Ready to Lead With AI ft. Dr. Kip Glazer | My EdTech Life 354

Dr. Alfonso Mendoza: 0:11

Hello everybody and welcome to another great episode of My Ed Tech 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, we thank you as always for all of your support. We appreciate all the likes, the share is the follows. Thank you so much for engaging with our content and sharing our content. And as you know, we do what we do for you to bring you some amazing conversations so we can continue to grow together as educators, not only professionally, but personally as well. So today I have an amazing guest. She is a returning guest who was on episode 265 of My Ed Tech Life back in January of 2024. So I would love to welcome back Dr. Kip Glazier to the show. How are you doing today?

Dr. Kip Glazer: 0:58

I'm great and congratulations. Since we did our first episode, you got your doctorate, and I've been following your journey on LinkedIn, and I'm so, so incredibly happy for you.

Dr. Alfonso Mendoza: 1:12

Thank you so much, Dr. Kip. I really appreciate you. It's fantastic just to see also the work that you've been doing. I mean, 2024, we know what happened in 2022, and it just seems like everything is a blur now and so many new things coming out. But most importantly, we're definitely going to be talking about just an amazing really of yours. But I'm not going to spoil that. We'll definitely let uh you uh go ahead and share that with our audience. But before we continue, for our audience members that may be connecting with you and listening to this episode and getting to know you for the very first time, Dr. Kit, can you give us a little brief introduction and what your context is within the education space?

Dr. Kip Glazer: 1:54

Thank you so much. Yeah, that's great. Um, my name is Kip Glazer. I'm the Frag Principal of Mountain View High School in Mountain View, California, home of Google. And I lead a school with 20 to 100 students currently and about 150 staff members. And I've been here, this is my fourth year as the principal. And I just released a new book called Ready to Lead with AI, a practical guide for school leaders. And that's why I thought that it would be helpful for you to hear from me if you're interested in learning about how to navigate this AI situation as a school leader.

Dr. Alfonso Mendoza: 2:39

Excellent. And that is definitely a very important topic, as we know. I mean, I it's been since 2022. We're now 2026. It's been four years, and it just seems like there's still schools that are out there just simply treading water. Uh, it's still very much wild, wild west. Still people are trying to figure things out. So it is fantastic that you were here since our last episode. You spoke very candidly about, you know, AI, AI in classrooms, and you as a leader, too, as well. And so I want to ask you, you know, being in the thick of it in Mountain View, like you said, the home of Google, and of course, all the fears that we've heard about AI, all the great things that we've also heard about AI, and now with your new book release, I want to ask you, what was that pivotal moment for you to say, you know what? Let me go ahead and write this book and put it out in such a time as this.

Dr. Kip Glazer: 3:38

That's a great question. I have always wanted to write a book. I think we all say that growing up, like, oh, you should write a book on that. I don't think there is a single person that I met who hasn't heard that at least once, because I think we all have our own unique experience and uh life stories that are very important for not only ourselves and how we are being educated and formed, but also potentially have an impact on others. So that's one thread, right? Like I always wanted to write a book about what? And then when ChatGPT was released in November 2022, we were in the midst of just a lot of chaos, in my opinion. And I wrote about that in my book. It felt very much like the pandemic, where we were looking for elders to guide us, but there was no one around, right? As school leaders, you're supposed to make good decisions, and right, wrong, or different, previous generation of school leaders had something to copy after, right? Because there was like schools very predictable in a good way. We know how the start of the school should typically work, and then in high school you go to homecoming, and then you go to semester ending, you go to winter formal, pren graduation. Like there is some very pivotal moment that we can all correlate around that we can speak about. Pandemic comes and we look around, no one's there to tell us what to do when you have the new mask mandate or six feet apart. Remember that? It feels like so long ago, but like all those things, and what was happening is that the elders that we could have relied on in terms of their wisdom and patience were actually leaving the profession in droves. And who can blame them, right? So we felt like we're finally getting back on track, and then boom, 2022, ChatGPT comes out, and everybody was like, okay, who's the elder in the room? We're in the same situation in some ways, but also in a different situation because I've been part of this conversation since 2015 with my learning technologies colleagues. So there is also this unevenness, right? That people who have been in the computer science field and education field or ed tech field like yourself, we have been talking about this automation and the other types of assessment, or how do we create this tech ecosystem that is student-centered, differentiated, all those conversations, and all of a sudden, these new folks coming in with this gen AI, which is slightly different from AI, that we are starting to get super disoriented. And I've always believed that having a good, solid leadership that can invite good feedback, but also saying, do we really need that tool for what purpose, right? And a lot of times we get these tools, and it's like tools are the solutions looking for problems rather than solutions that is going to solve a problem. So I thought, where are the books? Like I start reading all these books, blogs, and everything else, and I thought there are some great books out there. Don't get me wrong. But not every book, or at least there wasn't a book that I could read as a high school principal to go, okay, that is something that I've experienced and I really want to know. So I thought I was basically complaining to people, like, oh, can you recommend me a book? And then my friends, like, you know what? You should write a book since you're complaining about it. So that's how it came to be.

