Thanks for the reference, Eric. I'm curious if you've played around with Skills in Claude - much more powerful than GPTs because they can be activated across any Project or Chat and more than one at a time. Very useful for repeatable and discrete prompt sets you want applied across tasks. And the more I play with Claude Cowork the more I understand the potential. I do think 2026 is going to the year of useful and direct AI agentic applications and, unfortunately, most educators are not going to be able to take advantage of it.
I like skills a lot. I think Claude is an underrated platform in general in education (so much focus on Gemini and Chat). I do worry about educator capacity to take full advantage. I know you’ve written about this.
I think Claude will get its moment this year - it's way better than OpenAI for so many things. But I agree - I don't see (nor blame) educators for not being able to keep up. You also mention how you have paid accounts for the 3 big ones (ChatGPT, Gemini, and Claude) - that's prohibitive for most and is starting to be a meaningful differentiator when you talk about "AI" - the paid models vs. the free tiers are becoming further and further apart. I just upgraded to a Max Claude account because I hit limits so fast - that's $80 a month - not insignificant.
Absolutely. If I were still teaching, I would be paying for, at most, one of these, and $80/month for Claude would be outside of my range. The equity stuff with these paid vs. free platforms is a huge concern, not just among educators but also among students.
Thanks to both of you for this dialogue and your posts. Always insightful. Since you both mention that most educators are not going to be able to take advantage of Claude, I'm curious what would that look like. Do you mean from the teacher/admin side? Use with students in the classroom? What can it do that would help me be a better HS English teacher? I try to stay current on AI in education, but I'm one of those educators finding it's very hard to keep up.
In a Feb. 9, 2026, post on his Learning on Purpose Substack, educator Eric Hudson offers a transparent look at his current use of generative AI in education. He outlines specific priorities focused on prioritizing human interaction over automation while emphasizing the need for ethical, critical approaches to AI in the classroom. https://thespikevolleyball.com/
Thanks Eric - I think this represents a really healthy model for AI use and a note of sanity amidst all the overexcitement.
I share the enthusiasm you (and Stephen in the comments) have for Claude at the moment, by the way. It's becoming my first port of call, ahead of Gemini. I can't access Cowork in the UK yet but can't wait to try it out
Thanks for the reference, Eric. I'm curious if you've played around with Skills in Claude - much more powerful than GPTs because they can be activated across any Project or Chat and more than one at a time. Very useful for repeatable and discrete prompt sets you want applied across tasks. And the more I play with Claude Cowork the more I understand the potential. I do think 2026 is going to the year of useful and direct AI agentic applications and, unfortunately, most educators are not going to be able to take advantage of it.
I like skills a lot. I think Claude is an underrated platform in general in education (so much focus on Gemini and Chat). I do worry about educator capacity to take full advantage. I know you’ve written about this.
I think Claude will get its moment this year - it's way better than OpenAI for so many things. But I agree - I don't see (nor blame) educators for not being able to keep up. You also mention how you have paid accounts for the 3 big ones (ChatGPT, Gemini, and Claude) - that's prohibitive for most and is starting to be a meaningful differentiator when you talk about "AI" - the paid models vs. the free tiers are becoming further and further apart. I just upgraded to a Max Claude account because I hit limits so fast - that's $80 a month - not insignificant.
Absolutely. If I were still teaching, I would be paying for, at most, one of these, and $80/month for Claude would be outside of my range. The equity stuff with these paid vs. free platforms is a huge concern, not just among educators but also among students.
Thanks to both of you for this dialogue and your posts. Always insightful. Since you both mention that most educators are not going to be able to take advantage of Claude, I'm curious what would that look like. Do you mean from the teacher/admin side? Use with students in the classroom? What can it do that would help me be a better HS English teacher? I try to stay current on AI in education, but I'm one of those educators finding it's very hard to keep up.
In a Feb. 9, 2026, post on his Learning on Purpose Substack, educator Eric Hudson offers a transparent look at his current use of generative AI in education. He outlines specific priorities focused on prioritizing human interaction over automation while emphasizing the need for ethical, critical approaches to AI in the classroom. https://thespikevolleyball.com/
Thanks Eric - I think this represents a really healthy model for AI use and a note of sanity amidst all the overexcitement.
I share the enthusiasm you (and Stephen in the comments) have for Claude at the moment, by the way. It's becoming my first port of call, ahead of Gemini. I can't access Cowork in the UK yet but can't wait to try it out