedIn?

LinkedIn As A Learning Habit;

Paul Matthews 13:55

Oh, absolutely. Look, I love it unashamably. Like, this is not a sponsored post, but I think everyone should write on LinkedIn at least once a week. I try and do it every day, except the Lord's Day, um, because I find it also it can erode your mental clarity if you're if you're trying to like get in there and check and comment all the time. But if you're well disciplined, you can write something, you can put it on there. And the big idea is that uh the well, the first big idea I'd say is that um you're not just creating a post, um, you're creating clarity in your own mind. And I can't tell you the amount of times where I've had an idea that's actually really neatly packaged mentally because I've taken the time to write it down, synthesize it, make it clear, use simple language, which shows that I actually do understand it well, and put it out there into the world. And I think that's a valuable practice for every professional. Just honing your own thoughts, understanding what you believe. Sometimes you have to write something out to know what you really think. And so being able to do that is great. And then if you've written it, if you've gone to the effort of actually putting pen to paper or tapping away at your keyboard, why not bless others as well? It's not about trying to show how cool you are or how smart you are, it's putting ideas out there to bless others. And believe me, um, if you scroll through the feed, you're also going to be blessed by other people. Some of the some of the ideas I hold most deeply when it comes to artificial intelligence and Christian education have come to me through either a post on LinkedIn or a conversation I've had in the comments. So I think it's fantastic professional development. I think it hones your own skills as a writer and as a thinker. Because I mean, teaching in many ways is very mental work. Our brain is the tool of the trade, isn't it? So what we want to do is sharpen and refine those skills, those skills of writing and thinking and having clarity and being persuasive. And what I also find really helpful is that I do a lot of writing. So my uh my third book just came out. I'm launching another one in four months. And one of the things that I really like is I have an idea of a book I want to write, I know the chapters, I know the breakdown of each chapter, and I just write it one small part at a time and I publish it as I go along. And I can tell, like if I put an idea out there and perhaps it's not framed in a very compelling way or it's not clear. Um, well, my friends on LinkedIn will show that by sort of not engaging with it. It won't go that well. If I take the same idea, I massage it a bit, I tweak it a bit, I introduce it in a different way, and it goes really well, I go, Roger that. I know that that's now a compelling idea. And so that's helpful because by the time the book comes out, I'm not I haven't spent a year writing it just to go, hey guys, what do you think? I've kind of got feedback every step of the way, and I find that really useful as well.

Stephanie Shafer 16:35

Oh yeah. All right. That motivates me to try a little harder.

Paul Matthews 16:39

Yeah, yeah, I love it. I think it's great. You'll you'll you'll be fantastic at it, Steph.

Stephanie Shafer 16:44

Yeah, it's just really for me making it a priority because I want to do it. But you know, you can have priorities in your life, and then you get busy and you can s move some down over and over and over again.

Paul Matthews 16:54

So well, let me give you a little tip. How about this? Set a 10-minute timer, post whatever you got at the end of 10 minutes. Because what you can what can happen if you're a really smart person or you've spent a lot of your life writing academic writing or reading academic writing, you think it's got to be perfect and you think it's got to be referenced and you think it's gotta have an answer for every possible objection. It absolutely doesn't. It a hundred percent doesn't.

Stephanie Shafer 17:17

I'm just gonna say, hey everybody out there. Paul told me to write something. I'll say hi. That's right.

Paul Matthews 17:23

Just set a 10-minute timer, post what you've got at the end, and allow yourself to get better over time. And if it's your first time writing on LinkedIn or you're new to the platform, um, the blessing and the curse is that not a lot of people are gonna see it anyway. And so it don't feel like you're gonna have all your friends and family from your entire life watching on going, oh, is that a missing comma? How dare she? Um so I would, yeah, don't worry about it. Just post what you've got at the end of 10 minutes.

Stephanie Shafer 17:47

No, that's good, super encouraging. But thanks for that. One of your key ideas is that AI can actually make teaching more human. So that sounds counterintuitive to many people. So, what do you mean by that?

