AI in Catholic Education: What K-12 Schools Owe Their Students

EPISODE DESCRIPTION

Schools should not race to keep pace with the digital world. They should give students what the digital world cannot: shared time for learning and trustworthy relationships. Jason Padgett sits down with Lewis Poché of the University of Notre Dame’s Alliance for Catholic Education to ask what that principle demands in the age of AI.

Lewis makes the case for teaching AI literacy before handing young students unrestricted tools. He explains why schools must protect the learning process instead of judging only the finished product, how sycophancy and anthropomorphism can distort a child’s relationship with AI, and why blanket bans repeat mistakes schools made with social media. The conversation moves from kindergarten image-analysis lessons to Pope Leo XIV’s Magnifica Humanitas, teacher use of AI, student guardrails, and the three dimensions of AI literacy: technical, dispositional, and practical.

ABOUT THE GUEST

Lewis Poché is the Associate Program Director of Higher-Powered Learning at the University of Notre Dame’s Alliance for Catholic Education. A member of the 26th ACE Teaching Fellows cohort, he taught middle school math and science at Sacred Heart Nativity Schools in San Jose after studying engineering and philosophy at Southern Methodist University. His work helps Catholic school educators and leaders connect technology decisions to student formation, human dignity, and sound teaching practice.

GUEST LINKS

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lewispoche/

Notre Dame ACE profile: https://ace.nd.edu/people/lewis-poche

Step Up EdTech: https://www.lewispoche.com/

TIME STAMPS

00:00 - Lewis Poché and the K-12 AI question

06:01 - Teacher time, better feedback, and richer assessment

08:40 - Product versus process in student learning

12:06 - Teaching students to become creators and explorers

18:07 - Magnifica Humanitas, Nehemiah, and the educator’s role

24:00 - Why banning AI for younger students repeats the social media mistake

30:42 - Sycophancy, anthropomorphism, and young learners

40:26 - The technical, dispositional, and practical sides of AI literacy

48:43 - What schools can offer that the digital world cannot

52:15 - Teachers using AI while students are told they cannot

59:10 - Guardrails, caution, and testing the limits of school AI tools

CONNECT WITH JASON PADGETT

AI Solutions Architect

📧 jasongrantpadgett@gmail.com

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jason-grant-padgett/

X: https://x.com/NoCodeCAIO

Newsletter (No Code CAIO): https://schoolsout.agipodcast.ai/newsletter/

Available for interviews and keynotes on AI in education → https://schoolsout.agipodcast.ai/events

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TOOLS JASON RECOMMENDS

MindStudio → https://get.mindstudio.ai/q7n7u5cttkdq

Riverside.fm → https://riverside.sjv.io/e1xyBr

Wispr Flow → https://ref.wisprflow.ai/jason-padgett

RESOURCES MENTIONED

Higher-Powered Learning: https://ace.nd.edu/programs/hpl

AI in Catholic Education: https://ace.nd.edu/programs/higher-powered-learning/ai-catholic-education

Magnifica Humanitas: https://www.vatican.va/content/leo-xiv/en/encyclicals/documents/20260515-magnifica-humanitas.html

Common Sense Media research on teen use of AI companions: https://www.commonsensemedia.org/research/talk-trust-and-trade-offs-how-and-why-teens-use-ai-companions

MagicSchool: https://www.magicschool.ai/

SchoolAI: https://schoolai.com