August 13, 2024 • 20 mins
AI COMES TO DOUGCO SCHOOLS And when I heard Superintendent Erin Kane on the news talking about the new relationship with Kahn Academy's AI program I wanted to know more so Erin joins me at 1 to discuss it.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Telling my guests Superintendent Aaron Kine about the AI that
was used to create our new theme song, because we're
here today to talk about AI in schools.
Speaker 2 (00:09):
Yeah, I'm really excited to be here. Thank you for
having me, Mandy.
Speaker 1 (00:12):
I want to a lot of people don't know your background.
You're a nerd. I mean you are, You're like a
trained nerd. Yeah, So I mean what is your background? Sure?
Speaker 2 (00:21):
So my degree is in computer science and applied mathematics
from the University of Colorado Boulders. So I spent a
decade in the high tech industry before shifting into education.
And I think this is the most amazing time to
be leading an education, Absolutely amazing.
Speaker 1 (00:37):
And Douglas County is leading by signing up for a
beta I'm guessing it's a beta project. Well it's it's
a pilot. Okay, it's a pilot. Yeah, so a pilot
project using their new con Academy AI. And I gave
my listeners in the last hour a little kind of
briefer about con Academy as I know it. And it
started out as an online you know video that an
(00:58):
uncle made for his nephew in the schools to help
them with math problems, and then all these other strangers
started looking at his math problem solving and it became
this huge, huge platform where when Q comes me with
math problem, I'm like, go to concay Acounty because I
don't know how to do what you're doing now. So
how what are they doing and how is Douglas County
partnering with them?
Speaker 2 (01:18):
Well, so, as you mentioned, con Academy is an amazing
platform for learning. That is, it's a nonprofit, so all
of those videos are free. They're being used by schools
all across the world, really not just in the country,
certainly all across Douglas County, and so we are con Academy,
which is a very well known and established brand, has
(01:38):
created a layer to sit on top of open AI,
so like chat GPT, but it's made specifically for schools
and it's called Conmego. It has all of the safety
guards and student data privacy safety and guardrails that are
needed in order to use in a school application. But
it will really allow us to dig in and see
(02:00):
what this technology can do and what the implications are
for student learning, for student experience, and what the implications
are on the educator side in terms of saving them
time on a Ministruvius so that they can really focus
on their kids. We're really excited about seeing what it
can do, and we'll be recording all.
Speaker 1 (02:18):
Along the way.
Speaker 2 (02:20):
All of the amazing applications that we're able to find
through this pilot program.
Speaker 1 (02:24):
So the first concern that I have, because this has
been a big topic of conversation, is that what we
found out about these AI platforms is that they are
built with significant bias in some circumstances. And I know
that that is the first thing my listeners are going
to ask, So how do we ensure that the information
and data that is coming through this is not coming
through and leaving out really important parts of stuff.
Speaker 2 (02:47):
So the con Migo platform helps with some of that,
but I think really the bigger question is thinking about
what kinds of skills we need our kids to have
to prepare them for the workforce. And you know, so
many people are like, well, you know, AI will make
it so they don't have to do anything, and that
is not true. They will have to have those critical
analytical skills to look at any information that comes out
(03:10):
of any AI platform and to validate it right.
Speaker 1 (03:14):
Make sure that it's verify absolutely.
Speaker 2 (03:17):
You cannot just the The open AI platform is known
for just making things up. So you want to make
sure that your kids have the skills to say, you
know what this this isn't quite right. This is this
part is really useful. This part isn't quite right. I'm
going to need to dig into that more. So they
need that skill set. They need the skill set to
(03:37):
be able to write prompts for AI that will get
them the information that they need. If you've ever used
chat GPT, or for any of your listeners who've ever
used chat GPT, you have to ask the right question
to get the answers that you're that you're looking for
in the way that you're looking for them. And so
those kinds of skill sets are something that that adopting
(03:59):
Comigo as a PIET program will help us be able
to teach our kids those skill sets. It'll be a
perfect entry way into how do we validate data? How
do we validate what kind of information comes out of
a platform like this?
Speaker 1 (04:12):
So are we going to be monitoring the overall accuracy?
I'm trying to think away, is that going to be
one of the things that studied, Like, okay, what is
the quality of the information that we're getting out of
this platform. Yeah, so we are well.
Speaker 2 (04:25):
And of course the quality of information depends on the
quality of information that would come out of open AI.
Speaker 1 (04:30):
Right so, and con Migo has.
Speaker 2 (04:32):
Some filters to make sure that we're not giving any
inappropriate any inappropriate information or things to students. Right it
has some of those safety layers. But in terms of
evaluating the pilot. So our plan to evaluate the pilot
is we're asking our teachers who have voluntarily agreed to
completely delve in, to report back frequently.
Speaker 1 (04:53):
We've got a.