Dr. Alfonso Mendoza: 8:40

There you go. And that's uh that's wonderful. Everything that you said there. I mean, uh, you know, from the first time that you were here on the episode uh 265, you know, we talked about it. There was definitely something that the way that you spoke about AI and the way that you were very cautious and a cautious advocate as far as one of the things that you mentioned of what you let in and what you question as far as should we need to do we need to let it in, um, is also a very great balance. And of course, for a lot of educators out there in the classroom too, there are so many tools and for administrators, not only to be able to juggle the day-to-day, like you mentioned, although we know that school is predictable in a certain uh, you know, aspect of it as far as beginning, middle, end of year. However, you know, you get those wrenches thrown at you that are unexpected, but to be able to navigate the day-to-day and on top of that, be able to take care of your staff and be uh just very proactive in learning and knowing the technology that is out there, what can be used and for what purpose. And again, also, like you mentioned, do we really need it? I remember very clearly one of the things that really stuck out with me in that first episode when you were on N265 is you know, color pencils still work, you know, crayon still work, you know, as far as uh learning and instruction. But I think that you are definitely onto something and that many books that are out there uh might be just not necessarily like high-level, but they they don't resonate with the educator community. So I'm very thankful that someone like yourself, with your experience and seeing you in various talks and uh you know, participating in various conferences, uh sharing that experience. And now we have something that is handheld and tangible that we can read and our leaders can read. But I'm very struck by the title here because it says ready to lead with AI. So it's not about AI or using AI. So it's very it seems like it's very intentional, especially coming from somebody like you who is a school leader, a principal, also as well, and obviously a leader within our education space as well. So, how how do you define what it means to lead with AI? And can you give us a maybe a concrete example of maybe something in your own building or on a random Tuesday, what that looks like for you in dealing with AI within your setting?

Dr. Kip Glazer: 11:23

Well, that's such a great question, and thank you for picking up on that, like my literature teacher in it, right? Because you can actually, depending on what you emphasize, right? Are you ready to lead or are you ready to lead, or are you learning to read with AI? Like I think you can see those sort of complexities in the school ecosystem, and that's what I wanted to share. So the book is structured in a way that as a principal, we have a lot of different constituencies, right? We have a relationship with the district office, and we have relationship with teaching staff, we have relationship with non-teaching staff and families and students, and also for me, I have developed this relationship with learning science field because I've been in that space. So, how do we do that? And I tried to start each chapter with a story from the field. That's how I structured it. Like, this is something on a Teesday you can see me running around doing as a principal and doing all those things, like meeting with athletic people, meeting with facilities people, meeting with a student who's crying, meeting with my staff who just uh had a car breakdown. And then how do I get that person coverage? All these things are happening in the school ecosystem, and we still have to think about how we're gonna bring our Gen I tools or AI tools into school ecosystem and how to make it work. And I just wanted to be very honest that I don't have all the answers. And if anybody tells you they do, I don't think that they're being very truthful with you. But here are some things that happened to me in real life, and here are some of the lessons that I learned, and here are some recommendations and checklists for you to kind of think about. And I'm okay with you saying that does not work in my context, right? And let's have more conversations. That's why I'm active on LinkedIn and I just started Substack where I'm going to share some of those day-to-day challenges that I'm thinking about or I'm encountering, um, things like that. So I think this has to be continuous conversation. We can't just sit and say, here's a one silver bullet that you can use, everything will be great. We're just setting ourselves up for bigger disappointment. And it's just not realistic. AI is evolving every single day. And we as leaders have to evolve. So I talk about a lot of mindsets and attitudes that will get us that skill set.

