Social Etiquette and Clarifying AI Guidelines with Laura Tierney
Presented by:
Laura Tierney, CEO of The Social Institute, joins the pod to discuss shifting the narrative from technology bans to intentional usage. Explore fresh data on student AI perceptions, the rise of private backchannels, and why tech leaders must act as "quarterbacks" in fostering student-centered social etiquette in an evolving digital world.
- The Social Institute, organization equipping students, families, and educators with modern life skills to impact learning, well-being, and students' futures
- Student Insights Report (2026), from The Social Institute, documenting how students are navigating social media, technology, and everyday life, both online and offline
- Family Toolkit, from The Social Institute, includes expert tech tips, summaries of social media apps, and positive family huddle questions..
- Resources for educators, from The Social Institute
- “Clear is kind”, quote from Brene Brown and her book Dare to Lead
- Brick, physical device and app that temporarily removes distracting apps and their notifications from your phone
- Yondr, program creating phone-free spaces for artists, educators, organizations and individuals
- The Philadelphia Eagles Playoff Loss
Transcript
Peter Frank:
Matt, welcome to Talking technology with ATLIS,
Peter Frank:
the show that plugs you into the important topics and trends for
Peter Frank:
technology leaders all through a unique Independent School lens.
Peter Frank:
We'll hear stories from technology directors and other
Peter Frank:
special guests from the Independent School community,
Peter Frank:
and provide you with focused learning and deep dive topics.
Peter Frank:
And now please welcome your host. Christina Lewellen,
Christina Lewellen:
Hello everyone, and welcome back to
Christina Lewellen:
talking technology with ATLIS. I'm Christina Lewellen, the
Christina Lewellen:
President and CEO of the Association of technology
Christina Lewellen:
leaders in independent schools.
Bill Stites:
And I am Bill Stites, the Director of
Bill Stites:
Technology at Montclair Kimberly Academy in Montclair, New
Bill Stites:
Jersey, and
Hiram Cuevas:
I'm Hiram Cuevas, the Director of Information
Hiram Cuevas:
Systems and Academic Technology at Saint Christopher's school in
Hiram Cuevas:
Richmond, Virginia.
Christina Lewellen:
Hello, gentlemen. Good morning. How are
Christina Lewellen:
you guys hanging in? It's cold. It is. It is cold here in
Christina Lewellen:
Virginia.
Hiram Cuevas:
Now I know Bill is
Hiram Cuevas:
disappointed in the birds, go birds, go birds,
Hiram Cuevas:
but I am really happy for my son, because he loves the bears.
Christina Lewellen:
That was insane. Okay, so I can't even
Christina Lewellen:
believe that we're going to have this conversation right now, but
Christina Lewellen:
we're going to ask our listeners to indulge for just a minute. We
Christina Lewellen:
are recording on January 15. We just had a really interesting
Christina Lewellen:
football weekend, and what's interesting is that in the
Christina Lewellen:
beginning of this journey, Bill, I actually credit you with my
Christina Lewellen:
love for football, because you got me going on the new heights
Christina Lewellen:
podcast, yes, with the brothers. And then that whole thing
Christina Lewellen:
evolved. That was way before Taylor Swift entered the scene.
Christina Lewellen:
Any of that. Though I do love and appreciate I am a good
Christina Lewellen:
Swifty, but I'm telling you that that got me going. This whole
Christina Lewellen:
brotherly dynamic between the two of those idiots reminded me
Christina Lewellen:
a bit of you two, to be honest. So I started with the
Christina Lewellen:
footballing. It's become a family thing. And the problem
Christina Lewellen:
is, as you know, Bill, is that I root for like, six teams. But I
Christina Lewellen:
will say that this weekend, during this playoff stint here I
Christina Lewellen:
was in Florida with my aunts, who are fanatics about the
Christina Lewellen:
bills. Okay? And I was with them at their house in the villages
Christina Lewellen:
Florida, and all the Bills fans from their whole neighborhood
Christina Lewellen:
get together. And they have these traditions. They hang out
Christina Lewellen:
at my aunt's house, my aunt Diane, Aunt Jan's house, and
Christina Lewellen:
we're watching the bills. It was a crazy game. After the game,
Christina Lewellen:
they, like, went out in the streets, and they were playing
Christina Lewellen:
the shout song as they were, like, dancing down the street. I
Christina Lewellen:
put this on my Instagram. It's the funniest thing ever. But
Christina Lewellen:
they didn't have to grease the poles. No, they're not like
Christina Lewellen:
Philly. The bills mafia is a whole different vibe, indeed.
Christina Lewellen:
But what was crazy about it is, then, of course, my aunt is
Christina Lewellen:
like, saying, Okay, well, I was heading down to FETC in Orlando,
Christina Lewellen:
so I was saying, Okay, love you guys. See you later, and they're
Christina Lewellen:
like, you're gonna be back next weekend, right? And I go, What
Christina Lewellen:
are you talking about? I'm going home after FETC. And they're
Christina Lewellen:
like, You have to come back because you were here and the
Christina Lewellen:
bills won, so do what you got to do, and get your ass back on a
Christina Lewellen:
plane and get back down to Orlando to watch with my
Christina Lewellen:
extended family the bills mafia. But it was really fun. I did
Christina Lewellen:
feel very bad for the Eagles. I'm sorry about that, but the
Christina Lewellen:
bears, that was crazy.
Hiram Cuevas:
My son has been a Bears fan since he was a little
Hiram Cuevas:
boy. His aunt used to send him cubbies and bears paraphernalia
Hiram Cuevas:
when she lived in Chicago, and he has been a die hard Bears fan
Hiram Cuevas:
since he was about two or three years old, and he's lived a
Hiram Cuevas:
really rough adolescence being a Bears fan, and he's just in
Hiram Cuevas:
heaven right now. I just
Bill Stites:
want to point something out for the audience
Bill Stites:
who did not know this, okay? And I just want to point out,
Bill Stites:
because everyone thinks I'm the troublemaker, I'm the bad guy.
Bill Stites:
Okay, just before we got on, we were talking about trying to
Bill Stites:
keep us from going off the rails. And came into it like,
Bill Stites:
okay, you know, you guys have got to be good this time. And I
Bill Stites:
the last thing I said is, unless Hiram says something to set me
Bill Stites:
off, yep. And what's the first thing that he does is he brings
Bill Stites:
up the eagle's loss. I didn't say anything about the loss, so
Bill Stites:
he heard what you said, and just it totally went out, I know. And
Bill Stites:
Hiram jumped right in with that with both feet. And I had to sit
Bill Stites:
here and zip my lip and be the good little boy.
Christina Lewellen:
Are you sad? Yes, I'm sorry, you guys. I
Christina Lewellen:
mean, you have a good team. That's the problem too.
Bill Stites:
I know they just dumped the offensive
Bill Stites:
coordinator, so I'm happy about that. So let's move on and go
Bill Stites:
from there. We've got other things to talk about. This could
Bill Stites:
take the entire podcast, and God forbid I bring up the fact that
Bill Stites:
the 28 years later movie opens tomorrow, could take us down a
Bill Stites:
zombie path.
Christina Lewellen:
No zombies. We can't do that, we've got
Bill Stites:
to focus in. We're
Christina Lewellen:
going to dial it in. So here's what we're
Christina Lewellen:
going to do before we even allow this guest to introduce herself.
Christina Lewellen:
The first question you're going to be anonymous for a second.
