Don't Chase the Tools — Build Your AI Pedagogy First, with Med Kharbach

In this week's episode, Tim Burnett chats with Med Kharbach, PhD, an educator, researcher, and part-time faculty member at Mount Saint Vincent University. They discuss: AI literacy for educators and students — what AI-literate students do differently and why freely available practitioner guides matter more than academic jargon Rethinking assessment design in an AI-saturated world — moving from traditional submissions towards layered, process-focused approaches that value critical thinking over polished outputs Building an AI-forward mindset — why pedagogy should come before tools, and why a single chatbot with strong prompting skills can be more powerful than a dozen subscriptions Med shares his journey from teaching English as a foreign language to becoming a leading voice in AI and education, with multiple publications for integrating AI into learning. The conversation explores the rapid evolution of AI capabilities, from the early days of garbled text in AI-generated images to today's near-undetectable outputs, and what that means for academic integrity. Med advocates for assessment methods that make the learning process visible, such as reflective journals, chat log analysis, and oral defences, whilst acknowledging the scalability challenges teachers face with larger class sizes. The episode closes with Med's advice to educators: embrace AI, focus on your pedagogy first, and don't chase every shiny new tool, a mainstream chatbot and solid prompting skills are more than enough to get started. Explore Med Kharbach's research and free educator guides: https://medkharbach.com/ Connect with Med Kharbach on LinkedIn:   / mkharbach   Connect with Tim Burnett on LinkedIn:   / tburnett   If you would like to join Tim on a future episode or sponsor the Test Community Network then get in touch with Tim to schedule a call: https://calendly.com/educationtech/15... Events: https://www.testcommunity.network/upc... Podcasts: https://www.testcommunity.network/pod... Marketplace: https://www.testcommunity.network/mar... Subscribe to the Test Community Network here: https://www.testcommunity.network 🎙️ New to streaming or looking to level up? Check out StreamYard and get $10 discount! 😍 https://streamyard.com/pal/d/57805973...