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Welcome back to another episode of Exploration AI Conversations Beyond the Algorithm. I'm
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Courtney Groskin, and I'm here with Dr. Matt Moulton, and we have our best friend. Yes, Jason
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Kelsall. Jason, welcome back to the podcast. Yeah, thank you. Happy to be here. I'm excited to talk
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some AI, some ethos, and all kinds of stuff today, but yeah, happy to be back. I can't believe this
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is our May episode, Matt. The end of a season. Just planning our launch, and now we've made it
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through a whole season, our first season. I know, it's wild. I feel like I struggle with closure at
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the end of school years, but I feel like our reflection that we have today really feels
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not like the end of a book, but yeah, definitely just the end of one chapter, with lots of
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foreshadowing into what's coming. Lots of good stuff to come. So Matt, what is your favorite
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professional development experience or growing moment from this year as you think back to all
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the great stuff that happened with Exploration AI? Yeah, I want to go back to the very beginning
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of the year at the Teach-to-Reach back-to-school conference that we held. Not necessarily the
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intro of ethos. That was great and everything, but I think the part I loved the most was
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the Teach-to-Reach bookstore at Trojan Corner there at Longmont High. We were able to give away
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650 books, so that means that we talked to 650 people and helped them find a specific
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AI-related professional development book that they could engage with. I just thought that was
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a great use of our resources and then a great way to make contact with folks and really make
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sure that we're being responsive to their individual needs and helping them find the right
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text to dive into. It was definitely a powerful experience, and I think Matt, didn't you even
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take copies of all the books and deliver them to every school in St. Vrain, so they're in their
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library system, right? Yeah, they went through everything over at library services, so
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everything's cataloged. Each school building in the district should have copies of all of the
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books that we had on tap there at Teach-to-Reach. Nice. Courtney, what about you? What was your
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highlight? I think the energy of the summit. I'm still reliving that, being that it was
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mid-February. I can't say it was a cold, snowy winter, but that kind of midpoint where things
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start to slow down. We had so many people participate in the summit and just wonderful
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things to follow it. I think that was probably my favorite PD that we offered, and having
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Katlyn come back was really great. Then seeing a lot of our AI leaders being able to present
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and share their learning and knowledge at the summit was also wonderful. Yeah, it really felt
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like a great, not a passing of the torch, maybe a passing of the torch, of knowing that we don't
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have to be responsible for all of this content. But we have such engaged folks here in the district
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that are so knowledgeable, and they were ready and willing to jump in and share all of their learning
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about AI and how to make sure that we are
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following through with our tenets of ethos and being ethical, transparent, human-centered,
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opportunity-focused, and Jason's favorite, safe. So, Courtney, I think another one of my highlights
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from the year was being able to deliver the Student-Powered AI Challenge awards to the schools,
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specifically the elementary schools, because those kids go bananas for their teachers when
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the teacher wins. They were cheering and jumping and so enthusiastic. Middle school, not so much.
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High school, I don't even know that they knew we were there. But you know what? It was a great
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experience, and being able to celebrate our teachers for the way that they're integrating AI
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in purposeful and meaningful ways has been loads of fun. Courtney, could you share with us
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our last AI Student-Powered Challenge winner of the year? Yeah, we're actually celebrating
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an amazing duo out at Northridge Elementary. Carly and Karen are the winners of our May
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Student-Powered AI Challenge. Their work stood out for how thoughtfully they used AI to support
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student learning, especially around vocabulary. They created a school AI space where students
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actively explore words by asking questions, trying out definitions, and getting real-time
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coaching and feedback. What's powerful here is the level of engagement. Students were not just
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memorizing, they were thinking, questioning, and refining their understanding. And it showed.
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Students reported stronger understanding of word meanings and better use of context clues.
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Even more impressive, every student engaged during vocabulary time across all learning levels.
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And this is just one great example of creating an inclusive, dynamic learning environment where AI
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helps all students participate, grow, and build confidence. Well, congratulations Carly and Karen.
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We're looking forward to all of the other learning that we get to do alongside you in the future.