Make Teaching More Human With AI;

Paul Matthews 18:02

This is, as you said, an idea I hold very deeply, and I've had the privilege of actually just seeing it in my own practice, in my own classroom, and amongst the teachers and schools that I work with. And so let's start by laying down this as a base code. We as people, in in some ways, there's a category in which we cannot be more or less human because we're made in the image of God, that's a designation we receive. Um, but in another way, um, we can utilize our humanity or press into the benefits of our humanity more or less at times. So you will understand then when I say I'm not at my most human, I'm not exercising the God-given gift of my humanity well. Um, if I go in to school with only five hours sleep because I was marking essays, um, and I've got a lot more to mark, and I'm stressed because I'm behind in my planning, and I've got 300 unread emails that I can't wrestle under control, and then I walk into the class and I'm not as prepared or as centered or as focused as I was like to be, and then I might be a little bit short with a student when I should practice grace. That's not me leaning into my humanity. And my big hope is that for teachers, well, we can actually use some of the really powerful aspects of artificial intelligence to save time, to be more creative and have a bigger impact in the classroom. So I used to spend 30 minutes per subject differentiating a text, right? Just making it shorter and simpler for the learners in my class who've got a lower reading level. Well, instead of 30 minutes, that takes me about 90 seconds. Now that's fantastic because that's just left less evenings, less weekends, less holidays that I'm spending in front of my laptop. It's more time away from the computer that I can think and ponder and wonder and reflect, and I'm bringing a better version of me into the classroom. But it's not just about me, I'd say, it's also about my learners. Um, because let's be honest, if it did take 30 minutes to differentiate that reading and make it simpler for the learners who need a simpler reading, sometimes we have busy weeks, we have parent-teacher interviews, we have a lot of marketing to do, and we don't get around to those extra adjustments that we need to make. One of the core ideas I talk about, and I'd love to write a book under this title, um, it's called pedagogical hospitality. So it's structuring our pedagogy, our teaching, in a way that welcomes the outsider, welcomes those who don't naturally fit so well into a conventional classroom or a conven a classroom much like you have at NorthStar, they don't, they might not be reading at grade level. They might be not be thinking along the same lines that many of us would naturally think along. So, how can we use artificial intelligence in a way that welcomes the outsider, welcomes those who are struggling, welcomes those on the periphery of the learning experience? Simple things. I can create sentence stems so that the people who really struggle to get the ball rolling with their writing can can write. I can give them a simplified version of a text. I can give them definitions of the key words that we'll be talking about that week in a grade three, a grade seven, and a grade nine reading level. And they can use the one that works best for them. That's what we call pedagogical hospitality. So I'm coming into the classroom fresher. Um I'm coming into the classroom uh less fatigued and less stressed, therefore more human. And the students are getting a more tailored, personalized, and feedback-rich environment, so a more human experience for them. And so that in a nutshell is how I think artificial intelligence can, in some ways, paradoxically, make education more human.

Stephanie Shafer 21:32

Yeah, I love it. But give us something just super practical for a teacher that has never played around and used AI. What is one example they could wrap their minds around while they're listening?

First Steps: Simple Classroom Use;

Paul Matthews 21:45

Sure. So that one that I just gave is a great place to start. Text differentiation, right? You might copy in. Now you can when you're using AI, you might be using something called Chat GPT. You might be using Copilot. There's a number of different tools out there. You can use chat GPT. GPT or copilot, even if you don't have an account, but it's also free to create an account. So if you've never used it before, you can log on to one of those websites. You can think about you know taking a reading that you might be doing in class that week, and you might just say, I want you to simplify this down to a grade five level. Um, that's a really good way to just get your AI C legs. It will come out, it'll spit out sort of a bunch of text underneath where you have entered your writing, and you can have a look at it. And you can use your what I like to call OI, your organic intelligence, to audit the AI. Does this work? I'm thinking of Ryan in my grade eight history class. Will he be able to read that well? And go, yep, okay. And then if you want to continue on, um, when we continue on the same conversation, that's called iterating, right? So your first conversational turn where you ask it to do something is called a prompt, and then you iterate and you go, well, now I want you to give me all the keywords in bold. And then you might follow up and say, now I want all the keywords with a grade five and a grade seven definition. Um, and we just go from there. We're creating great resources, it doesn't take us long, and a simple activity like that will help you get your AI C legs.

Stephanie Shafer 23:16

That's good. All right, let's switch to students. So, for teachers, for me as head of school of NorthStar, how would you encourage me to walk alongside teachers to help students use it for any m that might fear? Um, you know, because back to your TED talk, cheating or tutor, you know, I think a lot of teachers are outside of NorthStar, I mean, everywhere just worried. Um, do we need to catch it? Do we need to be watching for it? Um so what is a healthy way to involve students in using AI?

