If You Live on Earth, You've Been Opted Into AI ft. Valerie Brock | My EdTech Life 361

Welcome And Sponsors

Dr. Alfonso Mendoza 0:11

Hello, everybody, and welcome to another great episode of My EdTech Life. Thank you so much for joining us on this wonderful day. And wherever it is that you're joining us from around the world, thank you as always for all of your support. As always, we appreciate all the likes, the shares, the follows. Thank you so much for engaging with our content and connecting with our amazing guests as well. And as you know, we do what we do for you to bring you these amazing conversations so we can continue to grow professionally and personally within our education space as well. And I want to give a big shout out to our sponsors. Thank you so much to Comeback Coffee for being a new sponsor to my EdTech Life and definitely fueling up this caffeinated creativity that we have around here. Thank you so much to Eduaid, Book Creator, and Peelback Education for all of your support. We really appreciate all of the backing that you give us so we can continue to bring you some amazing conversations. Like today, I am excited to welcome Miss Valerie Brock, who is joining us from a wonderful organization that is out there bringing the AI awesome sauce across not only the nation, but around the world. And I'm really excited to welcome her. And we're going to get into a great conversation, hear about all the amazing work that they're doing. Valerie, how are you doing today? I'm doing well.

Valerie Brock 1:41

Thank you for having me on your show. It's so exciting.

From Special Ed To CS

Dr. Alfonso Mendoza 1:45

Yes. Well, I'm definitely very excited to have you here. I know you and I have connected a while back, and then we did uh have a great episode also earlier, I think last year or towards the end of the year, also, talking about Day of AI and the great things and the great work that you're doing with MIT Rays and so on. So we're definitely going to get into the meat of that. But today's conversation is a little different because it's really going to focus on the work that you are all doing as far as building curriculum and building curriculum for the K-12 space. And like I mentioned earlier, I'm really excited because it's not just here for the United States, but it's for like, you know, across it's across the pond right now. It's all all over the world. And as we know, I mean, it since 2022 things have changed dramatically within our education space. But I'm thankful that for Day of AI and the work that you're doing in helping our teachers, helping our educators and our leaders to learn more about AI in education, and the work that you're doing is something that is so valuable. So, Valerie, before we dive in, can you please share a little bit about your origin story? Um, you know, we're very excited to know a little bit about your background and what your context is within the ed tech or education space.

Why Day Of AI Exists

Valerie Brock 3:09

Yes, thank you. I love talking about myself. So um I started as a classroom teacher in New York City public schools, and I taught special education. And when you're a special education teacher, you kind of, as I say, do si do around where they need you. So after 13 years, I had been in every K to 8 grade, and I had also taught uh an elective. I was doing academic intervention. Um, but when I taught the elective, it was a STEM-elective. And I really just came to life, I guess. And I was sent to professional learning around computer science. And um, you know, as a teacher does in a school, sometimes some things just come naturally. So, you know, the principal said, go to this training. And I went, and I guess I stood out because at the end of the training, they informed me that there was a role open in New York City schools in the computer science for all initiative. So um I wasn't looking to leave a school, but uh the universe said otherwise. And I interviewed and I got the job, and it really just felt like kismet because I've always had a passion for computer science and for ed tech. And that's actually one of my pet peagues because I like to keep ed tech and computer science separate. So um I, you know, I just improved my skills so much in my six years of the Computer Science for All initiative. I met people from across the country doing similar work. I got to meet teachers from all over New York City. Um, I got to create curriculum, run really powerful professional learning, and and just really found, I guess, my educational passion in that. And it was exciting for me. And then um throughout that time, part of my role was, you know, finding additional training for teachers, finding additional professional learning that was valuable. And I came across Day of AI, and I this was, I guess, in 2021, and that's when Day of AI started. Um, Day of AI began as a PhD project at MIT in the Media Lab, and it really came about as the same call to action, similar to Hour of Code or Computer Science Education Week, where the call to action was that you know the students should kind of drop everything and go through these AI literacy lessons because the minds at MIT foresaw this generative AI boom. So um a year and a half ago, I was asked to step into this role um as curriculum lead at Dave AI because the co-founder of Dave AI decided that we needed to be semi-separate from MIT. So I called them our cousins. And uh we it's just taken off since then. And uh it's it's just so exciting for me. And you know, I'm extremely passionate about the work, and I feel very lucky to have found this role, and I can keep going, but uh, you know, I know you had a lot of questions, so let's talk about um what day of AI actually has, because it's quite unique, I think, compared to a lot what's out there. So a lot of times uh people hear AI literacy and we get a lot of pushback. And I'm sure you've seen, you know, the Discord and the comments, and and especially with families and parents right now, you know, like parents are looking for like the opt-out button for AI. And what I've been saying to folks is unfortunately, if you live on Earth, you've been opted in to AI. And what better tool do we have than to educate ourselves into what this is? And you know, our team is tool agnostic. We're not here to say you should be using this tool or not, or this tool over this tool. We don't do training around that. Our training is strictly what is AI, how does it work, what do I need to know, um, and developmentally appropriate. So you mentioned the early childhood. Yes, we have early childhood lessons. They're not touching AI tool. They're talking about in their classroom what is natural, what is artificial, what is a machine. And to me, as an educator, that is very develop developmentally appropriate for a five-year-old to understand. And, you know, I'm just excited we have these lessons because I don't see a lot of a lot of people shy away from early childhood and it scares them. So, um, you know, we do have a full set of K to 12 lessons. We do have some of our curriculum that is just how is AI affecting a certain area of life? How is AI affecting human rights? How is AI affecting the creative arts? And what I love about what we create is our team is real educators, some educators, you know, with over 25 years' experience. And then we also have researchers and actual AI experts, because I am not an AI expert, telling us, yes, this makes sense, or no, this does not make sense in regard to a concept we're teaching, like holy talk to high school kids about neural network. So I just think that's such a great dynamic because as an educator, I've seen a lot of curriculum that unfortunately looks like whoever created it never even stepped into a school building.

