REPLAY: Conference Keynotes from 2025 - Felix Jacomino & Claire Goldsmith
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This episode is a replay of Season 4, Episode 79
Relive the dynamic opening keynotes from the ATLIS Annual Conference with Felix Jacomino and Claire Goldsmith. Felix, Director of Technology at St. Stephen's Episcopal Day School, reflects on past tech trends to provide a roadmap for future innovation. Claire, Principal of Lamplight Education, discusses harnessing emerging technologies like AI and Web3 to build resilient, future-ready schools, emphasizing curiosity, collaboration, and ethical courage.
Transcript
Peter Frank:
Chris, welcome to Talking technology with ATLIS,
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the show that plugs you into the important topics and trends for
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technology leaders all through a unique Independent School lens.
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We'll hear stories from technology directors and other
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special guests from the Independent School community,
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and provide you with focused learning and deep dive topics.
Peter Frank:
And now please welcome your host, Christina Lewellen,
Christina Lewellen:
Welcome back to Talking technology with
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ATLIS. I'm Christina Lewellen, the President and CEO of the
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Association of technology leaders in independent schools.
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As we gear up for this year's annual conference, we're taking
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a moment to revisit a few of our standout keynotes from last
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year's event, these sessions sparked big ideas, challenged
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our thinking, and continued to shape how technology leaders are
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showing up and leading their schools. If you're joining us
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this year, we'll be together from April 26 through 29 in
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Columbus, and it's shaping up to be an incredible few days of
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connection, insight and forward looking conversations.
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Registration is filling up fast, so if you haven't secured your
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spot yet, now is the time. We'll be back soon with all new
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episodes, and there are some really good ones coming up that
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we cannot wait to share with you. In the meantime, let's dive
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into one of those powerful keynotes from last year's
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conference. What we're going to do is we're going to relive the
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opening general session and keynotes from day one of our
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conference back on April 28 when we were in Atlanta and we had
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two incredible speakers, kind of carrying the
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general session slot our keynotes. It was interesting,
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because I think that we have found that having many voices
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speak to issues in the independent school technology
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space is something that our members and our attendees really
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love. So as I said, I'm really proud that we're bringing that
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to you this two part keynote address. The first part is
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Felix giacomino, good friend of ours. He's been on the pod. Go
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back and listen to his episode. It's fantastic. And he started
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out by exploring how sort of our past technology trends and the
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things that we've lived through in the past pertaining to
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technology can really give us a roadmap in terms of being
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proactive and planning for future innovations at our
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schools. And so that was a really cool kind of walk down
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memory lane. And after Felix was done, then Claire Goldsmith came
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to the stage, and she's the principal of lamplight
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education, and she kind of came into our space to talk about how
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K 12 leaders can kind of harness future and emerging trends. So
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she looked at AI, she looked at web three, and the idea here was
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that she really wanted us thinking about how to build
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resilient, Future Ready schools. So it was a really, really
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inspiring way to kick off the conference. I'm excited to go
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through that again.
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Can't wait. Let's do it. Good morning. There
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was a disclaimer slide basically saying that what I say ATLIS is
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not responsible for. And I was going to ask you to read it, but
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I wanted you to read it in your best TV disclaimer voice, you
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know, the one that ends with Viewer discretion is advised,
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because it's kind of important for later on, I'm going to have
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you use voices in your head in a good way, so don't be scared
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about that. So most of us here know how it goes, and we've been
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here several times a new technology enters the room, and
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what happens? You have the enthusiasts, right? And these
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are the ones saying, this is going to change everything, and
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they're excited about it. Change everything for the better.
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Finally, a turning point in education. Or there's those who
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are like, we have got to go one to one with this, right? Then
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there's the opposite end of the spectrum, and I realized that
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there's a better word for I originally used the words
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skeptics, but I had a conversation yesterday. I was
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speaking with Maggie Rankin, and she said something real nice,
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which she says, I could work with skeptics. It's the cynics
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that are the real challenge, right? The nay sayers, the
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negative Nellies, right? They're the ones who are this is going
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to ruin everything, and that'll just help students cheat, and
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we're going to hear that again and again. We didn't have that
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when I was in school. Why do we need it now and then, of course,
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this doesn't happen at our school, but maybe it happens in
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yours. Just wait long enough, and this trend will just go away
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like the others. Okay, see some people been there. Then there's
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what I like to call the IT, content filter, firewall, whack
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a mole. Game that starts to happen when the people who are
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in charge of those, the firewalls, start to get the
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directives to block this block that as soon as they block one
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another one pops up, and it's just that whack a mole, right?