Guiding Students’ AI Use;

Teacher Fears And Growth;

Paul Matthews 23:48

That in many ways is the question, isn't it? Because I mean, I teach year 10 history and Christian studies at Calvin Christian School, and one of the things I realized as we started our academic year this week was that this generation of year tens have had AI for their entire high school experience. So it seems it might seem new to me, but it's baked into their experience. So what we need to do is we need to think about well, how can we shepherd them well? God's entrusted this generation of students to this generation of parents and Christian educators, right? So we need to think about this. I'll give you two pieces of advice just to start with. Um the first thing is you want to cast a vision for what school is. You want to cast a vision for what school is. Because if students think that the purpose of school is to complete work, that's actually a terrible assumption to have. It's disastrous. Um, because then misusing AI is a no-brainer, right? Even if you say don't use artificial intelligence, if the student underneath it all actually thinks that, well, the whole purpose of this essay is to produce an essay, well, what you can produce way more essays, or perhaps even write a better essay if you use artificial intelligence. And so they're going to be very tempted down there. So our duty as Christian educators is to cast a bigger and better vision of what education is for. Education is not about producing work, it's about producing a person. Right? It's about producing a person who can think and wonder and ponder and pray and analyze and synthesize and create. And we need to show our students that if you misuse artificial intelligence, if you use it in a way that we haven't asked you to, you may produce the work, but you won't produce the person. And actually, the whole goal of what we're trying to do here is produce a kind of person. And so a lot of students simply don't understand that. They slip into the assumption that it's about creation of work, not creation of a person. And so cheating or misusing AI is a no-brainer. So I would say, as a base coat, we want to lay down that idea and continually in our conversations come back to what kind of person is this leading you to become? How have you changed over the course of this work? Great idea to start with. And second of all, I would say we just need to be really clear with our assumptions. As teachers, many of us may subtly and quietly assume that we are expecting them not to use artificial intelligence. As I said, this generation of high school students have had artificial intelligence available to them for like their whole high school career. And so they might not share that assumption. And so one of the big ideas here is we can't get upset with students for misusing AI if we've never taught them to use it well. And part of that is just setting really clear expectations. So I work with schools sometimes to create a little taxonomy. You know, level one might be no AI at all, please. Um, level two might be AI for editing only, and so something like Grammarly would count. Um, something like uh so we might use it also for research. Level three might be assisted drafting, and so you can actually get it to create some writing for you that you might then edit and refine. And level four might be sort of do whatever you want and maybe show us the process along the way. So we'd like to see your conversation, we'd like to see your prompts because prompting AI, after all, is just a record of how clearly you're thinking. It's effectively monitoring someone's metacognition, isn't it? You're thinking about your own thinking. Um, and so a simple taxonomy like that, with whole school shared language, so you might then go, hey guys, this is a number two task. So you can use AI for editing, but we expect all the composition to be your own. So if you can cast that vision and you can set those expectations, that'll get you a long way towards actually equipping your students to navigate AI wisely.

Stephanie Shafer 27:37

I love that. I love some of the language you used. I love hearing all your tips and experiences coming out as a wealth of information. All right, so what are the biggest fears, maybe besides the cheating that you hear from teachers about AI and how do you help them work through these?

Paul Matthews 27:54

That's a really good question because one of the things that can often happen as people, um, we see a lot of change, we see disruption, and we move into the unknown, and we can be fearful. Um, and one of the things, uh just to uh I guess a big idea here is that we need to remember always Christ is on the throne. That's just worth remembering, isn't it? Um there might be plenty of disruption around us in the world, but there is no disruption in the courts of heaven. And so just that simple theological truth, it will help us flee from fear, which is good. It'll help us also from straying into idolatry, won't it? And just assuming that AI will solve all our problems and that progress and innovation will answer all the big questions we have. It definitely won't, right? I teach World War I and World War II as part of my history curriculum. And there was a time of rapid technological growth, and it just shows that technology can make great tools but terrible saviours, and it can also be misused, right? And so Christ is on the throne. Let's all as Christians say that that is a core truth that will guide us. And then as we think about sort of some of the areas where we might be tempted to despair. I was recently um I traveled interstate over the uh two weeks ago, and I was working with a number of schools in an Australian state called Victoria. Now, um Victoria is known for high quality education. In fact, if you go there, you'll see on all their number plates and the cards, it'll say Victoria, the education state. So they're a big fan of that, right? However, one of the things is I was talking to two school leaders at a conference, they said, we're really worried about our graduate teachers. We think they're not getting any better. So you assume, just as we expect students to get a year's worth of progress out of a year's worth of learning, that our teachers would be getting a year's worth of progress out of a year's worth of teaching. And one of the principals, or you might call them an administrator or something similar, the head of school, right, they were saying the teachers are using artificial intelligence. They don't necessarily understand too well what they're automating. Like they're using it, as we used that example earlier, right, to differentiate a text, but they've actually never done it by hand. And so they don't have those foundational skills. They're using it to plan lessons, but they've never done the hard work of actually planning lessons by hand, slowly, pondering, wondering, praying as they do it. Um, and so they're saying there's potentially a lack of intention, there's potentially a lack of reflection, and therefore there's a lack of growth. And so that's one of the things that I see really commonly as I talk with school leaders around Australia and North America. They're saying we want to equip our staff to use all the powerful technology so that they can offer that pedagogical hospitality, so that they're not spending their evenings, weekends, and holidays working. However, we also want them to adopt a reflective posture and to continue to grow and to get better. It's one of those Parker Palmer quotes that's rings true in education where he said we teach who we are, right? Um, and if we're not learning, if we're not growing, it's actually pretty hard to lead an environment where students are learning and growing too. So that would be my, I guess an encouragement. We can turn that into an exhortation, can't we? Um if you're a teacher who leans heavily on artificial intelligence, good on you. Um I hope it works well. I hope you bless your students with it, and ensure that you're continuing to grow and learn and develop and refine your craft as a teacher as well.

