August 22, 2025 • 53 mins
Research First Approach to AI Tools with Short Answer
In this episode of My EdTech Life, I sit down with Adam and Alexa Sparks, the husband-and-wife founders of Short Answer, a writing platform built to strengthen peer-to-peer learning and classroom dialogue.
We dive into their journey from classrooms and Stanford labs to building an edtech startup that puts pedagogy first. Adam shares how a tough reception at a ResearchED conference burst the EdTech bubble and reshaped their vision for AI in schools. Alexa explains why her research left her more skeptical of AI than when she started, and how that skepticism helps keep Short Answer grounded in solid pedagogy.
Together, they open up about:
- Why EdTech needs more dialectical thinking
- How Short Answer blends AI feedback with student discourse
- Their new partnership with EduProtocols and what it means for teachers
- The tension between tool-driven conferences and pedagogy-first practices
- What’s next on the roadmap for Short Answer
This conversation is for every educator, leader, or EdTech enthusiast who wants to see technology serve teachers and students—not replace them.
⏱️ Time Stamps
0:00 – Welcome and sponsor shoutouts
2:00 – Adam and Alexa’s journey into EdTech
7:00 – Why EdTech needs dialectical thinking
10:00 – ResearchED pushback and bursting the EdTech bubble
15:00 – From hype to caution: AI in writing feedback
20:00 – Short Answer’s approach to peer-to-peer learning
27:00 – Tool-first vs pedagogy-first conferences
31:00 – Partnering with EduProtocols
37:00 – New features: Quick Write and Pen Pals
43:00 – What’s next for Short Answer
45:00 – Edu Kryptonite: time and the EdTech bubble
49:00 – Billboard messages and who they’d trade places with
50:00 – Closing thoughts and final shoutouts
🔗 Adam's Substack Article: EdTech Needs More Dialectical Thinking
🎧 Listen to more episodes: https://www.myedtech.life
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Dr. Fonz Mendoza (00:30):
Hello everybody and welcome to another
great episode of my EdTech Life.
Thank you so much for joiningus on this wonderful day and,
wherever it is that you'rejoining us from around the world
, thank you, as always, for allof your support.
We appreciate all the likes,the shares, the follows, thank
you, thank you.
Thank you so much for sharingour content and interacting with
our content, and we love yourcomments.
(00:50):
I love to just get somefeedback from you.
So thank you so much for all ofyour support, and I definitely
want to give a big shout out toour show sponsors.
Thank you so much, book Creator.
Thank you so much, eduaid.
Thank you so much, yellowdig.
It is because of you that thisshow just we continue to bring
some amazing guests and havesome amazing conversations, and
(01:12):
for anybody out there who mightbe interested in possibly being
a sponsor, please make sure youhit us up.
We would love to collaborateand work with you and get your
name out there.
So thank you as always.
And today, ladies and gentlemen, I your name out there.
So thank you as always.
And today, ladies and gentlemen,I have a wonderful show and, of
course, I say that all the time, but the guests that I have
today are people that I go wayback with, and if you are
(01:33):
looking right now at the video,you see Adam Sparks, and he's
been on the show before and he'salso been on an AI panel show
that I've done, and now we'rejoined by his wife, also Alexis
Sparks, and I am really excitedto talk about the amazing work
that they are doing.
If you're not familiar withtheir work yet, I promise you
(01:54):
after today you will enjoy whatthey are doing through their
amazing platform called ShortAnswer, and so today we're going
to have a great conversation ofjust pedagogy questions AI.
We're going to talk about ShortAnswer.
We're going to talk about agreat partnership with Short
Answer, and I won't give it, Iwon't spill it, but Short Answer
(02:15):
has partnered up with someamazing people and you know I'm
just excited for today's chat.
So, adam, alexa, thank you somuch for joining me today.
Adam, how are you doing?
Adam Sparks (02:26):
Doing well.
Thanks for having us, fonz,it's good to be back, and
congratulations again.
I know we're talking beforethis started, but now that we're
officially on the record,congratulations to you, for,
since we last spoke, you justfinished your doctorate, which
is like incredible.
Dr. Fonz Mendoza (02:37):
Yes, thank you .
Thank you.
I really appreciate it andagain, you know, because of work
, having you on the show andpeople like you on the show, it
was just great to be able todocument all of that and put
that into my research and mystudy.
I mean, I never thought thatthe podcast would turn into a
research study, so that has beenphenomenal.
And, alexa, thank you so muchfor joining us this first time.
(03:00):
I know that Adam has spoken sohighly of you and the work that
you were doing.
I know that Adam has spoken sohighly of you and the work that
you were doing and you know, Iknow you were studying in
Stanford, so maybe you didn'thave a lot of time, you know, to
be on, but I am thankful that Igot to meet you at ISTE.
We got to talk.
You connected me with somewonderful people too as well
through LinkedIn and how are youdoing today?
Alexa Sparks (03:21):
Doing?
Great Thanks for having me onthis podcast.
Dr. Fonz Mendoza (03:24):
Excellent.
Alexa Sparks (03:24):
Definitely nice to have some time to do this.
Dr. Fonz Mendoza (03:27):
This is actually my first podcast, so
I'm nervous, but I'm excited,all right, no you're going to be
great, and I think actually,you guys are my second couple
that has been on here.
Big shout out to Maury Beasley,who was on the show with her
husband too, and so I think,yeah, you are definitely the
second couple on and it's greatjust to see just a wonderful
(03:50):
EdTech couple doing some greatwork and, you know, it's great
to just catch up.
So, but before we get startedand we dive in, I definitely
want to get a little briefintroduction and what your
context is within the educationspace, and so we'll go ahead and
start with you, adam.
Give us a little bit about your, tell us a little bit about
yourself and the work thatyou're doing.
Adam Sparks (04:11):
Yeah, so my name is Adam Sparks.
I was a classroom teacher forseven years.
I taught middle and high schoolsocial studies and English and
loved it and fell in love withed tech during that prep you
know, during my time in theclassroom and wanted to build it
, and so I applied for master'sprograms and went and got my
master's in learning, design andtechnology, where I built what
became Short Answer.
So it was just supposed to bemy master's project but we got
(04:34):
some grant funding and launchedit about two years ago and I've
been building it since.
It's a K-12 writing platformthat just embeds short form
gamified writing practice acrossthe curriculum.
So I'm happy to share moreabout it and I'm honored to be
building it with my wife, alexa.
So, alexa, if you want tointroduce yourself and your
context, yeah, sure.
Alexa Sparks (04:52):
Hey everyone, I'm Alexa.
My background with education isa little bit windy.
Adam and I taught English inChina for a year and while I
felt that was a really hard yearand it taught me that you know
teaching is very hard classroommanagement especially is very
difficult Adam told me that thatwas like the easiest job he'd
had, compared to like teachingin the US.
(05:13):
So I gained a lot of empathythat year.
I gained a lot of interest injust like ed tech and how much
it was helping Adam during histeaching year in the classroom.
But my background really ismore in the software engineering
side.
I've worked at different kindof ed tech startups, in the
Midwest mainly, but then I alsojust recently went to Stanford
(05:35):
to study education data science.
So that was where I really tookmy like technical expertise and
combined it with the datascience piece and learn more
about education, research anddiving into the learning
sciences and things like that.
Dr. Fonz Mendoza (05:50):
Excellent.
Well, that's great, and what Ilove about this is like, just
like you said, you know, comingat it from different
perspectives, you've got boththe education experience, but
then you know Adam and workingthrough Short Answer, now, both
of you working on this and justgetting to do this together.
I think that's something that'sfantastic.
Number one it's just great thatyou get to work with each other
(06:11):
as a couple, but also just theamazing work that you're doing,
and I know that the last timethat we caught up was at.
ISTE, and that was definitely acouple of weeks back, and but I
mean just to hear and see theamazing work that you all are
doing and where you've been, Imean nonstop go, go, go.
It has been wonderful to seejust the growth since the first
(06:31):
time that Adam was on the showand just sharing a short answer
here on the podcast, and now youknow the miles that you've
traveled, the work that you'veput in and the countless
teachers and students that youhave affected in such a positive
way because of your platform.
So we'll definitely get intothat before, but before actually
(06:52):
, I want to touch on somethingthat you know a little bit of
serious talk here about you knowthe ed tech space and so on,
and I know one of the thingsthat I do appreciate about Adam
is that he has always been upfor discourse and up for
discussion and always been ableto just go back and forth and
share and learn and it's justbeen something phenomenal.
And I know when I ran into youat ISTE, adam, I said you know
(07:15):
what I would love to do apodcast and talk a little bit
about this Substack article thatyou posted way back when, on
June 27th, that I was like whoa,like this is something that's
great, and I think it'ssomething that a lot of people
need to hear, and you know thetitle of the Substack and we'll
pop it in the show notes tooit's EdTech Needs More
(07:37):
Dialectical Thinking, and so,adam, I want to ask you right
now, and start off with you asfar as dialectical thinking Can
you tell us a little bit aboutnumber one, what inspired this
post?
Because there's so much in herethat I definitely want to unpack
.
So tell me a little bit aboutyou know, after short answer
comes out, ai is go, go, go,move fast, break things or just
(08:02):
kind of move fast and just goeverywhere.
What happened?
What were your thoughts nowwhen you wrote this sub stack?
Alexa Sparks (08:09):
Yeah, well, this is for first for context.
Adam Sparks (08:17):
The dialectical thinking is just maybe a
pretentious way of saying justengaging with viewpoints that
are different from your own.
So just intentionally engagingwith people that have different
worldviews from you, that aredifferent from your own.
So just intentionally engagingwith people that have different
worldviews from you?
And what inspired the post waswhat's funny.
It was interacting with peopleunintentionally that had very
different viewpoints from me andgetting into a situation that I
didn't expect.
Alexa and I co-presented at aresearch ed conference in
(08:39):
Delaware this past fall Because,as we have talked about on this
podcast in the past, we takeefficacy and growing out of our
research base very seriously, inshort answer, and we think it's
something that, generallyspeaking, the H1BED tech market
could do a better job of.
That's a whole otherconversation.
So, anyway, as a part of thatwork, we wanted to present at a
research conference, and so wewere really the only ed tech
(09:03):
folks at the conference.
It was our first time attendinga research ed conference.
It's an organization that I'velong been aware of, just as a.
It's an organization built tosort of bridge research-based
best practice with just dailyclassroom pedagogy and making
research applicable to classroomcontexts, so I've long relied
on it for, just like guidance onbest practices in teaching and
(09:23):
learning.
But this is our first timepresenting at it, and we arrived
there and quickly found outthat K-12 ed tech is viewed as
in a very negative light, Iwould say, and that was
expressed in different ways overthe course of the conference,
but most clearly in the closingkeynote that was recorded as a
podcast and shared out, in whichthey essentially bashed on ed
(09:44):
tech for an hour, and I thoughtthat it was unproductive in a
lot of different ways.
But it was also interesting inthat, like it was the I think,
maybe the first time that I'dbeen to a conference to share
our work at short answer and Iactually walked away with, like
my beliefs being challenged andlike me thinking critically
about things in a completelydifferent light, that kind of
(10:05):
burst, the bubble I was livingin and helped me realize how
much of a bubble EdTech is, andso I wrote that article in the
lead up to ISTE, because ISTEmight be the biggest bubble of
them all.
You know it's like the biggestcelebration of EdTech in the
world.
To my knowledge, I think it'sthe biggest K-12 ed tech
oriented conference in the world.
Um, and it's a celebration ofed tech, as it should be, and I
(10:29):
and I was excited to go down toand celebrate ed tech with other
people that, like me, believethat ed tech has tremendous
potential to improve learningoutcomes for kids and and
improve teachers lives andimprove schools and blah, blah,
blah, um.
So I don't want to pretend likeI like I'm not an ed tech hater
by any means.
