Edtech Throwdown

About Edtech Throwdown

The Edtech Throwdown podcast (originally GotTechED the Podcast) was created in 2018 by Nick Johnson and Eric Guise with one, singular goal: to provide quality, tech-centric professional development (PD) to busy teachers on the move. As educators who have always been passionate about PD, Nick and Guise have attended and created hundreds of hours of professional learning experiences for teachers, but there has always been one problem ... time! Attending full-day workshops and conferences is difficult and stressful due to missed class time and added prep. With the Edtech Thowdown, Nick and Guise hope to provide busy teachers a way to access educational PD at their convenience.

Publisher

Eric Guise/Nick Johnson

Category

education · education · education

Language

en

Explicit

No

First episode

3 Mar 2018

Latest episode

1 Sept 2026

Latest episodes

6 of 224 episodes have a transcript.

1. 

   1 Sept 2026TRANSCRIPT

   Survey Says! The Top 5 AI Power Moves for Teachers

   Edtech Throwdown Episode 223: Survey Says! The Top 5 AI Power Moves for Teachers Welcome to the EdTech Throwdown. This is Episode 223 called Survey Says! The Top 5 AI Power Moves for Teachers. In this episode, we’re putting 100 educators on the board to reveal the game-changing ways teachers are using artificial intelligence to personalize learning, crush admin work, and transform the classroom. This is another episode you don’t want to miss, Check it out. Segment 1: School is back in session, AI bots are escaping their sandboxes to destroy the world, tech is being banned from classrooms, and we are playing Family Feud Segment 2: Survey Says! We asked 100 teachers: "What’s the biggest mistake educators make when using AI to plan lessons?" Here are the top 5 answers: #1 Copy-Pasting Without Editing (Treating the rough AI draft as a final, ready-to-teach lesson) 38 #2 Giving Lazy or Vague Prompts (Asking for a lesson without specifying grade, time, or standards) 26 #3 Not Fact-Checking the AI (Letting "hallucinations" and wrong answer keys reach students) 18 #4 Leaking Student Privacy / PII (Typing real student names or IEP data into public models) 11 #5 Assuming Standards Alignment Is Accurate (Blindly trusting fake Common Core/state tags) 7 Survey Says! We asked 100 students: "What is the top reason you HATE AI-generated classroom activities?" Here are the top 5 answers: Top 5 answers are on the board! Rank Answer Points #1 Feels Robbed of Human Connection &amp; Effort (Knowing the teacher spent 5 seconds making a task they have to spend hours on) 36 #2 Double Standards &amp; Hypocrisy (Teachers using AI to build assignments while banning students from using it) 24 #3 Boring, Generic "Robotic" Writing (Bland reading passages, repetitive questions, and lack of teacher personality) 19 #4 Unclear or Broken Logic (Glitching instructions, incorrect answer keys, or weird "hallucinated" facts) 12 #5 Irrelevant &amp; Miscalibrated Difficulty (Tasks that miss the actual grade level or feel like pointless busywork) 9 Edtech Throwdown: Vote on twitter @edtechthrowdown and under the pinned post on the profile. Segment 3: Where to Find EdTech Throwdown Do us a few favors: Subscribe to the Edtech Throwdown Podcast Apple Podcasts (https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/gotteched/id1358366637?mt=2) Spotify (https://open.spotify.com/show/7zyzfCkSDNHkKdqxmh9XLB?si=YhSdMa6BQVmcLHbSrYxE9Q) Amazon Podcasts (https://music.amazon.co.uk/podcasts/a97553d8-f7d7-406c-8597-81d0b9d1f601/edtech-throwdown) Stitcher (https://www.stitcher.com/search?q=gotteched) YouTube (https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCMIQwu39Tkow3kduRQAH85w?view_as=subscriber) Twitter (https://twitter.com/WeGotTechED) Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/WeGotTechED/) Write us an Apple Podcast Review! Tell your friends about (http://edtechthrowdown.com)www.edtechthrowdown.com (http://www.edtechthrowdown.com) Tell your friends about the Teach Better Podcast Network Subscribe to our Podcast Channels and Socials <a href="https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/gotteched/id1358366637?mt=2" target="_blank" style="background-color:...

2. 

