AI Literacy in K-12 and the Workforce Gap with CIESC's Lena Darnay

Lena Darnay spent years as a school librarian before she landed at the Central Indiana Educational Service Center, and that librarian's brain turns out to be exactly what the AI moment needs. In this School's Out Saturdays conversation she and Jason dig into why K-12 has to expose kids to AI early instead of blocking it, why every industry panel she has ever sat on names the same must-have skill, spreadsheets, and why the old blame game between K-12, higher ed, and employers has to end. Jason makes his case against Carmel Schools, which trained its teachers on AI for two and a half years and still keeps it out of the classroom. The two get into anthropomorphism, sycophancy, and the Character AI tragedy that should worry every parent. They also cover Indiana's new diploma seals, the SAIL leadership work at CIESC, vibe coding a conference app in Replit, and what Plato's Republic has to do with Sam Altman. Lena closes on grief, sci-fi, and radical acceptance.

ABOUT THE GUEST

Lena Darnay is Director of Communications at the Central Indiana Educational Service Center, or CIESC, the largest of Indiana's nine educational service centers, serving 35 member districts and about 220,000 students. A former high school librarian and instructional technology specialist, she moved into the service center world during the pandemic and now helps lead the SAIL AI leadership work through Keep Indiana Learning, CIESC's professional development arm. She holds an undergraduate degree in marketing and a master of library science from Indiana University.

GUEST LINKS

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lena-g-darnay/

CIESC: https://ciesc.org/

Keep Indiana Learning: https://keepindianalearning.org/

TIME STAMPS

00:00 - The service center model most people never see

07:20 - What SAIL is and why Jason got pulled in

10:45 - Carmel Schools and the case for AI in K-12 now

16:22 - The entry-level job is about to change

20:44 - The one skill every employer names: spreadsheets

22:31 - Why philosophy and library science degrees matter again

28:06 - Socrates, Plato, and AI's philosopher kings

33:21 - Ikigai, Alpha School, and exposing kids early

46:37 - Anthropomorphism, sycophancy, and the Character AI tragedy

54:34 - Sci-fi, grief, and The Poppy Fields

CONNECT WITH JASON PADGETT

Director of Partnerships and Growth at CitizenAI

jason@mycitizen.ai

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jason-grant-padgett/

X: https://x.com/NoCodeCAIO

Newsletter (No Code CAIO): https://www.linkedin.com/build-relation/newsletter-follow?entityUrn=7399599285849346048

AGI PODCAST NETWORK

School's Out Saturdays: https://schoolsout.agipodcast.ai/

All AGI Podcast shows: https://schoolsout.agipodcast.ai/network

TOOLS JASON RECOMMENDS

MindStudio: https://get.mindstudio.ai/q7n7u5cttkdq

Riverside.fm: https://riverside.sjv.io/e1xyBr

Wispr Flow: https://ref.wisprflow.ai/jason-padgett

RESOURCES MENTIONED

Central Indiana Educational Service Center: https://ciesc.org/

Keep Indiana Learning: https://keepindianalearning.org/

Alpha School, 2 Hour Learning model: https://alpha.school/

The Poppy Fields by Nikki Erlick

Robopocalypse by Daniel H. Wilson

Replit: https://replit.com/

Notebook LM: https://notebooklm.google.com/

Character AI: https://character.ai/

People referenced: Ryan Murray, Tanika Kennardle, and Jenna Cooper at CIESC and SAIL, Dr. Nicole Adams at Purdue, Ann Lefwich at Indiana University, Geoffrey Hinton, Amanda Askell at Anthropic, Reid Hoffman