I just think I learned so muchfrom engaging from that
conference and engaging withfolks that had different beliefs
(10:50):
than me, and I think, generallyspeaking, especially at ed tech
conferences, but just in edtech in general, we could do a
much better job and we'd be muchbetter off if we were more
deliberate about engaging withpeople that have different
beliefs from us, especially aswe head into the age of AI,
where there's a lot ofskepticism and worry I think
rightfully so around what AImeans for teaching, but
(11:17):
especially what it means forlearning, and so, yeah, so I
wrote the blog post just as a,hopefully as a way of kicking
off conversation, and I wasactually pleasantly surprised
with what I experienced at ISTE.
It wasn't, you know, the bubble,that I don't get me wrong.
It is definitely a celebrationof ed tech and there's a lot of,
I think, blinders on for a lotof folks there.
But at the same time, forexample, I was really impressed
that they had a research trackthat was just for researchers to
get up and present, which Alexadid an excellent job of.
(11:40):
Alexa presented with May Tan,one of her research
collaborators at Stanford, onsome of the research that they
did on AI and its ability toprovide feedback on student
writing, so I wasn't even awarethat ISTE did something like
that.
I thought that was a good stepin the right direction, but I
think, just in general as awhole, the K-12 ed tech market
has a long ways to go in termsof more deliberately engaging
with folks that have differentworldviews, that don't
(12:02):
necessarily believe in ed tech.
Dr. Fonz Mendoza (12:04):
Yeah, Alexa and I want to ask you what has
been your experience.
I know you know Adam's kind ofbeen, you know, at the forefront
and kind of like the face ofshort answer, and I know that
you were involved in yourstudies and so on.
But now that you're at theseconferences and you're meeting
people, talking to them and ofcourse you know, as Adam shared
his experience, like whoa, likeyou know, just all of a sudden,
(12:28):
what you might have thought wasthat you were doing or going in
the right direction.
All of a sudden, like there'ssomebody that says, well, wait a
minute, like no, what were yourthoughts?
What was going on through yourmind?
Alexa Sparks (12:40):
Yeah, I think that's a good question.
I guess for starters it is verylike palpable the difference
between going to like an ed techfocused conference and working
especially at the vendor boothand having conversation.
People are generally more likeexcited to hear about what
you're doing and open to whatthe product does and they've
(13:01):
accepted ed tech is like a goodthing.
So I think research ed was justvery eye opening because it was
like we're starting from.
Ed tech isn't default good, weactually here think ed tech is
kind of default bad, proved tous how your product isn't just
like more of the same thing thatwe're criticizing in the ed
tech space and so but I wasproud coming out of it because
(13:25):
you know not to toot our own.
So I, but I was proud comingout of it because you know not
to toot our own horns.
But, short answer, did grow outof like a research base and we
are being very intentional aboutlike how we think it should be
incorporated in the classroom.
We don't want to be and like weuse like, for example, things,
likeification, like we usegamified tactics that we're not
(13:45):
like playing just games in theclassroom to like entice kids.
I think just to answer yourquestion leaving research ed.
It was jarring.
I was a little bit shocked atthe ending keynote, but I think
overall it was good because Ilike to come from a like a
centrist view on things ingeneral and I think research had
(14:07):
just kind of reminded us thatwe have to be in the middle,
like it's not all good, it's notall bad, it's just yeah,
there's both, you know exactlyand and that's something that's
great and right now that youmentioned that, it's something
that I know through the podcastand relatively early I know that
that I was like, oh my gosh,november 2022.
Dr. Fonz Mendoza (14:27):
And I was like , oh my gosh, let's go all in
until March 2023 when I wasdoing some research for one of
my doctoral studies and they'relike, oh yeah, you know, write
about something that's going onin ed tech right now.
And I was like, okay, ai.
And then I got into obviously,the privacy, the you know terms
of service data and all of that.
And then that was like whatcaused like just to kind of
(14:49):
really pump the brakes on youknow, just really moving forward
and just do a lot more research.
And and I always give credit toDr Nika McGee, who that's the
first person that I ever heardsay cautious advocate, and I
just kind of adopted that.
Where you know it's, I findmyself in the middle too, and
that's why I love having theseconversations and especially
bringing people on like you whoare at the front of, you know,
(15:13):
using a platform, developing aplatform and bringing that into
the classroom, and just to hearyou kind of say like, wow, you
know, this kind of caused us tokind of take a step back.
So I kind of want to ask you,as far as that kind of hearing
that message, what were some ofthe shifts?
And I'll start with you, alexa,if you don't mind sharing, and
(15:34):
then Adam can add to it but whatwere some of the shifts that
you've made or decided to makeafter you know that conference
that y'all went to, as far asthe platform or AI in general?
Alexa Sparks (15:52):
That's a good question.
I feel like Adam would actuallybe good to tackle this, just
because he usually the way ourworkflow works is that he'll
start with like from with designand ideation, and then, after
he gets that initial idea out onFigma, then it comes to me and
it's like let's talk about liketechnical feasibility.
So I think he'd be bettersuited to answer this question
(16:16):
just because he was the persondoing the initial designs.
Sounds good, adam.
Adam Sparks (16:22):
No, it's a straightforward answer.
It's just lead with theresearch.
And when I say lead with theresearch, I don't mean your
users are going to give youfeedback on what they want in
your product and what you shoulddesign, but it means balancing
what they want with whatresearch says is best practice,
which is actually sometimesharder than may seem on the
surface.
And so, for example, we've reada lot of the research and Alexa
(16:44):
has done original research thatis really cool and she should
talk about on AI and its abilityto provide feedback on
students' writing, and so therehas been some research that came
out recently.
Maybe we can link in the shownotes on that.
Ai is effective at providinglow-stakes, daily formative
writing on kids' feedback andit's pretty good at scoring
(17:08):
writing.
Just in terms of relative tohow humans score it with a
rubric and relative to how AIscores it with a rubric, it's
not statistically significantlydifferent from one another.
So that was what initially gaveus the confidence to build out
our first AI feedback activity,in short answer, which is called
Quick Write, which is just kidsget proficiency scores based on
different success criteria setby the teacher.
They're working together as agroup to try to hit a class
score goal together.
(17:29):
So that's the game, and so it'sa cooperative game where
they're reflecting and gettingAI feedback, getting AI feedback
and then reflecting on ittogether.
That grew directly out ofresearch that we read, partly as
a result of going to aconference like ResearchEd,
where they're, of course,advocating for leading with
research-based best practice inteaching and learning.
And then I also think, justbecause of that worldview of
(17:53):
wanting to encourage moreskepticism towards ai and not
just take it at face value andnot just take the outputs as
true because, as we know, aioften hallucinates we also
designed out a new activity inshort answer called pen pals um,
and in pen pals um we'vecreated these like spicy
personality ai characters thatthe class can pick and then
(18:13):
those characters essentiallyhave arguments about the kids
writing, and then the class canpick and then those characters
essentially have arguments aboutthe kids' writing, and then the
class discuss those argumentsand vote for the AI pinpile that
they agree more with.
So, of course, the primary goalthere is to improve learning
outcomes by getting the kids tothink about the different
success criteria, but thesecondary goal is to encourage
kids to challenge AI's outputsand not just accept them on face
(18:34):
value and debate them, and it'salmost like using AI as like a
foil in the classroom.
It's like we have the teacher,we have the students, then we
have this AI thing that we canargue with and debate with.
But again, don't just take itas face value and like the AI,
feedback is the end, all be all.
Let's question it and challengeit, discuss it and make it a
way to make the class moresocial.
And I would say, in some ways,all that grew directly out of
(18:55):
our experience at ResearchEd andbeing encouraged to lead with
ResearchFirst.
So as challenging as thatconference was for me and as
frankly frustrating as it wasfor me, I do think we got better
as a result and I think ourproduct got better as a result.
And that's again going back tolike why I was promoting
dialectical thinking in thatpost.
Dr. Fonz Mendoza (19:16):
Yeah, no, I do think oh sorry, go ahead.
Oh, no, no, no, go ahead, goahead.
Alexa Sparks (19:20):
I was just thinking, like now that he said
that, going back to leavingresearch, that I do think we did
double down and we stillcontinue to double down let
students connect with each other, because one of the criticisms
of research at research ed wasvery much, like you know,
technology kind ofindividualizes the learning
(19:41):
process and that's notnecessarily what we want.
So, like I think we did kind ofhave leave with some kind of
reinforced core principles, likefocusing on the peer-to-peer
element, and for me and a lot ofmy research at Stanford, I
think I left Stanford moreskeptical of AI than I entered
(20:01):
in my two-year master's degree.
So definitely for me personally, it's very important because of
the hallucination, because ofyeah, you know the very real
flaws of AI to not have AI bethis like prescriptive entity
within our app where it's likestudents have the final, you
know opportunity to say whetheror not they agree with the
(20:23):
feedback or like have adiscussion with the class about
why, or why, like, the outputisn't good or is good um, yeah,
(20:48):
so just kind of piggybacking offwhat Adam said, just kind of
that idea of just like pushingit, and then all of a sudden,
now, even within our circlebecause for the most part it's
the same kind of group or youknow people and so on and all of
a sudden, like I've seen, manythat have kind of also started
pumping the brakes on this.
Dr. Fonz Mendoza (21:06):
But one of the things that I love that you
mentioned is, although yourplatform does have that AI
component, like you mentioned,it's you have the student, the
teacher and that AI component,but you're really, you know,
allowing the students to havethat discourse, that discussion,
that going back and forth andstill being able to make the
(21:28):
classroom interactive.
And it's not like really,although the tech is there, it
to me it doesn't seem and theway that I've seen it, it's not
like really just the platform isthe center of the activity.
You've got a lot of things thatare going on there too as well,
and that's one of the thingsthat I do enjoy, that, as we've,
you know, through the years andthe months that have gone by,
(21:51):
as we talk about personalizedlearning and personalized
learning bites, we talk aboutpersonalized learning and
personalized learning, and to meit just seems like you just
kind of you're putting the kidson this computer but they're not
getting to do a lot of thediscourse or having that talk.
It's almost like I forget whothe guest was that said, you
know, I just get on the chat botand just put IDK, idk, idk, and
it's just going to give me theanswer and there really isn't
(22:13):
anything that I'm going to learnfrom it.
It has no context, it doesn'tknow anything about me, but yet
we want to put them on thesedevices and or, you know, with
the platforms.
But a platform like yours, likeyou said, it's for writing.
You've got feedback, you've gotdiscussion, you've got the
teacher.
You know, within the activitytoo as well.
(22:35):
I think that's something thatis great and really like good
practice, as opposed to justletting the AI take care of
everything, and so I thinkthat's something that I really
do enjoy, and you know the workthat you are doing, and I know
that I've seen a lot of greatfeedback on your platform from a
lot of people on all socialmedia.
So I mean, I think that thefact that you're taking the time
(22:57):
to continually listen and learnand kind of take things back a
little bit and say, hey, maybelet's do it this way or do it
that way.
I think that's something that'svery important to be able to
improvise, adapt and overcomebased on the situation and
what's happening.
So I think that you guys aredoing a fantastic job with that
and that shows, really, with thegrowth and that you guys are
(23:19):
everywhere too.
I mean, there was a point intime where you were like at
every conference, like week byweek, which has been great just
to see that growth too as well.
But going a little bit back intothat conference mode, I know
one of the things that we oftentalk about is and you mentioned
it it's just kind of like, youknow, the AI kind of bubble,
like we're kind of in a littlebubble.
(23:40):
We're kind of like within ourown little echo chambers,
chambers where maybe we see alot of focus on the tool and
just really tool heavy and not,you know, responsible or
responsive pedagogy.
(24:00):
That is solid and good.
So I just want to get your idea, alexa, that you know, starting
with you maybe now that you'vegotten to present at a
conference, and seeing what isout there, what are your
thoughts on that?
You know, as far as seeingmaybe a lot of conferences just
be at first, and then you know,pedagogy second yeah, I never
(24:22):
see it as like a practicalreality, like something born out
of practical practicality.
Alexa Sparks (24:27):
like I think you know, up until two years ago has
it been three years now thechat, gpt became very popular in
the mainstream.
There weren't tools that likemade lesson planning extremely
quick or like that couldactually like save teachers like
a meaningful amount of time.
So I guess I just see when Ithink about like why are there
(24:47):
so many just like tool focusedpresentations at conferences?