Speaker 2 (04:54):
Whole mechanism to be able for them to be able
to report back on what they did this week with
open Ai. What were the great thing, what were the successes,
what were the challenges, what were the unintended consequences, so
that we back at the district level, can study all
of that information across the eighteen schools that are piloting,
so that we can really chart a path forward in
(05:14):
terms of how we can best leverage this technology, not
only to teach our kids, because the technology has incredible
implications as far as being a personalized tutor. Personalized learning.
You know, you may be learning a math problem in English,
but your tutor can speak to you and your language
whatever that language would happen to be.
Speaker 1 (05:36):
I mean, it's amazing the implications.
Speaker 2 (05:39):
And we also have to teach our kids the skills
to go out into the workforce to use to use
this technology revolution, to be able to use these technologies
so that they can lead the way when they graduate
from Douglas County School District.
Speaker 1 (05:54):
What kind of have you guys even begun to talk
about specific applications or you allow this to be one
of those more organic situations where teacher over here may say,
you know what, I'm going to use this to plan
my syllabus or I'm going to use this to uh
manage my classroom better or whatever, and then kind of
take best practices from across the district. Exactly.
Speaker 2 (06:14):
This is completely organic. We don't even know if if
a year from now, con Migo will be the right answer.
The technology could have advanced so much that we could make.
Speaker 1 (06:23):
Our own con mego right.
Speaker 2 (06:25):
So this is really an opportunity to have those organic
discoveries right for our teachers and our and our kids
in a safe in a safe on a safe platform
to be able to go in and see what it
can do, like this is kicking the tires, right. We're
going to kick the tires and see what it can
do and have everyone report back to us so that
we can start to create a network of best practices
(06:46):
and amazing ideas and things that are really moving learning
forward and preparing our kids for the workforce and saving
our staff an incredible amount of time. So the way
I see it, that's those the three those three possibilities,
which one of them individually is incredibly exciting.
Speaker 1 (07:02):
I you know, I'm not one of those people that
would ever come up with a good idea to use AI.
I mean, I'm just not. I'm not a complete lutite,
but I'm not at all technologically advanced. But some of
the stuff that I see young people doing stuff online
and I'm like, what, how are they doing this? The
guy who made my theme song that was like voodoo,
It was like witchcraft to me, I had no idea
how to do it, but you actually made a song
(07:23):
I did.
Speaker 2 (07:23):
When we did, we did an AI presentation for our
Board of Education to talk about this pilot and the
implications of AI for our system as we look forward
to the next decade, and we used AI to create
a song about our board of education in our school
district and how dedicated they are to our kids, and
you know, like your theme song, we did two different versions.
(07:45):
We did one that was kind of rock and roll
style and one that was kind of indie style, and
they were both amazing.
Speaker 1 (07:50):
I would be happy to share them with you. They're
very catchy. Some of them are still in my head.
They're very catchy.
Speaker 2 (07:54):
But you know, it was a great way to just
introduce the topic when there was a song about them,
you know, being played. So it's just really amazing the
things that can do.
Speaker 1 (08:04):
So in the actual practical application within the classrooms, are
students going to have access, our teachers going to have access?
Combination of A and B and what is that going
to look like?
Speaker 2 (08:14):
Really great question for our eighteen pilot schools, both students
and teachers will have access all of the student Everything
students do with Connigo is reported out to the teachers,
so the teachers can actually look at their entire class
and see skills kids are struggling with individually or as
a group or in a small group or whatever it
(08:36):
might be. So they're going to get a lot of
information about what the kids are doing with Comgo the
kinds of questions they're asking.
Speaker 1 (08:43):
All of those things.
Speaker 2 (08:45):
Outside of those eighteen pilot schools, all of our teachers
are trying out commgo the teacher level that can help
save them time they can do they can have it
help them with lesson plans, personalized lesson plans right right,
incredibly high quality iep egal just so many amazing implications.
Imagine a master schedule for a high school. If you're
(09:07):
you're at all familiar for those of you who work
in a high school, you know exactly what I mean.
Speaker 1 (09:10):
There's a room that has, you.
Speaker 2 (09:12):
Know, like the spreadsheet, except it's all on the walls
and it's you know, they're moving all the pieces. AI
can do that, you know, in two seconds flat. It's
amazing the different implications. And you said, you know, you
wouldn't know what to do with it, but you would
think of any question in the world that you can imagine.
You know, we we have two kids that are about
to graduate college, and so they were asking chat GPT,
(09:36):
here's what I want to do. Here are the skill
sets I have, Here's the degree I'm about to get.
Name all the companies in these three states. You know
that I find really interesting that would have a position
for someone with my qualifications, and boom, you got a
holist of companies. Now tell me what my resume should
look like. Boom, Now tell me what kind of skills
I'm lacking that I could go get a certification and
(09:58):
whatever whatever. You know, just just having this conversation, it
just gives you this list that would take you forever
to go research.
Speaker 1 (10:06):
So essentially it's the supercharge librarian.
Speaker 2 (10:09):
Yes.