Dr. Alfonso Mendoza 9:21

Yeah. No, I agree. I definitely agree with that. Uh, but before we continue on a little bit more, I did want to just pull a little thread there as far as your experience because again, coming in, working with uh, you know, children with disabilities, and then of course, uh computer science. So I kind of want to ask as well, you know, how did this this that experience help you shape in the way that you think about AI and AI literacy, you know, now that you made the transition into day of AI?

Valerie Brock 10:24

I think, I mean, I don't think, I know, everything we create in terms of curriculum, there's always an accessibility lens. There's always uh, you know, I follow Universal Design for Learning guidelines. Um, we were just having a meeting about how we can make our materials even more accessible. So that is always with me. Um, something that I am asked a lot about AI use, and I think that's kind of where you're leading with, not so much the curriculum, but maybe how I feel about AI use for students with differences? Is that really where the question is? Or are you just talking about like the curriculum in general?

Dr. Alfonso Mendoza 11:04

Well, no, just the curriculum in general, you know, and and of course, with your experience bringing that in, like you mentioned, you know, obviously your experience with UDL, what you saw also through computer science curriculum and then transitioning that, you know, how did that help also as you're working and developing the curriculum, kind of shape and see how the curriculum will be created and accessible, you know, for all students?

Valerie Brock 11:29

Yeah, that's a great question. So I think one of the things that we remember on our team is that you don't actually need to have the physical device to teach the concepts. And that goes back to designing for computer science. There's a lot of misinformation that, you know, students should just only be coding. And that's not the case. Um, computer science is a lot deeper than that. And uh that I think, although, you know, there are students who I've seen who are nonverbal who could code a website, you know, using HTML, no problem. Um I think that we like to provide multiple entry points in terms of the curriculum. You know, some students may hear the word artificial intelligence and be turned all, or they may hear the word computer science and be turned off. And I like to think that that is why our curriculum is great because any teacher could pick it up. It doesn't have to be the ed tech teacher, it doesn't have to be the computer science teacher. You know, we work with teachers across all levels, across all subject areas, and it created so that you don't have to be a tech expert. And that was something that began with say of AI when MIT started it too. That was really the goal. Because for me, you know, going back to before computer science, when I was a second grade co-teacher and I was asked to teach a tech lesson, you know, or a computer science lesson, it's it's daunting. It's, you know, because you think you have to be a coding expert. And I I know the question was about designing the curriculum, but designing the curriculum obviously has just as much as the teachers' needs in mind as the students to make it powerful. So in our approach, we make sure that we provide training for teachers to develop their own AI literacy. And I constantly say, I wouldn't hand a lesson about multiplying fractions over to a teacher if they didn't know how to multiply fractions themselves. It's the same thing, it's any subject. So, you know, our the design that I think that I've brought in um incorporates everything I've learned about, you know, you know, like I said, UDL, um, accessibility, multiple entry points, but also including different experiences. Um and unplugged, plugs. We like to give a lot of different options. And, you know, there's another layer now on top of the AI literacy, there is the AI uh outsourcing aspects. So now we have to ask ourselves are we designing learning that sticks? Not just, you know, what in this task could be outsourced to AI. So it's like another layer, and that's not just for AI literacy, that's for every subject. But that's that's a whole nother discussion.