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Eventually, though, if this tech is, in fact, helpful for our
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schools, and it has a place in education, we start to learn
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from others who have had. Success, the ones that have
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gotten past the scary very rarely are we the very, very
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first ones who have done it. So we start to learn from others,
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and we at least start with a certain department, or even if
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it's just for a certain program, and we start to leverage its
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power. I see some of you nodding, and you that's how you
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see things evolve at your school as well. And some others are
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asking, Who is this guy? So two truths and a lie. My name is
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Felix jacobino. I work at St Stephen's Episcopal Day School
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in Miami, Florida, more specifically, if you know Miami
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Coconut Grove, our little school by the bay and three, let's see
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that picture was not touched by AI. A few months ago, I got a
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call from Dr Ashley cross, Ashley, where you at now that
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I'm mentioning Ashley? Hi, Ashley. And we are at ATLIS, 10
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year anniversary. Guess what? Our professional relationship
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is, 10 years old. Like, happy anniversary. It was 10 years ago
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that Ashley and I worked side by side at St Stephen's. So there
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you have it. So a few months ago, you called me and asked if
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I would do this talk, and I was beyond flattered. I hung up the
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phone after graciously accepting and I immediately thought, Why
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me? What was her requirement for such an honor? And then it hit
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me, my age, get the old guy, get the one that's been around the
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block a few times, right? As a matter of fact, I don't know if
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you said this or I read it somewhere. Felix has been around
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since before the internet. So what did I do next? I googled
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and like, okay, ARPANET started in 1969 and I was born in the
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70s. So there you have it, not older than the internet, but I
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have been in educational technology and leadership for
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about 25 years. So I have seen things repeat themselves,
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sometimes their trajectories, sometimes they're cycles, and
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sometimes they just go in a zigzag all over the place.
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Lessons from the past is kind of the title of this talk. It's not
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Felix's lesson from the past. So rather than tell you a few more
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stories about me, I want to tap into the 1000s, make space for
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the 1000s that are in this room. Now, I know there's about 640,
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times the many stories that you have that's 1000s, if not 10s of
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1000s. What I'm going to do next is show a few slides of
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technologies that were disruptive at the time, nothing
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new. I'm not showing anything upcoming. This is again, lessons
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from the past. As I put each one up, I want you to rewind your
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memory tape. I said, rewind tape. I am old. Okay, let me,
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let me modernize that. Okay, rewind your DVDs. You don't
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rewind DVDs, so scroll back through your feeds timeline.
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Okay, got everybody with me. Now I do want you to go back to the
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past and think of what the conversations were when these
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technologies came about. If you're young enough you can't
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remember what a life without some of these technologies, or
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you might have been in school, okay, but I want you to go back
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and in your head with that narrator voice, think of the
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voices that were saying, what at the time the teacher down the
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hallway? Maybe one of your administrators, when that popped
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up? Okay, here's the first one, Google search. Just think back.
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All of these came with fear as well as acceptance. So fear
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might have been students will now have all the answers they
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won't be able to think. Now they're memorizing everything,
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but they have this. Can you think of anybody saying
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anything? Can you hear that person saying it back then?
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Acceptance. Now we teach to ask better questions. Now we could
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assess using un Google questions next Wikipedia. Can you remember
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what a common thing was that was said about Wikipedia? Remember
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when they were saying, Well, you know, it's not a reliable
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source. You can't use that to cite anything. So the fear was,
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anybody could edit. That's chaos. Anybody could say
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anything and acceptance. It's what collaborative, constantly
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evolving knowledge and up to date encyclopedias are outdated
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the minute that they're printed right next. This has been around
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for a while, but we haven't landed here yet. Right if I took
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a survey of everybody in this room, or at least of your
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schools and the policies around mobile phones, they would be as
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varied as there are people in this room, and this is one
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that's constantly coming and going, coming and going, they're
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distractions, right? That's the fear. It'll help students cheat.
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What is it about teachers and worried about cheating? Right?
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Acceptance, their access tools, their response systems. Research
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portals. In this picture, you see the student documenting the
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learning, or, I don't know, maybe she is zooming somebody in
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to have collaboration with a school across the world. How
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about Google Docs? Does anybody remember seeing this for the
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first time, like real time, like Google Docs? Like two I was
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sitting in a computer lab, and the computers were right next to
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each other, and I remember thinking, I type here and it
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shows there, and I could sit here and it shows there on the
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same dock, and it was like so life changing, but there were
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fears around that, over sharing, it'll help students cheat, okay?
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Acceptance, there's more transparency now, co editing,
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feedback, peer support. Few more, one to one devices. This
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one is another one that keeps on coming up, keeps on coming and
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going. What's the fear digital babysitters? If it has access to
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the internet, we know students could use that to cheat
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acceptance. There's equity right now, let me say one thing about
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one to one. We know that if we're going to use devices, we
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have to have infrastructure. That's a given. If we're going
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to drive a car, we need roads. So the number one failure,
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because I've worked with a lot of schools that have gone to one
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to one initiatives, the number one failure is the Tech is a
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given, right? But it's not a tech issue. The number one
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failure is a vision issue, strategic planning issue, a PD
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issue, and more specifically, an ongoing professional development
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issue. Schools might purchase the equipment, put it in the
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hands of teachers and students, bring somebody to say one or two
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things at the beginning and hope for the best. And that's
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unfortunately, where things go wrong. How about this one,
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remote learning and virtual meetings?
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As we rewind the tape? Fine, I'll say it. We could remember
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what it was like to be on Zoom meetings all the time. The fear
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was, this is just a stop gap, but now it's part of how we
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operate. Raise your hand if you've been on the zoom in the
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last month. Wow. Take a look around. All right, how about in
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the last week, same number of hands? Wait, how can I have been
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more hands in the first question? Okay, all right. How
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many of you think you'll be on a and I'm saying zoom instead of
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some generic one, because Zoom is one of our sponsors. So there
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you have it. How many will be on a zoom? Or, you know, the other
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ones during your time here at ATLIS over the next few days?