Christina Lewellen:
Are you a football fan? No. So you don't have a team?
Laura Tierney:
I root for the Eagles. Based on my home turf.
Laura Tierney:
So I'm with Bill on this one. Yes, okay, but I don't feel your
Laura Tierney:
pain as much.
Bill Stites:
Yeah, no, it's okay. We've got that as long as
Bill Stites:
it's not with honey. I'm it's fine.
Laura Tierney:
You know what? I heard a stat about total playing
Laura Tierney:
time in football, and ever since I heard that stat, that has
Laura Tierney:
really made me second guess my football fandom.
Christina Lewellen:
I don't know the stat. What is the stat?
Laura Tierney:
It's like the total playing time in a football
Laura Tierney:
game, if you take out all the ads and stoppage plays and more,
Laura Tierney:
is from what I heard, it's between like 10 to 14 minutes,
Laura Tierney:
yeah?
Bill Stites:
Oh, that they're actually moving. Yeah, yeah. No,
Bill Stites:
it's absurd. That's a
Christina Lewellen:
lot of money for 15 minutes. Mind blowing.
Christina Lewellen:
All right, so here we go with spitting the facts before we
Christina Lewellen:
even allow our guest to introduce herself, Laura, thank
Christina Lewellen:
you for joining us on the pod. Let me actually just give you
Christina Lewellen:
the mic. Why don't you introduce yourself, tell everybody a
Christina Lewellen:
little bit about you and who you are, rather than me reading your
Christina Lewellen:
bio. Let's do this.
Laura Tierney:
Thank you so much for having me. I am Laura
Laura Tierney:
Tierney. I'm founder and CEO here at the social Institute.
Laura Tierney:
It's an organization I started 10 years ago, we're in our 10th
Laura Tierney:
year this year. Congratulations. Thank you. We have evolved so
Laura Tierney:
much in those 10 years. What prompted me to start it I am a
Laura Tierney:
digital native who got my first phone when I was 13 years old. I
Laura Tierney:
got three out of my four jobs thanks to the world of social
Laura Tierney:
media and technology, I cannot open My Computer without having
Laura Tierney:
AI as one of the tabs that I go to, and I now lead a team and
Laura Tierney:
thinking about how they're using AI and what they are versus
Laura Tierney:
aren't doing on a day to day basis. So I can definitely
Laura Tierney:
empathize with the ever evolving world that we are managing
Laura Tierney:
today, with educators and professionals and more. I'm a
Laura Tierney:
big believer in flipping the script and kind of swimming
Laura Tierney:
upstream. So when the world is telling us maybe only the the
Laura Tierney:
negatives of what come from AI or social media, like, how are
Laura Tierney:
we still finding the positives? Because these technologies
Laura Tierney:
aren't going away. So that is my passion, and I did not play
Laura Tierney:
football. I played field hockey growing up, oh, like Kylie
Laura Tierney:
Kelsea, yes, like Kylie. Oh my gosh, this is our, like, claim
Laura Tierney:
to fame now that Kylie played, and my mom took me to a camp
Laura Tierney:
when I was about 11 years old, and she told me it was going to
Laura Tierney:
be a soccer camp. It was a field hockey camp, and she surprised
Laura Tierney:
me, because she knew I wouldn't go to it. And I cried for a week
Laura Tierney:
at this camp, and by the last day I remember, I fell in love
Laura Tierney:
with the sport, and I went on to play at Duke. I was a four time
Laura Tierney:
all American at Duke, and I played with Team USA. So I'm a
Laura Tierney:
big believer in nature as much as nurture. With that story.
Christina Lewellen:
Wait a minute. So Laura, are you better
Christina Lewellen:
than Kylie Kelsea, are we throwing down here? Oh gosh,
Laura Tierney:
well, if she is listening to this podcast, maybe
Laura Tierney:
we will have to set something up in Philly. We'll send it over.
Laura Tierney:
That's right, the positive power of social media. You never know.
Christina Lewellen:
I love it. I was listening to Kylie this
Christina Lewellen:
morning on my treadmill run. Yeah, she's great. So Laura, I
Christina Lewellen:
think a lot of people have heard of the social Institute, but
Christina Lewellen:
when I first came into the space, I just remember thinking,
Christina Lewellen:
Oh, so you're not like banishing social media and the use. You're
Christina Lewellen:
really putting boundaries around it and talking about using it
Christina Lewellen:
safely, wisely. It's here to stay, you know. So your vibe was
Christina Lewellen:
a little bit different, especially, I'm sure when you
Christina Lewellen:
started 10 years ago. Can you tell us a little bit about why
Christina Lewellen:
you started it, and you know what it was like back then?
Christina Lewellen:
Because ultimately, I'd like to know how that has changed over
Christina Lewellen:
time. But where did this come from that you decided to start
Christina Lewellen:
this organization?
Laura Tierney:
Yeah, well, I was in the public school system up
Laura Tierney:
through eighth grade and then transferred to an independent
Laura Tierney:
school, and I remember being just one of those students in
Laura Tierney:
the audience where, you know, school brings someone in and
Laura Tierney:
they talk about technology, and you're kind of sitting there
Laura Tierney:
questioning, like, how much do they use it themselves? Because
Laura Tierney:
they're only talking about all the negatives, and it just like
Laura Tierney:
the street cred was not high in I feel like who we were
Laura Tierney:
listening to on stage, and it was often just done in such a
Laura Tierney:
negative, cynical way. And I'm a pretty optimistic person, and I
Laura Tierney:
feel like you can always find the good in something,
Laura Tierney:
especially technology. And I feel like I lived that over the
Laura Tierney:
years. I remember using social media to drive more attendance
Laura Tierney:
to our high school games, and then college games, and then, of
Laura Tierney:
course, you know, started connecting to follow mentors. I
Laura Tierney:
started following. Us feel hockey teammates on social to
Laura Tierney:
just learn what their lifestyle was like, because I wanted to be
Laura Tierney:
like them one day. And so I thought it could be used for
Laura Tierney:
good. I ended up working at ESPN in social media a few years
Laura Tierney:
later, and I started carving out my vacation days to meet with
Laura Tierney:
students in schools. And it was just paid time off taking PTO,
Laura Tierney:
and I remember maxing out on PTO, and at that point, it was
Laura Tierney:
kind of like, wow, I might be able to travel to schools and do
Laura Tierney:
this and kind of follow my passion there. And the students
Laura Tierney:
really appreciated the fact that you were using the platforms
Laura Tierney:
that they were using, and you could really get down on their
Laura Tierney:
level, and say that you were once in their shoes and lived it
Laura Tierney:
yourself as a digital native. I watch a lot of Shark Tank. I
Laura Tierney:
feel like there are two types of founders, the ones that like,
Laura Tierney:
you know, just start something to flip it, and then the others
Laura Tierney:
that really have lived the problem themselves. And I really
Laura Tierney:
relate to that second founder.
Bill Stites:
So one of the things I think is really
Bill Stites:
interesting learning that we actually share in common is
Bill Stites:
probably more than 10 years ago, I used to manage a blog, a
Bill Stites:
website and some professional stuff called Ed social media.