What AI Literacy Really Means

Dr. Alfonso Mendoza 14:36

Yes. No, but that's great. But coming back to a little bit about what you're talking about, because we were mentioning the word AI literacy, and I know Day of AI's tagline is AI literacy is for everyone. Now, I've had countless guests that come in, we talk about AI literacy, but it just seems like everybody has a different definition of what AI literacy is. So I want to ask you, as part of your work with Day of AI, you know, what does that actually look like as far as designing the curriculum and the way that it is integrated within the classroom setting with the K-12 space?

Valerie Brock 15:17

No, AI literacy is a term that's confusing. It does not mean learning how to prompt. It does not mean, you know, how to pick up a tool. At the very core uh to us, AI literacy is understanding how AI systems work. And right now, that AI system is generative AI, um, and why they fail. You know, what are the biggest issues with failing? Like, why do they hallucinate? What is a hallucination? Um, why do they show overconfidence? Uh, that also includes AI literacy includes when not to use AI and the role of human judgment. I think that um, you know, we really are trying to set not just children up, but everyone up for questioning AI. Because we live in a world right now where, you know, you could see an image and you don't it could be AI, you could read text and it could be AI, you could see a video, and everyone needs these skills to be able to question and also be ethical users, you know, not using it for inappropriate things, um learning how to question outputs. I mean, it's just it's a big umbrella, but I can tell you one thing for sure that it's not, and it is not learning how to prompt that to Ismi is not AI literacy. Um it's really at the core learning what it is and how it works and how to use it responsibly.

Dr. Alfonso Mendoza 17:00

Excellent.

Valerie Brock 17:01

So that's that's part of your question.

Teacher Fear And Demystifying AI

Dr. Alfonso Mendoza 17:03

Yeah. No, most definitely. I think that really hits, and I think that falls in line, at least with with the way that I've seen it and the way that I believe that what AI literacy is. But like I said, you know, many times you hear the words so often, and it's almost like the the definition kind of gets blurred with so many people that are sharing, you know, their own frameworks, their own ideas, and things of that sort. And so some of them may look a little different, some of them may sound the same. But I mean, I think at its core, like you mentioned, I love the way that you kept it just really simple, you know, really streamlined. And so with that, and you know, the way that you're designing for teachers and for students as well. I know that on your website, and by by all means, all our listeners, if you go to dayoffai.org, you can check out all the wonderful resources, open up an account. They've got some great lessons that you can share with your students or you yourself can learn as well. But make sure you visit the website. But on your website, you do get some wonderful reviews from educators that have used your curriculum, and you know, they they say that it's excellent, but we know that the fear is still very real. And I know that it's been since 2022, November. Now we're in 2026. It's been a while. So I want to ask you, Valerie, like not only for yourself and your experience, maybe when you're designing, or what you may hear from your colleagues right now, what would you say might be one of the biggest uh mental hurdles or mental barriers that you might see uh teachers have in this day? And how does Day of AI help them overcome that barrier?

Valerie Brock 18:47

Yeah, we get the fear all the time. We get it the form of during a professional learning or survey or even comment, you know, during a professional learning, there's a lot of pushback and confusion. And I totally get it. Um, and unfortunately, the only way to address that is in one of our sessions, our most popular session, where we it's called demystifying AI. And we break it down just as we would for the kids, and we walk through what exactly is happening, how it works. And I can't tell you how many times we get, I can't believe this, like I this is only an hour, but I learned so much. I really understand, I'm really looking at this differently. And we just also, you know, reinforce that we're not here to say you need to use this, but we are here to say you need to be aware because you try to buy a movie ticket, you try to, you know, pick up a prescription, schedule an oil change. There is a chatbot there. And it it is so we are so passionate about everyone having AI literacy. We actually have a project outside of schools right now with uh New York City Public Library System, which is the largest public library system in the country. And we're working with library staff so that they could better help their patrons understand AI. Because what better place to bring AI literacy than at a public library where you have, you know, everyone from ages zero to a hundred coming in. And it's just really been heartwarming for us because I'm excited to see how this pilot plays out. But I think this is exactly what needs to be happening right now.