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Look at that. See. So we've seen that impact. Think back to
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Grammarly. What were the conversations? And there could
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be two conversations, right? We're getting Grammarly for all
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the faculty and staff. You know what? We're also including the
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students. Ooh, that's going to help them cheat. How many of you
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who control the MDM or the individual devices have been
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asked to I'm not making this up. Can you turn off, auto correct
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and spell check on the students devices so they could turn their
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spelling tests in via Google Docs. Yeah, yeah. Turn them off
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because, well, you know, they're helping them. They're cheating.
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Let me go back to when I was asked to do this. I figured I've
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got to do something that I'm think I'm good at definitely
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something I'm very passionate about, and that's making
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connections, not only myself with others, but others with
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others. So a lesson from the past, which I hope helps shape
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your future, is this, yes, Google can get you answers. Chat
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GPT can help you with your next policy, help your next write
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your next email, and even explain VLANs to a sixth grader.
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But something for which technology has no substitute is
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your professional network, and here we are at ATLIS. What
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better way to expand that than here over the next three days?
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So we're going to do something a little bit different now. I'm
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going to put up some slides with job roles and job titles, if it
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describes you. I'd like you to stand up once you're standing I
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want you to look around, check out who the people on your team
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are the people you have in common. If you're seated, that's
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not it's like, oh, well, he didn't call me. Let me tune out
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right now, no pay attention to who those people are, because,
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well, you work with those people at your school in one way or
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another, right? So pay attention there. Then what I want you to
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do is, throughout the conference, look for those
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people who are in your teams. As you grab your lunch plate,
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looking for a place to sit and be like Gordon, I remember that
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you stood up during that slide. I'm that you mind if I sit with
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you, because I've got some questions. Right? And grow that
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network, which, by the way, on your name badge, you've got a QR
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code, that's your information. You do have to use the engage
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fully app to scan it, so go ahead scan it, and it kind of
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aggregates all the business cards or the contact information
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of the people that you meet. So as you're walking around. How
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about as you're waiting for the next session to start, instead
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of scrolling through your phone and checking up on email, let
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your out of office. Responder, do the job it's designed to do,
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and scan and take a look. Who's standing up. Who's in my team.
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All right, here we go. Let's grow the money. People, CFOs,
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business managers, directors of finance, please stand up if
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you're here. Any CFOs, any money? People? One, any others?
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All right, two. Okay, wow. I thought it was going to be a few
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more guys. Bring your CFOs. They have to understand what we're
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doing here, right? Okay, this group might be bigger. Directors
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of technologies, CTOs, CIOs, IT leadership director is in your
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title. Have a look around. Don't look at me. You know what I look
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like by now. Take a look around. A lot of you will know each
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other, okay, but you're gonna see a face you haven't seen
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before next IT infrastructure security teams, network admin,
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system admin, stand up. I want to talk to you about VLANs. I
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want to like, how do you configure this on your Wi Fi?
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How do you what do you do about guest networks? Do you isolate
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IoT devices? Let's talk about that. So to have a look around,
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look at each other, and find somebody that you might interact
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with later on. Thank you. Have a seat directors of educating now
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this one's remember, this is the more academic side of things, by
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the way, you can stand it for as many slides as applied to you.
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Okay, I would stand for many of them, not the CFO one, but I
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would stand for a lot of them, and especially the smaller your
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school, right? The smaller your school, the more hats you might
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wear. So if you're a Director of Educational Technology, you're
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in the academic side innovation and integration, go ahead and
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stand up, please, and have a look around. Make those
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connections. See, there's some people who I know, and I thought
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they were strictly it, but I see them on the academic side,
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that's great. That's great conversation I'll be having
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later on. Wonderful teachers, faculty, the ones that get it
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happening in the schools in front of students. Teachers,
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faculty, focused on Ed Tech, stem, Steam, computer science,
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educational technologists, integrators or anything. Okay,
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awesome, wow. Have a look around. You. Got to do a little
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turning to see all the way around. Okay, great, awesome.
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How about these database admins, student information systems. We
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need you. They the people that come to you. Can you please give
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me a CSV, because I have to update the what's a CBS? You
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hear that all the time, right? So I'd be standing up for this
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one kind of too. All right, help desk, technical support teams.
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I'm still standing for this one too. My printer is not working.
Felix Jacomino:
Yeah, you're first to show up, Alex, I'm thinking about you
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like you're standing for more of these than I thought you would.
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And, man, we got to talk a little more cool. All right.
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Look around. Look for those people. Okay, only a couple
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more. I was beat to this one this morning. They all stood up
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one by one. But one more time, please. ATLIS team members,
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board of directors, I'm going to invite founders and co founders
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to stand up as well. Let's have a look at the people who are the
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glue of this association and make this happen. Look at the
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audience so they can see your faces and get to know who does
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what. Right? It's like, yeah, you're with ATLIS, but what
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exactly do you do? PD, is it membership? What is their role?