Bill Stites:
And with Ed social media, we used to go in and do similar
Bill Stites:
stuff, more on the operational sides, but just talking with
Bill Stites:
development offices, alumni offices, admissions offices, for
Bill Stites:
a lot of the things that you were talking about. And the one
Bill Stites:
thing that stuck with me that you just said was that at that
Bill Stites:
point, you were talking a lot about the positives in terms of
Bill Stites:
how you could use it. I mean, we had put together some guidelines
Bill Stites:
around social media and, like, you know, friending and
Bill Stites:
different things like that. But I think there were really
Bill Stites:
different conversations then than I think they are right now
Bill Stites:
that are going around on social media. I'm curious as to what
Bill Stites:
you think about that transition from like using it as a tool for
Bill Stites:
engagement with various constituencies, where it was
Bill Stites:
kind of a little bit more open ended to now, where it's like
Bill Stites:
between what you're reading and what you're seeing, it's not
Bill Stites:
that anymore. And I'm curious to your take on that.
Laura Tierney:
Yeah, I liken the shift around social media to
Laura Tierney:
like the shift you see in college athletics and like n i l
Laura Tierney:
wasn't around 10 years ago, and it was a whole different
Laura Tierney:
industry. And the same thing, if you took a social media manager
Laura Tierney:
today and put them up against someone from 10 years ago, a
Laura Tierney:
whole different industry, did you all by chance see the memo
Laura Tierney:
that Instagram's CEO wrote at the end of 2025 it was
Laura Tierney:
fascinating. He talked about how the feed is really dead on
Laura Tierney:
social media anymore, and how the most activity they see is
Laura Tierney:
really behind the scenes in direct messages and chats. And
Laura Tierney:
so you also see an uptick in schools wanting to talk about
Laura Tierney:
group chat drama or reputation damaging messages that you send
Laura Tierney:
behind the scenes. And and so I feel like Long gone are the days
Laura Tierney:
where you're talking to students about posting something publicly
Laura Tierney:
embarrassing. It's much more of that back channel activity that
Laura Tierney:
is happening now because of what has happened to the feed over
Laura Tierney:
the last 10 years, with algorithms and more. And so I
Laura Tierney:
thought that was a really interesting trend, you know,
Laura Tierney:
just within the last month or two that they're really re
Laura Tierney:
orchestrating how Instagram operates based on that user
Laura Tierney:
behavior.
Hiram Cuevas:
So what do you think that is going to mean? And
Hiram Cuevas:
I think I'm getting too detailed here, but for privacy, just in
Hiram Cuevas:
general, instead of it being out in public, I equate it to All
Hiram Cuevas:
right, so we're going to have all the kids over, and we're
Hiram Cuevas:
going to put them down in the bay. In the basement, and
Hiram Cuevas:
they're gonna be doing stuff down in the basement that I
Hiram Cuevas:
don't know, but that's okay, because they're here. How do you
Hiram Cuevas:
think that DM readjustment is going to impact the
Hiram Cuevas:
conversation?
Laura Tierney:
I feel like some of these skills that we've been
Laura Tierney:
talking to students about in some ways they're ever evolving,
Laura Tierney:
and in some ways they are timeless. You know, teaching
Laura Tierney:
students about privacy will always be important, but now
Laura Tierney:
really drilling down into Hey, if you're messaging with
Laura Tierney:
someone, you can't just screenshot that and send it
Laura Tierney:
along to another friend and like, here's the psychology of
Laura Tierney:
why you want to send it to that other friend, because you think
Laura Tierney:
it might be playful or funny, but here's what that could
Laura Tierney:
result in. And so I am fascinated teaching students
Laura Tierney:
around the etiquette of living in a world where it's not just
Laura Tierney:
public posts, but it is like what you might be messaging
Laura Tierney:
people behind the scenes. I mean, Hiram, to your point, we
Laura Tierney:
often talk to students about how, like, everything is
Laura Tierney:
screenshottable and shareable, but you also need to have
Laura Tierney:
people's backs and not be screenshotting something that is
Laura Tierney:
between you and other people, so it feels like the skills are.
Laura Tierney:
Still needed. It's just how we go about them to make sure it's
Laura Tierney:
relevant to students is going to be really important, especially
Laura Tierney:
around privacy,
Hiram Cuevas:
because it's interesting is that the DM is
Hiram Cuevas:
being one to one is very different than a conversation
Hiram Cuevas:
when the comments are within a thread on that post and some of
Hiram Cuevas:
the most profound conversations, some of the most caustic
Hiram Cuevas:
conversations are found in those threads, but when they're behind
Hiram Cuevas:
a wall, you don't get the benefit of being able to monitor
Hiram Cuevas:
it and make sure that children are safe, yeah.
Laura Tierney:
Which leads to another interesting question of
Laura Tierney:
just like the world of monitoring and the importance of
Laura Tierney:
that, though I'm a big believer of like Hudson and talking with
Laura Tierney:
the students about these skills proactively, because, yeah, the
Laura Tierney:
more they back channel those everyday tools of like go
Laura Tierney:
guardian and how do they like they're not going to be able to
Laura Tierney:
police and monitor devices, School devices, or, of course,
Laura Tierney:
family or personal devices in the ways that students are using
Laura Tierney:
them.
Hiram Cuevas:
Yeah, they're back in the basement. That's all
Hiram Cuevas:
right.
Christina Lewellen:
So if we could take a step back and let's
Christina Lewellen:
talk about what the social Institute does for the folks who
Christina Lewellen:
aren't necessarily familiar with it, I'd love to just kind of
Christina Lewellen:
hear a little bit about the work that you're doing. Why Do
Christina Lewellen:
schools call you? What is your involvement? And obviously where
Christina Lewellen:
we started was kind of where it was when you founded the
Christina Lewellen:
organization. But I would imagine that that has continued
Christina Lewellen:
to evolve over time. So what are some of the high level things
Christina Lewellen:
that the social Institute exists to do?
Laura Tierney:
Yeah, well, when I started thinking about
Laura Tierney:
founding an organization, I mean, the first question, right?
Laura Tierney:
You think about, what are we going to call it? And I remember
Laura Tierney:
a brainstorm with my family about, like, well, what if it's
Laura Tierney:
the Social Media Institute? And the big insight was like, Let's
Laura Tierney:
chop off the second word media and really think about it as
Laura Tierney:
social skills in an evolving world of technology. And so, you
Laura Tierney:
know, YouTube might not be around 15 years from now, 20
Laura Tierney:
years from now, you know, back when I founded it, but the
Laura Tierney:
concept of wanting to be social will, and it'll be some
Laura Tierney:
different technology that we're going to be using to connect.
Laura Tierney:
And so that was the concept is like staying at the cutting edge
Laura Tierney:
of technology, but anchoring it in the social skills that
Laura Tierney:
students need, and we blended a little bit of ESPN DNA in it
Laura Tierney:
because we thought it'd be so cool, like, you know, the way
Laura Tierney:
you stay up to date in sports. How could you stay up to date in
Laura Tierney:
the world of technology? And so we've morphed a lot over the
Laura Tierney:
years. We've always partnered with K 12 schools. We've
Laura Tierney:
certainly grown. We started with independent schools, and now
Laura Tierney:
we're serving larger and larger districts as well. A really
Laura Tierney:
think of it as a trifecta. The Insight is, you know, rather
Laura Tierney:
than buying maybe multiple vendors or speakers that don't
Laura Tierney:
come from the same heartbeat, how could you have an all in one
Laura Tierney:
solution for students, where students where students could
Laura Tierney:
have these like interactive huddles. Families could huddle
Laura Tierney:
with their children at home about what they're learning at
Laura Tierney:
school. As a parent, that always resonates with me having two
Laura Tierney:
little ones, and then, of course, the educators are
Laura Tierney:
learning alongside the students. And I thought that Trifecta was
Laura Tierney:
so beautiful, and we didn't have it built out 10 years ago, but
Laura Tierney:
you know, year by year, we've built out the platform to
Laura Tierney:
support those three groups, and it's just been such an amazing
Laura Tierney:
ride. The biggest evolution, I'd say, though, is no longer really
Laura Tierney:
focusing solely on social media, but really evolving with the
Laura Tierney:
times, and so we focus even more on AI now, of course, and like
Laura Tierney:
group chats and messages that happen directly misinformation
Laura Tierney:
beyond, of course, the what do you post on social media? So the
Laura Tierney:
content has evolved as much as the technology, which has been
Laura Tierney:
exciting.