Early Grades And Family Buy-In

Dr. Alfonso Mendoza 20:46

Yes. No, and I think that is so fantastic that you know, one of my biggest things in the 20 years of education, I always say it's like like schools need to really leverage the community. And what I mean by that is involve parents and inform parents. I think a lot of times there isn't enough information that is shared with parents to help put them at ease and peace with this. But I absolutely love this project where you're going out into the community and sharing, you know, what AI literacy is, sharing them, sharing the basics and what it can, what it can't do. And I think that's something that's fantastic for all grade levels, which is a kind of kind of the nice, nice segue for my next question that we you kind of hit on a little bit because I talked about it at the very beginning, where you have curriculum starting at kinder. So, and you know, so that's really early childhood. So I want to ask you, you know, what what do you say to educators when some of them might push back a little bit, thinking or telling you, no, no, no, no, kindergartners, they're a little too young to start having these conversations. So what what is it that you hear from them and how do you help them in a similar way, like we just talked about, overcome that so they feel comfortable with it as well?

Valerie Brock 22:04

I I definitely hear that. And I remind them that, and I agree with them, they shouldn't be having certain conversations. However, I do think in an appropriate manner, it is okay for a kindergartner to understand that things are human made and artificial artificially me, not made. I have to show them, like physically show them the lesson. And they say, Oh, yeah, that does make sense. Or say to them, hey, you know, kids should talk about what a machine is. That's okay to talk about what a machine is. And they also can talk about what they might be seeing and hearing in their everyday lives because they are. I mean, I had a teacher a couple of months ago pull her son into our session and he's in fifth grade and made him describe to us how he uses Snapchat AI to do his math homework. And here we are thinking, oh, elementary kids aren't using generative AI or AI. And here's a fifth grader who figured out how to use Snapchat to answer the Snapchat bot to help him with his math homework. So again, saying, I understand what you're saying, I respect it, and that's the choice that you have, and you could continue to do that. But we are living on earth, we've been opted in in our world, and we do need to educate ourselves. And I know Jeff Riley, who you had on too, says this all the time that you know his generation missed the boat with social media, and we don't want that to happen again. And this is, you know, our opportunity to use our tool and educate. So I I hope more people hear this because it is hard. I'm not gonna lie, it is hard. People see Day of AI and they think that we're selling some tool and we're free, you know, we're a nonprofit. So it is, you know, it's rough, but there are teachers who admit every week to me, they're scared, you know, they don't want to lose their job. Um, but I think things are changing a little for us. We're still, you know, considered a newer company, but I think folks are realizing yes, we all do need this knowledge, not just kids. Um, and you brought up about families, we do have our family toolkits, which we made with Common Sense Media, which are very popular. And we get asked from our um out of US hubs, which we call them, hey, can we translate your family toolkit? Our families need this too. And that's just wonderful. So we didn't really talk about our hubs.

Dr. Alfonso Mendoza 25:00

Yeah, well, actually, yeah, we were gonna get into that in just a second because that that's definitely coming. But I also wanted to ask you, Valerie, because I think it's very important also to understand like the the work that you're really putting in, and especially for parents, uh educators, like you said, that are that still have that fear, that are wanting to do something, but maybe don't know where to start, uh, just that kind of paralysis that comes from something either being so new or them not feeling very uncomfortable. But I wanted to ask you if you can share with us a little bit, knowing that your curriculum is K through 12, and you have several units in there, some of them, you know, you talk about AI surveillance, you talk about cognitive debt, you talk about misinformation, you know, and things of that sort. But I want to ask you, how do you all decide what is developmentally appropriate to share, like with these grade levels and who's in the room when these decisions are made, as far as the team is concerned?