Dr. Alfonso Mendoza: 14:14

Excellent. That is great to hear because I think one of the things that you mentioned that I want to pull on that string is a mindset type of thing. And obviously, you being have having to be a school leader such as yourself and many of the other school leaders that are out there, not just principals, but we're talking about, you know, administrators, executive directors, and even all the way to the top as superintendents. I mean, I know that many of these conversations are there, but sometimes they may fall on the wayside just because there's other big fish to fry as far as state testing scores, things of that sort. And so, usually, like you said, a predictable pattern as far as these conversations go is that they usually pick up speed at the beginning of the year as we're starting a new year during that summer. But then once you get into the thick of it and you get into what they call normally the October slide going into Christmas vacation, all of those conversations just kind of fall by the wayside because in January, guess what? It is all about preparing for state testing. And then all of a sudden, there's that gap again. That won't conversation won't come up. So I love that you are being open and honest in saying, hey, this is not necessarily your silver bullet. However, what I have available here is my experience that I'm sharing with you that you can easily adapt or, you know, make any changes or tweaks, or there might be some things like you said yourself, well, this isn't work in my context. Yes, but what does and can that help in that mindset change? And I really love that because I think right now it's uh that mindset really does need to change. And I think that it is slowly changing, but of course, being very cautious as a leader too that you mentioned, which I absolutely love, is something that is important. So as far as the practicality of your book, so we know that the last time you dropped some great knowledge nuggets, and I'm all about that. But in your book, I would love to ask you what might be at least two to three actionable tips or frameworks or tools that you would like to share with a school leader, like saying, hey, this is this is one of those major, at least takeaway points that I want you to really just meditate on, just continually think as far as you know, dealing with this on the day-to-day and making sure that they themselves also don't feel overwhelmed or that they overwhelm their staff. What might be some wins there that you can offer them and share?

Dr. Kip Glazer: 16:52

Yeah, and I think that's an excellent question. And uh number one, I have to say that it's really not about the tools. It's really never about the tools, it's about the people and it's about the relationship, and that's why I'm saying mindset and attitude, right? You have to bring in that iterative mindset to say, okay, what is the workflow? How is this going to impact the ecosystem? So we really have to understand that. And second thing is definitions matter. So AI tools have been around a long time. Gen AI is something different. To try to treat those two things as the same, you're setting yourself up for failure or at least trouble, right? So that's why in my book I talk about here is how we define AI. Here's what is different about Gen AI, and here are some things that you really have to start with. And if you understand that, then you can choose the right tool for the right task. And talk about framework. Sophia Denhesus, I know she's a good friend of yours, and I worked on these frameworks for school beaters as part of our CSTA project. So I have that included in my book, and we're continuously updating that. And I think whatever tool you bring, you should know that it's really about the student agency and supporting the kids. We're here for the kids, and the question to ask is what problem are we trying to solve? And is it really the right solution for that problem? And who are we serving? And if we're not serving all kids, then we have to slow down and think about how we're creating the workflow and ecosystem again to ensure that we're not leaving any segment of our student population behind.