Stephanie Shafer 31:16

Yeah, that's so true. We have to be learners if we're gonna call our students to do that consistently. All right, you talked a little bit about Christ right there. Um Christ is our only savior, not any of these other things. But how does your Christian faith, your hope in Jesus, shape how you think about AI in schools?

Faith, Human Dignity, And AI;

Paul Matthews 31:38

Well, it's absolutely central. It's central. Um, because there's the idea that he's on the throne. I mean, these are classic Christian education ideas, right? Jesus is on the throne. We talked earlier briefly about how the two ways, the two ditches on either side of the road, um, is straying off into fear and just going, I I hate this, I don't understand it, it's all too much. I've known teachers who have actually left the education profession because they said this is destroying education and I'm out. Um but the equal and opposite error is idolatry. And either one of those two roads won't equip us or our learners to flourish, straying into fear, straying into idolatry. So the lordship of Christ is not only true, which it is, but it's profoundly useful in helping us avoid those equal and opposite errors. One of the big ideas that I think about often in at Calvin Christian School here, we're a mixed enrollment school. So we would have maybe 30% non-church attending families. And we say church attending instead of Christian, because you know, where someone is before the throne is between them and the Lord. However, we can sort of track who's going to church and who's not, and that's self-reported by the family. So maybe 30% non-church going families, we think about the Great Commission all the time to make disciples of all nations, to baptize them, and to teach them full obedience to Christ. And we know that Jesus will be with us. That's Matthew 28. It's crucial to come back to the idea that Jesus introduces at the very start of the Great Commission where he says, All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. And that's really useful. It's useful if there's a major global disruption like we might have seen in the last five or so years, right? It's helpful if there's a major technological disruption. All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to Christ. Just like we have the Great Commission, I sort of call that the Great Disposition. That's to be our disposition, recognizing that He is Lord over heaven and earth, and that's really practical. But there's also, as we just start to adopt that biblical worldview, really useful things. A lot is being called into question recently, Stephanie, about what it means to be human. Because we are so used to being the top of the academic hierarchy, right? We're the intellectual apex predators. Um and if you ask a lot of people what it means to be human, um, we're just smarter than everything else and everyone else, right? And that's the that's the distinctive. Um, however, what happens if there's a machine that perhaps in some ways is a little bit smarter than us? Does that then become human? Does that then become conscious? Does that then become the apex predator in the intellectual ecosystem? Um, which is where the Christian worldview would happily say, no, not at all. Um God, what we are as human beings is is not a byproduct of chance. And we're at the top of the pecking order, not because we manage to crawl there through superior cognition. Uh, it's actually a designation from God. We're made in his image. We're to continue the work that he started in the garden as we extend his creativity and care across the globe. And so just that biblical anthropology is also super useful, isn't it? It's very practical. In a day and an age where there's going to be, especially amongst um unbelieving or more secular areas, a lot called into question about what it means to be human and what the future of humanity looks like, we've got a way better story to tell. We have a way better story to tell. And that's good news that we can share because of our Christian worldview as well.

Stephanie Shafer 35:06

Wow, that's awesome. Love it. Love your passion. Love your language around all of this. And five years down the road, ten years down the road of what you see AI doing, like what would be um your hope for what the classroom is going to look like in the future of education.