I just think it was like bornof necessity.
It was like you know, you don'thave a lot of time, we want to
give you the most bang for yourbuck right here.
Ok, here's a list of tools.
I've kind of pre-vetted thesefor you.
Whoever I am and you knowusually it's teachers telling
other teachers, so they're likethis is what's worked for me.
I want to share that with mycolleagues or other teachers
(25:10):
across the nation, and so I'mjust going to put this
presentation together with toolsthat worked for me.
Um, so I don't really, you know, and unfortunate you know
that's unfortunate because youdon't get into like the meaty
pedagogy or things but I do kindof see it as something that was
just really born out of, likejust the practical, like it just
seems like a natural responseto a profession that had you
(25:31):
know, had a lot of time-relatedburdens.
How about you, adam?
Adam Sparks (25:38):
yeah, no, I think that's.
I think you're right, alexa.
It's like, um, at a conferenceyou're given like a 45 minute
session and that short amount oftime it's it's hard to cover.
And I feel this a lot when Ipresent.
It's like because we alwayswant to lead with pedagogy.
You certainly don't want tomake it so theoretical that the
teachers walk away feeling likeyou just talked at a 10,000 foot
level about theory and theydidn't get anything practical.
(25:58):
So it's because you have such atime constrained environment,
it kind of lends itself to likeyeah, let me just quickly just
hit you with a fire hose oftools, tools, tools and ways
that you can tools, tools, tools, and that's like teachers like
(26:22):
that, frankly, like a lot ofteachers like that, because
they're like like I'm here tofind to kind of put tools in my
tool belt, um, and unfortunately, taken to the extreme though,
it does just result inpresentations that are just sort
of vendor sessions, especiallywhere we're just we're just
hawking different productswithout really talking about the
problems that they're solving,and we're kind of putting the
cart before the horse in thatsense.
And um, and I think, yeah, Ithink it's been unproductive, um
, but, but I also think, movingforward, I I do see this getting
(26:46):
slowly better.
Um, I was encouraged when ascdand isty, two very large,
influential organizations,merged.
Um, asccd is the kind of bigcurriculum instruction
professional developmentorganization in the United
States, iste, of course, the biged tech one, and the merging of
those two things I think is agood thing and sort of symbolic
(27:07):
and something that I'm seeing inschool districts across the
country, which is that thereused to be silos and there still
are silos of like the ed techcoaches are over here and then,
like the teaching and learningcurriculum instruction folks are
over here and there's certainlya lot of overlap, but they're
separate spheres and I'mincreasingly seeing that there's
not, we're not doing separatespheres anymore.
(27:27):
It's like you're just aninstructional coach, technology
is like an assumed part of whatyou do, and so we're going to
leave with best practice inteaching and learning and we'll
talk about tech.
But we're going to talk abouttech as a means to actualize
best practices in teaching andlearning, not as this separate
thing.
That is an end in and of itself.
And I think if I have one majorcriticism of K-12 ed tech
(27:50):
conferences it would be thatit's oftentimes you go into
presentations and you walk awayfeeling like ed tech is an end
in and of itself.
It's not.
It's not a tool, it's not ameans to an end of learning.
It's like, no, no, no, just usethe ed tech and then we will
have been successful.
And it's like well, I thinkwe've lost the thread here a
little bit, but you know that'sa criticism, but I also don't
(28:12):
want to be too negative becauseI do think it's getting better
for all the reasons I just said.
Dr. Fonz Mendoza (28:16):
Yeah, no, and you know one thing that I do
agree with you on that you knowjust the fact that you know,
ascd and ISTE came together andI had the opportunity to be
there and actually moderate apanel and be and being able to
see district leaders there.
You know, before it's, you knowyou go to a presentation, it's
only the ed tech people becauseit, but now it's, you get a nice
(28:39):
mix of people that are, youknow, those curriculum and
instruction departments comingyear.
That's what it's.
We're moving more towards whereour amazing, you know content
(29:09):
coordinators now, before theyused to always, you know, just
focus on the how, you know howto teach things, that pedagogy.
Well, now, you know, we're,we're slowly like rounding them
out and now they're going to bedoing some of the ad tech as
well.
But, like you said, it's, we'regoing to show you the how to
teach it, the pedagogy, and thenthe tech that will supplement,
(29:31):
you know, that learning, and Ithink that's something that's
great and fantastic that I'mreally looking forward to.
And, like you said, you know,things change.
You know we are seeing a lot ofthose conferences where it's
tech first and or tool driven,and now I think we will start
seeing that shift.
So it's really exciting just tohave been able to see
everything that's been happeningsince, you know, november 2022
(29:55):
and till now, and how it's stilljust continually evolving and
moving forward.
So I want to ask you now youknow, because I did see and for
our audience members maybe thatdon't follow you on social media
, please make sure that youfollow Short Answer on social
media as well and make sure youfollow Adam and Alexa.
You just, you know, go to theirwebsite, get on their socials,
(30:16):
because they share so many greatthings.
But I know one of the bigthings that I wanted to talk to
you about is your newpartnership, so can you tell us
a little bit about that and howthat came about?
Adam Sparks (30:27):
Yeah, yeah.
We just formed a partnershipwith Edger Protocols, which is
this amazing kind of thing Idon't want to describe them
incorrectly it's multi-acid, butit's multi-acid.
But it's essentially anorganization that promotes high
quality pedagogy across K-12through what are essentially
(30:48):
like lesson frames, and I couldgo into more detail of all of
them, but the first lesson framethat we have embedded in Short
Answer as a part of thispartnership is called Random
Emoji Power Paragraph, which isone of their more popular edge
of protocols.
And so in Random Emoji PowerParagraph, which is one of their
more popular edge of protocols,and so in Random Emoji Power
Paragraph, there's a randomemoji generator, as it sounds
(31:09):
like from the title, and sowe've embedded that in short
answer.
And the challenge for the kidsbecomes no matter what, you can
cover any content with this.
So we do it in history doscience, math, like this,
whatever, but whatever content.
You do science math electives,whatever, but whatever content
you're teaching, you're going tobe challenged to write one
paragraph, five sentences, andfor each sentence we're going to
generate a random emoji and youhave to connect your learning
(31:31):
in some way to that random emoji.
So one for each.
So there's five emojis.
You've got five sentences.
You're going to connect eachsentence to each emoji and as
you're doing that, you're havingto find how to fit that
together into a coherentparagraph.
That doesn't sound like totalgibberish, which is fun for the
kids because it's really hard,but it's also challenging kids
to think analogically, makinganalogies to different things
(31:54):
and challenging with the writingstructure in the process.
So it's perfect for us, givenour focus on writing and their
focus and and uh, its approachand how fun it is right, because
we want to be a sort ofgamified fun writing platform.
So uh yeah, so we just built repsorry, random emoji paragraph
short for the short version thatis called rep uh into short
(32:16):
answer.
Um, as our first of hopefullyseveral more edge protocols that
will be embedded right intoshort answer.
This all came about, um,through our.
Actually I connected with ateacher in California.
His name's Robert Mayfield.
He teaches at Ripon High School.
He's an incredible socialstudies teacher.
He was using short answer quitea bit and he also does a lot
with edgy protocols and he waspresenting at Spring Q.
(32:40):
Q is California's big epic edtech conference in Palm Springs
every spring and he asked me toco-present with him on how he
uses short answer and I wasgoing to help him with that, but
then also on how they use shortanswer to actualize edge
protocols.
And that was kind of my firstforay into this world.
I'd always heard about edgeprotocols.
My cousin, michael Krambeck,who teaches social studies here
in Nebraska, was always a hugeadvocate and was always trying
(33:01):
to get me to use it when I wasteaching.
But I just never did and themore I learned about it the more
I believed in it both.
Just like the pedagogy isactualizing how much teachers
raved about it and how muchteachers love edger protocols.
That was the biggest swingthing for me.
It was just like being in thoserooms at Q and talking to all
these teachers that use edgerprotocols every day and how much
time it saves them and howeffective it is for their kids.
(33:22):
And I actually wrote about edgeprotocols in the um in the blog
post we referenced earlier thedialectical thinking one,
because something I love aboutedge protocols is they always
lead with results.
It's not just research they'releading with.
Like here are my kids prior tousing these and here are where
my kids are at after using themand like you can see the growth,
growth.
So I loved everything about itand so we were super excited to
(33:43):
form that partnership with JohnCarripo, who's the head of edge
protocols, and Marlena Hepburn,who helps John out quite a bit.
And yeah, I'm happy to get intoany more detail with that if
you want, but super excited to.
We announced that a couple ofweeks ago to kick off the new
school year.
Dr. Fonz Mendoza (33:59):
No, and that's something that's fantastic.
The new school year?
No, and that's something that'sfantastic.
John's been on the show beforeand, boy, I don't know where he
gets that much energy from, and.
I mean seriously that guy iseverywhere and I really love
what they do through eduprotocols and, like you said,
being able to see that growthfrom activity to activity and
just seeing where the studentswere to where they are now in
(34:22):
just a matter of you know, justa couple of lessons within a
couple of tries and, like yousaid, it's just highly engaging
the students.
Yes, they are using the tech,but the students are, and that's
what I like.
That differentiates, that isthat engagement component,
because there could be thatengagement, but is it really
solid in the learning?
(34:42):
And you're putting all thistogether.
So I really love that you guyswere able to meet and get this
started, because I think this islike just the first of many edu
protocols within short answer,but just a great partnership and
just building on studentwriting and student activities,
and I think that's somethingthat is fantastic and I know
that's something that I'mlooking forward to as well.
(35:04):
So, alexa, what are yourthoughts now?
You know, seeing what you allhave been doing through Short
Answer in this, I don't want tosay a long period of time, but
through this short span and nowyou know this great opportunity
to continue to grow, I mean, howdo you feel as a founder, as
you know, in being part of this.
Alexa Sparks (35:27):
I'm excited.
I mean, of course, I'm excitedabout the partnership,
especially.
I mean the people that theteachers and other educators
we've met through theEduProtocols community have all
been just like very wonderful,wonderful people, and they I
mean I haven't been in theclassrooms like Adam has, but
they seem to be great teacherstoo, so that's always a plus, um
, yeah, so I'm just reallyexcited, I think.
(35:48):
I think about like founding acompany, though there's it's
like ups and down, you know,like the partnership really high
, high.
There's also lows, you know,but I'm excited.
Yeah, the partnership isdefinitely very exciting.
That's wonderful and that'sgreat.
But I'm excited, yeah, thepartnership is definitely very
exciting, that's wonderful, andthat's great.
Well.
Dr. Fonz Mendoza (36:05):
I'm really excited about that.
And, as far as short answer isconcerned, what might be
something?
Well, if you, if there are somethings that you may share,
especially here on the podcast,you know, maybe some things on
the roadmap or things that maybesome teachers might be able to
expect.
You know, I know the schoolyear has already started in many
areas, but maybe within thenext couple of months or, you
(36:27):
know, as through within thisnext school year, is there
anything that you guys might beable to share that maybe
teachers will be, you know, seenwithin the platform soon.
Adam Sparks (36:40):
Yeah Well, first of all, K-12 EdTech, and Short
Answer especially, is a lot liketeaching, in that you're
building the plane while you'reflying it, so we're always
adding new stuff, we're alwayschanging stuff, so you can
expect updates from us prettyconsistently, regardless of what
time of year it is.
So I already mentioned a couple.
So we launched QuickWrite, ourfirst AI-powered activity, last
(37:02):
spring.
We got a ton of feedback fromeducators as a part of some beta
testing.
We're going to be launchingupdates to QuickWrite based on
that feedback within the next.
Ooh, this is where I can't puta date on it Never give a date.
Because Alexa will get angry atme because she's the one that
has to make that new weapon,because she's the one that's
building it.
But the designs are all goodand I would say we're probably a
(37:24):
couple of weeks away fromlaunching those updates and I'm
excited about that.
So students are going to beable to and I'll just spill the
beans here we can break news onmy tech lab these students are
going to be able to revise andresubmit their writing after
they get AI feedback.