Dr. Alfonso Mendoza: 19:43

Wow, that is very powerful. And you're speaking my language there. Uh, you know, Risa, because recently, you know, I have uh, you know, changed uh jobs now and working for a company and really focusing. My my passion has always been, or actually, what I always say is what is good for one is good for all in most cases. We want to make sure we have that accessibility. I want to make sure that we take care of all our special education students. I want to make sure that we take care of all our emergent bilingual students and really all students all together, that there is something that is a tool, something that is useful that can be used by all, whether they need it or not, they may have it there. And then those that need it, it's there. Those that may not, well, it may be there just in case that they that they may need it for that one or two or three opportunities and so on. But I think you're absolutely right. Hitting the nail on the head is if a tool or a practice is not you, you know, helping all of your students succeed, then it's time to kind of really slow down and really maybe look at the root of the issue as far as what may be happening. Oftentimes I feel, and I don't know, maybe in your experience you've seen it, but sometimes it feels like there there's a band-aid on top of another band-aid on top of another band-aid. So one year you're using this one tool to help with math, and then all of a sudden it's like, well, no, we didn't get the usage now. Let's bring this one in. And now let's bring this one in. And as we know, and and I had uh Dr. Kushanik that was here also talking about the bilingual population, too, that you know, uh logging in and is not the same as learning, you know, are is the student fully engaged? And that's where I think we kind of often miss the mark that oftentimes directors, principals, or people looking at the data feel like, well, they're logging in. Why aren't the scores going up? But are they quality logins? Are they quality, is it quality work that's being done, or is it just redundancy and just the students just going through and clicking through just to meet their you know, 30 minutes per day, per week of this specific platform? So those are some of the things there to consider, which kind of brings me to my next question. And and you know, you left so many nuggets that last episode. But one of the things that you said the last time that has stuck with me always, and oftentimes I do quote it, but I I always do say, hey, Dr. Kip, this is what she said. You mentioned you said if you have terrible pedagogy and terrible teaching, tech just makes it worse. So I want to ask you, as far as you know, anything in your book for our school leaders to also take into account that art of teaching. And like you mentioned a little bit too, and I guess it's just an extension of the question that the technology is not necessarily going to solve everything, but how as a school leader might you get back to improving pedagogy and that art of teaching to make sure that something like the tech is not going to make that worse or going to be the star of the show instead of a teacher's premier tier one instruction?

Dr. Kip Glazer: 23:01

That's an excellent question. And thank you so much for asking that because I'm stunned to tell you learning is social. Learning is not about cramming in discrete pieces of Information into tiny humans' head. So we need to understand that. Kids, let's be real, don't come to school to learn the content. That is almost sometimes byproduct of being together. They come to school because they want to see their peers and they want to see their teachers who they don't care about them. So any tech that is going to enhance the human connection and collaborative learning wins every single time. So we need to really understand that school is truly the heart of a community because we have people who care about children. And we really ask the community to work with us. We are here every single day working with your students. We see them when they're disappointed, we see them when they're winning. And we're in it with them, with you. So that's kind of how I see the pedagogy. When I walk into a classroom and students are collaborating together, and they sometimes bicker. But if the tool and technology is facilitating that sort of community, and then help them get interested in what their friends are interested in, and then they do a deep dive and they're able to follow their passion, they are going to learn it.

Dr. Alfonso Mendoza: 24:51

I love that. That is wonderful. And you know, again, that that's from episode 25, that still definitely resonates. And I really believe in the power of community, like you're talking about, and it's everybody having to work together. And, you know, especially that social aspect, Dr. Kip, which I know in my classroom when I was there, it really took students to the next level. I mean, I'll completely tell the story, and I'll just kind of paraphrase it. A stead of twins comes to our school, one of the twins is in my fifth grade class, the other twin is in another pod where it's more worksheets and sit and get. My class was more social active, very loud, but through the learning process, they were always recording, they were always uh using their voice, they were explaining, they were doing presentations. At the end of the year, my the twin that was in my uh classroom in my in our pod was able to exit the bilingual program while the twin sister was not. And talk about an interesting conversation for a school leader when parents come in and say, Why is my daughter here able to exit the program? And why is my other daughter not able to exit the program? So it's really, you know, the the power of the discourse in classrooms. And I think one of the things that I do want to share with you is in the sauce conference that I went to at TCA here in uh Texas, it the theme and the conversations that were being had is really returning back to great sound pedagogy, the art of teaching, and really having the the tools be a complement to what the teachers are already doing great, to what the students are already doing great. And a lot of it really centered around discourse for students, uh, you know, openly communicating the creation process for students as well, where they're able to verbalize what they are learning, demonstrate their learning through video, through podcasts, you know, and all sorts of uh great practices where now the student is providing evidence of that and how they internalize, but also it allowing teachers to give that feedback also as well and being part of the learning as a whole. So I think that's something that is fantastic. And so I did want to share that with you as far as that being very powerful. And I left that conference so refreshed because of those types of conversations being very powerful. So uh, Dr. Kip, going back to your book, you know, as far as you we and we talked about it here, the the equity issue. Uh, how can school leaders, you know, kind of change that mindset or what can they start looking into to think about AI through an equity lens from the day-to-day? And what are some non-negotiables that you may provide uh to make sure that AI just doesn't become another tool uh just to continue to widen that lens. So I think that's an extension of what we're just talking about. But again, if you could just elaborate a little bit more on that.