Speaker 1 (10:10):
Yeah, this person said the AI songs are terrible, not
good music. For someone who can't write music and has
no musical ability, that's an amazing thing to be able
to create any kind of song. Many of us have
a very low bar. Yes, And this is the I
started the conversation with it, so I'm going to ask
it again because I really feel like this is going
to be the sticking point for a lot of people. Mandy,
would you please ask if they're taking into account the
(10:30):
built in biases of the instructors themselves. I worry about
more if my tax money is going down that rabbit hole.
And this is the concern, you know, because we've seen
some pretty egregious political bias out of these CHET clients,
and I don't want you know, there's already that impression
for a lot of people, and perhaps it is you know,
earned for the a teacher experience that was not positive,
(10:53):
or the perception exists that you have a bunch of
left wing teachers who are trying to indoctrinate your kids,
and now we're going to bring this in and how
do you make sure that is not happening?
Speaker 2 (11:02):
You know, our at least I can speak for Douglas
County School District. Our teachers are amazing, and they try
really hard to bring balance into their classrooms, and it
is it is absolutely something that is up to the
teacher to make sure that they are monitoring the use
of any technology. You know, a bias can come into
play in a whole number of ways. Introducing introducing an
(11:27):
AI technology does not change that. Right If a teacher's determined,
you know that that can go down a different road.
But I can speak for our awesome teachers in Douglas
County School District and we work really hard to bring
balance into our classrooms and they have They've done just
such a remarkable job of doing that. And I trust
our teachers to continue to do that. And I would
tell any parent if you have a concern about a
(11:50):
teacher you know in your students school, no matter where
they go to school, go talk to them, Go have
a conversation with them. Because our teachers are essential. They
are absolutely essential to be able to monitor the use
of this technology.
Speaker 1 (12:04):
So for when does this start? And how enthusiastic were
the teachers? I'm guessing some were super enthusiastic. There's got
to be some like me or are like yep, you
you go on. Whipper Snappers figured that out, as they know, there's.
Speaker 2 (12:16):
Always the early adopters and the live adopters. And so
what we did is we we talked to our school
leaders who went and talked to their staff, and we
asked for volunteers. So the buildings that are piloting conmego
are doing it because they want to right the staff
in the building wants to and because they're super excited
about it. Because the last thing you want to do
is how anyone feel like this is right? Is one
(12:40):
more thing? But are we We did a big survey
of all of our teachers to ask them kind of
what their thoughts were on.
Speaker 1 (12:47):
This technology handy.
Speaker 2 (12:48):
They are so excited, There is so much excitement out
there and as far as you know kind of the
negative implications, which there are many. Right, we have to
teach our kids to use it ethically, to look for biases,
to do all of these things.
Speaker 1 (13:01):
But ignoring this technology is not the answer.
Speaker 2 (13:03):
Right. I'm a huge believer that AI will not replace humans,
but humans who can leverage AI will replace humans.
Speaker 1 (13:11):
Who cannot leverage AI. That is exactly right.
Speaker 2 (13:15):
That tells me everything I need to know. I can't
turn my back on this technology. I have to prepare
our kids to ethically and responsibly take this technology, turn
it on its head, and lead the way when they
leave our system.
Speaker 1 (13:26):
So you're going to do this for a year and
then is it going to be one of those things
where we're going to do this for a year and
then we'll we'll crunch all that information for a long
period of time. Or is this one of those things
We're doing this for a year and we'll decide whether
to continue.
Speaker 2 (13:39):
Yeah, after a year, I think we'll decide what kind
of district wide deployment we want to do of you know,
whatever it is that we want to do well, we'll
be looking at a district wide deployment with district wide
resources and professional development to really prepare our teachers to
take everything that we've learned from the pilot program, implement
it in our classrooms and help kids to supercharge their education.
Speaker 1 (14:02):
We're really excited. Is this going to make it easier
to spread best practices when it comes to AI? Do
you think? I do?
Speaker 2 (14:10):
I do think so, especially if you've got a contained
AI system that has kind of your school system, right,
and what your teachers have kind of determined or best
practices so that your teachers can learn from each other
versus sort of learning from the random everybody out there.
Because I don't know the quality of everybody out there,
(14:30):
but I know the quality of my system, right, And
so really helping our giving our teachers the ability to
work on their collective knowledge of what has worked really
well will be incredibly powerful and again it will save
them so much time.
Speaker 1 (14:46):
I hope. So. I mean, this kind of stuff is
fascinating to me, even though, as I said, I'm a
late adoptor. I just have this message for you, Mandy,
since Aaron is in your studio, I have a shout
out to missus Youngberg, a DCSD teacher at Rockridge. She
is absolutely amazing teacher and really helped and made a
positive impact on my son. So I thought that would
be nice to hear. That's amazing. Thank you for that comment.
Speaker 2 (15:08):
I love getting comments about our amazing teachers.