And what I'm excited about thatfor is because right now, so
they submit the writing, theyget a score, they reflect on
(37:45):
that feedback and they see as aclass, do we hit the goal or not
?
And that's kind of it they cantalk about, reflect on the
results, but that's kind of it.
And what teachers told us theywanted was no, no, no.
Now that they've got thefeedback, they should revise
what they wrote and resubmit itone they submitted or if they
can hit it, even though theydidn't hit it the first time, or
whatever.
So they're going to have thatability for the first time.
We're excited about that.
(38:05):
They're also going to have theability the teachers I mean to
pair kids up and like literallypick up your computer, go sit
next to your classmate and talkto each other about the feedback
that was provided to of likenot student to screen, student
to student type of instructionin QuickWrite, which I'm super
(38:26):
excited about.
So that's just the QuickWritestuff.
We've also got some PenPalsupdates coming, so PenPals was
the one Activity already justdescribed where it's like we're
having these bots argue aboutthe students' writing.
We're excited to take PenPalsout of beta testing and launch
it to the public in the next fewweeks and that will also
include some major updates thatI won't go into detail here but
(38:46):
will be live soon.
And then the larger buildingproject that I'm just going to
tease and not get into specificsabout that we're working on is
right now, I think short answeris a really incredible writing
practice platform.
I think we do a great job ofbeing a good place to embed
writing practice across thecurriculum Um.
But in moving forward, we alsowant to have the writing
(39:07):
instruction portion um which wehave in the in the you know the
short answer like slots innicely with any writing
curriculum that you might use.
So it's not to say that wedon't work with writing
instruction, but we actuallywant to have that supplemental
instructional piece within shortanswer.
Um, so that's kind of our very,very large building project
that we don't work with writinginstruction but we actually want
to have that supplementalinstructional piece within
Schwab Answer.
So that's kind of our very,very large building project that
will be slowly rolling out overthe course of the next 12
(39:29):
months and very, very excitedfor what that holds for us and
for our students and for ourteachers and schools.
Dr. Fonz Mendoza (39:36):
That's fantastic and that's such great
news and, like I said, it's justbeen so great from the last
time or the first time I shouldsay that you were on the show
and we're talking about.
You know short answer to howfar you've come and you just
continuing to grow and justreally, you know, boots on the
ground and taking feedback anddoing research and, like you
(39:59):
said, leading with researchfirst and good pedagogy.
I think that's something that'sgreat and fantastic, as opposed
to, you know, many other appsthat are out there that it's
just like, hey, like we're justthe tool, we're just pushing the
tool but not really trying to.
You know what is it that you'retrying to solve with that tool?
(40:19):
And here, yes, writing issomething that I know here in
Texas.
That is something that for sure, we definitely need our
practice on and, you know, justto have a great platform where
the students would be able topractice.
But, like you mentioned all thegreat things, to be able to
have those discussions and beable to give that feedback and
build on that feedback, I thinkthat's something that's great.
And then now the implementationof that writing instruction
(40:41):
also to help supplement, youknow, our educators with another
just great tool to have.
I think that's something that'sgreat and that's fantastic.
So I'm just really excitedabout the work that you're
currently doing right now, andthe work that you know will be
seen in the future.
And you know, it's just greatto see great people and great
friends just succeed and I thinkthat's what it's all about and
(41:04):
just having that community andjust building something that's
great.
So thank you guys for the workthat you guys are doing.
This is fantastic and it'sgreat.
So I want to ask you now youknow now where are you headed
next?
Like, let us know whatconferences you have coming up
next.
You know right now I knowyou've been a little quiet cause
it's been the summer and so on,but is there any conferences
(41:24):
that you've got coming up nextthat maybe our listeners will be
like oh, you know, maybe I'mnearby, maybe you know and come
and check you guys out.
Adam Sparks (41:32):
Uh well, first of all, this has been I'm not
exaggerating when I say thisthis has been the longest
stretch that I've been home uh,for I don't even remember how
many months and when I saylongest stretch, I mean I've
been home for more than sevendays straight.
It's been very nice.
So I haven't, frankly, beenthinking about what's next.
But what's next for us?
I can pull up my calendar.
Alexa Sparks (41:54):
I'll be at GATC.
You'll be somewhere in.
Sacramento yeah.
Adam Sparks (41:58):
Yeah, I'm going to be at Sacramento at the Vibe
Shift Conference.
That's in November.
Alexa is going to be at GATC,which is in Georgia, I think
that's in November as well.
I'm going to be keynoting withLearning Forward Kansas, which
is an amazing instructionalorganization.
We're going to be doing our AIwriting workshop with those
(42:22):
folks Well, kind of an adjustedversion of it in Kansas.
My goodness.
We're going to be at theNational Council of Teachers of
English Conference in Denver,and I think that's also in
November.
That's going to be a big onefor us.
I'm super excited about that.
We're going to be at the IowaCouncil of Teachers of English
in Des Moines here in a coupleweeks A couple, I think about a
week.
(42:42):
See notice that I don't have thedates because my mind is on
like finally can breathe mode,so I haven't exactly been
counting down the days to this.
But but I am very, very excitedfor all of those and more.
You know we're also going to beable to.
For context, after Alexagraduated from Stanford in June,
we moved back to Nebraska, sowe're now based in Nebraska
again, and so I'm so excited toconnect with more local
(43:04):
educators here in the state.
You know we've got all sorts ofpartner teachers that are local
that I'm excited to go sit inthe back of their classroom and
be a fly on the wall and learnabout what's going well and
what's not going well with shortanswer here in eastern Nebraska
, but also in western Iowa withsome schools.
So that's on the docket as well, alexa.
(43:25):
What am I missing?
Is that all the stuff?
Alexa Sparks (43:29):
It's all the stuff in the near future.
Adam Sparks (43:31):
That's all the stuff in the next two months.
Dr. Fonz Mendoza (43:35):
But I love it.
I love it Like you guysdefinitely deserve all of this
and the continued success,because the work that you're
doing and just thank you so much.
I do want to add I think Ireally appreciate your
authenticity, your genuinenessand just really just your
humility in that you speak witheverybody.
I mean seeing you guys at ISTEand in action and getting to
(43:57):
know you.
I think that's something that'sgreat, that you are there,
you're present, you know peoplecome to the booth, you talk to
them, you engage with them, youlisten and I think that's
something that's so importantthat, regardless of you know,
obviously, a lot of platformsthat are out there.
I think that speaks volumes.
You know, it doesn't matter howshiny their booths are and
(44:19):
whatnot but.
I think just that authenticityand genuineness really sets you
all apart and I want to thankyou for that and I just wish you
the best and continued successin everything that you do, guys.
And, as always, you're alwayswelcome back to the show at any
time, any updates and all that.
You know that this is yourplatform and you're always
welcome here.
So thank you so much for beinghere with me today.
(44:40):
Get you know, giving us someupdates, talking to us, and I'm
just really excited about youknow the future.
But before we wrap up, as youknow, I always love to end the
show with these last threequestions and, um, I know that
this is Alexa's first time here,so I'm not sure, alexa, you
know, did you get to?
You know, kind of think aboutthese questions and everything
(45:00):
you know.
I want to make sure that we'reall good.
I know Adam, this is this thirdtime with these questions and
I'm curious to hear from him,but I'll go ahead and start the
first one with you, alexa, youbeing the first time guest here.
So, as we know, every superherohas a pain point or a weakness.
For Superman, that kryptonitewas, uh, his weakness.
(45:22):
So I want to ask you, alexa, inthe current state of ed tech or
education in general, whatwould you say would be your
current edu kryptonite?
Alexa Sparks (45:33):
okay, I don't know if this counts, but when I read
that question I just thought oftime just for myself in terms
of like we have such ambitiousgoals with short answer and like
have such a vision of what thetool can be and I just find
myself kind of fighting timeevery day because you know it's
Adam and I and Adam doesn'tcodes.
(45:53):
We have a contractor but it'slike two two people coding and I
can help, but it only takes youso far and so just just time
right now, Not enough time.
Adam Sparks (46:03):
Time is my kryptonite.
That sounds like a song lyricor something.
Dr. Fonz Mendoza (46:07):
Yeah, that is a great answer.
That is a great answer.
Thank you All right, adam.
How about yourself?
What would you say is yourcurrent edu, kryptonite?
Hold on real quick.
Adam Sparks (46:17):
Well, you know what , in the spirit of the
conversation we've had, I wouldjust say the ed tech bubble, you
(46:40):
new world of AI, where I thinkrightfully, there's a lot of
skepticism and fear around whatAI means for learning, and so I
think we need to be more open todialogue around that skepticism
.
So that would be my AIkryptonite in the spirit of this
conversation.
Dr. Fonz Mendoza (46:56):
All right, Great answer.
All right, Adam.
Question number two.
We'll start off with you.
If you could have a billboardwith anything on it, what would
it be and why?
Adam Sparks (47:05):
You're not going to like your suit of cloth, but it
would be right better together.
Go to myshortanswercom and useshort answer because we are.
There's a new term.
I didn't even know we were this, but we are seed strapped, so
essentially bootstrapped.
We do not have venture capitalfunding in the way that a lot of
(47:27):
big ed tech startups do, so ourmarketing budget's pretty
limited, so if you're going togive me a free billboard, I'm
putting short answer on there.
And we're marketing.
Alexa Sparks (47:39):
Short answer to whoever's driving by that
billboard for better or forworse.
Perfect Adam, I laugh becausewe did not talk about this
beforehand and I had the sameexact thought I was like, right,
better together with a qr.
Dr. Fonz Mendoza (47:50):
Yes, I was just about to mention the qr
code you have to have the qrcode there.
Adam Sparks (47:57):
Hold on hold on a qr code is not safe little
billboard, because then you'reon their phone trying to scan a
qr code.
That that sounds like that'strue, but that was wet pot.
Alexa Sparks (48:07):
But I also thought like, oh, we don't have money
for marketing, it's great yeah,it's a free billboard.
Dr. Fonz Mendoza (48:16):
Write better together, I love it.
Oh, that's a great, I love it.
So, alexa, I'm assuming thatwould that was your answer too,
right, you said?
Alexa Sparks (48:22):
yeah, no, and that's funny because I did not
talk to him beforehand.
Dr. Fonz Mendoza (48:26):
But that's great.
You guys are definitely in sync, so that's wonderful, all right
.
So, alexa, last question foryou is if you could trade places
with anyone, any single person,for a day, who would that be,
and why?
Alexa Sparks (48:41):
Okay, I teetered between two people, but I think
it would be honestly right now,just because of the buzz, sam
Altman, because I'd want to bein the room and have those
conversations Like what arepeople who are, like, at the
forefront of this technologyreally saying about it behind
the scenes?
Like do they actually believeAGI is possible with the current
(49:01):
architecture?
Or like what do they know thatI don't know?
I would be very curious aboutthis.
Dr. Fonz Mendoza (49:09):
All right, great answer.
All right, adam.
How about yourself?
Adam Sparks (49:14):
That's a great response.
I said this last time, but Ithink I'll say it again.
This is just the social studiesteacher in me.
I would want to be thepresident for a day, just to
experience all the things youjust said, except at an
international political level,like what's going on behind the
scenes.
I mean that for anyadministration, not just the
(49:35):
current one, but just likewhat's actually going on behind
the scenes.
What's it like to be behind thedesk of the Oval Office?
What's all the secrets that Icould learn in a day as the
president?
Yeah, that would be me.
I would be fascinated.
I would just love to spend aday in the White House.
Alexa Sparks (49:51):
That's a good answer, Adam.
My other one was Taylor Swift.
Adam Sparks (49:55):
Of course.
Dr. Fonz Mendoza (49:57):
Of course no, and that's great.
I love it.
I love it.
I love it.
Well, Adam, Alexa, thank you somuch just for being an amazing
guest and, again, sincerely, Iwish you guys the most success
possible, because you guys aregreat and you guys are
passionate about what you do andI definitely love your research
.
First approach to you, knowwhat you're building and that's
(50:19):
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Hello everybody and welcome to another
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So thank you as always.
And today, ladies and gentlemen, I your name out there.