Christina Lewellen:
I want to ask about the etiquette of you
Christina Lewellen:
had mentioned, like, sort of the etiquette of social media, and
Christina Lewellen:
that's interesting, because it almost shifts the conversation,
Christina Lewellen:
like you said, from being aware of your public persona or your
Christina Lewellen:
digital twin into, well, this is a social space, and just like we
Christina Lewellen:
have to teach kids whose frontal lobes are not fully formed to
Christina Lewellen:
behave in the lunch room or in the dining hall. We also have to
Christina Lewellen:
model and train their etiquette in an online capacity too. So do
Christina Lewellen:
you use that concept of training etiquette quite a bit, and it
Christina Lewellen:
all ages too. Yeah.
Laura Tierney:
And Christina, I love how you just described it,
Laura Tierney:
too. It makes me think back to this has come so naturally, I
Laura Tierney:
guess, over the years. So gosh, it's one of the first times I'm
Laura Tierney:
really reflecting on it. But I remember when I was a student
Laura Tierney:
athlete at Duke, and I credit our development coach, Leslie
Laura Tierney:
Barnes, but she wouldn't really approach it as like, well, build
Laura Tierney:
your personal brand, and it wasn't this kind of external
Laura Tierney:
thing you should. It off to the world. It was more of like, Hey,
Laura Tierney:
what are your values and what do you stand for and make sure your
Laura Tierney:
actions reflect your values. And it wasn't about like putting on
Laura Tierney:
a show and thinking about crafting your brand in this way.
Laura Tierney:
It really was about like just playing to who you are. It just
Laura Tierney:
feels like such a authentic, student friendly way to go about
Laura Tierney:
it. I'll never forget when I was talking to a student once they
Laura Tierney:
mentioned, you know, why do adults stick the word digital in
Laura Tierney:
front of everything you know, digital footprint, digital
Laura Tierney:
citizenship, like digital this? And you started to hear in a big
Laura Tierney:
insight, which is like, wow, adults might be talking in ways
Laura Tierney:
that students do not see the world that way, and so I think
Laura Tierney:
that was as much inspiration for how we built this. How Could it
Laura Tierney:
really be student centered, rather than using the jargon or
Laura Tierney:
the personal brand more like, how could you just simplify how
Laura Tierney:
you talk to students about this, but really, like you said,
Laura Tierney:
Christina like anchored in that social skills piece. One of the
Laura Tierney:
most interesting things though, about building a startup, it's
Laura Tierney:
like, always get knocked down seven times get up eight like
Laura Tierney:
we've learned so many things over the years about how schools
Laura Tierney:
operate, where this education can fit into schools. One of the
Laura Tierney:
biggest insights for independent schools was the aha moment we
Laura Tierney:
had two years ago when an independent school leader said,
Laura Tierney:
You know what? I think we're gonna move this education
Laura Tierney:
around, social media and AI and more out of advisory and let's
Laura Tierney:
put it where students show up expecting to learn, and that was
Laura Tierney:
a breakthrough moment for us. And now the majority of our
Laura Tierney:
partners now run this education in areas like social studies,
Laura Tierney:
which is the word shows up again, like being social, right?
Laura Tierney:
And English, you're using social skills when you communicate. So
Laura Tierney:
it is fascinating to see. I mean, as much as technology is
Laura Tierney:
evolving, how schools think about operating with this,
Laura Tierney:
education is evolving as well.
Hiram Cuevas:
I'm really glad you mentioned the word evolving,
Hiram Cuevas:
because it speaks volumes of how TSI has actually been so dynamic
Hiram Cuevas:
over the years. I mean, your content is so fresh, it's so
Hiram Cuevas:
topical. And I just want to mention, perhaps you could go
Hiram Cuevas:
into further detail on this, the benefit of the parent slash
Hiram Cuevas:
family Toolkit, which our lower school families absolutely love.
Hiram Cuevas:
They think that's one of the best resources out there.
Laura Tierney:
Wow, thanks for sharing that. The toolkit I have
Laura Tierney:
to credit an independent school queen in my world. I remember
Laura Tierney:
Hudson with Doreen Kelly, former head of school at Ravenscroft,
Laura Tierney:
and obviously Derek is leading Ravenscroft now and doing
Laura Tierney:
amazing things there. But when Doreen was there, I remember her
Laura Tierney:
telling me she's like, think of it like a three legged table,
Laura Tierney:
and if one of the legs isn't there, the table's not going to
Laura Tierney:
stand as firmly. And one of those legs, Laura, are families,
Laura Tierney:
and you got to reach the families. And so we were talking
Laura Tierney:
about, how do you architect you know, what would families want
Laura Tierney:
to know about? And we talked about keeping them up to date on
Laura Tierney:
the latest apps that students might be using, and not just
Laura Tierney:
giving them a breakdown that they could find on Common Sense
Laura Tierney:
Media. But how do you snicker test it with students and really
Laura Tierney:
make sure this is how students are using these apps? So that
Laura Tierney:
was important. And then we thought, How neat would it be
Laura Tierney:
where, let's say, a student huddles about group chat drama
Laura Tierney:
during their social studies class. Could they go home and
Laura Tierney:
huddle with their parents and like, kind of coach up and coach
Laura Tierney:
their families on what they learned? And the Insight was,
Laura Tierney:
you know, there's no better way to learn something than to have
Laura Tierney:
to coach it to others. And so this is, I feel like, one of the
Laura Tierney:
rare topics where we are a bit behind the game compared to the
Laura Tierney:
kids. And so it was, it was a really beautiful model behind
Laura Tierney:
that tool kit. And we have big ideas for it moving forward. Of
Laura Tierney:
like, you know, just how do you make notifications for families,
Laura Tierney:
kind of like class, Dojo style of like, here's what your child
Laura Tierney:
learned today. Huddle with them about it at home. So there's a
Laura Tierney:
lot of exciting things
Christina Lewellen:
coming too. So the social Institute just
Christina Lewellen:
released some new data you have been in particular, looking at
Christina Lewellen:
how they are navigating. AI, can you tell us a little bit about
Christina Lewellen:
that and what you learned as you undertook that research project.
Laura Tierney:
I love talking about the data because I love
Laura Tierney:
championing student voice and what students are learning. So
Laura Tierney:
the data was from our polling from 53,000 students across
Laura Tierney:
third through 12th grade and the. Questions we asked them
Laura Tierney:
about really like you said, it ranged from AI to screen time to
Laura Tierney:
popular app use on social media and more. The AI findings were
Laura Tierney:
very interesting. One of the data points that really I
Laura Tierney:
focused on was how only 10% of students report that their
Laura Tierney:
schools have clear guidelines, or they feel like they are clear
Laura Tierney:
guidelines. That was eye opening. Because even if, of
Laura Tierney:
course, if US adults think they're clear, how do the
Laura Tierney:
students feel about that? And so it feels like that is a
Laura Tierney:
question, gosh, if we could be asking our students on a
Laura Tierney:
quarterly basis, you know, what do you think about this now that
Laura Tierney:
we've updated the AI policy? But that one was really interesting.