How Topics Get Chosen

Valerie Brock 25:58

Yeah, that's a good question. And this it's very difficult considering that there are no real AI standards in the United States. There's tons of framework. Um, the day of AI curriculum is modeled off of UNESCO's um AI competencies for students, and the professional learning is modeled off of UNESCO's AI competencies for teachers. So we have been looking at um AI learning priorities from CSTA, but a lot of the research coming out of and that came out of previously um from MIT, we rely on heavily, uh, what that should look like. Um, we also look at what um, so I the CSTA draft standards we've been looking at as well, and then of course the new AI literacy framework that was created with uh teach AI and OECD. We've been trying to look at all of them and find the commonalities, but I have to say, um, a lot of our curriculum came from the original research done by MIT. I think it was developed back in 2018 or 2019, and it's called the MIT Daily Curriculum, and it was designed for middle school, and uh that was created off of um an NSF project. So you'll see a lot of our foundational learning comes from that. And then how do we decide, you know, what else to make? So some of the topics are things that we see in the news and that were researched. For example, the unit on cognitive debt um came out last summer and it's still in scientific review, so I have to say that. And we the um lead researcher published that because she wanted K-12 policymakers to see the the finding of how generative AI could affect brain activity. So there's your answer for that, uh, that lesson and game. Um, and then we also take a look at, I guess, I don't want to say the most popular uh units across grades, but in terms of human rights and elections and you know, how is AI affecting all these areas of life and what's happening in the media? And that's another um area that we uh will focus on. And we do have a whole unit on how AI is affecting sports.

Dr. Alfonso Mendoza 28:47

Excellent.

Valerie Brock 28:48

Because uh in some of our surveys, and that's another uh tool we use, obviously, we survey a lot, and we asked teachers what would make it easier for you to teach about AI literacy. And we got well, AI is really affecting sports. Um, I'm a health teacher, I have time to do these lessons, so we, you know, AI import came to be. So it's really not one answer, but I think the biggest, the two biggest indicators are um research and teacher feedback. That was how that's how the lessons are developed.

Global Program Hubs Expand

Dr. Alfonso Mendoza 29:28

Love it, and that's fantastic. I mean, it how intentional you are, because you mentioned there there are several resources that are out there, and there's wonderful people that are putting out resources, but then there's some resources that are kind of just put out there, and some of them may not really fall in line with the way that we should be sharing AI with students, and so I love the fact that you are doing the research, so it's not like somebody is just sitting in a room and using Claude to say, hey, create a slide for me for K through 12, and I want it about this, this, this, and that. And there you go. That's my product. And I just go ahead and put it up. And now, hey, everybody, here's my nonprofit, and I've got this. But I just love the way that that you guys are so intentional. You really think about this, you do the research, and you really stick to those topics that are that the teachers, you know, are giving you that feedback. What is it that they need? And so that's fantastic that you are working to help them overcome those fears, making those connections to what AI can and can't do, but also putting the information out there in the community, like we talked about with parents, that is accessible to parents, um, that can all they they also can have. So this is great now because I also wanted to talk about the the program hubs. So tell me a little bit about the program hubs because I want to tell my audience members when you go to the website dayofai.org, you are going to find a myriad of resources. They've got so many things for teachers, they've got so many things for students, for professional development, the family resources. And then you've also got the program hubs here as well, which is a way for people to bring you know day of AI and AI literacy to their countries, to their community. So tell us a little bit about that because one thing that I did love to see is the way that you are connecting, not only here in the United States, but across the world. I mean, you're talking about Rwanda, Taiwan, New Zealand, Vietnam, um, Uzbekistan. You know, this is something that is amazing, Valerie. And I applaud you and the rest of your team for being able to have this kind of reach and bringing AI literacy to these countries. So tell us a little bit more about that.