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And today, ladies and gentlemen,I have a wonderful show and, of
course, I say that all the time, but the guests that I have
today are people that I go wayback with, and if you are
(01:33):
looking right now at the video,you see Adam Sparks, and he's
been on the show before and he'salso been on an AI panel show
that I've done, and now we'rejoined by his wife, also Alexis
Sparks, and I am really excitedto talk about the amazing work
that they are doing.
If you're not familiar withtheir work yet, I promise you
(01:54):
after today you will enjoy whatthey are doing through their
amazing platform called ShortAnswer, and so today we're going
to have a great conversation ofjust pedagogy questions AI.
We're going to talk about ShortAnswer.
We're going to talk about agreat partnership with Short
Answer, and I won't give it, Iwon't spill it, but Short Answer
(02:15):
has partnered up with someamazing people and you know I'm
just excited for today's chat.
So, adam, alexa, thank you somuch for joining me today.
Adam, how are you doing?
Adam Sparks (02:26):
Doing well.
Thanks for having us, fonz,it's good to be back, and
congratulations again.
I know we're talking beforethis started, but now that we're
officially on the record,congratulations to you, for,
since we last spoke, you justfinished your doctorate, which
is like incredible.
Dr. Fonz Mendoza (02:37):
Yes, thank you .
Thank you.
I really appreciate it andagain, you know, because of work
, having you on the show andpeople like you on the show, it
was just great to be able todocument all of that and put
that into my research and mystudy.
I mean, I never thought thatthe podcast would turn into a
research study, so that has beenphenomenal.
And, alexa, thank you so muchfor joining us this first time.
(03:00):
I know that Adam has spoken sohighly of you and the work that
you were doing.
I know that Adam has spoken sohighly of you and the work that
you were doing and you know, Iknow you were studying in
Stanford, so maybe you didn'thave a lot of time, you know, to
be on, but I am thankful that Igot to meet you at ISTE.
We got to talk.
You connected me with somewonderful people too as well
through LinkedIn and how are youdoing today?
Alexa Sparks (03:21):
Doing?
Great Thanks for having me onthis podcast.
Dr. Fonz Mendoza (03:24):
Excellent.
Alexa Sparks (03:24):
Definitely nice to have some time to do this.
Dr. Fonz Mendoza (03:27):
This is actually my first podcast, so
I'm nervous, but I'm excited,all right, no you're going to be
great, and I think actually,you guys are my second couple
that has been on here.
Big shout out to Maury Beasley,who was on the show with her
husband too, and so I think,yeah, you are definitely the
second couple on and it's greatjust to see just a wonderful
(03:50):
EdTech couple doing some greatwork and, you know, it's great
to just catch up.
So, but before we get startedand we dive in, I definitely
want to get a little briefintroduction and what your
context is within the educationspace, and so we'll go ahead and
start with you, adam.
Give us a little bit about your, tell us a little bit about
yourself and the work thatyou're doing.
Adam Sparks (04:11):
Yeah, so my name is Adam Sparks.
I was a classroom teacher forseven years.
I taught middle and high schoolsocial studies and English and
loved it and fell in love withed tech during that prep you
know, during my time in theclassroom and wanted to build it
, and so I applied for master'sprograms and went and got my
master's in learning, design andtechnology, where I built what
became Short Answer.
So it was just supposed to bemy master's project but we got
(04:34):
some grant funding and launchedit about two years ago and I've
been building it since.
It's a K-12 writing platformthat just embeds short form
gamified writing practice acrossthe curriculum.
So I'm happy to share moreabout it and I'm honored to be
building it with my wife, alexa.
So, alexa, if you want tointroduce yourself and your
context, yeah, sure.
Alexa Sparks (04:52):
Hey everyone, I'm Alexa.
My background with education isa little bit windy.
Adam and I taught English inChina for a year and while I
felt that was a really hard yearand it taught me that you know
teaching is very hard classroommanagement especially is very
difficult Adam told me that thatwas like the easiest job he'd
had, compared to like teachingin the US.
(05:13):
So I gained a lot of empathythat year.
I gained a lot of interest injust like ed tech and how much
it was helping Adam during histeaching year in the classroom.
But my background really ismore in the software engineering
side.
I've worked at different kindof ed tech startups, in the
Midwest mainly, but then I alsojust recently went to Stanford
(05:35):
to study education data science.
So that was where I really tookmy like technical expertise and
combined it with the datascience piece and learn more
about education, research anddiving into the learning
sciences and things like that.
Dr. Fonz Mendoza (05:50):
Excellent.
Well, that's great, and what Ilove about this is like, just
like you said, you know, comingat it from different
perspectives, you've got boththe education experience, but
then you know Adam and workingthrough Short Answer, now, both
of you working on this and justgetting to do this together.
I think that's something that'sfantastic.
Number one it's just great thatyou get to work with each other
(06:11):
as a couple, but also just theamazing work that you're doing,
and I know that the last timethat we caught up was at.
ISTE, and that was definitely acouple of weeks back, and but I
mean just to hear and see theamazing work that you all are
doing and where you've been, Imean nonstop go, go, go.
It has been wonderful to seejust the growth since the first
(06:31):
time that Adam was on the showand just sharing a short answer
here on the podcast, and now youknow the miles that you've
traveled, the work that you'veput in and the countless
teachers and students that youhave affected in such a positive
way because of your platform.
So we'll definitely get intothat before, but before actually
(06:52):
, I want to touch on somethingthat you know a little bit of
serious talk here about you knowthe ed tech space and so on,
and I know one of the thingsthat I do appreciate about Adam
is that he has always been upfor discourse and up for
discussion and always been ableto just go back and forth and
share and learn and it's justbeen something phenomenal.
And I know when I ran into youat ISTE, adam, I said you know
(07:15):
what I would love to do apodcast and talk a little bit
about this Substack article thatyou posted way back when, on
June 27th, that I was like whoa,like this is something that's
great, and I think it'ssomething that a lot of people
need to hear, and you know thetitle of the Substack and we'll
pop it in the show notes tooit's EdTech Needs More
(07:37):
Dialectical Thinking, and so,adam, I want to ask you right
now, and start off with you asfar as dialectical thinking Can
you tell us a little bit aboutnumber one, what inspired this
post?
Because there's so much in herethat I definitely want to unpack
.
So tell me a little bit aboutyou know, after short answer
comes out, ai is go, go, go,move fast, break things or just
(08:02):
kind of move fast and just goeverywhere.
What happened?
What were your thoughts nowwhen you wrote this sub stack?
Alexa Sparks (08:09):
Yeah, well, this is for first for context.
Adam Sparks (08:17):
The dialectical thinking is just maybe a
pretentious way of saying justengaging with viewpoints that
are different from your own.
So just intentionally engagingwith people that have different
worldviews from you, that aredifferent from your own.
So just intentionally engagingwith people that have different
worldviews from you?
And what inspired the post waswhat's funny.
It was interacting with peopleunintentionally that had very
different viewpoints from me andgetting into a situation that I
didn't expect.
Alexa and I co-presented at aresearch ed conference in
(08:39):
Delaware this past fall Because,as we have talked about on this
podcast in the past, we takeefficacy and growing out of our
research base very seriously, inshort answer, and we think it's
something that, generallyspeaking, the H1BED tech market
could do a better job of.
That's a whole otherconversation.
So, anyway, as a part of thatwork, we wanted to present at a
research conference, and so wewere really the only ed tech
(09:03):
folks at the conference.
It was our first time attendinga research ed conference.
It's an organization that I'velong been aware of, just as a.
It's an organization built tosort of bridge research-based
best practice with just dailyclassroom pedagogy and making
research applicable to classroomcontexts, so I've long relied
on it for, just like guidance onbest practices in teaching and
(09:23):
learning.
But this is our first timepresenting at it, and we arrived
there and quickly found outthat K-12 ed tech is viewed as
in a very negative light, Iwould say, and that was
expressed in different ways overthe course of the conference,
but most clearly in the closingkeynote that was recorded as a
podcast and shared out, in whichthey essentially bashed on ed
(09:44):
tech for an hour, and I thoughtthat it was unproductive in a
lot of different ways.
But it was also interesting inthat, like it was the I think,
maybe the first time that I'dbeen to a conference to share
our work at short answer and Iactually walked away with, like
my beliefs being challenged andlike me thinking critically
about things in a completelydifferent light, that kind of
(10:05):
burst, the bubble I was livingin and helped me realize how
much of a bubble EdTech is, andso I wrote that article in the
lead up to ISTE, because ISTEmight be the biggest bubble of
them all.
You know it's like the biggestcelebration of EdTech in the
world.
To my knowledge, I think it'sthe biggest K-12 ed tech
oriented conference in the world.
Um, and it's a celebration ofed tech, as it should be, and I
(10:29):
and I was excited to go down toand celebrate ed tech with other
people that, like me, believethat ed tech has tremendous
potential to improve learningoutcomes for kids and and
improve teachers lives andimprove schools and blah, blah,
blah, um.
So I don't want to pretend likeI like I'm not an ed tech hater
by any means.
I just think I learned so muchfrom engaging from that
conference and engaging withfolks that had different beliefs
(10:50):
than me, and I think, generallyspeaking, especially at ed tech
conferences, but just in edtech in general, we could do a
much better job and we'd be muchbetter off if we were more
deliberate about engaging withpeople that have different
beliefs from us, especially aswe head into the age of AI,
where there's a lot ofskepticism and worry I think
rightfully so around what AImeans for teaching, but
(11:17):
especially what it means forlearning, and so, yeah, so I
wrote the blog post just as a,hopefully as a way of kicking
off conversation, and I wasactually pleasantly surprised
with what I experienced at ISTE.
It wasn't, you know, the bubble,that I don't get me wrong.
It is definitely a celebrationof ed tech and there's a lot of,
I think, blinders on for a lotof folks there.
But at the same time, forexample, I was really impressed
that they had a research trackthat was just for researchers to
get up and present, which Alexadid an excellent job of.
(11:40):
Alexa presented with May Tan,one of her research
collaborators at Stanford, onsome of the research that they
did on AI and its ability toprovide feedback on student
writing, so I wasn't even awarethat ISTE did something like
that.
I thought that was a good stepin the right direction, but I
think, just in general as awhole, the K-12 ed tech market
has a long ways to go in termsof more deliberately engaging
with folks that have differentworldviews, that don't
(12:02):
necessarily believe in ed tech.
Dr. Fonz Mendoza (12:04):
Yeah, Alexa and I want to ask you what has
been your experience.
I know you know Adam's kind ofbeen, you know, at the forefront
and kind of like the face ofshort answer, and I know that
you were involved in yourstudies and so on.
But now that you're at theseconferences and you're meeting
people, talking to them and ofcourse you know, as Adam shared
his experience, like whoa, likeyou know, just all of a sudden,
(12:28):
what you might have thought wasthat you were doing or going in
the right direction.
All of a sudden, like there'ssomebody that says, well, wait a
minute, like no, what were yourthoughts?
What was going on through yourmind?
Alexa Sparks (12:40):
Yeah, I think that's a good question.
I guess for starters it is verylike palpable the difference
between going to like an ed techfocused conference and working
especially at the vendor boothand having conversation.
People are generally more likeexcited to hear about what
you're doing and open to whatthe product does and they've
(13:01):
accepted ed tech is like a goodthing.
So I think research ed was justvery eye opening because it was
like we're starting from.
Ed tech isn't default good, weactually here think ed tech is
kind of default bad, proved tous how your product isn't just
like more of the same thing thatwe're criticizing in the ed
tech space and so but I wasproud coming out of it because
(13:25):
you know not to toot our own.
So I, but I was proud comingout of it because you know not
to toot our own horns.
But, short answer, did grow outof like a research base and we
are being very intentional aboutlike how we think it should be
incorporated in the classroom.
We don't want to be and like weuse like, for example, things,
likeification, like we usegamified tactics that we're not
(13:45):
like playing just games in theclassroom to like entice kids.
I think just to answer yourquestion leaving research ed.
It was jarring.