Christina Lewellen:
So in other words, like some of these
Christina Lewellen:
schools may have policies, but the kids don't understand them.
Christina Lewellen:
Is that what you mean? Yes. So they're just not clear on those
Christina Lewellen:
guidelines, not clear.
Laura Tierney:
And we've heard from a wide range of schools.
Laura Tierney:
You know, I was working with a school the other week where they
Laura Tierney:
have not put anything in writing yet, because they're worried
Laura Tierney:
about, when we do put something in writing, what are the
Laura Tierney:
families going to think? And so they're going very slowly, and
Laura Tierney:
you're trying to help them think through how they could shape
Laura Tierney:
something sooner, to help provide clarity. I'm sure y'all
Laura Tierney:
are familiar with Brene Brown's phrase, but like, clear is kind
Laura Tierney:
and I think with AI right now, there's a lot of ambiguity
Laura Tierney:
around it, which is an exciting opportunity for school leaders.
Christina Lewellen:
It's really interesting, right guys.
Christina Lewellen:
Because, like, I think a lot of schools say, Well, we have a
Christina Lewellen:
policy, so check we're good. But what Laura is saying is that
Christina Lewellen:
this data is showing that the kids are not clear. You may have
Christina Lewellen:
a policy, you might have words on paper, but they're still not
Christina Lewellen:
really sure what the swim lanes are. That's interesting.
Bill Stites:
We have a committee that we've been exploring this
Bill Stites:
for a while. I think some of the things that we suffer from is,
Bill Stites:
have we worked on and tried to develop a policy? Yes. How easy
Bill Stites:
is it to navigate, and who is it directed for, in terms of who's
Bill Stites:
the audience? Is it for teachers so that they understand how to
Bill Stites:
use it, or is it for students and how they understand to use
Bill Stites:
it? So there's definitely that piece of it. One of the things
Bill Stites:
that we simply struggle with is, where do you find it? How have
Bill Stites:
you gotten it out? Like, what type of professional development
Bill Stites:
work have you done around it so that people understand what it
Bill Stites:
means, and where do they go when they have questions? Because I
Bill Stites:
think one of the things that everyone can relate to is that
Bill Stites:
time is a hot commodity in schools, and to find the time to
Bill Stites:
invest to do that is something that's often very difficult. But
Bill Stites:
I think one of the other things, and you've kind of alluded to
Bill Stites:
this in terms of how slowly people are moving with a lot of
Bill Stites:
this is because the footing. It reminds me of the old.com
Bill Stites:
bubble, where every day there's a different tool coming out
Bill Stites:
that's like, hey, use this AI tool with your students, or use
Bill Stites:
this AI thing in this way, in that way. And I don't think
Bill Stites:
anyone really feels like they're standing firmly on any footing
Bill Stites:
to put anything out in a definitive sense. And there is a
Bill Stites:
hesitation. If it can't be complete, if it can't answer
Bill Stites:
every question, we're just not going to do it at all. And I
Bill Stites:
don't think that's where we can be right now.
Laura Tierney:
Yeah, yeah. Great points that committee you
Laura Tierney:
mentioned, how often will they huddle about ongoing
Laura Tierney:
developments or feedback?
Bill Stites:
Probably not enough, exactly, but I'd
Bill Stites:
probably say, like, at least every other month we're getting
Bill Stites:
together. That's great. There's a good back and forth with
Bill Stites:
email. And then there's everything that goes on in
Bill Stites:
between that you know in terms of how those different things
Bill Stites:
are playing out. So for myself and for our director of Ed Tech,
Bill Stites:
we might be reaching out to different people. We're trying
Bill Stites:
to bring things back to that group. So it's almost as much of
Bill Stites:
what are we doing inside of school, but also, how are we
Bill Stites:
looking at what others are doing, and how are we leveraging
Bill Stites:
that? Because to reinvent the wheel with this is a complete
Bill Stites:
waste of time, beg, borrow and steal from as many people as you
Bill Stites:
can to get this out in front of people in ways in which they
Bill Stites:
could actually find something useful from the information.
Hiram Cuevas:
And Laura, I think one of the interesting
Hiram Cuevas:
challenges that independent schools face, it's reminiscent
Hiram Cuevas:
of covid when everybody was giving stuff out for free, and
Hiram Cuevas:
all of these schools were struggling with policies about
Hiram Cuevas:
vetting applications. Now, the latest conversation that at
Hiram Cuevas:
least that Bill and I have had, along with a couple of other
Hiram Cuevas:
tech directors is, how do we handle all the extensions and
Hiram Cuevas:
all of these ancillary tools that now have incorporated AI
Hiram Cuevas:
into them. It's no longer just the application. Now it's the
Hiram Cuevas:
application of AI within this application. So it's a little
Hiram Cuevas:
bit overwhelming, considering that most independent schools
Hiram Cuevas:
don't have a cyber arm.
Laura Tierney:
Yeah. I mean, even in the last few, gosh, the
Laura Tierney:
last few days with i. Apple launching what they're going to
Laura Tierney:
be doing with Gemini. And then you have, like, Microsoft co
Laura Tierney:
pilot, just within the last 30 days, like the updates about AI
Laura Tierney:
in tools that we use on a day to day basis.
Hiram Cuevas:
Well, the chat GPT announcement for schools, chat
Hiram Cuevas:
GPT for teachers. Yes. I mean, nobody was ready for people were
Hiram Cuevas:
trying to figure things out, and what we noticed almost
Hiram Cuevas:
immediately, there was no terms of service for students.
Bill Stites:
Even with that, Hiram, it's free for now, but
Bill Stites:
we're probably going to end up charging you for it in two
Bill Stites:
years.
Hiram Cuevas:
Here's your gateway drug, exactly. Yeah.
Christina Lewellen:
So to go back to some of the other
Christina Lewellen:
findings in this research that you've done, you mentioned is
Christina Lewellen:
part of your preamble that you had a cell phone at a relatively
Christina Lewellen:
young age, so you're, of course, tracking that is that averaging
Christina Lewellen:
younger over time. Have you found Yes?
Laura Tierney:
In previous studies, we found that it years
Laura Tierney:
ago, was hovering more around 12 or 13. Our latest report showed
Laura Tierney:
that nearly half of students are getting a smartphone by age 11.
Laura Tierney:
And when you think about a smartphone and education around
Laura Tierney:
social media, a parent might you know, well, I don't allow them
Laura Tierney:
on apps yet, but it's like they're building all of those
Laura Tierney:
fundamental habits around screen time. And was interesting was
Laura Tierney:
FaceTime and calling and messaging are right up at the
Laura Tierney:
top for students, YouTube, though, definitely takes the
Laura Tierney:
lead this year again as the most commonly used app across all
Laura Tierney:
divisions. So lower middle and high are all using YouTube most
Laura Tierney:
commonly on a weekly basis. And then, when we ask students,
Laura Tierney:
though, well, when you think about use of different apps,
Laura Tierney:
what are the biggest challenges that you experience? And just
Laura Tierney:
about half of height of Upper School students, 51% and 35% of
Laura Tierney:
middle schoolers just talk about time spent on technology. So
Laura Tierney:
screen time, I think, continues to be the leading question mark
Laura Tierney:
for families of how do we deal with this? But the interesting
Laura Tierney:
thing is that students definitely see it themselves as
Laura Tierney:
a top challenge. So I think the more that we help families
Laura Tierney:
during the school day, we help think about really intentional
Laura Tierney:
screen time use. Not just banning screen time, but having
Laura Tierney:
it be intentional is so important.
