Dr. Scott McLeod's blog, Dangerously Irrelevant, just turned 20, and he joined Sarah on Matched to celebrate. He shares where the name came from, a line from historian Gwynne Dyer's book War, and how blogging helped him find his own voice after years of writing journal articles hardly anyone read.

Scott and Sarah also talk about AI. Scott explains the AI vicious cycle he sketched out, inspired by James Bedford's AI Wheel of Death: teachers use AI to make the assignment, students use AI to complete it, and teachers use AI to grade it. With his riding mower analogy, he makes the case that AI isn't the root problem. It's a symptom of learning tasks students don't find meaningful, and that's design work we can take on.

From there, they get into what 20 years online has taught him: why his audience was close to zero for the first six or seven months, how patience and a little "Google juice" build a presence over time, why he keeps his own blog as home base instead of putting everything on platforms that come and go, and why people respond to authenticity, not money grabs.

Tool of the week: No new app needed. Scott suggests starting where you already are, in a Facebook group or on LinkedIn, by writing two paragraphs that might help somebody else.

Shout-outs: Scott shouts out Dan Meyer (https://danmeyer.substack.com), math educator and author of the Mathworlds newsletter. Sarah shouts out Regina Schaffer in New Jersey, who challenged her to blog every day of the school year back in 2014.

About Scott
Scott McLeod, J.D., Ph.D., is a Professor of Educational Leadership at the University of Colorado Denver and one of the nation's leading experts on P-12 school leadership, deeper learning, technology, and innovation. He's on a mission to make students' day-to-day learning less boring and more meaningful and relevant. Scott is the Founding Director of CASTLE (https://schooltechleadership.org), the only university center in the U.S. dedicated to the technology needs of school administrators, and co-creator of the Did You Know? (Shift Happens) video series and the 4 Shifts Protocol (http://bit.ly/4shifts). His honors include ISTE's 2016 Award for Outstanding Leadership and the University of Colorado Denver's 2025 Excellence in Teaching Award. He blogs at Dangerously Irrelevant (http://dangerouslyirrelevant.org) and hosts the LeaderTalk (https://leadertalk.org), Redesigning for Deeper Learning (https://redesigningfordeeperlearning.org), and CASTLE Conversations (https://castleconversations.transistor.fm) podcasts. His books include Leadership for Deeper Learning (https://bit.ly/Leadership4DL), Harnessing Technology for Deeper Learning (http://bit.ly/mcleodgraber), and Different Schools for a Different World (http://bit.ly/mcleodshareski).

Connect with Scott:
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/scottmcleod
Threads: https://www.threads.net/@scottmcleod
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/scottmcleod
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/scottmcleod
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@ScottMcLeod
BlueSky: https://bsky.app/profile/mcleod.bsky.social

Mentioned in this episode: Gwynne Dyer (https://www.gwynnedyer.com) | James Bedford (https://jamesbedford.com.au) | Dan Meyer (https://danmeyer.substack.com)

Coming up: Publish It! Have a story in you? Join us for Publish It, our free virtual summit for educators thinking about writing a book, on Saturday, November 21, 2:00 to 5:00 PM ET (11:00 AM PT, 7:00 PM GMT). Save your spot: https://edumatchers.org/publish-it

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Join the EduMatch community: https://connect.edumatch.org
Learn more about EduMatch: https://www.edumatch.org

Back in 2021, a Facebook memory from my dissertation proposal days (November 2012, to be exact) sent me into a late-night rant, and that rant turned into a livestream for everyone currently in a doctoral program. This episode is that conversation, cleaned up. My program took me 10 years and some change, and I almost quit more times than I can count…so these are the tips that got me through: get it done, be intentional about your sample and your population, make it an easy lift for your participants, pivot with your committee, invest in a good editor if you can, and (my favorite) pick your topic early so every term paper builds toward your dissertation. Shout-out to Barbara Bray for the reminder to find your why. Whether you're just starting, in the thick of it, or still deciding if a doctorate is for you, I hope something here helps.

Want to give somebody a shout-out or be on Matched? Let us know here.

Come connect with us in the EduMatch community.

Coming up from EduMatch:

GES PD Week, Monday, November 9 through Friday, November 13, 5:30 PM ET / 2:30 PM PT each day.

Publishers Summit for educators thinking about writing a book, Saturday, November 21, 2:00 to 5:00 PM ET.

This week I sat down with my friend Hedreich Nichols: classroom educator for life, author, consultant and Grammy-nominated musician. We talked about her music career and touring Europe, how she found her way into the classroom, why writing a book takes the same discipline as writing an album, her firm Small Bites, and her Teacher in Transit series on finding more joy as an educator. In the speed round she shares how she uses Claude, Gemini, and ChatGPT, gives a shout-out to Kecia McDonald and Barbara Bray, and tells us what she wants to write about next.

Find Hedreich on YouTube: youtube.com/@Hedreich

Coming up from EduMatch:

Trick or Treat, Let's Vibe Code (Google AI Educator Series), Friday, October 30, 4:00 PM ET. Free. edumatchers.org/halloween

Publishers Summit for educators thinking about writing a book, Saturday, November 21, 2:00 to 5:00 PM ET. edumatchers.org/publish-it

GES PD Week, Monday, November 9 through Friday, November 13, 5:30 PM ET / 2:30 PM PT each day.