Latest / Integrate This! Ed Tech Podcast / Integrating AI with Intention: Jen Hegna on Guidance, Skills & the Graduate Profile
Transcript
- 0:00Welcome to Integrate This, your go -to EdTech
- 0:03podcast where curiosity meets classroom innovation.
- 0:07Join your hosts, David Berner and Jeremy Mikla,
- 0:09as we explore the rapidly evolving world of educational
- 0:12technology. From game -changing tools to insightful
- 0:15conversations with today's top EdTech voices,
- 0:18we're here to help educators stay informed, inspired,
- 0:21and ready to innovate. So tune in, level up,
- 0:25and let's integrate this. Hello and welcome to.
- 0:41another episode of the Integrate This podcast.
- 0:44I am Jeremy Mickle. I'm joined by my co -host,
- 0:46David Berner, and we're joined with special guest
- 0:49today, Jen Hegna. All three of us are actually,
- 0:53even though it doesn't look like it based upon
- 0:55what our rooms look like, if you're watching
- 0:57this on YouTube, we're all at the same conference
- 1:00in St. Cloud, Minnesota. It's the Minnesota Thought
- 1:03Leaders AI Summit, the second annual, and we're
- 1:07really excited to bring Jen into our conversation
- 1:11here today and I thought we would kind of start
- 1:13out Jen. Why don't you give us a little introduction
- 1:16about yourself but if you wanna throw in a little
- 1:19bit about the conference or or or in particular
- 1:23your session that both David and I attended yesterday
- 1:26and I know you were also part of a panel discussion
- 1:28in the afternoon as well and and had some really
- 1:31great insights. I think to to share there as
- 1:34well. So maybe touch on a couple of those things
- 1:37here and then we'll get into some other questions
- 1:39too. Sure, my name is Jen Hagna. I'm the technology
- 1:42director for Byron Public Schools in Byron, Minnesota.
- 1:46I next fall I'll be starting my 30th year in
- 1:49educational technology for the school district
- 1:51and have served as the district director for
- 1:56that long, which is amazing. And I kind of laugh
- 2:00because you know, I've seen lots of technology
- 2:02transformations. like the Internet. One of my
- 2:06very first PD sessions I ever had was teaching
- 2:09teachers how to email. And I recall, you know,
- 2:13teachers are like, well, when are we ever going
- 2:14to use this? You know, and that's just the scope,
- 2:18right? There's been Internet and smart boards
- 2:22and Wi -Fi and laptops and Google and one to
- 2:26one devices. But I haven't seen anything quite
- 2:30like artificial intelligence. And the other thing
- 2:33is how fast it's evolving and what's projected
- 2:37to happen. So here at the conference, it's been
- 2:43great, lots of ideas. And the whole point of
- 2:47this is geared towards action. As I shared, You
- 2:51know, things are moving quite quickly, and we
- 2:54have organizations, higher ed, K -12, workforce,
- 2:59and we really need to think about how we work
- 3:01together in tackling this. And my passion, I
- 3:08guess, is around human competencies or human
- 3:11skills. because those human skills are going
- 3:14to help us become more competitive when the machines
- 3:19are taking over some of the other process kind
- 3:21of things that traditionally were done by humans.
- 3:25So the session we were at yesterday was a K20
- 3:29design relay, partnered with some of my new higher
- 3:33ed friends. We actually did not meet face to
- 3:35face for the first time until yesterday, which
- 3:38is always cool. But really kind of thinking about
- 3:42human skills and thinking about students that
- 3:46have lots of talents and passions, but might
- 3:50not fit the mold for specific pathways, whether
- 3:54it's college, and thinking about the learning
- 3:57currency that we all have. So traditionally,
- 4:01learning currency, we have GPAs, transcripts,
- 4:06test scores. And, you know, when we think about
- 4:10human skills, like where do those start being
- 4:15measured in, you know, or transferable, whether
- 4:20going into higher ed or the workforce. And I
- 4:23think, you know, that came up with some really
- 4:25great ideas and, you know, thinking about actionable
- 4:29steps. One of the things I really appreciate
- 4:32about Mangaia is it's a growing group and we
- 4:35have all of the sectors, you know, k12 higher
- 4:39ed and workforce um in the midst so i really
- 4:44just interrupt with min guy is minnesota generative
- 4:48ai alliance yeah sorry acronyms that's okay um
- 4:53so but we have this group of of of people that
- 4:57i think um you know, if we're all passionate
- 5:00and like, we can really help make a movement.
