The recent developments in the field of educational technology and AI in education highlight a significant shift towards integrating advanced AI tools to enhance learning and teaching methodologies. A common theme across the latest research is the exploration of AI's role in personalizing education, improving the efficiency of grading systems, and redefining the interaction between students and digital course materials. Innovations such as 'smart' textbooks that allow students to interact with their readings through AI, AI-assisted grading systems that aim to reduce biases and improve fairness, and next-generation Intelligent Tutoring Systems (ITS) that offer personalized, adaptive learning experiences, are at the forefront of this transformation. These advancements underscore a broader movement towards leveraging AI to create more engaging, equitable, and effective educational environments.

Noteworthy papers include:

• The proposal of integrating 'smart' textbooks into courseware, enabling interactive learning experiences through AI.
• A study on AI's role in grading essay-type questions, highlighting its potential to enhance fairness and efficiency while acknowledging its limitations.
• The introduction of the Socratic Playground, a next-generation ITS that uses advanced transformer-based models for personalized tutoring.
• An exploration of constructionism's evolution in the context of digital technology, proposing it as a foundational approach to smart education.
• The development of SteLLA, a structured grading system using LLMs with RAG, demonstrating substantial agreement with human grading in a real-world application.