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Make sure you reach out to them. Are there any heads of schools
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here? All right, heads of schools, principals, division
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heads, anybody else? That's it. Guys, drag those people to with
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you. We need them. We need them. Great. Now, heads, you're going
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to want to pay attention to this next group, okay, but I'm going
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to have a little reminder for you, if you identify with this
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next slide, and I'm standing for this one too. I'm a technology
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leader, confident in skills and doggone it, my head of school
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likes me. It's okay. It's not a brag. It's like, you know what?
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I have a good, trusting relationship with my head of
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school. Stand up, heads of school, this is an opportunity
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for networking, not poaching. Okay, so, but go ahead, turn
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around. Look at each other. Because, seriously, heads, these
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are the people you want to approach and say, Tell me. What
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is it that works? So. Well, between you and your head of
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school. Now, for this one, stay seated. If you identify with
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this.
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I've been tasked with creating our schools AI policy, and I
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could really use some help. Okay, I don't need to see who
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you are. You know who you are, but this next group is going to
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stand up those who have successfully created an AI
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policy have been through the job. Thank you. Go ahead and
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stand up. Turn around so you can see who each other are, but also
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the ones quietly sitting down, who have been tasked with this,
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who are kind of nervous about it, they might want to approach
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you and ask for some help. Who did I miss? Please send up if
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you did not stand up for another slide just because it didn't fit
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your role or your job title. Anybody? Okay, great, great.
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Send up face that way so everybody can see you. If you're
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a vendor, you're welcome. Actually, if you're a vendor,
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thank you very much. Actually, stay standing up if I didn't
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call your name, because what I'm going to task everybody with
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doing, the challenge for the room is to solve the mystery of
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who these people are. Like, seriously, what's your role?
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What brings you to ATLIS? Do you have a name badge, stuff like
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that? So it brings me back to the lesson from the past, which
Felix Jacomino:
I hope helps shape your future. Yes, Google can give you a lot
Felix Jacomino:
of answers. Chat, GPT can help with your next policy, write
Felix Jacomino:
your email or explain VLANs to a sixth grader. But something for
Felix Jacomino:
which there is no technology substitute is your professional
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network, and what better place to grow that than the
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Association for technology leaders in independent schools,
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please add me as your very first network expansion person. Okay,
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and I look forward to meeting all 600 and some of you. Thank
Felix Jacomino:
you very much.
Christina Lewellen:
And now that we have wrapped up Felix's part
Christina Lewellen:
of the keynote. We're going to turn our attention to Claire
Christina Lewellen:
Goldsmith for the second part. Here we go.
Claire Goldsmith:
Hi everyone. Thank you so much. So this talk
Claire Goldsmith:
is called shaping the schools of tomorrow, and I promise I'm
Claire Goldsmith:
going to give you a lot of my thoughts on the future, but I
Claire Goldsmith:
want to start by giving you a story from the past about a
Claire Goldsmith:
school of tomorrow. It was 2011 and I was Director of Student
Claire Goldsmith:
Life at Stanford Online High School, a job that many of my
Claire Goldsmith:
friends outside of work thought was actually a joke. After all,
Claire Goldsmith:
I had just spent four years teaching at Harvard West Lake in
Claire Goldsmith:
LA I had won a teaching award from the seniors and gotten a
Claire Goldsmith:
graduate degree from Stanford, and all of a sudden, I was
Claire Goldsmith:
working in online learning, which at the time was unfairly
Claire Goldsmith:
associated with low quality and predatory institutions, and to
Claire Goldsmith:
boot, I was running student life. No one got it. So one day,
Claire Goldsmith:
I left work and I went to the gym, and part way through the
Claire Goldsmith:
workout, I was doing one of those cool TRX activities.
Claire Goldsmith:
Anyone remember the TRX? Very popular at the time. I got a
Claire Goldsmith:
call from my boss asking whether I would join the virtual parent
Claire Goldsmith:
association meeting. It was a video conference of parents from
Claire Goldsmith:
all around the world, and I was free to join from home using one
Claire Goldsmith:
of those video conferencing systems that was about 17
Claire Goldsmith:
generations before zoom. So the little Palo Alto gym said that I
Claire Goldsmith:
could just pop up and use their office. So I wiped off the
Claire Goldsmith:
sweat, threw on a work shirt, grabbed my laptop, ran up into
Claire Goldsmith:
that office, opened it up, and joined this virtual room of
Claire Goldsmith:
parents across the world to present and then I noticed my
Claire Goldsmith:
background. A trainer from the gym had walked in behind me, and
Claire Goldsmith:
he was getting undressed. So this was long before we all
Claire Goldsmith:
obsessed about our backgrounds. You couldn't blur them. You
Claire Goldsmith:
couldn't put up a lovely wall of fancy books or nice diplomas or
Claire Goldsmith:
those Hawaiian trees waving in the wind and turning around and
Claire Goldsmith:
explaining video conferencing to the gentleman behind me in that
Claire Goldsmith:
moment was just not an option. So what did I do? I picked up my
Claire Goldsmith:
laptop, engaging those core muscles, rotated around
Claire Goldsmith:
completely, the other way, facing backwards, and began my
Claire Goldsmith:
presentation, which was actually about the physical education
Claire Goldsmith:
program at Stanford Online High School.