Speaker 1 (15:10):
So let me ask you one more question about this,
because now my mind is just racing with this. Do
you think we have some really amazing science and stem
in the Douglas County school districts? I mean, really, really incredible.
I can only imagine with these students, some of who
are performing at such a high level it's mind blowing
at our high schools. Are they going to be able
(15:31):
to utilize this technology in the things that they're already
working on? Some of the projects that these young people
are working on at various high schools are just like what, Oh, yes, yes,
you're absolutely right.
Speaker 2 (15:42):
We have amazing high school students that have started their
own businesses and are already incredibly successful and don't even
have their diploma yet. And so it's our it's our
job as an education system to incubate that right to
take to take that talent and give them everything they
need to be able to leverage that talent and become
(16:04):
everything that they can be.
Speaker 1 (16:05):
Right, that's the whole point. Of an education system.
Speaker 2 (16:08):
So yes, I think the implications for many of our
students are amazing, and especially for our students that already
love STEM and computer science and textibodies robotics. Even in
Douglas County School District, the robotics that we're doing are
far beyond you know, what you and I would think
of as the lego robots, right, I mean, they're doing
(16:29):
robotics that are how do you how do you set
up a manufacturing line with all of those all of
the advanced manufacturing robotics that are required to assemble a rocket? Like,
how do you do that and make that automated? So
robotics is so much more than just the little robots
that that you know was around. So the implications are
just tremendous. I personally believe that in the next decade
(16:53):
we will see the kind of wealth creation and progress
that we saw over the last century. It's the exces
of change and of technology is going to be absolutely
mind blowing, and our kids are going to be right
in the middle of it.
Speaker 1 (17:07):
I'm talking with Douglas County Superintendent and super nerd Aaron Kine,
but this is you know, everybody knows you've been in
the education field for a really long time. But when
you talk about this, this is certainly I don't think
a conversation I would have with most superintendents that are
that are this capable of explaining the potential because I
(17:28):
do think it's important to get over that bias hump,
and I have multiple text messages about that same thing.
But as long as kids are understanding that this is
it's kind of like Wikipedia. Right. I always saw my
daughter like, if you have no knowledge whatsoever of a subject,
start at Wikipedia, but don't trust Wikipedia. Right. You start there,
you may get the basic framework, but then you use
(17:49):
it as a jumping off point because Wikipedia is edited
by idiots and anybody could put anything up there. But
it's a great starting point. And it sounds like that's how.
Speaker 2 (17:57):
This is going to be discussed well, and it's it's
so important for our kids to understand the garbage in
garbage out right effect.
Speaker 1 (18:03):
Right.
Speaker 2 (18:03):
You know, if you think of open AI has become
quote unquote intelligent from all of the content on the Internet,
which is there's a lot of insane content on the Internet.
So that's you know, where those critical analysis pieces absolutely
have to come in.
Speaker 1 (18:17):
One of those things that I wonder and this isn't
necessarily a question for you, just a general ponder, and
that is, do we get to a point where AI
platforms are going to say, Okay, maybe we're going to
thin the herd on where we're getting the information that
we're getting, and we're going to stick with the Library
of Congress, We're going to stick with, you know, historical documentation,
(18:39):
We're going to stick with I don't know if there's
a way to do that, or maybe there's an academic
AI platform that would focus on that, because that would
be amazing. It's been done.
Speaker 2 (18:47):
There's absolutely a way to do that, and it's been
done where some large organizations have created their own AI
platform that's just based on all of their things versus
versus the Internet at large, almost anything you can imagine
as possible.
Speaker 1 (19:01):
And I do want to I do want to say that.
Speaker 2 (19:05):
I in no way believe that AI will replace or
supplant teachers. Teachers are always going to be a critical,
critical part of our kids' education, and I think this
will actually unleash.
Speaker 1 (19:18):
Teachers to be able to deal with craft in work
exactly if I think you've used correctly, this is essentially
an AI teacher assistant. It's a tool, yes, yeah, but that.
Speaker 2 (19:30):
You know it will free our teachers to truly use
their craft, yeah, to educate our kids, which is teachers
are just amazing and the more we can free them
up from other stuff, the better off our children will be.
Speaker 1 (19:42):
This text message I think I agree with wholeheartedly. I
hope these kids can answer questions during an interview without AI. Well,
they can in the zoom interview, maybe not after that.
I actually saw an interview of a guy using AI
in a job interview, oh and just reading the answer
of off AI, and I'm like, that is not the
way to go because AI makes stuff up.
Speaker 2 (20:02):
Well, and that's you know, that's where the rubber meets
the road, right. Our kids have to be ready to
go out and interview. They have to be ready to
sit here and do the Mandy Connell Show without you know,
look at having AI, look up all the answers. They
have to be prepared for all of those things. So
we're excited to be on the leading edge of doing that.
Speaker 1 (20:20):
Aaron Kane, Superintendent of Douglas County School Thank you so much.