Paul Matthews 35:23

One of my big hopes is that we as schools are able to work together to really bring clarity to our students. Some of those big questions that they're asking that you talked about. I mean, students are going through education right now, Stephanie, and they're thinking, what is the point of this? Because there's going to be no jobs around when I graduate, right? I mean, we had a lot going on when we went through high school, and we didn't have to navigate an existential crisis like that, did we? And so our learners need clarity. Um, clarity that, you know, the purpose of education isn't just to get ready for a job. It's that formation that we were talking about before. It's becoming a person, not just getting ready for something else, but becoming a person. I think we want to give them real clarity as well about how AI can be used, about what it is. Now, here's a statistic that might bake your noodle, but we had 12%, 12% of Gen Z, which is our high school guys, right? 12% think that artificial intelligence, what happens when they put something in and a message comes back? 12% of those guys think that it's just someone typing really fast on the other end. They think it comes from another person.

Stephanie Shafer 36:26

Right?

Paul Matthews 36:26

So we want to give them clarity about like what actually is this technology, um, how can we use it well, what is the purpose of education? And then we want to give them opportunities to learn the skills that they need, um, both offline, like pen and paper. We're talking creativity, discernment, analysis, etc. And we want to give them the skills to use those tools wisely, whilst recognizing that those tools will also rapidly change as technology rapidly changes. So I just think my my big idea here is that uh to be clear about the core reasons for our education, the truth about this technology, the purpose behind it all, I think is one of the best things we can do. So if we can all, as a Christian education community, move in that direction and in so doing make education a more human place as a result. Nothing would make me more thankful.

Stephanie Shafer 37:20

I love that. All right. So for those listening that want to connect, want to read, want to um, yeah, just check out your world and all that you're working on. Tell us a little bit more about books and platforms and where they can dive in.

Paul Matthews 37:34

Sure. So um I recently I wrote a really simple little e-book which I'd love to give to your listeners for free. It's just called the Chat GPT Features Guide, um, and that's zero dollars, and it's just a guide for how to use Chat GPT well, right? So in my work with education institutions and government institutions, I realize that like 90% of people are using 10% of the features when it comes to Chat GPT, right? So um I'd I'd be more than happy to send you a link. That can go in the show notes, Stephanie, and that's just a free guide for people. Um if you're interested in Christian education and AI, which I'm sure most people here will be, um what my first book that I wrote was called A Time to Lead, um, and that is available through Christian Schools International. So if you look up A Time to Lead Paul Matthews, that will take you to csi.org, I believe, and you can get a copy of that there. Recently um I published a book also. I do a lot of writing. All right, one of my favorite um authors said he he writes for the same reason a dog barks, right? He just has to, he just has to. Um I feel the same way, right? So um I wrote a book called Uh Flourishing in an AI World, which is a whole school change management um uh framework, right? It's called the I I call it the Saint framework. So it's a school AI navigation tool, the Saint framework. And it effectively acknowledges the fact that each school is different, right? Just like those one size fits all t-shirts don't really fit anyone, one size fits all AI navigation is also pretty tricky, right? Each school is different, has a different set of vision, mission, and values, it's tried different things, it's good at different things. So flourishing in an AI world, which is actually going to launch publicly next week, um, it's saying, well, how can we, as a school community, how can we flourish, um, not just sort of not deteriorate or resist the changes, but how can we actually flourish in a world that has AI? And it's it's it introduces seven domains of AI practice within the school, helps schools identify a strategic priority, and then lets them go through a staged, clear plan. So that might not be for your everyday teacher, but it will be for your school or educational leader who thinks about like how can I actually lead this educational institution, this school or university wisely through these changes. So I know that's a long answer. You can find me on LinkedIn, right? Um, that ebook, as I said, is my gift to you. And I also have a substack called AI for teachers, which I try and write weekly.

Stephanie Shafer 40:05

Yeah. All right, tell them about your um webpage too.

Paul Matthews 40:09

Sure. So I go paulmathews.ai. That's Matthews with two T's. Um I'm on LinkedIn the most, but you can still find out some key information on paulmathews.ai. Great place to get in touch as well. If you want to um if you if you want to chat, if you want to send me an email, all my details are there as well.

Stephanie Shafer 40:28

Yeah. Need a podcast speaker, um, whatever you might need.

Paul Matthews 40:32

Always love to chat about Christian education and AI.

Stephanie Shafer 40:35

Yeah. All right. Well, this has been wonderful. Thank you so much for joining me early. I know it's early in the morning for you there in Australia, um, and you're doing the good work. I'm so thankful to know you keep on and yeah, can't wait for the book to come out. I'm gonna go sign up for it now. Make sure I get it.

Paul Matthews 40:53

Appreciate it.

Stephanie Shafer 40:56

Thank you so much for listening today. If you have any questions for our guest or like information about NorthStar, please email us at podcast at nsa.school. We love having guests on our show and getting to hear their stories. If you have anyone in mind that you think would be a great guest to feature, please email us and let us know. And don't forget to subscribe so you don't miss out on upcoming stories.