Dr. Kip Glazer: 28:03

Yeah, that's an excellent question. You asked some good, tough questions, sir. That that's your job.

Dr. Alfonso Mendoza: 28:09

Hey, I yes, I prepared myself. Oh, I I'm here to help you shine. I want to make sure that everybody knows who you are as as I know who you are and the value that you bring to our community. So this is just your time to shine, Dr. Kim.

Dr. Kip Glazer: 28:24

Thank you. Um Yeah, as you were asking that question, I've been thinking about what type of strong sound pedagogy that brings out that differentiation, not only for the students, but also for the teachers. And when I wrote my dissertation back in 2015, I did this design-based research with having students create role-playing games to improve literacy and numeracy. And as I'm thinking about these Gen AI tools that are available right now, I wish I can go back to the classroom and try it all over again. Because I think what I did with the students creating the role-playing game, they use analog drawing, but also they could have used a digital drawing, right? And they would read the text and then they'll try to create characters, but they had to reference it in a way that was in the text and also argue why a character will look certain way or dress certain way based on the text. And then once they create the characters, you there. I think it's it might be frozen.

Dr. Alfonso Mendoza: 29:51

There we go, we're back.

Dr. Kip Glazer: 29:54

I don't know how much. So one state create the characters from the bug, or in fact, I tried it with all three main genres: poems, prose, meaning a novel, and play, what which I call three P's of literature. And I did that with all three types of text, and students will create these characters based on what they read because you have to argue for why a character will dress certain way or look certain way based on the text. And then they create these roles where they're playing these characters through the story, and then they would have to create additional characters that will fit in that ecosystem and universe, right? And then there are they will do playtesting, and based on the dice role, they'll say, okay, I win, so I'm gonna my character is gonna go ahead of you. But you have to actually argue what tech choices that character would make based on what was in the book. So imagine if I had the Gen AI tools, right? They would be able to create storylines along with the uh Gen AI tools, and they would be able to create graphics. And some of the students who may not be as artistic could fully engage. They would be able to do a playtesting, and I would be able to know the data in terms of how many times they referenced the textbook, how many times they were being kind to their classmates, and I can say the way that you talk to your friends in this playing may not be the most school appropriate. How could we rephrase that? How could we restate that, which also builds citizenship, right? And there are so many ways that I could have used genetic tools, and I'm no longer in the classroom, I constantly think about it. And I think that's the point of it, right? The tool is supposed to enhance human interaction and human creativity. And what's limiting us is our limitation in thinking about what it could be used for within the structure that we currently have. Because we have so much standardized testing, and Jen and Tool can just complete that so easily. What is our fix? Instead of looking at the assessment, we go, let's build another detection tool so we can test those humans. Come on, we need to do a better job. We need to think about what the students truly need when they graduate out of pre-K16. This idea of connection, right? I reached out to you on LinkedIn and I go, hey, I see that you're doing this amazing podcast. I think you should invite me. And you're like, who is this person? But okay, let's go. And then I'm sure you researched me. I'm sure you talked to people like those commonsensical skills that we all need as fully functioning adults, we're not teaching the kids. That's why I started the tech internship program. And I tell my students, yes, the tech is in the name because we have to contend with tech. Tech is not going right, tech is central. Like you have to know tech. But truly, what is this program? And the other day, one of my students said, this is a leadership accelerator with tech. And I said, that is it. Right? Because everybody is a leader in your own life. And what do leaders do lift other people up? So when you have so much access to technology, we need to focus on how do we share the knowledge and make this world a better place, and we can do it. We are bigger than the problem. When we all think together to follow the youth and their excitement for learning and their excitement for creation, we will all be better for it. And that is in my book, How I Started That Internship Program and What We Have Been Accomplished for the Past Couple of Years since I met you.