Hiram Cuevas:
So Laura, looking towards, I say, the future, but
Hiram Cuevas:
I know it's got to be 612, months. We're not talking years.
Hiram Cuevas:
When Google Glasses first came out, that was pretty remarkable,
Hiram Cuevas:
but now with the Met a glasses that are out there. How are you
Hiram Cuevas:
all as an organization, taking that an augmented reality and VR
Hiram Cuevas:
and all that kind of stuff into play?
Laura Tierney:
There was a report I came across recently
Laura Tierney:
that really caught my attention, and it was about the evolution
Laura Tierney:
of collaborative AI, and I am very excited to see how
Laura Tierney:
technology gets more collaborative. Because I think
Laura Tierney:
you know your quintessential image is of a classroom, and
Laura Tierney:
students are looking at a screen, and when you think of it
Laura Tierney:
that way, you know it's like, well, this isn't great. Like
Laura Tierney:
schools are the most social setting possible for a child to
Laura Tierney:
be in. So when they're looking straight at a screen, how are
Laura Tierney:
they building their social skills and collaboration skills,
Laura Tierney:
communication skills that way, in addition, of course, to what
Laura Tierney:
they're learning. So I'm very excited about how we will see
Laura Tierney:
technology be even more collaborative. That's been a
Laura Tierney:
driving inspiration for our work at the social Institute. You
Laura Tierney:
know, we don't want kids looking at their screens during a huddle
Laura Tierney:
80% of the time. We want their eyes up and we want to be
Laura Tierney:
thinking what we could do to minimize screen time. I always
Laura Tierney:
joke, I think like we're the only tech company that I know
Laura Tierney:
where we're trying to limit screen time as an ed tech
Laura Tierney:
company, but I think we need more of that, and it's very
Laura Tierney:
intentional screen time use, and So gone are the days where
Laura Tierney:
students are just looking at a screen for that. I'm just call
Laura Tierney:
it like siloed, isolated, one to one experience. But how can you
Laura Tierney:
connect a classroom more collaboratively and limit screen
Laura Tierney:
time while using it for good.
Bill Stites:
So one of the quick questions I have based on some
Bill Stites:
of the data that we were looking at based on the report, was
Bill Stites:
where you had said, and this makes me chuckle, only because I
Bill Stites:
can't get the people that I work with to pick up a phone to make
Bill Stites:
a call. You had said that 69% of high school students report
Bill Stites:
making weekly phone calls matching their text usage. Is it
Bill Stites:
the pick up the phone and literally call the name, or are
Bill Stites:
you including things like video chatting, what counts as a phone
Bill Stites:
call now, as compared to what I'm used to, which is picking up
Bill Stites:
the rotary phone and making it spin around the dial the entire
Bill Stites:
time? Yeah.
Laura Tierney:
In that survey, we did ask them about the
Laura Tierney:
calling app and how often are they using that? That does
Laura Tierney:
count, though, for, of course, receiving calls too. So I don't
Laura Tierney:
want to fully put it on the students that it's just outbound
Laura Tierney:
calls that they are making, but they're also picking up the
Laura Tierney:
phone in that way. But we are seeing an uptick also in just
Laura Tierney:
like voice messages as well, and from adults too, not just older
Laura Tierney:
students, but we're seeing that habit face time is continues to
Laura Tierney:
be the leader for the middle school students and elementary
Laura Tierney:
students compared to the high school students. But yeah, that
Laura Tierney:
stat was interesting, nearly seven out of 10.
Christina Lewellen:
It's not very interesting if you've got
Christina Lewellen:
20 somethings in your house, because they call me non stop.
Christina Lewellen:
And I'm not kidding you, all four of them do it, and I'm a
Christina Lewellen:
solid Gen Xer where I'm like, can you just text me? I am in
Christina Lewellen:
the middle of something. Stop calling me. They call me all the
Christina Lewellen:
time.
Hiram Cuevas:
I would be grateful for that, because you
Hiram Cuevas:
know what, I call my kids, they don't pick up. I text my kids.
Hiram Cuevas:
They're not texting either.
Christina Lewellen:
Okay, I don't know. Maybe it's just me.
Christina Lewellen:
They call when they're walking between classes at college. They
Christina Lewellen:
call to tell me about their day. They miss you, they miss mom.
Christina Lewellen:
They call to ask if they can microwave frozen chicken. I
Christina Lewellen:
don't know what to tell you,
Hiram Cuevas:
Bill, I know what we've got to start doing to
Hiram Cuevas:
Christina, calling her more. Just start calling
Christina Lewellen:
her more. Yeah, I can do that. I know how
Christina Lewellen:
to block numbers y'all, yeah. But it is interesting, because I
Christina Lewellen:
think there's also this little dynamic, and maybe this is not
Christina Lewellen:
widespread yet, but you do see that there are, at least in
Christina Lewellen:
college circles, which is where I have more experience at the
Christina Lewellen:
moment, they're doing no phone nights. They're putting their
Christina Lewellen:
phones away to go to the bar. There's actually classes, no
Christina Lewellen:
phone classes, where they're just meant to engage with each
Christina Lewellen:
other. And it's the kids driving this, the young people driving
Christina Lewellen:
this. It's not the professor saying I banish it's that the
Christina Lewellen:
kids who are actually engaged, they just want to put it away.
Christina Lewellen:
They want to break it's really interesting. I think that there
Christina Lewellen:
is a little pendulum swing happening in some pockets.
Hiram Cuevas:
That happened actually a few years back. I
Hiram Cuevas:
know my son's friends, when they would go to restaurants, they'd
Hiram Cuevas:
stack their phones in the center of the table, and whoever picked
Hiram Cuevas:
up their phone first paid for a larger percentage of the bill.
Christina Lewellen:
Does the data support that? Obviously, we
Christina Lewellen:
all have older kids, Laura, so we're coming from a certain
Christina Lewellen:
vantage point, but does the data show that kids are trying to
Laura Tierney:
dial it back? Well, the biggest connection
Laura Tierney:
that I've seen in the data is that's the biggest challenge
Laura Tierney:
that they report having is just screen time and amount of time
Laura Tierney:
spent wanting to look at our devices. So I think there's an
Laura Tierney:
interesting connection to that. If, like, the majority of
Laura Tierney:
students are seeing that challenge, definitely no
Laura Tierney:
surprise that you're seeing an uptick in I know we joke about,
Laura Tierney:
like, you know, burner phones helping you kind of get around
Laura Tierney:
phone bands, but I just got a flip phone a few months ago, and
Laura Tierney:
I sleep next to that, and I keep my iPhone downstairs in the
Laura Tierney:
kitchen to, you know, practice what you preach, and I've gotten
Laura Tierney:
a whole lot better sleep since doing that. Have you all used
Laura Tierney:
the brick?
Bill Stites:
Yeah, what's that?