I was a little bit shocked atthe ending keynote, but I think
overall it was good because Ilike to come from a like a
centrist view on things ingeneral and I think research had
(14:07):
just kind of reminded us thatwe have to be in the middle,
like it's not all good, it's notall bad, it's just yeah,
there's both, you know exactlyand and that's something that's
great and right now that youmentioned that, it's something
that I know through the podcastand relatively early I know that
that I was like, oh my gosh,november 2022.
Dr. Fonz Mendoza (14:27):
And I was like , oh my gosh, let's go all in
until March 2023 when I wasdoing some research for one of
my doctoral studies and they'relike, oh yeah, you know, write
about something that's going onin ed tech right now.
And I was like, okay, ai.
And then I got into obviously,the privacy, the you know terms
of service data and all of that.
And then that was like whatcaused like just to kind of
(14:49):
really pump the brakes on youknow, just really moving forward
and just do a lot more research.
And and I always give credit toDr Nika McGee, who that's the
first person that I ever heardsay cautious advocate, and I
just kind of adopted that.
Where you know it's, I findmyself in the middle too, and
that's why I love having theseconversations and especially
bringing people on like you whoare at the front of, you know,
(15:13):
using a platform, developing aplatform and bringing that into
the classroom, and just to hearyou kind of say like, wow, you
know, this kind of caused us tokind of take a step back.
So I kind of want to ask you,as far as that kind of hearing
that message, what were some ofthe shifts?
And I'll start with you, alexa,if you don't mind sharing, and
(15:34):
then Adam can add to it but whatwere some of the shifts that
you've made or decided to makeafter you know that conference
that y'all went to, as far asthe platform or AI in general?
Alexa Sparks (15:52):
That's a good question.
I feel like Adam would actuallybe good to tackle this, just
because he usually the way ourworkflow works is that he'll
start with like from with designand ideation, and then, after
he gets that initial idea out onFigma, then it comes to me and
it's like let's talk about liketechnical feasibility.
So I think he'd be bettersuited to answer this question
(16:16):
just because he was the persondoing the initial designs.
Sounds good, adam.
Adam Sparks (16:22):
No, it's a straightforward answer.
It's just lead with theresearch.
And when I say lead with theresearch, I don't mean your
users are going to give youfeedback on what they want in
your product and what you shoulddesign, but it means balancing
what they want with whatresearch says is best practice,
which is actually sometimesharder than may seem on the
surface.
And so, for example, we've reada lot of the research and Alexa
(16:44):
has done original research thatis really cool and she should
talk about on AI and its abilityto provide feedback on
students' writing, and so therehas been some research that came
out recently.
Maybe we can link in the shownotes on that.
Ai is effective at providinglow-stakes, daily formative
writing on kids' feedback andit's pretty good at scoring
(17:08):
writing.
Just in terms of relative tohow humans score it with a
rubric and relative to how AIscores it with a rubric, it's
not statistically significantlydifferent from one another.
So that was what initially gaveus the confidence to build out
our first AI feedback activity,in short answer, which is called
Quick Write, which is just kidsget proficiency scores based on
different success criteria setby the teacher.
They're working together as agroup to try to hit a class
score goal together.
(17:29):
So that's the game, and so it'sa cooperative game where
they're reflecting and gettingAI feedback, getting AI feedback
and then reflecting on ittogether.
That grew directly out ofresearch that we read, partly as
a result of going to aconference like ResearchEd,
where they're, of course,advocating for leading with
research-based best practice inteaching and learning.
And then I also think, justbecause of that worldview of
(17:53):
wanting to encourage moreskepticism towards ai and not
just take it at face value andnot just take the outputs as
true because, as we know, aioften hallucinates we also
designed out a new activity inshort answer called pen pals um,
and in pen pals um we'vecreated these like spicy
personality ai characters thatthe class can pick and then
(18:13):
those characters essentiallyhave arguments about the kids
writing, and then the class canpick and then those characters
essentially have arguments aboutthe kids' writing, and then the
class discuss those argumentsand vote for the AI pinpile that
they agree more with.
So, of course, the primary goalthere is to improve learning
outcomes by getting the kids tothink about the different
success criteria, but thesecondary goal is to encourage
kids to challenge AI's outputsand not just accept them on face
(18:34):
value and debate them, and it'salmost like using AI as like a
foil in the classroom.
It's like we have the teacher,we have the students, then we
have this AI thing that we canargue with and debate with.
But again, don't just take itas face value and like the AI,
feedback is the end, all be all.
Let's question it and challengeit, discuss it and make it a
way to make the class moresocial.
And I would say, in some ways,all that grew directly out of
(18:55):
our experience at ResearchEd andbeing encouraged to lead with
ResearchFirst.
So as challenging as thatconference was for me and as
frankly frustrating as it wasfor me, I do think we got better
as a result and I think ourproduct got better as a result.
And that's again going back tolike why I was promoting
dialectical thinking in thatpost.
Dr. Fonz Mendoza (19:16):
Yeah, no, I do think oh sorry, go ahead.
Oh, no, no, no, go ahead, goahead.
Alexa Sparks (19:20):
I was just thinking, like now that he said
that, going back to leavingresearch, that I do think we did
double down and we stillcontinue to double down let
students connect with each other, because one of the criticisms
of research at research ed wasvery much, like you know,
technology kind ofindividualizes the learning
(19:41):
process and that's notnecessarily what we want.
So, like I think we did kind ofhave leave with some kind of
reinforced core principles, likefocusing on the peer-to-peer
element, and for me and a lot ofmy research at Stanford, I
think I left Stanford moreskeptical of AI than I entered
(20:01):
in my two-year master's degree.
So definitely for me personally, it's very important because of
the hallucination, because ofyeah, you know the very real
flaws of AI to not have AI bethis like prescriptive entity
within our app where it's likestudents have the final, you
know opportunity to say whetheror not they agree with the
(20:23):
feedback or like have adiscussion with the class about
why, or why, like, the outputisn't good or is good um, yeah,
(20:48):
so just kind of piggybacking offwhat Adam said, just kind of
that idea of just like pushingit, and then all of a sudden,
now, even within our circlebecause for the most part it's
the same kind of group or youknow people and so on and all of
a sudden, like I've seen, manythat have kind of also started
pumping the brakes on this.
Dr. Fonz Mendoza (21:06):
But one of the things that I love that you
mentioned is, although yourplatform does have that AI
component, like you mentioned,it's you have the student, the
teacher and that AI component,but you're really, you know,
allowing the students to havethat discourse, that discussion,
that going back and forth andstill being able to make the
(21:28):
classroom interactive.
And it's not like really,although the tech is there, it
to me it doesn't seem and theway that I've seen it, it's not
like really just the platform isthe center of the activity.
You've got a lot of things thatare going on there too as well,
and that's one of the thingsthat I do enjoy, that, as we've,
you know, through the years andthe months that have gone by,
(21:51):
as we talk about personalizedlearning and personalized
learning bites, we talk aboutpersonalized learning and
personalized learning, and to meit just seems like you just
kind of you're putting the kidson this computer but they're not
getting to do a lot of thediscourse or having that talk.
It's almost like I forget whothe guest was that said, you
know, I just get on the chat botand just put IDK, idk, idk, and
it's just going to give me theanswer and there really isn't
(22:13):
anything that I'm going to learnfrom it.
It has no context, it doesn'tknow anything about me, but yet
we want to put them on thesedevices and or, you know, with
the platforms.
But a platform like yours, likeyou said, it's for writing.
You've got feedback, you've gotdiscussion, you've got the
teacher.
You know, within the activitytoo as well.
(22:35):
I think that's something thatis great and really like good
practice, as opposed to justletting the AI take care of
everything, and so I thinkthat's something that I really
do enjoy, and you know the workthat you are doing, and I know
that I've seen a lot of greatfeedback on your platform from a
lot of people on all socialmedia.
So I mean, I think that thefact that you're taking the time
(22:57):
to continually listen and learnand kind of take things back a
little bit and say, hey, maybelet's do it this way or do it
that way.
I think that's something that'svery important to be able to
improvise, adapt and overcomebased on the situation and
what's happening.
So I think that you guys aredoing a fantastic job with that
and that shows, really, with thegrowth and that you guys are
(23:19):
everywhere too.
I mean, there was a point intime where you were like at
every conference, like week byweek, which has been great just
to see that growth too as well.
But going a little bit back intothat conference mode, I know
one of the things that we oftentalk about is and you mentioned
it it's just kind of like, youknow, the AI kind of bubble,
like we're kind of in a littlebubble.
(23:40):
We're kind of like within ourown little echo chambers,
chambers where maybe we see alot of focus on the tool and
just really tool heavy and not,you know, responsible or
responsive pedagogy.
(24:00):
That is solid and good.
So I just want to get your idea, alexa, that you know, starting
with you maybe now that you'vegotten to present at a
conference, and seeing what isout there, what are your
thoughts on that?
You know, as far as seeingmaybe a lot of conferences just
be at first, and then you know,pedagogy second yeah, I never
(24:22):
see it as like a practicalreality, like something born out
of practical practicality.
Alexa Sparks (24:27):
like I think you know, up until two years ago has
it been three years now thechat, gpt became very popular in
the mainstream.
There weren't tools that likemade lesson planning extremely
quick or like that couldactually like save teachers like
a meaningful amount of time.
So I guess I just see when Ithink about like why are there
(24:47):
so many just like tool focusedpresentations at conferences?
I just think it was like bornof necessity.
It was like you know, you don'thave a lot of time, we want to
give you the most bang for yourbuck right here.
Ok, here's a list of tools.
I've kind of pre-vetted thesefor you.
Whoever I am and you knowusually it's teachers telling
other teachers, so they're likethis is what's worked for me.
I want to share that with mycolleagues or other teachers
(25:10):
across the nation, and so I'mjust going to put this
presentation together with toolsthat worked for me.
Um, so I don't really, you know, and unfortunate you know
that's unfortunate because youdon't get into like the meaty
pedagogy or things but I do kindof see it as something that was
just really born out of, likejust the practical, like it just
seems like a natural responseto a profession that had you
(25:31):
know, had a lot of time-relatedburdens.
How about you, adam?
Adam Sparks (25:38):
yeah, no, I think that's.
I think you're right, alexa.
It's like, um, at a conferenceyou're given like a 45 minute
session and that short amount oftime it's it's hard to cover.
And I feel this a lot when Ipresent.
It's like because we alwayswant to lead with pedagogy.
You certainly don't want tomake it so theoretical that the
teachers walk away feeling likeyou just talked at a 10,000 foot
level about theory and theydidn't get anything practical.
(25:58):
So it's because you have such atime constrained environment,
it kind of lends itself to likeyeah, let me just quickly just
hit you with a fire hose oftools, tools, tools and ways
that you can tools, tools, tools, and that's like teachers like
(26:22):
that, frankly, like a lot ofteachers like that, because
they're like like I'm here tofind to kind of put tools in my
tool belt, um, and unfortunately, taken to the extreme though,
it does just result inpresentations that are just sort
of vendor sessions, especiallywhere we're just we're just
hawking different productswithout really talking about the
problems that they're solving,and we're kind of putting the
cart before the horse in thatsense.
And um, and I think, yeah, Ithink it's been unproductive, um
, but, but I also think, movingforward, I I do see this getting
(26:46):
slowly better.
Um, I was encouraged when ascdand isty, two very large,
influential organizations,merged.
Um, asccd is the kind of bigcurriculum instruction
professional developmentorganization in the United
States, iste, of course, the biged tech one, and the merging of
those two things I think is agood thing and sort of symbolic
(27:07):
and something that I'm seeing inschool districts across the
country, which is that thereused to be silos and there still
are silos of like the ed techcoaches are over here and then,
like the teaching and learningcurriculum instruction folks are
over here and there's certainlya lot of overlap, but they're
separate spheres and I'mincreasingly seeing that there's
not, we're not doing separatespheres anymore.
(27:27):
It's like you're just aninstructional coach, technology
is like an assumed part of whatyou do, and so we're going to
leave with best practice inteaching and learning and we'll
talk about tech.
But we're going to talk abouttech as a means to actualize
best practices in teaching andlearning, not as this separate
thing.
That is an end in and of itself.