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Thanks for taking a chance on these tools, and thanks for creating such purposeful experiences
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for your students to engage with, in addition to all of the other amazing things that we know
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that you are already doing in your classrooms. Yeah, so Jason, let's talk some ethos.
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Let's do it. So what's something that you want to bring forward with ethos from this year?
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I think, I mean, personally, I'd like to bring it all forward, but one that I know that
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Matt, Courtney, and I have been thinking kind of really deeply about and really trying to model
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this is that transparency part of ethos, which I think, again, I think we've talked about it on
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other episodes, but just the really importance of us as educators and humans of being transparent
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in our use and how we're using these tools. So I think like bringing something forward into next
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year, one of my kind of personal goals is to be really transparent and try and model those
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different ways in which I'm telling either colleagues, community members, vendors, or whoever
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it may be, how in which I'm using the tool, and really kind of call it out. So one thing we did
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with our school champions a couple of weeks ago was with our slide deck. It's a very beautiful
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slide deck, but we had a slide right at the beginning that called out transparency,
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and we very kind of shortly, but listed exactly how we used Gemini to help with the presentation.
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What I think that does, it really kind of opens up that conversation with either the folks that
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you're working with around how that, it opens up the conversation around how that tool is actually
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being used. And as we all know now, as we're going through this AI journey, it's very kind of easy
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to spot. It can be easy to spot AI creation, either images and or text. And so to be kind of really
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up front with it and how that tool was being used, then can kind of put that conversation into a
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different place of, man, I wish I had a better phrase here. Help me out, what do you think?
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Like it really helps the conversation drive into the exact reason why it was used, and so that
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you're able to talk really deeply about what's the main part of what you're trying to do.
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What's the main part of what you're trying to get at?
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Well, I think you're sharing that cognitive process a little and revealing, pulling back the
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curtain on that of like, you know what, we used AI as a thought partner to kind of flush out like
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directions on this slide, or we used a nano banana to decorate the slides. It kind of helps people see
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how each other is using AI thoughtfully and then the purpose behind that.
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Totally. And that's why you have really good teammates that can kind of help you
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raise things in that way. But yeah, you're totally right about sharing that kind of cognitive space
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that you're living in and what you really want to kind of get for. And it could be in a
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presentation where you're being transparent. It could be in a learning activity. It could be in
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an email. That's kind of your decision there. But I think it's going to be really important
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that we're transparent in how these tools are being used.
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And we'll link that slide in our PDF. So if people want to take that and run with it,
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they have the resources. Jason, what are some ways as teachers are thinking about next year
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that they can keep ethos at the forefront?
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Yeah, I think, you know, the start of a brand new school year is always a really good opportunity
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to create some class norms, some class expectations around this. So bringing in ethos
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early and often into the classroom and into your school could be the start of the year,
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could be a really great time to do that. Some kind of quick ideas to think about would be
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how might you introduce ethos during that first week of school, no matter kind of what grade
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level you're in. That could be some interesting thinking around how might you kind of call out
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some of those main pillars during that first week. And then the other thing that can kind of
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dovetail into that, how can you create some norms and routines that kind of reinforce that
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responsible use of AI that we want to see? You know, how are we going to talk about it? How are
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we going to, how are we going to use the tool? And so being, again, really kind of upfront and clear
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with our students around our AI use. Sample language could be a really good one to think
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through or scenarios that you could discuss with your students, thinking about
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how, again, how those tools are going to be used, how we're going to talk about it as a class,
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whether that's some either feedback mechanisms that maybe the teacher will use.
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But I think it's good to kind of really just start early and often around keeping that
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conversation going, creating those really consistent norms and clear expectations around AI use
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in the classroom. And bonus, we have a really great kind of planning document around this,
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which I think you all are going to kindly link up into this episode.
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Yeah, definitely. They should check that out. Oh, I forgot one thing, too.
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Yeah. Yeah, the other thing I think would be really important to kind of start the year
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with is thinking about how to maybe communicate these expectations and
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norms to your parents and your community. So whether that's in a syllabus or
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your kind of letters home or things of that nature. So
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thinking about how we can keep that conversation going with our parents.