Dr. Alfonso Mendoza: 34:08

That is great. That is wonderful. And I think that is something that is very powerful, I think, for a lot of educators. And like you said, you know, oftentimes you are bombarded with all of your day-to-day duties, and it leaves very little bandwidth to maybe sometimes think about these things and think these through and and see what this program can do for your students, which in a way kind of leads me to the next question. I think that the more the more that students are well informed as far as the technology use, how it can be used, the ethics of it, obviously being very responsible because, like you mentioned, you know, with the state assessment, what do we do? Let's just create another tool to catch, you know, the student and make sure that they're writing their essays and so on. So again, you know, students teaching them, you know, the difference between using Chat GPT and maybe using Grammarly in certain ways. I mean, students can definitely pick up on that and be able to use those tools. But oftentimes what happens is that we, as the adults in the room, oftentimes make the decisions for the students and what they can and can't use. So I want to ask you, uh, and this again, if maybe it's in your book, maybe it's not, but just I want to ask you, what can a school leader do different? Like, like what you were demonstrating to me is you're advocating for your students. You gave them a seat at the table, being part of this program, this leadership program. So, what can we do as far as bringing our students to the table and making sure that they're part of the conversation? Because here we are making decisions for them, but they're not being part of those meetings as well. What might be some suggestions or you know, some thoughts that you have seen have worked for you?

Dr. Kip Glazer: 36:01

Yes, I think that we have to humble ourselves in knowing that the kids have different ways of interacting with the tech. They don't interact with technology as I feel more comfortable, which is I'm more linear way. Like I want to read a book so I can see like from start to finish, a little more linear. Our kids, they just start playing with it, great things, and just try it out. So, okay, that's a different way that we are approaching knowledge. And with there is no one way is better than the other. But what we do have is the wisdom and life experience, right? When you experiment things without guardrails, without safety protocols, then things can go wrong very quickly. So I think we have to understand and humble ourselves to know that we may not know all the technology, but we also have to have some grown-up chops to say, hold on, youngster, let's think about the issues that can arise and let's be co-creators of the solution because we're all in this together. We are co-creators. That means sometimes you will know more in certain things, sometimes other times I will know more in certain things. And at the end of the day, we both will grow as learners together. And that's up the what happens when I interact with my students. They are quit with those technology piece, and they tell me all the time, Dr. Glazer, click here, go there. What are you doing? Keep up. And I'm like, okay, I'm trying my best. And I will pull them together and say, okay, we we are done with experimental things. What did we learn? What problem did we actually create by proposing the solution? And how do we help others not make the same mistakes that we just made in our experimental space? And that's why in one of my chapters, I just say start a student group. Any leader can do it, and listen to what they have to say and be willing to engage fully and give them encouragement to be co-creators. We could do it. Anyone can do it.

Dr. Alfonso Mendoza: 38:30

I love that. And I think that that first step that I think sometimes can be the hardest step, which is humbling oneself, that humility to understand that it's okay to not know everything, but that working collaboratively and building that community, you're in it together. Where I remember in the classroom, I learned more from my students that as the day progressed, I looked like the expert at the end of the day when I had my last class. But a lot of those tips and tricks with the tech, I learned from my students. And that's the best part about it that we're all learning together, but you're giving them that confidence and you're giving them a space where they feel safe. That even if like you said, like, hey, Dr. Bunce, you're too slow on this. Let me show you a quick tip on this. It's like awesome, love it, great. And then I'm gonna share that with all the other students as well. Like I think, uh, but I think it's that it's just the humility and uh just being able to see and have that vision, much like you have. Um, I want to ask you about this too, as well, because uh, and for all our audience members, again, uh you know, Dr. Kick has been on the show 265, but there was a clip that I posted from that uh podcast, which really well, in in my eyes, it went viral for me in that sense. But you used a term that I had never heard before, and I don't know if you coined it or not, but I always say this is Dr. Kip, you mentioned tech chauvinism, yeah, tech chauvinism, yeah, yeah, yeah. Technochauvinism when tech companies come in claiming that they can do school better than educators, and so you talked a little bit about that, giving that pushback and so on. So I want to ask you, Dr. Kip, for right now, also, as school leaders are getting inundated with so many platforms, you know, trying to get some time in their ears, in their meetings and so on and so forth. What are some things that school leaders should look out for when they are meeting with such platforms?