   18 Aug 2026TRANSCRIPT

   6 Strategies for Battling Student Apathy

   Edtech Throwdown Episode 222: 6 Strategies for Battling Student Apathy Welcome to the EdTech Throwdown. This is Episode 222 called 6 Strategies for Battling Student Apathy. In this episode we’ll discuss the hot topic of student apathy, whether or not we think this is real, and how to battle it. This is another episode you don’t want to miss, Check it out. Segment 1: There is lots of talk about student apathy these days. Have we seen this for ourselves? Nick says, maybe Segment 2: 1. Learning Packages (Modular, Choice-Based Bundles) What it is: Consolidating multi-step tasks, content resources, and assessments into self-paced, modular units rather than handing out isolated daily assignments. How it decreases apathy: Apathy flourishes when students feel like passive order-takers. Learning packages restore autonomy by giving students control over their pace and offering choices in how they acquire knowledge and show mastery (e.g., choice boards). Having a visible roadmap eliminates ambiguity and lets students build momentum independently. 2. Authentic / Real-World Task Framing (PBL) What it is: Structuring assignments around real-world problems, community impact projects, or public audiences (e.g., presenting to local business leaders or publishing a podcast). How it decreases apathy: Apathy is often a rational response to perceived irrelevance. When work moves beyond "doing it for the teacher’s gradebook" to solving a real problem or addressing an authentic audience, students see immediate value and purpose in completing it. 3. Competency-Based / Mastery Revision Policies What it is: Replacing rigid "one-and-done" deadlines with a system where students can revise, resubmit, or retake assessments until they prove standard mastery. How it decreases apathy: "Learned helplessness" drives a huge portion of student apathy—if a student believes they will fail anyway, checking out protects their self-esteem. Reframe work as a process of continuous growth removes the fear of permanent failure, motivating students to stick with a task until they get it right. 4. Gamified Micro-Milestones &amp; Visual Progress What it is: Breaking large assignments into bite-sized checkpoints unlocked sequentially, often mapped on a visual progress bar or Kanban board (To Do, In Progress, Done). How it decreases apathy: Long assignments can feel overwhelming, triggering avoidance and apathy. Micro-milestones create immediate feedback loops and quick wins, giving students frequent hits of satisfaction as they physically check off steps and watch their progress advance. 5. Interdependent Peer Accountability (Cooperative Learning) What it is: Designing collaborative structures (like the Jigsaw method or small-group roles) where every team member holds a piece of the puzzle necessary for the group's success. How it decreases apathy: Students are often indifferent to compliance requests from authority figures, but they care deeply about their social standing with peers. When their effort directly supports or impacts their classmates, peer accountability activates social motivation. 6. Utility-Value Reflection Prompts What it is: Embedding short reflection questions at the beginning or end of assignments asking students to articulate how a skill connects to their personal goals, interests, or future plans. How it decreases apathy: Psychological research shows that when students explicitly write down why a skill matters to their own life (e.g., "How does analyzing arguments help you negotiate or spot misinformation?"), their intrinsic motivation and assignment completion rates increase significantly. Edtech Throwdown: Vote on twitter @edtechthrowdown and under the pinned post on the profile. Segment 3: Where to Find EdTech Throwdown Do us a few favors: Subscribe to the Edtech Throwdown Podcast Apple Podcasts (https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/gotteched/id1358366637?mt=2) Spotify (https://open.spotify.com/show/7zyzfCkSDNHkKdqxmh9XLB?si=YhSdMa6BQVmcLHbSrYxE9Q) Amazon Podcasts (https://music.amazon.co.uk/podcasts/a97553d8-f7d7-406c-8597-81d0b9d1f601/edtech-throwdown) Stitcher (https://www.stitcher.com/search?q=gotteched) YouTube (https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCMIQwu39Tkow3kduRQAH85w?view_as=subscriber) Twitter (https://twitter.com/WeGotTechED) Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/WeGotTechED/) Write us an Apple Podcast Review! Tell your friends about (http://edtechthrowdown.com)www.edtechthrowdown.com (http://www.edtechthrowdown.com) Tell your friends about the Teach Better Podcast Network Subscribe to our Podcast Channels and Socials Apple Podcasts (https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/gotteched/id1358366637?mt=2) Spotify (https://open.spotify.com/show/7zyzfCkSDNHkKdqxmh9XLB?si=YhSdMa6BQVmcLHbSrYxE9Q) YouTube (https://www.youtube.com/@edtechthrowdown/podcasts) Twitter (https://twitter.com/edtechthrowdown) (@edtechthrowdown) Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61555544972690) Instagram (https://www.instagram.com/edtechthrowdown) Connect with us on Social Media Guise’s Social

3. 

   10 Aug 2026TRANSCRIPT

   10 Tools for Specialized AI and Productivity

   Host Nick and Host Guise explore ten specialized AI and productivity tools, offering educators innovative solutions beyond typical platforms.

Inside a recent episode

Survey Says! The Top 5 AI Power Moves for Teachers

Published 1 Sept 2026 · Transcript excerpt

[…] But so remember whatever you put in as a prompt, the value of that input will directly correlate to the value of that output. So if you take time to have a descriptive input, whatever you get out is probably going to be better. And that means that there's going to be less changes that you have to make. All right. So make sure that you add the standards into your prompt and make sure that you're telling the prompt exactly what you want. And if you even want it to be more accurate, put an example, put an example of an activity that you made for the AI to follow. I think that is very valuable. So the other thing is, is if you work in Gemini, the education suite, that is FERPA COPA compliant and it is protected from leaking out student information to others. […]

Reach and audience

Public platform figures. Ratings count people who left a rating, not total listeners.

YouTube views

111,915

Score snapshot 15 Sept 2025

Apple Podcasts (US)

4.9 / 5

34 ratings

Podcast Authority Score: 86 / 100

A composite of feed quality, social presence, YouTube performance and engagement. Read the methodology.

Quality

85

Social presence

90

YouTube

86

Engagement

85

Contact Edtech Throwdown

Guest appearances

Books guests

Based on episode analysis; this does not confirm that the show is currently accepting guests.

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