Claire Goldsmith:
We've learned so much, and come such a long way, haven't we? So
Claire Goldsmith:
this is a talk about some of what I've learned since that
Claire Goldsmith:
era, I've helped to develop an online learning consortium
Claire Goldsmith:
train. Signed 1000s of teachers in online learning during the
Claire Goldsmith:
pandemic, and started a consulting practice. I've
Claire Goldsmith:
advised nonprofits and schools. I've spearheaded and led a
Claire Goldsmith:
merger that will envision the future of assessment, and worked
Claire Goldsmith:
with tech companies on the cutting edge of new technology.
Claire Goldsmith:
But this isn't a talk about the flashiest new technology. It's
Claire Goldsmith:
about something deeper, how we can shape a future where
Claire Goldsmith:
technology serves human development and not the other
Claire Goldsmith:
way around. If we're going to build the schools of tomorrow,
Claire Goldsmith:
we have to get clear on what's worth preserving and what's
Claire Goldsmith:
worth changing. So today I want to offer three guiding
Claire Goldsmith:
principles I believe should shape the schools of tomorrow,
Claire Goldsmith:
curiosity, collaboration and ethical courage. And these
Claire Goldsmith:
aren't buzz words, they're human capabilities that AI cannot
Claire Goldsmith:
replicate, and they will define how our students thrive in a
Claire Goldsmith:
tech driven world. So let's start with curiosity. First,
Claire Goldsmith:
let's get intentional about what we should actually be teaching.
Claire Goldsmith:
Recently, a parent walked into the office of a friend of mine,
Claire Goldsmith:
a head of the Upper School, and asked, Why does my son even need
Claire Goldsmith:
to learn anything here? AI is going to do it all one day. Wow.
Claire Goldsmith:
So now a word about that kind of prediction. We have a long
Claire Goldsmith:
history of not being very good at them. When it comes to tech,
Claire Goldsmith:
sometimes we overestimate the impact of technology in 1922
Claire Goldsmith:
Thomas Edison wrote, I believe that the motion picture is
Claire Goldsmith:
destined to revolutionize our educational system, and that in
Claire Goldsmith:
a few years it will supplant largely, If not entirely, the
Claire Goldsmith:
use of textbooks. Well, we certainly still have textbooks,
Claire Goldsmith:
and sometimes we underestimate the role of technology. In 1998
Claire Goldsmith:
Nobel Prize winner and New York Times columnist Paul Krugman
Claire Goldsmith:
wrote, by 2005 or so, it will become clear that the internet's
Claire Goldsmith:
impact on the economy has been no greater than the fax
Claire Goldsmith:
machines. So let's talk about what we do know about what
Claire Goldsmith:
school in the age of AI could look like, and I'm going to
Claire Goldsmith:
bring it down to the classroom level for you, because I was an
Claire Goldsmith:
English teacher. So we know that generative AI writes a pretty
Claire Goldsmith:
good paper, and you all know that AI detectors do not work.
Claire Goldsmith:
So what would I do? Let's say I was teaching the Great Gatsby,
Claire Goldsmith:
and I was teaching ninth grade, and I wanted to assign a sort of
Claire Goldsmith:
basic paper on it, so I would not be able to tell whether
Claire Goldsmith:
chat, GPT or Claude or any other tool, wrote the paper, I would
Claire Goldsmith:
not panic bulk order blue books on Amazon or wherever they still
Claire Goldsmith:
sell those things. Instead, I would change the assignment. One
Claire Goldsmith:
way to change the assignment would be to have higher
Claire Goldsmith:
standards. I sometimes talk about AI as raising the floor
Claire Goldsmith:
and the ceiling in learning. AI can write a decent paper on
Claire Goldsmith:
Gatsby, so I might ask it to do that, and then I'd have students
Claire Goldsmith:
critique that paper or write the opposing argument, or write it
Claire Goldsmith:
from the perspective of a character in the novel. I might
Claire Goldsmith:
have students write in class and then peer conference or present
Claire Goldsmith:
live. Remember how math teachers used to always tell us to show
Claire Goldsmith:
our work? Well, I would find all kinds of creative ways for
Claire Goldsmith:
students to show their work. Sometimes I might tell them to
Claire Goldsmith:
use AI to write the paper document how they used it, and
Claire Goldsmith:
maybe connect the way chat GPT wrote the paper to a particular
Claire Goldsmith:
method of literary theory, literary theory in ninth grade
Claire Goldsmith:
with AI involved. Why not raise that bar?
Claire Goldsmith:
Or I might decide that I didn't want any AI use at all in the
Claire Goldsmith:
assignment, and I would be explicit about that, pointing to
Claire Goldsmith:
a graphic like this one that I had, showing that this was a red
Claire Goldsmith:
or no AI assignment compared to others that might permit its
Claire Goldsmith:
use. And if I suspected that students used AI when they
Claire Goldsmith:
weren't supposed to, well, guess what? We've been dealing with
Claire Goldsmith:
academic dishonesty, as Felix said, since the beginning of
Claire Goldsmith:
time, and our schools are actually really good at it.