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I think that you're doing a great job of setting us up to model a lot of those
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ethos components with our students and with our families. I think that we,
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yes, we are all still learning. And I think that we make new meaning as we learn together
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and so if we can model that learning for our parents, for our students, for
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anybody that we're involved, our colleagues, then we're really accomplishing a lot to make sure that
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we are approaching this integration and use of AI with all of those tenets of ethos in mind.
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Matt, you mentioned learning. How can I learn more if this is something new for me or ethos
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has sounded really interesting, but I'm not sure where to go with it?
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Well, I'm glad you asked, Courtney. So we have a whole bunch of PD courses that are
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running this summer. If you've engaged in a couple this year, this will be a great opportunity to
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dive into some other courses. We are running another round of School AI. Please engage with
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this tool that we've adopted here in the district. Check that one out. We have another round of our
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book study with Dr. Catlin Tucker's Elevating Educational Design with AI.
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We also are running the Exploration AI, the Voyage course again. All those books that I mentioned at
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the very beginning of the episode that we got at Teach to Reach, we're running those again.
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We're working on changing the name of that course because it's not going to forever be able to be
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called Teach to Reach book study, but we are still committed to making sure that we're learning
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together with those tools. And then also, you're listening to this podcast, so why not sign up for
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the Exploration AI Conversations Beyond the Algorithm PD course so that you can get some
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professional learning credit for listening to the two of us and on days that we're really lucky,
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the three of us, with Jason. Thanks, Matt. Speaking of summer work, Jason, as people are
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diving into maybe exploring School AI, I know there's something really new and awesome that
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School AI came out with. Can you tell us about it? They did. So School AI came out with a brand new
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browser extension for Chrome, and not gonna lie, it's pretty sweet. We've been kind of testing it
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with our school champions in the last week or so, and I know Matt, Courtney, and I have kind of
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run it through its paces, and it's pretty cool. So in order to get the extension, another thing,
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we could probably throw the link within the podcast episode, but it'll sit on your Chrome browser.
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The first thing I want you to know is this is only for teachers, and it's only going to be
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able to be used in Chrome. But what it does is it's a little School AI logo that sits on your
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browser, and you are able to then use School AI in any website that you choose. And so what comes
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with that is being able to create really cool, like a space right from a website. Thinking like,
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you know, we just had all this, the NASA, the moon, you know, pretty cool event, right? I can't
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remember the name. What was it? Artemis. Artemis. Artemis. Artemis. Sorry, Michael. But yeah, Artemis.
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So like, you know, if you were doing some deep dive learning about that, you're able to use
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that extension to either create a space directly from that website. Now, the kids don't, wouldn't
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go to the website, but you're able to just, like, create a really amazing space directly from the
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information that's on that website. Some other cool things that it can do is, it's also, you can
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use it in Google Docs, and so you're able to give maybe some feedback to students around it, kind of
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look at how students are creating documents within Google, all kinds of stuff. What other things am I
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missing, Courtney or Matt? I think just the fact that you get a little icon that lives on all your
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web pages, your email, and Google products, that you can have School AI right there, just makes it
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really easy to access it and have a district approved tool right at the ready. Yeah, it's
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cool. It's, like Courtney said, sits right on top there, and so you're able to kind of have School AI
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wherever you go on the web, if you're a staff member and you're using Chrome. So, pretty cool
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stuff. We're excited to see what you all come up with when you're using it, so we'd love to hear
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some feedback around that. Thanks, Jason. So, Courtney, what's coming in the next year?
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I mean, there's a lot coming up next year, but I'm going to just take a moment to highlight
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one thing that people can sign up for, and that's our AI Collaborative. So, the three of us will be
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teaching an AI Collaborative. This is a year-long collaborative that supports educators in integrating
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AI in ways that strengthen student thinking, agency, and identity, grounded in a human-centered
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ethos approach, and participants will explore how AI impacts learning through neuroscience
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designed for student agency and strategies for making things invisible. This collaborative is
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a year-long course that's two credits. We will meet in person and online. We hope you'll join
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us for the collaborative. Well, it's been an amazing year learning alongside of all of our
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amazing educators here in St. Vrain. Come back in September, and we'll have Season 2
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of Beyond the Algorithm. Really looking forward to catching up with you then. Thanks for listening.