Valerie Brock 31:51

Yeah, very exciting. So um this actually uh I think began when Day of AI originated, where countries were reaching out to MIT and asking to translate the curriculum and have their own day of AI. Um, Day of AI Australia was probably the biggest, and they're very, you know, um solid. They've been around longer than we have in terms of separated from MIT. Um, but we've found that over the past year and a half, we will get a new email, if not every day, every week, from uh a government organization in another company, a ministry of education, a nonprofit outside of the US, um, a private school, you know, chain. And they'll say, we love your curriculum, we would like to adapt it to our culture and our community. And sometimes that includes translation, and we would like to have a day of AI or at least pilot a day of AI curriculum. What you see on the website isn't even the full list. So we have um expanded beyond that list, and it's really says so much about our organization because it just, you know, for a leader in, I'll give you an example. Um, we're gonna be working with the Philippines. Um for the educational leaders to say, hey, we have, you know, a few million children, we would love to translate um and adapt this to our culture. I mean, it's flattering. And I I don't want to take credit for that. I I think a lot of that is um the help from MIT. Um, our staff is interesting in that some of us, like I like to say, have a foot in both doors, like on our team and at MIT. Um, and they really do a great job of networking what we're doing. But like I said, we will get contacted and asked to run the curriculum, so on and so forth. Uh, even to the point where I actually made that page so that they could just go and get what they need from that page. They can get our guide, get our instruction, you know, all their questions are answered because it was becoming very overwhelming for us, but also very flattering. Um, and it's amazing to see how the curriculum has been adapted and adopted in different cultures. To me, that was my one of my wishes in leaving New York City was I want to see classrooms around the world. And now I I kind of, I mean, I I kind of can, but it's just amazing to see our, you know, if you look through that page, you'll see how they made their own websites. They've changed the logo and they made it their country's flag. I mean, and that's the least of it, the work they've done. But it's really incredible. And I'm just honored that um, you know, I'm part of it somehow. And it, you know, I it was very scary to leave a job after 17 years. So things like that make me remind me that it was a good choice.

Day Of AI USA Leadership

Dr. Alfonso Mendoza 35:15

Oh, yes. No, absolutely. I mean, just the impact, not only that you made, you know, those 17 years with your students, but now the the farther reach and you're still impacting so many students, and now you're involving teachers and then with parents. And I I think that's something that is amazing, and and it's very something to be very proud of, not only for you, but for the rest of the team, and just seeing such positive impact and such uh you know, positive returns on the work that you all are doing, and and you're still growing. And I think that's something that is fantastic. Um, I kind of want to talk a little bit about um this next thing that I saw on your website, that this is I think is something very important for all our educators and school leaders that are listening to the podcast right now, um, that may think, oh, well, this is only going to be for teachers and so on. But I want to talk a little bit about the um partnership with uh AAA, you know, so that is the School Superintendents Association, where it talks a little bit about here that school superintendents will mentor high school students from across the country. And I think that this is something that is fantastic. And I want to ask, you know, why those school leaders, I kind of might be have an idea about why, because usually we see, you know, classroom teacher, maybe, you know, instructional integrationist and so on. But to be able to see uh superintendents be at the helm of this and mentor, you know, students, I think that's something that is fantastic. So can you tell us a little bit about that? Because I find that very fascinating.

Valerie Brock 36:51

Yeah, I I can't talk too much about it. Um, but basically, we had so going back to the hubs, we have such success outside of the US with, you know, I guess centralizing AI literacy. We wanted to find a way to centralize AI literacy in in the US. And that's very difficult because, as you know, every state is essentially its own country here. So in the beginning of the school year, we launched A of AI USA in that effort that we would do some sort of special, you know, planning just for teachers within the United States and territory. And um our co-founder, uh Jeff Riley, who is the former commissioner of education for Massachusetts, um, you know, he's really done it all. He was a teacher, a guidance counselor, uh, principal, AP, superintendent, and then commissioner. I think I I think a lot of this fellowship idea, well, I don't think I know, was his creation. And I hear you about, you know, the teachers usually at the home, but we're all teachers, essentially, right? And I think we know in the US that a lot of initiatives, and I don't like to say that we're an initiative because that means we're temporary, but a lot of these programs, you know, are only as successful as the leadership in the district. So, in in my opinion, I think it's why not the superintendent? You know, why not um the superintendent being the one to come back and say, we did this great thing, I have this knowledge. And and we really do like to to work with the superintendent first because then they could see what the classrooms will look like and they should. So I'm really excited to see how this plays out. This is going to be in July um in Cambridge, Massachusetts, at the MIT campuses, and it'll be a great way to connect us with each state and and territory. And you know, I don't I've run a lot of challenges and competitions and festivals, and I don't remember, like you said, ever one that's a superintendent was the the part, you know. Yeah. So I think that that probably goes with it too. Like, let's do something really different and memorable, because this is the time to do it.