I find this absolutely a fascinating topic and I can't
wait to revisit in a year and hear what happened.
I want to hear the results of this LILAC program,
so we'll check back in about that
Telling my guests Superintendent Aaron Kine about the AI that
was used to create our new theme song, because we're
here today to talk about AI in schools.
Speaker 2 (00:09):
Yeah, I'm really excited to be here. Thank you for
having me, Mandy.
Speaker 1 (00:12):
I want to a lot of people don't know your background.
You're a nerd. I mean you are, You're like a
trained nerd. Yeah, So I mean what is your background? Sure?
Speaker 2 (00:21):
So my degree is in computer science and applied mathematics
from the University of Colorado Boulders. So I spent a
decade in the high tech industry before shifting into education.
And I think this is the most amazing time to
be leading an education, Absolutely amazing.
Speaker 1 (00:37):
And Douglas County is leading by signing up for a
beta I'm guessing it's a beta project. Well it's it's
a pilot. Okay, it's a pilot. Yeah, so a pilot
project using their new con Academy AI. And I gave
my listeners in the last hour a little kind of
briefer about con Academy as I know it. And it
started out as an online you know video that an
(00:58):
uncle made for his nephew in the schools to help
them with math problems, and then all these other strangers
started looking at his math problem solving and it became
this huge, huge platform where when Q comes me with
math problem, I'm like, go to concay Acounty because I
don't know how to do what you're doing now. So
how what are they doing and how is Douglas County
partnering with them?
Speaker 2 (01:18):
Well, so, as you mentioned, con Academy is an amazing
platform for learning. That is, it's a nonprofit, so all
of those videos are free. They're being used by schools
all across the world, really not just in the country,
certainly all across Douglas County, and so we are con Academy,
which is a very well known and established brand, has
(01:38):
created a layer to sit on top of open AI,
so like chat GPT, but it's made specifically for schools
and it's called Conmego. It has all of the safety
guards and student data privacy safety and guardrails that are
needed in order to use in a school application. But
it will really allow us to dig in and see
(02:00):
what this technology can do and what the implications are
for student learning, for student experience, and what the implications
are on the educator side in terms of saving them
time on a Ministruvius so that they can really focus
on their kids. We're really excited about seeing what it
can do, and we'll be recording all.
Speaker 1 (02:18):
Along the way.
Speaker 2 (02:20):
All of the amazing applications that we're able to find
through this pilot program.
Speaker 1 (02:24):
So the first concern that I have, because this has
been a big topic of conversation, is that what we
found out about these AI platforms is that they are
built with significant bias in some circumstances. And I know
that that is the first thing my listeners are going
to ask, So how do we ensure that the information
and data that is coming through this is not coming
through and leaving out really important parts of stuff.
Speaker 2 (02:47):
So the con Migo platform helps with some of that,
but I think really the bigger question is thinking about
what kinds of skills we need our kids to have
to prepare them for the workforce. And you know, so
many people are like, well, you know, AI will make
it so they don't have to do anything, and that
is not true. They will have to have those critical
analytical skills to look at any information that comes out
(03:10):
of any AI platform and to validate it right.
Speaker 1 (03:14):
Make sure that it's verify absolutely.
Speaker 2 (03:17):
You cannot just the The open AI platform is known
for just making things up. So you want to make
sure that your kids have the skills to say, you
know what this this isn't quite right. This is this
part is really useful. This part isn't quite right. I'm
going to need to dig into that more. So they
need that skill set. They need the skill set to
(03:37):
be able to write prompts for AI that will get
them the information that they need. If you've ever used
chat GPT, or for any of your listeners who've ever
used chat GPT, you have to ask the right question
to get the answers that you're that you're looking for
in the way that you're looking for them. And so
those kinds of skill sets are something that that adopting
(03:59):
Comigo as a PIET program will help us be able
to teach our kids those skill sets. It'll be a
perfect entry way into how do we validate data? How
do we validate what kind of information comes out of
a platform like this?
Speaker 1 (04:12):
So are we going to be monitoring the overall accuracy?
I'm trying to think away, is that going to be
one of the things that studied, Like, okay, what is
the quality of the information that we're getting out of
this platform. Yeah, so we are well.
Speaker 2 (04:25):
And of course the quality of information depends on the
quality of information that would come out of open AI.
Speaker 1 (04:30):
Right so, and con Migo has.
Speaker 2 (04:32):
Some filters to make sure that we're not giving any
inappropriate any inappropriate information or things to students. Right it
has some of those safety layers. But in terms of
evaluating the pilot. So our plan to evaluate the pilot
is we're asking our teachers who have voluntarily agreed to
completely delve in, to report back frequently.
Speaker 1 (04:53):
We've got a.
Speaker 2 (04:54):
Whole mechanism to be able for them to be able
to report back on what they did this week with
open Ai. What were the great thing, what were the successes,
what were the challenges, what were the unintended consequences, so
that we back at the district level, can study all
of that information across the eighteen schools that are piloting,
so that we can really chart a path forward in
(05:14):
terms of how we can best leverage this technology, not
only to teach our kids, because the technology has incredible
implications as far as being a personalized tutor. Personalized learning.