Claire Goldsmith:
Okay? So one way a school of the future, or even honestly, a
Claire Goldsmith:
school of the present, might use AI in the classroom would be
Claire Goldsmith:
that. But now I want to go further. When that parent walks
Claire Goldsmith:
in asking. Why school even matters now we have to get clear
Claire Goldsmith:
in our answer and talk about what AI cannot do. So first
Claire Goldsmith:
there's empathy and the parts of our existence that are the most
Claire Goldsmith:
human. AI will not be able to replace a nurse holding a hand
Claire Goldsmith:
at a sick bed. It won't be that amazing relational teacher. We
Claire Goldsmith:
need to be preparing students for those jobs just as much as
Claire Goldsmith:
we're preparing them to use AI and more on that later. AI is
Claire Goldsmith:
excellent at solving problems one millisecond of predicting
Claire Goldsmith:
the next word after the next. It will help us cure diseases. I
Claire Goldsmith:
believe it will make our roads safer and much more but how will
Claire Goldsmith:
it know what problems to solve? What we need to be teaching our
Claire Goldsmith:
students is curiosity, the capacity to wonder about
Claire Goldsmith:
something. Why is something the way it is? How could we make
Claire Goldsmith:
change in the world, we need to be teaching students that
Claire Goldsmith:
essential element of design thinking, I'm sure, familiar to
Claire Goldsmith:
many of you, understanding real problems among our fellow
Claire Goldsmith:
humans. There's no reason that young people can't be advancing
Claire Goldsmith:
new knowledge at younger and younger ages, just as the
Claire Goldsmith:
calculator let younger and younger students do more complex
Claire Goldsmith:
computation, but they have to be taught to wonder and to want to
Claire Goldsmith:
know and do more. When I talk to tech CEOs, it's actually not
Claire Goldsmith:
knowledge of AI that they seek in potential hires, it's
Claire Goldsmith:
curiosity, and schools are going to have to foster, continue
Claire Goldsmith:
fostering that curiosity. We can't make predictions, but we
Claire Goldsmith:
can teach children essential skills like curiosity that will
Claire Goldsmith:
serve them well no matter what. So let's change the assignment,
Claire Goldsmith:
raise the bar and cultivate that wonder. Second, we have to
Claire Goldsmith:
center collaboration and use technology to enhance it. The
Claire Goldsmith:
research on the power of relationships in learning is
Claire Goldsmith:
long and deep, but we also have to be collaborating more as
Claire Goldsmith:
adults and collaborating more as schools and as places we might
Claire Goldsmith:
not even call schools, but that are developing young people.
Claire Goldsmith:
Many of you have probably heard by now how fast micro schools
Claire Goldsmith:
and home schools are growing. There are currently 95,000
Claire Goldsmith:
micro schools serving 1.5 million students in the United
Claire Goldsmith:
States and 3.7 million home schooled students. By
Claire Goldsmith:
comparison, there are 4.7 million students in private
Claire Goldsmith:
schools, including independent schools. When I worked at
Claire Goldsmith:
Stanford online high school, we were just starting to see a new
Claire Goldsmith:
type of home schooler emerge. We no longer have the image of a
Claire Goldsmith:
mom, and yes, it was usually a mom at the kitchen table with a
Claire Goldsmith:
child teaching course content. Rather that child may now be
Claire Goldsmith:
spending the day moving between an online course, a field trip,
Claire Goldsmith:
a lesson as part of a micro school community and work with a
Claire Goldsmith:
parent at home. We have seen this blurring of school type
Claire Goldsmith:
more and more traditional brick and mortar schools embracing
Claire Goldsmith:
online and hybrid for certain subjects, and let's not forget
Claire Goldsmith:
that a learner is also now someone who can find information
Claire Goldsmith:
online with how to videos getting hundreds of millions of
Claire Goldsmith:
views. I believe that this kind of blending the educational
Claire Goldsmith:
experience has real power for our independent schools. A
Claire Goldsmith:
recent report from the Enrollment Management
Claire Goldsmith:
Association found that the number one driver for parents
Claire Goldsmith:
choosing independent schools is access to high quality academic
Claire Goldsmith:
programs that mattered so much, in fact, in the data, that most
Claire Goldsmith:
families would not even choose a free school if it meant
Claire Goldsmith:
compromising on quality. And yet, no school can offer every
Claire Goldsmith:
student the perfect academic fit. When I ran the Malone
Claire Goldsmith:
schools online network, we helped schools expand their
Claire Goldsmith:
curricula by pooling resources so that each school could offer
Claire Goldsmith:
advanced or niche courses like linear algebra, Arabic or the
Claire Goldsmith:
literature of James Joyce. But beyond expanding course
Claire Goldsmith:
offerings, there's another benefit to this kind of
Claire Goldsmith:
collaboration, giving students meaningful academic and social
Claire Goldsmith:
experiences with peers from other schools. I remember one
Claire Goldsmith:
student who was seen as the math person at her school, but in an
Claire Goldsmith:
online class, she got to shine in the humanities, effectively
Claire Goldsmith:
trying on a new identity that kind of cross campus
Claire Goldsmith:
collaboration. Learning can open up real growth. Let's work
Claire Goldsmith:
together to give students the best experiences academic and
Claire Goldsmith:
social in the schools of tomorrow. Let's connect our
Claire Goldsmith:
students less through social media and more through
Claire Goldsmith:
intentional work in our schools, to reach outside of silos.