Dr. Kip Glazer: 40:40

Yes. So I just had a meeting with a platform company today, and I saw that there was like the AI enhancement. And I immediately said, What model are we using? And they couldn't answer me. I said, I would like to know. And depending on what model we're using, I would like to see your FERPA HIPAA compliance documents. And you don't have to know a lot just to say that. Because you do have, hopefully, every school district should have CTO who can help you. If not, you can reach out to organizations such as Digital Promise or COSIN and they'll help you out, right? There are those nonprofits that are supposed to help the school district. If you didn't know that, yes, they will. And if they don't, tell me, I will call them. I'm just kidding. Um, they will help you. And these things, right? And I said, okay, do you have the global shutoff button? Because I'm unless I'm confident, is this Gen AI tool? Because Gen AI tool means that that is generative quality that is not yet in the US at least, have lots of guardrails. But if it's algorithm and AI, that's why I'm saying definitions matter. And how we're housing those data and who's keeping track of it and who has access to it matters. And just the questions that you're asking will slow down the company's desire because unfortunately, many of school leaders don't necessarily have the language or knowledge base to even ask very basic questions, right? As a result of that, technology companies act as if they can come in and do learning and teaching better. So we need to start pushing back and say, we have been here with kids, with families, with educators. So unless you can answer all the questions that I'm asking satisfactorily to me, you cannot bring that tool into my ecosystem. And to me, it's like that's the job of a school leader. Right? Isn't that your very first job to keep your children safe? Emotional and intellectual safety is just as important as physical safety in schools. Yes, physical safety has to be there before they can explore and they can learn. But if they're not emotionally and intellectually safe and they're being exploited with these tech tools, then we're doing everybody this service. Because they have to live in a very tech enriching world and they have to know, but they have to know how to behave in a way they're not going to be victims to these tech tools. So let's make sure we ask good questions. And in my book, with the uh template or the framework that I built with Sophia, we have these questions to ask because it does help when you know how to engage in this conversation. And I want to be very clear. I'm not saying that tech companies are bad, I'm not saying that tools are bad. I'm saying that it is our collective responsibility to ask great questions on behalf of our students and families to make sure that whatever tool we're putting in front of them is actually doing the job that it is intended to do, which is to help our students learn.

Dr. Alfonso Mendoza: 44:22

Powerful. I absolutely love it. And I am so glad that you have come up with this wonderful resource, your book, and we'll definitely be linking it in the show notes. But Dr. Kip, as we start wrapping up here, I want to ask you the one thing, the one thing question. So, my question to you is if a school leader picks up this book and reads it cover to cover and implement all the recommendations or a couple of recommendations, what do you think that success would look like for them in a year span? What is one of the transformations that you hope to start seeing in schools across the country? So that one big takeaway, one practice, one framework, what do you hope it is?

Dr. Kip Glazer: 45:12

I hope that the AI Comm Conversation moves away from cheating conversation into how we use this tool to enhance human connection. I think that is it. That's why we're here. We educate humans. And if we don't enhance that positive, collaborative human connection and help our kids get those skills of communication and collaboration and also problem solving together, then we are doing our students disservice. So let's not talk about AI cheating. Let's talk more about human connection through strong pedagogy.