You know, you may be learning a math problem in English,
but your tutor can speak to you and your language
whatever that language would happen to be.
Speaker 1 (05:36):
I mean, it's amazing the implications.
Speaker 2 (05:39):
And we also have to teach our kids the skills
to go out into the workforce to use to use
this technology revolution, to be able to use these technologies
so that they can lead the way when they graduate
from Douglas County School District.
Speaker 1 (05:54):
What kind of have you guys even begun to talk
about specific applications or you allow this to be one
of those more organic situations where teacher over here may say,
you know what, I'm going to use this to plan
my syllabus or I'm going to use this to uh
manage my classroom better or whatever, and then kind of
take best practices from across the district. Exactly.
Speaker 2 (06:14):
This is completely organic. We don't even know if if
a year from now, con Migo will be the right answer.
The technology could have advanced so much that we could make.
Speaker 1 (06:23):
Our own con mego right.
Speaker 2 (06:25):
So this is really an opportunity to have those organic
discoveries right for our teachers and our and our kids
in a safe in a safe on a safe platform
to be able to go in and see what it
can do, like this is kicking the tires, right. We're
going to kick the tires and see what it can
do and have everyone report back to us so that
we can start to create a network of best practices
(06:46):
and amazing ideas and things that are really moving learning
forward and preparing our kids for the workforce and saving
our staff an incredible amount of time. So the way
I see it, that's those the three those three possibilities,
which one of them individually is incredibly exciting.
Speaker 1 (07:02):
I you know, I'm not one of those people that
would ever come up with a good idea to use AI.
I mean, I'm just not. I'm not a complete lutite,
but I'm not at all technologically advanced. But some of
the stuff that I see young people doing stuff online
and I'm like, what, how are they doing this? The
guy who made my theme song that was like voodoo,
It was like witchcraft to me, I had no idea
how to do it, but you actually made a song
(07:23):
I did.
Speaker 2 (07:23):
When we did, we did an AI presentation for our
Board of Education to talk about this pilot and the
implications of AI for our system as we look forward
to the next decade, and we used AI to create
a song about our board of education in our school
district and how dedicated they are to our kids, and
you know, like your theme song, we did two different versions.
(07:45):
We did one that was kind of rock and roll
style and one that was kind of indie style, and
they were both amazing.
Speaker 1 (07:50):
I would be happy to share them with you. They're
very catchy. Some of them are still in my head.
They're very catchy.
Speaker 2 (07:54):
But you know, it was a great way to just
introduce the topic when there was a song about them,
you know, being played. So it's just really amazing the
things that can do.
Speaker 1 (08:04):
So in the actual practical application within the classrooms, are
students going to have access, our teachers going to have access?
Combination of A and B and what is that going
to look like?
Speaker 2 (08:14):
Really great question for our eighteen pilot schools, both students
and teachers will have access all of the student Everything
students do with Connigo is reported out to the teachers,
so the teachers can actually look at their entire class
and see skills kids are struggling with individually or as
a group or in a small group or whatever it
(08:36):
might be. So they're going to get a lot of
information about what the kids are doing with Comgo the
kinds of questions they're asking.
Speaker 1 (08:43):
All of those things.
Speaker 2 (08:45):
Outside of those eighteen pilot schools, all of our teachers
are trying out commgo the teacher level that can help
save them time they can do they can have it
help them with lesson plans, personalized lesson plans right right,
incredibly high quality iep egal just so many amazing implications.
Imagine a master schedule for a high school. If you're
(09:07):
you're at all familiar for those of you who work
in a high school, you know exactly what I mean.
Speaker 1 (09:10):
There's a room that has, you.
Speaker 2 (09:12):
Know, like the spreadsheet, except it's all on the walls
and it's you know, they're moving all the pieces. AI
can do that, you know, in two seconds flat. It's
amazing the different implications. And you said, you know, you
wouldn't know what to do with it, but you would
think of any question in the world that you can imagine.
You know, we we have two kids that are about
to graduate college, and so they were asking chat GPT,
(09:36):
here's what I want to do. Here are the skill
sets I have, Here's the degree I'm about to get.
Name all the companies in these three states. You know
that I find really interesting that would have a position
for someone with my qualifications, and boom, you got a
holist of companies. Now tell me what my resume should
look like. Boom, Now tell me what kind of skills
I'm lacking that I could go get a certification and
(09:58):
whatever whatever. You know, just just having this conversation, it
just gives you this list that would take you forever
to go research.
Speaker 1 (10:06):
So essentially it's the supercharge librarian.
Speaker 2 (10:09):
Yes.
