Artificial Intelligence and Global Education | Current History Podcast #8

Get notified when new podcast episode goes live by subscribing at https://current-history.com.  Subscribers receive all podcasts and posts through the Current History substack. Your support helps make this content possible.Artificial intelligence and digital technology are reshaping higher education worldwide, disrupting how students are assessed, fragmenting attention in the classroom, and exposing inequalities across global education systems. Dr. Lidia Lozano, a language educator and researcher with experience at Princeton, Columbia, and Harvard, draws on experience America, Europe, and internationally to examine how universities are shifting away from take-home written work toward oral exams, in-class presentations, and process-based evaluation that reveals how students actually think. We also explore the global dimension: how AI systems trained predominantly on English-language and Western sources risk deepening existing disparities across languages and education systems. The episode closes on what AI cannot replace: the authenticity, empathy, and human presence that are not peripheral to learning, but foundational to it.About the GuestDr. Lozano is an expert in language acquisition and cross-cultural understanding. She holds a PhD in Philology from the University of Barcelona. She has teaching experience at Princeton University, Columbia University, and Barnard College, and research experience at the Harvard University and the University of Barcelona. She has co-authored articles, learning materials, and a multimedia course on language acquisition. Dr. Lozano has also worked in project management and administration at the United Nations in New York and volunteered for UNESCO’s Global Education Monitoring Report. Additionally, she has served as cultural expert for the European Commission and has been selected for inclusion on the European Parliament's list of research experts.LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lidia-lozano-phd-a6071a378/Website: https://www.lidlozano.comAbout the HostKen Briggs is a writer, researcher, and consultant with a deep interest in history, policy, global affairs, and emerging technology. A former engineer, Ken has spent a lifetime thinking, writing, and talking about these issues and created Current History to explore how they shape the world we live in. His research interests include the geopolitical impacts of the energy transition and technology, political science and philosophy, and applied history. As a consultant, he also advises companies on navigating policy and geopolitical risk.Subscribe to the YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/@current-historySubscribe to Current History on Substack: https://current-history.com/subscribe/ Follow Ken on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kenbriggs3/Follow Ken on X: https://x.com/KenWBriggs3Topics and Timestamps00:00 – Introductions01:50 - Guest background04:52– Topic 1: AI and the testing crisis07:54 - Topic 2: From product to process11:30 - Topic 3: Teaching in a screen-saturated world14:55 - Topic 4: Declining attention spans21:16 - Topic 5: Is AI a threat or an opportunity?27:53 - Topic 6: International perspective30:29  - Topic 7: Education, Culture, and the Future36:16 – OutroFor Further Reading1. UNESCO Global Education Monitoring Report2. Statistics on teacher pay can be found here: UNESCO Global Report on Teachers (2023)2. Nomophobia: Is the Fear of Being without a Smartphone Associated with Problematic Use? — Kaviani et al., International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 20203. Identity: The Demand for Dignity and the Politics of Resentment (Review) - David Fowkes, International Journal of Constitutional Law4. The Importance of Non-Verbal Communication in Classroom Management — Özad & Uygarer, Procedia Social and Behavioral Sciences, 20095. Data on language distribution on the internet: W3Techs: Usage Statistics of Content Languages for WebsitesAbout the PodcastI created Current History to explore how history shapes current events in geopolitics, technology, and public policy. If you found this conversation useful, consider subscribing below.Current History is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.Subscribers receive every podcast and essay directly in their inbox. Its free for now, with paid options if you would like to support this work directly. The Founding Member plan guarantees lifetime access without a paywall.You can also subscribe on YouTube at https://www.youtube.com/@current-history. Get full access to Current History at current-history.com/subscribe