Dr. Alfonso Mendoza: 46:04

I love it. Excellent. Well, Dr. Kip, thank you so much. It's been an honor and a pleasure to have you here again for another episode. I mean, it is always a pleasure to have you here because I learned so much from you. And I know that all our listeners will definitely take away so many more knowledge nuggets, also as well, that you can sprinkle onto what they're doing great already. But it's also great to see somebody like yourself that has such a strong voice, great experience, and is out there sharing your passion, sharing your concerns, sharing the good, sharing the bad, and putting it all together for school leaders to dive into change mindsets, change ideas, change practices, change thoughts, all for the better, which, like we said, is the goal is to improve our student learning, improve and enhance our learning community, which is our schools, our settings, and so on. So I absolutely love that. So thank you so much. And we'll make sure we definitely link all the book information too in our show notes as well. But Dr. Kidd, before we wrap up, as always, we love to end the show with these last three questions. And I know it's been a while since January uh 29th of 2024. So maybe some of your answers have changed. So I'm curious to see how they may have changed. So hopefully you're ready for our last three questions here. So, question number one as we know, every superhero has a pain point or weakness. And for Superman, kryptonite was what weakened him. And uh, you know, so I want to ask you, Dr. Kip, in the current state of education, starting in 2026, or maybe just you know, bleeding into from 2025, what would you say is your current edu kryptonite?

Dr. Kip Glazer: 47:58

Staff exhaustion it has to be it. We are just, I think, so exhausted with the world and just a lot of uncertainty. And when you have your people so exhausted, they can't create. Creativity does not come from exhaustion and this feeling of disconnectedness. That's what I was saying.

Dr. Alfonso Mendoza: 48:28

Alright, great answer, Dr. Kip. I appreciate that. Question number two if you could have a billboard right smack in the middle of there where you live, that's big and for Telecom Valley to see, what would your billboard have on it and why?

Dr. Kip Glazer: 48:46

Fast and more in quotes, is not always better. Slow down, take a deep breath. Let's be human.

Dr. Alfonso Mendoza: 49:00

I'll maybe that that should be in the title of your next book, Dr. Kip, but at least put on a shirt. I I'll buy I'll buy right now. That is wonderful, Dr. Kip. Thank you so much. And again, he and that just in anything, too. I mean, I think that really is so much and for so many of us to just really stop, take a deep breath, be present, be aware of your surroundings because sometimes you may miss a lot of things. So great advice. All right, and Dr. Kip, my last question for you is if you can trade places with anyone for a single day, who would that be and why?

Dr. Kip Glazer: 49:36

You know, I'm a hockey fan. I don't know that you knew that. I'm a huge Sydney Crosby fan. So if anybody knows Sydney Crosby, I will do anything for you. Come clean your house to get, like, I don't know, side puck. So I would want to be a his travel companion, bag carrier, or handler for one day in hopes that he would sign a puck for me. Like, I'm serious. I'm just like helping me, please help me get one of those signed something. How's that?

Dr. Alfonso Mendoza: 50:13

Perfect. Hey, and for all our audience members listening, if you have any connection, hey, because this is what it's all about, Dr. Kip, making those connections at networking. If there is anybody out there that's listening that can pull some strings to help uh Dr. Kip get something that is signed, oh, I we will get on this podcast. We will record a short little mini episode and talk about how we made that happen. So thank you so much, Dr. Kip. I really appreciate you. And again, we'll make sure we link all the information so that way our audience members can also connect with you on LinkedIn as well. Um, we'll also put a link to your Substack. And of course, like we said, the book, ready to lead with AI, a practical guide for school leaders. So make sure that you get your hands on it, school leaders. And I know, and this could be even just teachers as well, too, not necessarily school leaders, aspiring leaders. I would definitely um encourage you to get this your hands on this book too, as well. As we continue to navigate this space four years later, we're still here, we're still having conversations that are have already been had since 2022. And now we need to continue to move forward. And Dr. Kip has definitely put something out for you all through her experience and in collaboration with Sofia de Jesus and many others. Uh, so thank you so much, Dr. Kip, as always, for everything that you do for our educator community to continue to help us continue to grow professionally and personally. And for our audience members, please make sure that you visit our website at my edtech. Where I promise you you will find some amazing guests that will share some great knowledge nuggets with you that you can sprinkle onto what you are already doing. Great. And I want to give a big shout out to our sponsors. Thank you so much, Book Creator, Eduade, and Peelback Education, for believing in our mission and what we do and bringing you these great conversations. And my friends, until next time, don't forget, stay techie.