Claire Goldsmith:
Third, we have to have ethical courage. These wonderful futures
Claire Goldsmith:
can only happen if we take tech ethics seriously and teach it
Claire Goldsmith:
intentionally. So I'm going to give you two recent tech ethics
Claire Goldsmith:
scenarios and let you decide whether they're Kosher or not.
Claire Goldsmith:
The first is a true story of a friend during the pandemic, like
Claire Goldsmith:
so many of us, he would sit through hours and hours and
Claire Goldsmith:
hours of zoom meetings, occasionally sipping some water
Claire Goldsmith:
or munching on an apple. Except he wasn't really doing that,
Claire Goldsmith:
sipping or biting apples. He had recorded a video of himself
Claire Goldsmith:
sitting at his desk doing those things, and he was playing it on
Claire Goldsmith:
a loop as a zoom background. So if you think this is ethical,
Claire Goldsmith:
raise your hand.
Claire Goldsmith:
Okay, I guess I know the answer to this one. If you think it's
Claire Goldsmith:
unethical, raise your hand. So now what if I told you that
Claire Goldsmith:
while the meeting was going, he sat right by his computer and
Claire Goldsmith:
listened into the audio when it was a board meeting, say, and
Claire Goldsmith:
there was a vote called, he would scurry back to his desk
Claire Goldsmith:
and he would vote. And what was he doing just off camera, eating
Claire Goldsmith:
a lovely dinner with his girlfriend. He was dining on
Claire Goldsmith:
beautiful roast chicken, wooing the woman who would eventually
Claire Goldsmith:
become his wife, and listening into the board call without
Claire Goldsmith:
anyone knowing he wasn't really on camera. So Let's vote again.
Claire Goldsmith:
If you think this is ethical. Raise your hand. Okay, and still
Claire Goldsmith:
unethical. A lot of you, okay, okay, fascinating. All right, so
Claire Goldsmith:
what if I told you now that only five years later, AI avatars are
Claire Goldsmith:
doing exactly that for people, but what they're also doing is
Claire Goldsmith:
impersonating people without their permission. In January of
Claire Goldsmith:
2024 an employee of a major multinational corporation
Claire Goldsmith:
transferred $25 million to scammers after deep fakes posing
Claire Goldsmith:
as company employees on Zoom asked him to
Claire Goldsmith:
so now we're in new territory, a harmless, but maybe slightly
Claire Goldsmith:
questionable choice by my friend, made maybe less
Claire Goldsmith:
questionable by the circumstances, but now taking on
Claire Goldsmith:
new meaning when lots of people can fake it and maybe for really
Claire Goldsmith:
pernicious purposes. We've come a long way from having to worry
Claire Goldsmith:
about the buff trainer in the background taking his shirt off,
Claire Goldsmith:
but this is the world that our children are living in. So
Claire Goldsmith:
here's another scenario for you. A friend's 10th grade daughter
Claire Goldsmith:
recently used chat GPT to help prepare her notes to take into
Claire Goldsmith:
an open book Physics exam. Now I can't really ask you whether
Claire Goldsmith:
this is ethical or not, because I would say that it depends, it
Claire Goldsmith:
depends in part, on what the teacher's expectations had been.
Claire Goldsmith:
Is it okay to use generative AI at her school in the science
Claire Goldsmith:
department in that physics class for that physics test? We have
Claire Goldsmith:
got to get clear on our expectations with students, as
Claire Goldsmith:
you can imagine, I am in favor of many types of AI use among
Claire Goldsmith:
high school students. But just as math teachers tell students
Claire Goldsmith:
when they can and cannot use the calculator, we have to be in
Claire Goldsmith:
dialog with them about what is permitted, when it's permitted
Claire Goldsmith:
and why. So now back to my friend's 10th grade daughter, I
Claire Goldsmith:
found myself a bit uncomfortable listening to her parents. I
Claire Goldsmith:
wondered what learning she was offloading by calling in the
Claire Goldsmith:
chat GPT reinforcements to prepare those study notes. And
Claire Goldsmith:
then her mom told me the kicker, she went to bed an hour earlier
Claire Goldsmith:
than she would have. Wow, we have a wellness crisis among
Claire Goldsmith:
adolescents. I would trade a little cognitive offloading for
Claire Goldsmith:
a little more sleep any day. So how are we talking about these
Claire Goldsmith:
trade offs? If we're not, we should be and with our students
Claire Goldsmith:
now layer into all of this the most troubling aspects of AI,
Claire Goldsmith:
misinformation and disinformation, the kind of bias
Claire Goldsmith:
that makes generative AI spit out different answers for
Claire Goldsmith:
different genders, or facial recognition technology that
Claire Goldsmith:
can't recognize black faces or the melanoma spotters. That
Claire Goldsmith:
don't work on dark skin. What about the environmental impact
Claire Goldsmith:
of AI? I used to be a debate coach, and I wish I could be in
Claire Goldsmith:
that debate room right now, sinking into these topics with
Claire Goldsmith:
students in those formats. Our students need to grapple with
Claire Goldsmith:
these issues while in our care, so that they can go out to work
Claire Goldsmith:
and lead with a well honed ethical compass and armed with
Claire Goldsmith:
ethical courage, ready to collaborate and curious, they
Claire Goldsmith:
can solve many problems. Okay, so what does the school of
Claire Goldsmith:
tomorrow actually look like? Years ago, someone asked me
Claire Goldsmith:
whether one day, all schools would be online, and I said, No.