And I think if I have one majorcriticism of K-12 ed tech
(27:50):
conferences it would be thatit's oftentimes you go into
presentations and you walk awayfeeling like ed tech is an end
in and of itself.
It's not.
It's not a tool, it's not ameans to an end of learning.
It's like, no, no, no, just usethe ed tech and then we will
have been successful.
And it's like well, I thinkwe've lost the thread here a
little bit, but you know that'sa criticism, but I also don't
(28:12):
want to be too negative becauseI do think it's getting better
for all the reasons I just said.
Dr. Fonz Mendoza (28:16):
Yeah, no, and you know one thing that I do
agree with you on that you knowjust the fact that you know,
ascd and ISTE came together andI had the opportunity to be
there and actually moderate apanel and be and being able to
see district leaders there.
You know, before it's, you knowyou go to a presentation, it's
only the ed tech people becauseit, but now it's, you get a nice
(28:39):
mix of people that are, youknow, those curriculum and
instruction departments comingyear.
That's what it's.
We're moving more towards whereour amazing, you know content
(29:09):
coordinators now, before theyused to always, you know, just
focus on the how, you know howto teach things, that pedagogy.
Well, now, you know, we're,we're slowly like rounding them
out and now they're going to bedoing some of the ad tech as
well.
But, like you said, it's, we'regoing to show you the how to
teach it, the pedagogy, and thenthe tech that will supplement,
(29:31):
you know, that learning, and Ithink that's something that's
great and fantastic that I'mreally looking forward to.
And, like you said, you know,things change.
You know we are seeing a lot ofthose conferences where it's
tech first and or tool driven,and now I think we will start
seeing that shift.
So it's really exciting just tohave been able to see
everything that's been happeningsince, you know, november 2022
(29:55):
and till now, and how it's stilljust continually evolving and
moving forward.
So I want to ask you now youknow, because I did see and for
our audience members maybe thatdon't follow you on social media
, please make sure that youfollow Short Answer on social
media as well and make sure youfollow Adam and Alexa.
You just, you know, go to theirwebsite, get on their socials,
(30:16):
because they share so many greatthings.
But I know one of the bigthings that I wanted to talk to
you about is your newpartnership, so can you tell us
a little bit about that and howthat came about?
Adam Sparks (30:27):
Yeah, yeah.
We just formed a partnershipwith Edger Protocols, which is
this amazing kind of thing Idon't want to describe them
incorrectly it's multi-acid, butit's multi-acid.
But it's essentially anorganization that promotes high
quality pedagogy across K-12through what are essentially
(30:48):
like lesson frames, and I couldgo into more detail of all of
them, but the first lesson framethat we have embedded in Short
Answer as a part of thispartnership is called Random
Emoji Power Paragraph, which isone of their more popular edge
of protocols.
And so in Random Emoji PowerParagraph, which is one of their
more popular edge of protocols,and so in Random Emoji Power
Paragraph, there's a randomemoji generator, as it sounds
(31:09):
like from the title, and sowe've embedded that in short
answer.
And the challenge for the kidsbecomes no matter what, you can
cover any content with this.
So we do it in history doscience, math, like this,
whatever, but whatever content.
You do science math electives,whatever, but whatever content
you're teaching, you're going tobe challenged to write one
paragraph, five sentences, andfor each sentence we're going to
generate a random emoji and youhave to connect your learning
(31:31):
in some way to that random emoji.
So one for each.
So there's five emojis.
You've got five sentences.
You're going to connect eachsentence to each emoji and as
you're doing that, you're havingto find how to fit that
together into a coherentparagraph.
That doesn't sound like totalgibberish, which is fun for the
kids because it's really hard,but it's also challenging kids
to think analogically, makinganalogies to different things
(31:54):
and challenging with the writingstructure in the process.
So it's perfect for us, givenour focus on writing and their
focus and and uh, its approachand how fun it is right, because
we want to be a sort ofgamified fun writing platform.
So uh yeah, so we just built repsorry, random emoji paragraph
short for the short version thatis called rep uh into short
(32:16):
answer.
Um, as our first of hopefullyseveral more edge protocols that
will be embedded right intoshort answer.
This all came about, um,through our.
Actually I connected with ateacher in California.
His name's Robert Mayfield.
He teaches at Ripon High School.
He's an incredible socialstudies teacher.
He was using short answer quitea bit and he also does a lot
with edgy protocols and he waspresenting at Spring Q.
(32:40):
Q is California's big epic edtech conference in Palm Springs
every spring and he asked me toco-present with him on how he
uses short answer and I wasgoing to help him with that, but
then also on how they use shortanswer to actualize edge
protocols.
And that was kind of my firstforay into this world.
I'd always heard about edgeprotocols.
My cousin, michael Krambeck,who teaches social studies here
in Nebraska, was always a hugeadvocate and was always trying
(33:01):
to get me to use it when I wasteaching.
But I just never did and themore I learned about it the more
I believed in it both.
Just like the pedagogy isactualizing how much teachers
raved about it and how muchteachers love edger protocols.
That was the biggest swingthing for me.
It was just like being in thoserooms at Q and talking to all
these teachers that use edgerprotocols every day and how much
time it saves them and howeffective it is for their kids.
(33:22):
And I actually wrote about edgeprotocols in the um in the blog
post we referenced earlier thedialectical thinking one,
because something I love aboutedge protocols is they always
lead with results.
It's not just research they'releading with.
Like here are my kids prior tousing these and here are where
my kids are at after using themand like you can see the growth,
growth.
So I loved everything about itand so we were super excited to
(33:43):
form that partnership with JohnCarripo, who's the head of edge
protocols, and Marlena Hepburn,who helps John out quite a bit.
And yeah, I'm happy to get intoany more detail with that if
you want, but super excited to.
We announced that a couple ofweeks ago to kick off the new
school year.
Dr. Fonz Mendoza (33:59):
No, and that's something that's fantastic.
The new school year?
No, and that's something that'sfantastic.
John's been on the show beforeand, boy, I don't know where he
gets that much energy from, and.
I mean seriously that guy iseverywhere and I really love
what they do through eduprotocols and, like you said,
being able to see that growthfrom activity to activity and
just seeing where the studentswere to where they are now in
(34:22):
just a matter of you know, justa couple of lessons within a
couple of tries and, like yousaid, it's just highly engaging
the students.
Yes, they are using the tech,but the students are, and that's
what I like.
That differentiates, that isthat engagement component,
because there could be thatengagement, but is it really
solid in the learning?
(34:42):
And you're putting all thistogether.
So I really love that you guyswere able to meet and get this
started, because I think this islike just the first of many edu
protocols within short answer,but just a great partnership and
just building on studentwriting and student activities,
and I think that's somethingthat is fantastic and I know
that's something that I'mlooking forward to as well.
(35:04):
So, alexa, what are yourthoughts now?
You know, seeing what you allhave been doing through Short
Answer in this, I don't want tosay a long period of time, but
through this short span and nowyou know this great opportunity
to continue to grow, I mean, howdo you feel as a founder, as
you know, in being part of this.
Alexa Sparks (35:27):
I'm excited.
I mean, of course, I'm excitedabout the partnership,
especially.
I mean the people that theteachers and other educators
we've met through theEduProtocols community have all
been just like very wonderful,wonderful people, and they I
mean I haven't been in theclassrooms like Adam has, but
they seem to be great teacherstoo, so that's always a plus, um
, yeah, so I'm just reallyexcited, I think.
(35:48):
I think about like founding acompany, though there's it's
like ups and down, you know,like the partnership really high
, high.
There's also lows, you know,but I'm excited.
Yeah, the partnership isdefinitely very exciting.
That's wonderful and that'sgreat.
But I'm excited, yeah, thepartnership is definitely very
exciting, that's wonderful, andthat's great.
Well.
Dr. Fonz Mendoza (36:05):
I'm really excited about that.
And, as far as short answer isconcerned, what might be
something?
Well, if you, if there are somethings that you may share,
especially here on the podcast,you know, maybe some things on
the roadmap or things that maybesome teachers might be able to
expect.
You know, I know the schoolyear has already started in many
areas, but maybe within thenext couple of months or, you
(36:27):
know, as through within thisnext school year, is there
anything that you guys might beable to share that maybe
teachers will be, you know, seenwithin the platform soon.
Adam Sparks (36:40):
Yeah Well, first of all, K-12 EdTech, and Short
Answer especially, is a lot liketeaching, in that you're
building the plane while you'reflying it, so we're always
adding new stuff, we're alwayschanging stuff, so you can
expect updates from us prettyconsistently, regardless of what
time of year it is.
So I already mentioned a couple.
So we launched QuickWrite, ourfirst AI-powered activity, last
(37:02):
spring.
We got a ton of feedback fromeducators as a part of some beta
testing.
We're going to be launchingupdates to QuickWrite based on
that feedback within the next.
Ooh, this is where I can't puta date on it Never give a date.
Because Alexa will get angry atme because she's the one that
has to make that new weapon,because she's the one that's
building it.
But the designs are all goodand I would say we're probably a
(37:24):
couple of weeks away fromlaunching those updates and I'm
excited about that.
So students are going to beable to and I'll just spill the
beans here we can break news onmy tech lab these students are
going to be able to revise andresubmit their writing after
they get AI feedback.
And what I'm excited about thatfor is because right now, so
they submit the writing, theyget a score, they reflect on
(37:45):
that feedback and they see as aclass, do we hit the goal or not
?
And that's kind of it they cantalk about, reflect on the
results, but that's kind of it.
And what teachers told us theywanted was no, no, no.
Now that they've got thefeedback, they should revise
what they wrote and resubmit itone they submitted or if they
can hit it, even though theydidn't hit it the first time, or
whatever.
So they're going to have thatability for the first time.
We're excited about that.
(38:05):
They're also going to have theability the teachers I mean to
pair kids up and like literallypick up your computer, go sit
next to your classmate and talkto each other about the feedback
that was provided to of likenot student to screen, student
to student type of instructionin QuickWrite, which I'm super
(38:26):
excited about.
So that's just the QuickWritestuff.
We've also got some PenPalsupdates coming, so PenPals was
the one Activity already justdescribed where it's like we're
having these bots argue aboutthe students' writing.
We're excited to take PenPalsout of beta testing and launch
it to the public in the next fewweeks and that will also
include some major updates thatI won't go into detail here but
(38:46):
will be live soon.
And then the larger buildingproject that I'm just going to
tease and not get into specificsabout that we're working on is
right now, I think short answeris a really incredible writing
practice platform.
I think we do a great job ofbeing a good place to embed
writing practice across thecurriculum Um.
But in moving forward, we alsowant to have the writing
(39:07):
instruction portion um which wehave in the in the you know the
short answer like slots innicely with any writing
curriculum that you might use.
So it's not to say that wedon't work with writing
instruction, but we actuallywant to have that supplemental
instructional piece within shortanswer.
Um, so that's kind of our very,very large building project
that we don't work with writinginstruction but we actually want
to have that supplementalinstructional piece within
Schwab Answer.
So that's kind of our very,very large building project that
will be slowly rolling out overthe course of the next 12
(39:29):
months and very, very excitedfor what that holds for us and
for our students and for ourteachers and schools.
Dr. Fonz Mendoza (39:36):
That's fantastic and that's such great
news and, like I said, it's justbeen so great from the last
time or the first time I shouldsay that you were on the show
and we're talking about.
You know short answer to howfar you've come and you just
continuing to grow and justreally, you know, boots on the
ground and taking feedback anddoing research and, like you
(39:59):
said, leading with researchfirst and good pedagogy.
I think that's something that'sgreat and fantastic, as opposed
to, you know, many other appsthat are out there that it's
just like, hey, like we're justthe tool, we're just pushing the
tool but not really trying to.
You know what is it that you'retrying to solve with that tool?
(40:19):
And here, yes, writing issomething that I know here in
Texas.
That is something that for sure, we definitely need our
practice on and, you know, justto have a great platform where
the students would be able topractice.
But, like you mentioned all thegreat things, to be able to
have those discussions and beable to give that feedback and
build on that feedback, I thinkthat's something that's great.
And then now the implementationof that writing instruction
(40:41):
also to help supplement, youknow, our educators with another
just great tool to have.