How Schools Start Using Resources

Dr. Alfonso Mendoza 39:45

Yes, no, I agree. And I think it's something fantastic that you hit the kind of the the nail on the head in that sense of, you know, it from the top down, you know, that's kind of the way things trickle down. But when you do have that superintendent that has that experience, sees what it's out there, sees and hears what the teachers are talking about, and needs a little bit more clarity. I mean, what better offering than to be able to meet as a group with other district leaders in the same roles because they may all have the same questions. They may also have the same kind of pushback, they may also have just maybe the the need for more knowledge and understanding about what this technology can do and how it could be integrated ethically, safely in the classroom for students. So I think that this is something fantastic, Valerie, that you and the rest of the day of AI team is doing. And this really this is so exciting to be able to see this, like you mentioned. And it's been you know four years in the making, and now we're we're seeing this at that top leader role. And I think that's something that's great. Valerie, before we we start wrapping up here, I did have one more question for you, and I wanted to ask you for any listener right now, whether it's teacher, whether it's uh you know, mid-level um, you know, executive director, directors, and even superintendents that are listening right now that just heard a little bit more about your program hubs, how what can they do in order to maybe reach out and there they may want to do and say, like, hey, how might we start our own AI program hub? What does that actually look like and where can they start?

Valerie Brock 42:12

So the hubs are really more for um nonprofits and folks outside of the US. Um, they could go to our site, they could fill out the contact form, we usually set up a meeting, or they could start adapting their curriculum. Everything is there, they just have to push a button and they'll get a copy. Um, for schools in the US, uh, we have a professional learning page and we outline what it looks like. We have documents and one page are just linked there. Again, a contact form. And then if you're a teacher and you don't, you just want to start teaching, uh, we have a wonderful planning guide that uh I actually started before my time at Day of AI and brought with me and adapted. And it really lays everything out that the teacher, um, if they wanted to implement lessons, whether it be a day, um, over a week, once a month, you know, we have different recommendations. Because although our name is Day of AI, we understand that not one day works for everyone. And we want, you know, to show that we're flexible. And then we also have our scope and sequence. So I always direct educators to those documents, which are right at the top of our curriculum page. And then for principals or, you know, people in the districts who lead tech work or professional learning, I tell them to go to our professional learning page. And we try to simplify it because you know, we know folks are busy, they don't read as much, and we try to make it easy and we have everything um laid out. I think pretty nicely. I helped design the website. So I we tried.

Dr. Alfonso Mendoza 43:53

Well, no, and and for all our guests, again, we're gonna definitely link it, dayofai.org. And honestly, one of the things in going through this website, I'm always one of those like three clicks or less, I should be able to find whatever it is that I need. So it is designed very well. Where I promise you guys, you're gonna find the links that you need to get to where you need to go. And trust me, those lessons you definitely want to check them out. You can filter by grade level, you can bring them in, you can go ahead and maybe find one of those days. Maybe now that state testing is already gonna finish, or when it finishes, why not you know help your students you know learn more about AI during that time that you have from there to the end of the year? So as a way to prep them for that next year and so on. And so, I mean, and the resources, what's better is that they're even free. And like I always say, if it's free, it's for me. But Valerie, thank you for being an amazing guest. Thank you so much for the work that you and the rest of your team are doing. It's wonderful to hear also about not only the work that you did as an educator, but just that transition into day of AI and the impact that you and the rest of the team continue to make that are doing it with a lot of heart, a lot of passion because there is a need, and you're doing it. In such a way that is easy enough for the teachers to give them that peace of mind and be able to overcome kind of that that paralysis, that fear of the unknown. So, my my compliments to you, the rest of the team for everything that you're doing. I really appreciate it. And Valerie, for our audience members and school leaders that are listening right now, should they have more questions? I know that they can go to dayoffai.org, but where is it that they might be able to connect with you as well?

Valerie Brock 45:46

Um, I'm on LinkedIn. You could find me. Um, and if you fill out the contact form on our website, it usually goes through my eyes as well. So I'm happy to answer anything there. Um, that's part of my role because we do get a lot of curriculum questions. So um I'm happy to uh, you know, anyone who wants to reach out to me on LinkedIn or in our contact form, we do actually read them.