Christina Lewellen:
I haven't used it, but I've definitely
Christina Lewellen:
heard about it, and some people are all about it you lock up
Christina Lewellen:
your phone,
Laura Tierney:
yeah, so it's like a device that you could
Laura Tierney:
leave on your bedside table or somewhere else. The problem
Laura Tierney:
statement is that people need their phones as like an alarm
Laura Tierney:
clock or in an emergency, you got to call someone at night or
Laura Tierney:
someplace else. So they don't want to get rid of it, but they
Laura Tierney:
don't like that. All the apps are there in front of them. And
Laura Tierney:
so what the brick does is, the moment you put your phone up to
Laura Tierney:
this little two by two square of a device, it disables all your
Laura Tierney:
apps. And so that way you could sleep with your phone next to
Laura Tierney:
you, or be with your phone somewhere else, but it disables
Laura Tierney:
all your apps so you can't use it. So it reminds me of the
Laura Tierney:
article that was all over the New York Times this week, Angela
Laura Tierney:
Duckworth saying, you know, it's not really a matter of
Laura Tierney:
willpower. It's just a matter of putting yourself in situations
Laura Tierney:
that don't require a lot of willpower because of how you set
Laura Tierney:
up that situation, right? And I think about that, it's like, why
Laura Tierney:
tempt yourself if you don't have to?
Christina Lewellen:
It's also interesting that the data that
Christina Lewellen:
you have show that kids are going to YouTube. We've been
Christina Lewellen:
hearing and understanding that for some time, but you would
Christina Lewellen:
think that the immediate gratification and the dopamine
Christina Lewellen:
hit of reels and Tiktok that that's where the usage would be
Christina Lewellen:
going, but you're still seeing such large numbers on YouTube.
Laura Tierney:
I know it's like you could still pack as much
Laura Tierney:
video as you want into these other apps, but the user
Laura Tierney:
interface, the recommendations, the algorithm on YouTube, just
Laura Tierney:
like the amount of content that you could get there, is just so
Laura Tierney:
good that is the. Number one setting, though I recommend to
Laura Tierney:
parents in our sessions, I was like, this is a given. You got
Laura Tierney:
to disable auto play. You know, I don't care if your child is
Laura Tierney:
two years old or 20 years old. It's one of the best things that
Laura Tierney:
a family could do. Is when you get Hulu, prime Netflix,
Laura Tierney:
YouTube, disable auto play the moment you log in. So that would
Laura Tierney:
be my tip to anyone listening,
Christina Lewellen:
so you can make that conscious decision
Christina Lewellen:
about actually opting for what's next. So I'm sure that a lot of
Christina Lewellen:
schools are calling you now about AI. You know not that
Christina Lewellen:
social media is no longer an issue. It still is, of course,
Christina Lewellen:
but AI is a different type of social media, and there's some
Christina Lewellen:
obviously very concerning aspects of AI in bots that are
Christina Lewellen:
coming down at the kids really fast. So let's set aside just
Christina Lewellen:
the whole future of education and the future of the workplace
Christina Lewellen:
component from the social lens. Talk to us a little bit about
Christina Lewellen:
how you are thinking about AI, and what are schools and parents
Christina Lewellen:
coming to you concerned about?
Laura Tierney:
We're certainly hearing a lot that schools are
Laura Tierney:
very worried about over reliance on AI in class outside of class,
Laura Tierney:
and so we're certainly hearing schools move away from having,
Laura Tierney:
you know, one to one devices or tech time, and instead they're
Laura Tierney:
really challenging, like writing skills more by having just old
Laura Tierney:
school pen and paper and kind of writing out what you're
Laura Tierney:
thinking. We heard that a lot at the beginning of the school year
Laura Tierney:
to get a sense of students writing abilities, not as much
Laura Tierney:
halfway through the school year, but I thought that was really
Laura Tierney:
interesting. And then I'm hearing more from independent
Laura Tierney:
school leaders really thinking about, like, Okay, we feel like
Laura Tierney:
the phase has hit about how negative this could be. What
Laura Tierney:
skills do we really want our kids graduating with here. You
Laura Tierney:
know, how good are they at prompt engineering? How good are
Laura Tierney:
they at Context engineering? And some people are like, What even
Laura Tierney:
is context engineering and like just the ability to build the
Laura Tierney:
ecosystem of your AI to give you what you want. It's more than
Laura Tierney:
just a prompt. It's like thinking about how you organize
Laura Tierney:
all of your prompts on the left hand side and how you access
Laura Tierney:
those prompts quickly, so the overall machine that you create
Laura Tierney:
to help you be efficient about what you want to do, I'm very
Laura Tierney:
excited about that. I think I'm hopeful that we'll get over this
Laura Tierney:
hump about being overwhelmed by all the updates and how scary it
Laura Tierney:
could be, and there will always be those pitfalls that we got to
Laura Tierney:
teach our students to avoid. But it is energizing to just pause
Laura Tierney:
and think, what are the top 10 skills that a graduate student
Laura Tierney:
at our school can leave with by the time they move on. I'm
Laura Tierney:
excited to hear what schools come up with. What is your
Hiram Cuevas:
current opinion then on agentic AI, as it
Hiram Cuevas:
becomes more prevalent in the business world and also starts
Hiram Cuevas:
to trickle down into higher ed and even perhaps for our own
Hiram Cuevas:
kids that are starting to develop their own chat bots,
Christina Lewellen:
I think Hiram what she was just saying
Christina Lewellen:
about how you disable The Auto Play on YouTube, there's a
Christina Lewellen:
certain auto play that's happening with agentic AI,
Christina Lewellen:
right? Because it is now, whether it's actually taking
Christina Lewellen:
those steps for you or prompting you of what you should be doing
Christina Lewellen:
next, there is a certain auto play component. So I think
Christina Lewellen:
that's a good question, because obviously it's moving down that
Christina Lewellen:
path of how much of the thinking do we take out of it? Yeah, with
Christina Lewellen:
the
Laura Tierney:
AI that our company uses, you know, one of
Laura Tierney:
the first steps that we had people do is, of course, like,
Laura Tierney:
update the setting of like, does this feed the larger model? We
Laura Tierney:
had everyone do it. We were all in a session together. And when
Laura Tierney:
it comes to concerns, your questions, certainly teaching
Laura Tierney:
students where's the line when it comes to sensitive
Laura Tierney:
information and what's confidential and you know what
Laura Tierney:
you share, teaching students, when are those moments where
Laura Tierney:
doing something on your own might build a really helpful
Laura Tierney:
skill. Teaching them knowing when to go to a person when you
Laura Tierney:
need help with something is, I think, one of the top skills we
Laura Tierney:
could teach students right now. I mean, the research shows that
Laura Tierney:
most people are using AI for therapy or advice, and how
Laura Tierney:
that's trickling down to students is a bit scary if they
Laura Tierney:
don't know the line of when to talk to an adult because you're
Laura Tierney:
dealing with some heavy stuff versus, you know, what can you
Laura Tierney:
ask an AI about? And so we're actually working on a lesson
Laura Tierney:
right now about it, because you don't want to say, hey, avoid AI
Laura Tierney:
altogether, but you also don't want to encourage it if they're
Laura Tierney:
dealing with some really intense things. I think that's.
Laura Tierney:
Definitely a skill that every school, I think, should be
Laura Tierney:
talking to their students about.
Christina Lewellen:
Are there things that you're seeing right
Christina Lewellen:
now in the realm of independent schools specifically that we
Christina Lewellen:
should be thinking about? So that's one really great example.
Christina Lewellen:
But are there other things that are on your mind that not all
Christina Lewellen:
schools are tracking right now? What are you seeing in terms of
Christina Lewellen:
what's on the horizon that we need to pay attention to.
