Stop Teaching? Jason Kennedy on Designing Learning That Actually Works - TEC97

About this episode

In this episode, Dan Thomas interviews Jason Kennedy about the importance of assignment design in education and how it impacts student learning and engagement.

What if the biggest problem in education right now… isn’t student motivation? What if it’s assignment design? In this episode of the Tech Ed Clubhouse Podcast, I sit down with curriculum director, author, and learning designer Jason Kennedy to unpack the difference between teaching and designing learning. We dig into: compliance vs real engagement why “doing the work” doesn’t always mean learning how AI can help teachers create better learning experiences why some students thrive in art, STEM, shop, and music classes how success criteria and feedback change everything what teachers can do tomorrow without completely overhauling their classroom Jason also shares practical ways teachers can redesign tasks so students do more of the thinking, decision-making, and learning themselves. This conversation connects directly to recent episodes around assignment design, independence, and why AI didn’t break education—it exposed weaknesses that were already there. 🎯 Key Takeaways Engagement is not entertainment Compliance can hide a lack of learning Tasks should be designed, not just assigned Feedback matters more than grades AI can reduce teacher workload while increasing personalization…

People in this episode

Host: Dan Thomas

Guest: Jason Kennedy

Topics covered

• assignment design
• student engagement
• learning design
• teacher strategies
• AI in education
• student ownership

Keywords

• education
• learning design
• student motivation
• AI in education
• feedback
• teacher strategies
• engagement
• compliance
• ownership
• task redesign

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Tech Ed Clubhouse

More episodes of The TechEd Clubhouse

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• Stop Drowning Teachers in Data: Making School Data Useful Again - TEC98 · June 1, 2026 · 41 min
• What If There Was No Red Tape? Rebuilding Education with the Thinkering Collective - TEC96 · May 18, 2026 · 44 min
• Beyond Compliance: Building Curious, Creative Thinkers with Dr. Katie Trowbridge - TEC95 · May 11, 2026 · 51 min
• Stop Explaining: Why Your Lesson Starts in the Wrong Place - TEC94 · May 4, 2026 · 37 min
• Independent Students on a Tuesday - TEC93 · April 27, 2026 · 34 min