School's Out Saturdays on the AGI Podcast - Because our job is to prepare students for their future not our past. (Episode 57)
Episode Summary:What does it look like when someone who actually trained AI chatbots in 2010 becomes a K-5 educator? Courtney Bock bridges her NextIT background (Ask Jenn, Sgt. Star) with classroom reality, leading district-wide AI implementation in Mead, Washington. She tackles the messy middle: teaching Dewey Decimal with Magic School, why "go slow to go fast" doesn't mean standing still, and how prompt engineering might be the communication skill we should have been teaching all along.
GuestCourtney Bock is AI Implementation Specialist & Library/Technology Teacher | Former Natural Language Model Analyst at NextIT (2010-2012) | Worked on Alaska Airlines' Ask Jenn and U.S. Army's Sgt. Star | 15 years in education. Located in Mead, Washington. Courtney leads professional development for educators and speaks at conferences about ethical AI implementation in K-12.
Guest LinksCourtney on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/courtneybock/Courtney's Substack: https://courtneybock.substack.com/?r=5s99nw&utm_campaign=pub-share-checklistMead School District AI Hub: www.mead354.org/aiParent Tech Resource Center: https://www.mead354.org/services-supports/parent-tech-resources
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Key Timestamps:03:45 - Next IT background: training chatbots by hand before machine learning existed08:30 - Why Alaska Airlines' Ask Jenn matters for education12:15 - From AI optimist to AI realist: what changed15:20 - Go slow to go fast: Mead's implementation strategy18:40 - Teaching AI literacy without enterprise platforms22:10 - When your daughter admits she uses ChatGPT: the conversation every parent needs27:35 - Magic School for gamifying Dewey Decimal: making dry content interactive31:20 - Self-solve first: teaching kids to ask AI before asking the teacher35:45 - Why prompting well is actually communication training40:15 - Search husband, LLM wife: the analogy that landed with Boomers44:30 - Vietnamese translation and Navajo: languages AI handles better than Google Translate48:50 - Digital literacy still matters: tabs, volume, and not spinning Chromebooks like basketballs53:20 - The World Economic Forum's $112 billion projection for AI in education by 203457:40 - Soft skills become more valuable: can you sell it in person?61:25 - Breaking fear through education: pick one tool and just try it
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