Speaker 1 (10:10):
Yeah, this person said the AI songs are terrible, not
good music. For someone who can't write music and has
no musical ability, that's an amazing thing to be able
to create any kind of song. Many of us have
a very low bar. Yes, And this is the I
started the conversation with it, so I'm going to ask
it again because I really feel like this is going
to be the sticking point for a lot of people. Mandy,
would you please ask if they're taking into account the
(10:30):
built in biases of the instructors themselves. I worry about
more if my tax money is going down that rabbit hole.
And this is the concern, you know, because we've seen
some pretty egregious political bias out of these CHET clients,
and I don't want you know, there's already that impression
for a lot of people, and perhaps it is you know,
earned for the a teacher experience that was not positive,
(10:53):
or the perception exists that you have a bunch of
left wing teachers who are trying to indoctrinate your kids,
and now we're going to bring this in and how
do you make sure that is not happening?
Speaker 2 (11:02):
You know, our at least I can speak for Douglas
County School District. Our teachers are amazing, and they try
really hard to bring balance into their classrooms, and it
is it is absolutely something that is up to the
teacher to make sure that they are monitoring the use
of any technology. You know, a bias can come into
play in a whole number of ways. Introducing introducing an
(11:27):
AI technology does not change that. Right If a teacher's determined,
you know that that can go down a different road.
But I can speak for our awesome teachers in Douglas
County School District and we work really hard to bring
balance into our classrooms and they have They've done just
such a remarkable job of doing that. And I trust
our teachers to continue to do that. And I would
tell any parent if you have a concern about a
(11:50):
teacher you know in your students school, no matter where
they go to school, go talk to them, Go have
a conversation with them. Because our teachers are essential. They
are absolutely essential to be able to monitor the use
of this technology.
Speaker 1 (12:04):
So for when does this start? And how enthusiastic were
the teachers? I'm guessing some were super enthusiastic. There's got
to be some like me or are like yep, you
you go on. Whipper Snappers figured that out, as they know, there's.
Speaker 2 (12:16):
Always the early adopters and the live adopters. And so
what we did is we we talked to our school
leaders who went and talked to their staff, and we
asked for volunteers. So the buildings that are piloting conmego
are doing it because they want to right the staff
in the building wants to and because they're super excited
about it. Because the last thing you want to do
is how anyone feel like this is right? Is one
(12:40):
more thing? But are we We did a big survey
of all of our teachers to ask them kind of
what their thoughts were on.
Speaker 1 (12:47):
This technology handy.
Speaker 2 (12:48):
They are so excited, There is so much excitement out
there and as far as you know kind of the
negative implications, which there are many. Right, we have to
teach our kids to use it ethically, to look for biases,
to do all of these things.
Speaker 1 (13:01):
But ignoring this technology is not the answer.
Speaker 2 (13:03):
Right. I'm a huge believer that AI will not replace humans,
but humans who can leverage AI will replace humans.
Speaker 1 (13:11):
Who cannot leverage AI. That is exactly right.
Speaker 2 (13:15):
That tells me everything I need to know. I can't
turn my back on this technology. I have to prepare
our kids to ethically and responsibly take this technology, turn
it on its head, and lead the way when they
leave our system.
Speaker 1 (13:26):
So you're going to do this for a year and
then is it going to be one of those things
where we're going to do this for a year and
then we'll we'll crunch all that information for a long
period of time. Or is this one of those things
We're doing this for a year and we'll decide whether
to continue.
Speaker 2 (13:39):
Yeah, after a year, I think we'll decide what kind
of district wide deployment we want to do of you know,
whatever it is that we want to do well, we'll
be looking at a district wide deployment with district wide
resources and professional development to really prepare our teachers to
take everything that we've learned from the pilot program, implement
it in our classrooms and help kids to supercharge their education.
Speaker 1 (14:02):
We're really excited. Is this going to make it easier
to spread best practices when it comes to AI? Do
you think? I do?
Speaker 2 (14:10):
I do think so, especially if you've got a contained
AI system that has kind of your school system, right,
and what your teachers have kind of determined or best
practices so that your teachers can learn from each other
versus sort of learning from the random everybody out there.
Because I don't know the quality of everybody out there,
(14:30):
but I know the quality of my system, right, And
so really helping our giving our teachers the ability to
work on their collective knowledge of what has worked really
well will be incredibly powerful and again it will save
them so much time.
Speaker 1 (14:46):
I hope. So. I mean, this kind of stuff is
fascinating to me, even though, as I said, I'm a
late adoptor. I just have this message for you, Mandy,
since Aaron is in your studio, I have a shout
out to missus Youngberg, a DCSD teacher at Rockridge. She
is absolutely amazing teacher and really helped and made a
positive impact on my son. So I thought that would
be nice to hear. That's amazing. Thank you for that comment.
Speaker 2 (15:08):
I love getting comments about our amazing teachers.
Speaker 1 (15:10):
So let me ask you one more question about this,
because now my mind is just racing with this. Do
you think we have some really amazing science and stem
in the Douglas County school districts? I mean, really, really incredible.