Claire Goldsmith:
Now I get asked whether schools will all be run by AI robots, or
Claire Goldsmith:
whether we will even need school because AI can do it all, like
Claire Goldsmith:
that mom that walked into my friend's office. Remember her, I
Claire Goldsmith:
believe that in the age of AI, school might look different in
Claire Goldsmith:
ways we can't anticipate, but we will actually need it more.
Claire Goldsmith:
That's for one main reason. School is the place where we do
Claire Goldsmith:
the things that are the most human. And despite what many
Claire Goldsmith:
think, I believe, we have been on a journey to make school time
Claire Goldsmith:
more and more human through technology. In my Stanford
Claire Goldsmith:
online high school days, it was about the flipped classroom,
Claire Goldsmith:
letting students absorb a lecture at home, so that when
Claire Goldsmith:
they came to class, it could be all about debate and discussion
Claire Goldsmith:
and getting help from the teacher and relationships and
Claire Goldsmith:
empathy, and if AI can help us with administrative tasks, so
Claire Goldsmith:
that we can spend more time With those human things. I am all for
Claire Goldsmith:
it. We bat around this word human a lot in this context, so
Claire Goldsmith:
I'm going to tell you what it means to me. In my last year of
Claire Goldsmith:
brick and mortar teaching, a student in our middle school
Claire Goldsmith:
died. I wasn't her teacher, but I was teaching many of her close
Claire Goldsmith:
friends. So I sat with them in her childhood bedroom the day
Claire Goldsmith:
she died. For weeks I would sit on the floor of the middle
Claire Goldsmith:
school hallways with those girls talking about books or their
Claire Goldsmith:
favorite foods or their weekends. There were many
Claire Goldsmith:
aspects of my early teaching career that I did just fine, but
Claire Goldsmith:
that I would do differently now, like that Gatsby assignment, I
Claire Goldsmith:
would raise the bar, and I would find efficiencies too, but I
Claire Goldsmith:
would do that in order to spend more time sitting in hallways
Claire Goldsmith:
with kids. I would not change that part of my job. I started
Claire Goldsmith:
this talk with a story about my video conferencing background
Claire Goldsmith:
and in the pandemic, one of the small silver linings was that we
Claire Goldsmith:
had insight into the home lives of our students. We could
Claire Goldsmith:
literally see into their homes. And now there were equity
Claire Goldsmith:
concerns with that, with students feeling they had to
Claire Goldsmith:
reveal more than they maybe wanted to, but it was a reminder
Claire Goldsmith:
that the background matters. When we are effective as
Claire Goldsmith:
educators, we see our students in three dimensions. I'm sure
Claire Goldsmith:
that everybody here has a story like mine about losing a
Claire Goldsmith:
student, or moment where we're called to support people in a
Claire Goldsmith:
profound way with our students. We don't want to blur the
Claire Goldsmith:
backgrounds children growing up today need caring adults like
Claire Goldsmith:
you who know them in three dimensions. They need adults who
Claire Goldsmith:
can help them understand the role of technology in their
Claire Goldsmith:
lives. And that message, by the way, should be empowering. Look
Claire Goldsmith:
at this astonishing technology we have. Guess what? It was
Claire Goldsmith:
created by a human just like you. What are you going to go
Claire Goldsmith:
out and build? And they need guidance in wrestling with
Claire Goldsmith:
ethical questions. They need to learn collaboration and to see
Claire Goldsmith:
us collaborate to give them broad and rich experiences. They
Claire Goldsmith:
need curiosity so they can determine which problems in the
Claire Goldsmith:
world they want to use AI to help them solve. So you our tech
Claire Goldsmith:
leaders, are the ones who can make all of that happen. No
Claire Goldsmith:
pressure, not by chasing every shiny new tool, but by asking
Claire Goldsmith:
what really matters for kids. You can lead the charge in
Claire Goldsmith:
shaping not just the tech of tomorrow, but the schools of
Claire Goldsmith:
tomorrow, where empathy, wisdom and wonder guide how we use it.
Claire Goldsmith:
Thank you.
Peter Frank:
This has been talking technology with ATLIS,
Peter Frank:
produced by the Association of technology leaders in
Peter Frank:
independent schools. For more information about Atlas and
Peter Frank:
Atlas membership, please visit the atlas.org if you enjoyed
Peter Frank:
this discussion, please subscribe, leave a review and
Peter Frank:
share this podcast with your colleagues in the independent
Peter Frank:
school community.
Peter Frank:
Thank you for listening. You. You.