AI Kryptonite And Big Questions

Dr. Alfonso Mendoza 46:15

Perfect. Excellent. So we will definitely make sure we link all of that in the show notes. But Valerie, thank you so much. But before we wrap up, Valerie, I always love to end the show with these last three questions just to learn a little bit more about our guests and kind of just end uh the show just uh on a nice like well, not that the conversation wasn't happy, but just on a laid-back note, you know. So I want to ask you, Valerie, in the current, well, first of all, every superhero has a pain point and weakness. So for Superman, that kryptonite was what weakened him and it was just the source of pain. So I want to ask you, Valerie, in the current state of AI and education, what would you say is your current AI kryptonite?

Valerie Brock 47:00

Well, I think if you were listening, you probably figured this out, but I definitely right now it is like the gap between AI adoption and AI understanding. I I just despise that you know these tools are being used every day. There's no shared language, there's no, you know, setup for the kids to think critically, no realization for how they fail. And it's you know, it's just like a tool rollout, and it just, you know, it's not helping education. I think and I I think that if you know, if you were if we had a live audience and you asked them, I think for my responses, they probably would have said that. Well, yeah, it's obvious. But I'm happy to name it, yeah.

Dr. Alfonso Mendoza 48:01

Excellent. All right. Question number two, Valerie, is if you could have a billboard with anything on it, what would it be and why?

Valerie Brock 48:11

Going back to my kryptonite, um, probably something like AI adoption is here, AI literacy is the only responsible answer or response or AI, you've been opted into AI, now understand it. Something about Earth, like powerful.

Dr. Alfonso Mendoza 48:34

Yes. No, that that second option is really cool. I was just about to tell you, if you make a shirt, I want to be your first customer, because it's it's it's so true. I mean, you are opted into everything until you opt out. So I it drives the point. Yes.

Valerie Brock 48:52

There's no buttons sometimes to opt out, and that's why families are frustrated. But good question, these are good questions.

Dr. Alfonso Mendoza 48:58

No, but that's a great, that's an awesome response. I would talk to Jeff and be like, hey man, is there is there a way that we can do a shirt? You know, kind of you know, yeah, that'd be great.

Valerie Brock 49:08

You and I are good with the shirts. I should tell it, yeah.

Dr. Alfonso Mendoza 49:11

That'd be great. All right, and my last question for you, Valerie, is if you can trade places with anyone for a single day, who would that be and why?

Valerie Brock 49:22

Well, um, this is such a curriculum developer answer. I I think I would really like to trade with a student just to see like their the different lens of like the AI saturation in their life. I think that would help like it's very selfish of me to say, but I think that would help me grow as a curriculum developer. Um and just really see on their level because you know, I remember when we first got a computer, I remember when the internet came about, I remember when we got cell phones, but for some of our children, you know, this is all they know. So I guess this is a very, like I said, educator, curriculum developer answer. But I think I'd like to see how it feels to live in like this AI saturated world from a child perspective.

Dr. Alfonso Mendoza 50:15

Excellent. That you know what? It's sometimes that that's the best way to go about it. See it through their eyes, their lens, their perspectives, and that's only gonna help us be better equipped to allow them or give them the answers and help them with those roadblocks too.

Valerie Brock 50:31

So yeah, my other answer probably wasn't as friendly. It was like with a tech leader or CEO of a tech company. So I don't I I suck with the G-rated version.

Where To Connect And Closing

Dr. Alfonso Mendoza 50:44

There you go. Maybe we'll we'll have to save that other answer, maybe for another show, like uh that we could that'll be specific just to everybody 18 and up. Yeah. And no, well, thank you so much. I really appreciate your time, Valerie. Honestly, your your enthusiasm and and the heart that you brought into the conversation and sharing all the wonderful things that you and the rest of the team are doing and making such a positive impact in the education landscape. So thank you to you, the rest of the team, and just I wish you the best in anything that you do. And hopefully you reach out to even more countries and just continue to do that work. So it's amazing. And so thank you. And for all our audience members, please make sure that you visit our website at myedtech.life where you can check out this amazing episode and the other 361 episodes, where I promise you you will find some knowledge nuggets that you can take and sprinkle onto what you are already doing. Great. And again, we would love to thank our sponsors, starting with Comeback Coffee. Thank you so much for keeping us caffeinated. That way we keep the creativity going. Thank you to Book Creator, Eduate, and Peel Back Education. As always, thank you for your support. Audience members, thank you for your support. And until next time, my friends, don't forget, stay techy.