I can only imagine with these students, some of who
are performing at such a high level it's mind blowing
at our high schools. Are they going to be able
(15:31):
to utilize this technology in the things that they're already
working on? Some of the projects that these young people
are working on at various high schools are just like what, Oh, yes, yes,
you're absolutely right.
Speaker 2 (15:42):
We have amazing high school students that have started their
own businesses and are already incredibly successful and don't even
have their diploma yet. And so it's our it's our
job as an education system to incubate that right to
take to take that talent and give them everything they
need to be able to leverage that talent and become
(16:04):
everything that they can be.
Speaker 1 (16:05):
Right, that's the whole point. Of an education system.
Speaker 2 (16:08):
So yes, I think the implications for many of our
students are amazing, and especially for our students that already
love STEM and computer science and textibodies robotics. Even in
Douglas County School District, the robotics that we're doing are
far beyond you know, what you and I would think
of as the lego robots, right, I mean, they're doing
(16:29):
robotics that are how do you how do you set
up a manufacturing line with all of those all of
the advanced manufacturing robotics that are required to assemble a rocket? Like,
how do you do that and make that automated? So
robotics is so much more than just the little robots
that that you know was around. So the implications are
just tremendous. I personally believe that in the next decade
(16:53):
we will see the kind of wealth creation and progress
that we saw over the last century. It's the exces
of change and of technology is going to be absolutely
mind blowing, and our kids are going to be right
in the middle of it.
Speaker 1 (17:07):
I'm talking with Douglas County Superintendent and super nerd Aaron Kine,
but this is you know, everybody knows you've been in
the education field for a really long time. But when
you talk about this, this is certainly I don't think
a conversation I would have with most superintendents that are
that are this capable of explaining the potential because I
(17:28):
do think it's important to get over that bias hump,
and I have multiple text messages about that same thing.
But as long as kids are understanding that this is
it's kind of like Wikipedia. Right. I always saw my
daughter like, if you have no knowledge whatsoever of a subject,
start at Wikipedia, but don't trust Wikipedia. Right. You start there,
you may get the basic framework, but then you use
(17:49):
it as a jumping off point because Wikipedia is edited
by idiots and anybody could put anything up there. But
it's a great starting point. And it sounds like that's how.
Speaker 2 (17:57):
This is going to be discussed well, and it's it's
so important for our kids to understand the garbage in
garbage out right effect.
Speaker 1 (18:03):
Right.
Speaker 2 (18:03):
You know, if you think of open AI has become
quote unquote intelligent from all of the content on the Internet,
which is there's a lot of insane content on the Internet.
So that's you know, where those critical analysis pieces absolutely
have to come in.
Speaker 1 (18:17):
One of those things that I wonder and this isn't
necessarily a question for you, just a general ponder, and
that is, do we get to a point where AI
platforms are going to say, Okay, maybe we're going to
thin the herd on where we're getting the information that
we're getting, and we're going to stick with the Library
of Congress, We're going to stick with, you know, historical documentation,
(18:39):
We're going to stick with I don't know if there's
a way to do that, or maybe there's an academic
AI platform that would focus on that, because that would
be amazing. It's been done.
Speaker 2 (18:47):
There's absolutely a way to do that, and it's been
done where some large organizations have created their own AI
platform that's just based on all of their things versus
versus the Internet at large, almost anything you can imagine
as possible.
Speaker 1 (19:01):
And I do want to I do want to say that.
Speaker 2 (19:05):
I in no way believe that AI will replace or
supplant teachers. Teachers are always going to be a critical,
critical part of our kids' education, and I think this
will actually unleash.
Speaker 1 (19:18):
Teachers to be able to deal with craft in work
exactly if I think you've used correctly, this is essentially
an AI teacher assistant. It's a tool, yes, yeah, but that.
Speaker 2 (19:30):
You know it will free our teachers to truly use
their craft, yeah, to educate our kids, which is teachers
are just amazing and the more we can free them
up from other stuff, the better off our children will be.
Speaker 1 (19:42):
This text message I think I agree with wholeheartedly. I
hope these kids can answer questions during an interview without AI. Well,
they can in the zoom interview, maybe not after that.
I actually saw an interview of a guy using AI
in a job interview, oh and just reading the answer
of off AI, and I'm like, that is not the
way to go because AI makes stuff up.
Speaker 2 (20:02):
Well, and that's you know, that's where the rubber meets
the road, right. Our kids have to be ready to
go out and interview. They have to be ready to
sit here and do the Mandy Connell Show without you know,
look at having AI, look up all the answers. They
have to be prepared for all of those things. So
we're excited to be on the leading edge of doing that.
Speaker 1 (20:20):
Aaron Kane, Superintendent of Douglas County School Thank you so much.
I find this absolutely a fascinating topic and I can't
wait to revisit in a year and hear what happened.
I want to hear the results of this LILAC program,
so we'll check back in about that
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