I think that's something that'sgreat and that's fantastic.
So I'm just really excitedabout the work that you're
currently doing right now, andthe work that you know will be
seen in the future.
And you know, it's just greatto see great people and great
friends just succeed and I thinkthat's what it's all about and
(41:04):
just having that community andjust building something that's
great.
So thank you guys for the workthat you guys are doing.
This is fantastic and it'sgreat.
So I want to ask you now youknow now where are you headed
next?
Like, let us know whatconferences you have coming up
next.
You know right now I knowyou've been a little quiet cause
it's been the summer and so on,but is there any conferences
(41:24):
that you've got coming up nextthat maybe our listeners will be
like oh, you know, maybe I'mnearby, maybe you know and come
and check you guys out.
Adam Sparks (41:32):
Uh well, first of all, this has been I'm not
exaggerating when I say thisthis has been the longest
stretch that I've been home uh,for I don't even remember how
many months and when I saylongest stretch, I mean I've
been home for more than sevendays straight.
It's been very nice.
So I haven't, frankly, beenthinking about what's next.
But what's next for us?
I can pull up my calendar.
Alexa Sparks (41:54):
I'll be at GATC.
You'll be somewhere in.
Sacramento yeah.
Adam Sparks (41:58):
Yeah, I'm going to be at Sacramento at the Vibe
Shift Conference.
That's in November.
Alexa is going to be at GATC,which is in Georgia, I think
that's in November as well.
I'm going to be keynoting withLearning Forward Kansas, which
is an amazing instructionalorganization.
We're going to be doing our AIwriting workshop with those
(42:22):
folks Well, kind of an adjustedversion of it in Kansas.
My goodness.
We're going to be at theNational Council of Teachers of
English Conference in Denver,and I think that's also in
November.
That's going to be a big onefor us.
I'm super excited about that.
We're going to be at the IowaCouncil of Teachers of English
in Des Moines here in a coupleweeks A couple, I think about a
week.
(42:42):
See notice that I don't have thedates because my mind is on
like finally can breathe mode,so I haven't exactly been
counting down the days to this.
But but I am very, very excitedfor all of those and more.
You know we're also going to beable to.
For context, after Alexagraduated from Stanford in June,
we moved back to Nebraska, sowe're now based in Nebraska
again, and so I'm so excited toconnect with more local
(43:04):
educators here in the state.
You know we've got all sorts ofpartner teachers that are local
that I'm excited to go sit inthe back of their classroom and
be a fly on the wall and learnabout what's going well and
what's not going well with shortanswer here in eastern Nebraska
, but also in western Iowa withsome schools.
So that's on the docket as well, alexa.
(43:25):
What am I missing?
Is that all the stuff?
Alexa Sparks (43:29):
It's all the stuff in the near future.
Adam Sparks (43:31):
That's all the stuff in the next two months.
Dr. Fonz Mendoza (43:35):
But I love it.
I love it Like you guysdefinitely deserve all of this
and the continued success,because the work that you're
doing and just thank you so much.
I do want to add I think Ireally appreciate your
authenticity, your genuinenessand just really just your
humility in that you speak witheverybody.
I mean seeing you guys at ISTEand in action and getting to
(43:57):
know you.
I think that's something that'sgreat, that you are there,
you're present, you know peoplecome to the booth, you talk to
them, you engage with them, youlisten and I think that's
something that's so importantthat, regardless of you know,
obviously, a lot of platformsthat are out there.
I think that speaks volumes.
You know, it doesn't matter howshiny their booths are and
(44:19):
whatnot but.
I think just that authenticityand genuineness really sets you
all apart and I want to thankyou for that and I just wish you
the best and continued successin everything that you do, guys.
And, as always, you're alwayswelcome back to the show at any
time, any updates and all that.
You know that this is yourplatform and you're always
welcome here.
So thank you so much for beinghere with me today.
(44:40):
Get you know, giving us someupdates, talking to us, and I'm
just really excited about youknow the future.
But before we wrap up, as youknow, I always love to end the
show with these last threequestions and, um, I know that
this is Alexa's first time here,so I'm not sure, alexa, you
know, did you get to?
You know, kind of think aboutthese questions and everything
(45:00):
you know.
I want to make sure that we'reall good.
I know Adam, this is this thirdtime with these questions and
I'm curious to hear from him,but I'll go ahead and start the
first one with you, alexa, youbeing the first time guest here.
So, as we know, every superherohas a pain point or a weakness.
For Superman, that kryptonitewas, uh, his weakness.
(45:22):
So I want to ask you, alexa, inthe current state of ed tech or
education in general, whatwould you say would be your
current edu kryptonite?
Alexa Sparks (45:33):
okay, I don't know if this counts, but when I read
that question I just thought oftime just for myself in terms
of like we have such ambitiousgoals with short answer and like
have such a vision of what thetool can be and I just find
myself kind of fighting timeevery day because you know it's
Adam and I and Adam doesn'tcodes.
(45:53):
We have a contractor but it'slike two two people coding and I
can help, but it only takes youso far and so just just time
right now, Not enough time.
Adam Sparks (46:03):
Time is my kryptonite.
That sounds like a song lyricor something.
Dr. Fonz Mendoza (46:07):
Yeah, that is a great answer.
That is a great answer.
Thank you All right, adam.
How about yourself?
What would you say is yourcurrent edu, kryptonite?
Hold on real quick.
Adam Sparks (46:17):
Well, you know what , in the spirit of the
conversation we've had, I wouldjust say the ed tech bubble, you
(46:40):
new world of AI, where I thinkrightfully, there's a lot of
skepticism and fear around whatAI means for learning, and so I
think we need to be more open todialogue around that skepticism
.
So that would be my AIkryptonite in the spirit of this
conversation.
Dr. Fonz Mendoza (46:56):
All right, Great answer.
All right, Adam.
Question number two.
We'll start off with you.
If you could have a billboardwith anything on it, what would
it be and why?
Adam Sparks (47:05):
You're not going to like your suit of cloth, but it
would be right better together.
Go to myshortanswercom and useshort answer because we are.
There's a new term.
I didn't even know we were this, but we are seed strapped, so
essentially bootstrapped.
We do not have venture capitalfunding in the way that a lot of
(47:27):
big ed tech startups do, so ourmarketing budget's pretty
limited, so if you're going togive me a free billboard, I'm
putting short answer on there.
And we're marketing.
Alexa Sparks (47:39):
Short answer to whoever's driving by that
billboard for better or forworse.
Perfect Adam, I laugh becausewe did not talk about this
beforehand and I had the sameexact thought I was like, right,
better together with a qr.
Dr. Fonz Mendoza (47:50):
Yes, I was just about to mention the qr
code you have to have the qrcode there.
Adam Sparks (47:57):
Hold on hold on a qr code is not safe little
billboard, because then you'reon their phone trying to scan a
qr code.
That that sounds like that'strue, but that was wet pot.
Alexa Sparks (48:07):
But I also thought like, oh, we don't have money
for marketing, it's great yeah,it's a free billboard.
Dr. Fonz Mendoza (48:16):
Write better together, I love it.
Oh, that's a great, I love it.
So, alexa, I'm assuming thatwould that was your answer too,
right, you said?
Alexa Sparks (48:22):
yeah, no, and that's funny because I did not
talk to him beforehand.
Dr. Fonz Mendoza (48:26):
But that's great.
You guys are definitely in sync, so that's wonderful, all right
.
So, alexa, last question foryou is if you could trade places
with anyone, any single person,for a day, who would that be,
and why?
Alexa Sparks (48:41):
Okay, I teetered between two people, but I think
it would be honestly right now,just because of the buzz, sam
Altman, because I'd want to bein the room and have those
conversations Like what arepeople who are, like, at the
forefront of this technologyreally saying about it behind
the scenes?
Like do they actually believeAGI is possible with the current
(49:01):
architecture?
Or like what do they know thatI don't know?
I would be very curious aboutthis.
Dr. Fonz Mendoza (49:09):
All right, great answer.
All right, adam.
How about yourself?
Adam Sparks (49:14):
That's a great response.
I said this last time, but Ithink I'll say it again.
This is just the social studiesteacher in me.
I would want to be thepresident for a day, just to
experience all the things youjust said, except at an
international political level,like what's going on behind the
scenes.
I mean that for anyadministration, not just the
(49:35):
current one, but just likewhat's actually going on behind
the scenes.
What's it like to be behind thedesk of the Oval Office?
What's all the secrets that Icould learn in a day as the
president?
Yeah, that would be me.
I would be fascinated.
I would just love to spend aday in the White House.
Alexa Sparks (49:51):
That's a good answer, Adam.
My other one was Taylor Swift.
Adam Sparks (49:55):
Of course.
Dr. Fonz Mendoza (49:57):
Of course no, and that's great.
I love it.
I love it.
I love it.
Well, Adam, Alexa, thank you somuch just for being an amazing
guest and, again, sincerely, Iwish you guys the most success
possible, because you guys aregreat and you guys are
passionate about what you do andI definitely love your research
.
First approach to you, knowwhat you're building and that's
(50:19):
wonderful and that's great.
So, thank you guys for beingamazing guests and being on the
show and, like I mentioned, thisis your platform.
Anytime that you want to comeback, If you have any updates,
whether it be three months, sixmonths or a year from now,
whenever you're always more thanwelcome to come back on the
show and share all the greatnews and all the great work that
you're doing.
So thank you so much and, forour audience members, please
(50:40):
make sure you visit our websiteat myedtechlife, where you can
check out this amazing episodeand the other 333 wonderful
episodes that we have for you,where I promise you will find a
little something that you cansprinkle onto what you are
already doing.
Great.
And again, big shout out to oursponsors EduAid, Book Creator
and Yellowdig.
Thank you so much for believingin our mission so that we may
(51:02):
be able to bring amazingconversations such as this to
everyone.
So thank you so much for yoursupport and again until next
time.
My friends, don't forget, staytechie.
Thank you.
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On Purpose with Jay Shetty
I’m Jay Shetty host of On Purpose the worlds #1 Mental Health podcast and I’m so grateful you found us. I started this podcast 5 years ago to invite you into conversations and workshops that are designed to help make you happier, healthier and more healed. I believe that when you (yes you) feel seen, heard and understood you’re able to deal with relationship struggles, work challenges and life’s ups and downs with more ease and grace. I interview experts, celebrities, thought leaders and athletes so that we can grow our mindset, build better habits and uncover a side of them we’ve never seen before. New episodes every Monday and Friday. Your support means the world to me and I don’t take it for granted — click the follow button and leave a review to help us spread the love with On Purpose. I can’t wait for you to listen to your first or 500th episode!
Cardiac Cowboys
The heart was always off-limits to surgeons. Cutting into it spelled instant death for the patient. That is, until a ragtag group of doctors scattered across the Midwest and Texas decided to throw out the rule book. Working in makeshift laboratories and home garages, using medical devices made from scavenged machine parts and beer tubes, these men and women invented the field of open heart surgery. Odds are, someone you know is alive because of them. So why has history left them behind? Presented by Chris Pine, CARDIAC COWBOYS tells the gripping true story behind the birth of heart surgery, and the young, Greatest Generation doctors who made it happen. For years, they competed and feuded, racing to be the first, the best, and the most prolific. Some appeared on the cover of Time Magazine, operated on kings and advised presidents. Others ended up disgraced, penniless, and convicted of felonies. Together, they ignited a revolution in medicine, and changed the world.
Crime Junkie
Does hearing about a true crime case always leave you scouring the internet for the truth behind the story? Dive into your next mystery with Crime Junkie. Every Monday, join your host Ashley Flowers as she unravels all the details of infamous and underreported true crime cases with her best friend Brit Prawat. From cold cases to missing persons and heroes in our community who seek justice, Crime Junkie is your destination for theories and stories you won’t hear anywhere else. Whether you're a seasoned true crime enthusiast or new to the genre, you'll find yourself on the edge of your seat awaiting a new episode every Monday. If you can never get enough true crime... Congratulations, you’ve found your people. Follow to join a community of Crime Junkies! Crime Junkie is presented by audiochuck Media Company.