The CanadianEd Leadership Show: Episode 128 with Dr Michelle Baragar

Dean interviews Alberta educator and ed-tech coordinator Michelle Baragar about her 30-year teaching journey and doctoral research on generative AI and teacher workload. Michelle describes major technology disruptions in her career (internet, smartphones, AI), how earlier tools often added layers of work, and why ChatGPT prompted her to pivot her EdD toward workload intensification and whether AI can “claw back” time, illustrated by a teacher generating a stoichiometry retest in under a minute. She shares findings from a survey (29 respondents) and interviews (4 AI-using participants), highlighting an “efficiency and workload paradox”: AI helps with tasks like lesson planning and drafting difficult emails, but creates a verification burden and new integrity challenges, including unreliable AI detection and privacy concerns. They discuss the need for transparent, community-based guidelines, better assessment practices, rural constraints and opportunities, and keeping the teacher-student relationship central while using AI to boost creativity and human connection. 00:00 AI Gives Time Back 03:55 Michelle Teaching Journey 05:48 Minecraft Research Breakthrough 08:46 Tech Promises And Workload 10:08 Three Disruptive Waves 11:39 ChatGPT Shifts The EdD 18:28 Workload Paradox And Verification 28:02 Student AI Fears And Assessment 34:26 Transparency And Community Talk 37:22 Rural Schools Unique Challenges 39:46 AI as Teaching Partner 40:36 Budget Limits and Tool Choices 42:22 Teacher Built AI Tools 43:17 Rural Diversity and Policy Challenges 44:33 No AI Ban Coming 46:19 Classroom Phone Agreements 49:38 Applying Trust to AI 57:07 Assessment and Busting Myths 58:54 AI for Human Connection 01:02:14 Personal AI Wins and Wrap Up