Laura Tierney:
I think one of the biggest trends is certainly,
Laura Tierney:
I feel like you can't go a week without hearing about some other
Laura Tierney:
state requiring phone bans or device bans, and parents are
Laura Tierney:
forming groups, you know, to help schools think about banning
Laura Tierney:
phones, and the wait till eighth movement is on the rise, and
Laura Tierney:
let's invest in yonder pouches. Meanwhile, the students are on
Laura Tierney:
Reddit trying to think about work arounds to circumvent this.
Laura Tierney:
I am excited for schools to continue to think about
Laura Tierney:
intentional tech. Time technology, it's so essential,
Laura Tierney:
you know, to the real world, you can't go like, an hour or two
Laura Tierney:
without interacting with it in an internship or a career that
Laura Tierney:
doesn't apply to every job out there, but it is important. So I
Laura Tierney:
think making sure that we are very intentional about the ways
Laura Tierney:
we help students master technology will be huge, and I'm
Laura Tierney:
excited to continue to learn from the amazing independent
Laura Tierney:
schools out there that are thinking about that instead of
Laura Tierney:
just like, well, let's just ban it and do away with it and make
Laura Tierney:
the parents happy. But like, what's the service that we're
Laura Tierney:
doing our kids? So I feel like the role of a technology
Laura Tierney:
director is so central. It's like the quarterback of our
Laura Tierney:
time. Because it's so easy to just say, let's get rid of these
Laura Tierney:
devices, but they are central to the lives that these kids are
Laura Tierney:
going to be living years from now. Did you guys
Christina Lewellen:
hear that you're the quarterback? Which
Christina Lewellen:
quarterback Are you? I know what Bill will say,
Bill Stites:
because I'm old and probably out of date. I'm going
Bill Stites:
Ron Jaworski. I'm going way back in Eagle's lore, back in the
Bill Stites:
day. I'm going back to jaws. Oh.
Hiram Cuevas:
Ron Jaworski, nice, wow. I'm just gonna be
Hiram Cuevas:
because I have to be nimble, and he shows it time and time again.
Hiram Cuevas:
I'm going to be Caleb calele Williams,
Christina Lewellen:
all right. Well, there you go. We'll see,
Christina Lewellen:
look at that full circle.
Bill Stites:
So one of the questions that I have with all
Bill Stites:
the work that you're doing with the teachers, with the schools,
Bill Stites:
with the parents, all that stuff, I'm going to go back to
Bill Stites:
the beginning, where I said I was involved with the ED social
Bill Stites:
media piece, and where we focused. Are you doing any work?
Bill Stites:
Because I think about like, across the hall from me is my
Bill Stites:
communications office. Across the hall and around the corner
Bill Stites:
is my main admissions office. You know, I go downstairs, I've
Bill Stites:
got my Development and Alumni Office. Is the work that you're
Bill Stites:
doing there purely focused on conversations with the teachers,
Bill Stites:
the students and the parents, or is it broadening out, at least
Bill Stites:
in the Independent School world, into those other operational
Bill Stites:
areas about how they're thinking about the uses of all of the
Bill Stites:
things that we've been talking about within the context of what
Bill Stites:
we do as a school?
Laura Tierney:
Yeah, we've started this in the last year or
Laura Tierney:
so. Next week, I'm going to an independent school down in
Laura Tierney:
Georgia, and they're bringing their AI committee together,
Laura Tierney:
which includes communications, which includes student leaders,
Laura Tierney:
and we're facilitating a discussion about how they're
Laura Tierney:
ever evolving their policies as they reflect on the first half
Laura Tierney:
of the year. So I think this time of year is a wonderful time
Laura Tierney:
to do that, and you don't need an outside partner to do that. I
Laura Tierney:
think technology leaders could be really helping facilitate
Laura Tierney:
that conversation and just really think of it as always
Laura Tierney:
plus saying, you know, always plusing. How could we make this
Laura Tierney:
better? Like you said, it's a team effort communicating AI, as
Laura Tierney:
much as building the policy.
Bill Stites:
Yeah, it's one of those things whenever we talk
Bill Stites:
about this like the conversations that we're in,
Bill Stites:
often it will be talking about faculty and like, it'll be
Bill Stites:
faculty, and we need to talk about this from like our
Bill Stites:
employees, because so much of the policy, the frameworks, a
Bill Stites:
lot of the things, rightly so we're directed at the students,
Bill Stites:
because that is first and foremost, our biggest area of
Bill Stites:
concern. But I think, you know, we need just to be mindful that
Bill Stites:
people are asking these questions in all areas of what
Bill Stites:
we do. I'm glad to hear that you're taking that step and
Bill Stites:
helping schools figure that out, because, believe me, we all need
Bill Stites:
it.
Christina Lewellen:
Laura, you know, before we wind this down
Christina Lewellen:
and let you go back to your day, I'm really interested to know
Christina Lewellen:
you mentioned that you have, obviously, the student athlete
Christina Lewellen:
background. So I'd like you to just tell us a little bit about
Christina Lewellen:
your perception of kids being involved in sports, being a part
Christina Lewellen:
of a team, or whether it's any organized activity. But is that
Christina Lewellen:
an antidote to some of this technology stuff? I mean, I
Christina Lewellen:
would imagine that you have found an interesting combination
Christina Lewellen:
of your world, a collision, perhaps, of your. Worlds of
Christina Lewellen:
talking about technology and regulation, and at the same time
Christina Lewellen:
you were an athlete, and so tell me a little bit
Laura Tierney:
about that. Yeah. I mean, I like to think that my
Laura Tierney:
interviews with the local media when I played high school gave
Laura Tierney:
me the skills to do what I'm doing right now, and being able
Laura Tierney:
to speak with y'all comfortably and confidently. And I'm so
Laura Tierney:
grateful that my family did keep me in sports at a time when I
Laura Tierney:
could have been playing on my n 64 with my younger brother. So
Laura Tierney:
absolutely, I think there's no doubt, and the research shows
Laura Tierney:
from Ernst and Young I feel like they've come out with so much
Laura Tierney:
research over the years that we published at ESPN that sports
Laura Tierney:
build these timeless social skills in life that allow you to
Laura Tierney:
do some of the great things I've been able to do in my career.
Laura Tierney:
But I also think I couldn't have done what I've done either
Laura Tierney:
without technology. So I think it's a both and not an either or
Laura Tierney:
very grateful for the time on the field.
Christina Lewellen:
I love it. Bill.
Hiram Cuevas:
She dated us n 64 as her gaming console.
Christina Lewellen:
Yeah, not the Atari. Hiram
Hiram Cuevas:
Atari, 2600 Hong, the trash 80
Laura Tierney:
some good Mario Kart. Anyone. There you go. Love
Laura Tierney:
it.
Christina Lewellen:
Well, guys, we started with sports. We are
Christina Lewellen:
ending with sports. Laura, I want to thank you for joining us
Christina Lewellen:
today. This has been such a really great conversation. I'm
Christina Lewellen:
so glad to get caught up on the social Institute. It's been a
Christina Lewellen:
while, and I'm not surprised to see that you're still doing
Christina Lewellen:
incredible work. We will drop all sorts of links in the show
Christina Lewellen:
notes so folks can connect with you. But I want to thank you for
Christina Lewellen:
your time and thanks for joining us. Thanks for having me.
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. Thank you for listening. You.