- 5:03And I think we have to. AI is a paradigm shift.
- 5:07And as a 30 -year veteran in educational, in
- 5:12schools, right, I've not seen anything quite
- 5:16like it, and it's moving quickly. And how do
- 5:19we make sure that, you know, our students are
- 5:22competitive in these new environments? Yeah,
- 5:26and Jen, so much of what we did yesterday, because
- 5:29Jeremy and I were in your session that you put
- 5:31on with the different groups that were involved
- 5:35in talking about scenarios. A lot of it was just
- 5:39getting conversations started among different
- 5:42groups or different perspectives. And so if you
- 5:45look at Byron's AI initiative and some of the
- 5:49communication that has to go into just even just
- 5:52your single district, So much talk has been around
- 5:57AI guidelines because many many of us and don't
- 6:01know where to start So what was it that motivated
- 6:04Byron to begin developing generative AI guidelines?
- 6:09Um, I feel the motivation, you know is One of
- 6:13my my skills is futuristic, right? And and seeing
- 6:17what's coming and I wasn't the only one educators
- 6:20were feeling that too. And there was this pivotal
- 6:25moment where academic integrity, they're obviously
- 6:30using artificial intelligence to cheat. But then
- 6:34you see this other side of the coin where there's
- 6:37really some great opportunities. And last spring,
- 6:42or sorry, well, yeah, end of spring, I put it
- 6:45on our district operations plan that, you know,
- 6:47we need to form a task force and we need to,
- 6:50you know, come up with some of these, you know,
- 6:54ideas and documents and really deliverables for
- 6:58the district and guidelines were certainly the
- 7:00main one. And so it just assembled a team, did
- 7:06an all -call to the district, and the high school
- 7:09educators said, hey, I want to be part of this.
- 7:14And I was really happy to have pretty much a
- 7:18high school teacher from each of the different
- 7:20subject areas. So we had a really great cross
- 7:24-pollination of teachers with different needs
- 7:27and ideas. Lots of great dialogue, and we actually
- 7:32even had folks we in our task force. We had folks
- 7:36from Saint Cloud University hop on with us. We
- 7:40had Donna Roper from Saint Saint Cloud Public
- 7:43Schools hop on, who really, in my mind, Saint
- 7:46Cloud kind of pioneered this idea. And yeah,
- 7:51once once we set the ball and rolling, I guess
- 7:55we just came up with the guidelines that we have
- 7:57today, so. I think one of the cool things that
- 8:01as I've looked at some of the work that you have
- 8:03done, and your team has done really, right? You
- 8:07know, you've focused on, you know, preserving
- 8:10these principles like supporting excellence.
- 8:12And one that you definitely touched on is that
- 8:15human agency piece and, you know, holding onto
- 8:18those things that are authentically human or
- 8:21the, the H .I., right, the human intelligence
- 8:23that needs to go along with the artificial intelligence.
- 8:27But what I really liked is how your district
- 8:30has a profile of a graduate, right, and how you've
- 8:34really aligned and meshed. these AI guidelines
- 8:38into the expectations that you have for your
- 8:41graduates when they leave Byron. I gotta move,
- 8:46sorry. Why do you think that was such an important
- 8:52thing to do to be able to link those things together?
- 8:56Well, I will tell you, I am so proud of our district
- 9:00and our profile of a graduate and our profile
- 9:03was established back in 2017 -18, which is That's
- 9:08light years in AI terms. AI is doubling every
- 9:11three, four months or something like that. For
- 9:17us, that was the human competencies. The things
- 9:23that we felt at that time were going to be important
- 9:27for students to go into these really complex
- 9:30economies. Generative AI wasn't even a thing.
- 9:36And so when it, when, you know, Chat GPT was
- 9:40launched in, you know, November of 2022, and
- 9:45it was like a, a woe, woe moment because it was
- 9:49just so powerful. I've never seen anything quite
- 9:52like it. And one of the things that I noticed
- 9:56was that, that The classrooms that we had really
- 10:03embraced the profile of a graduate. And one of
- 10:06the tenets of our profile of graduate is authentic
- 10:09learning. It's the constructivist kind of pedagogical
- 10:13methods. And in those classrooms, even though
- 10:16they weren't using with students yet, I seen
- 10:19the potential of where AI could be a thought
- 10:23partner or, you know, a brainstorm kind of buddy
- 10:27or, you know, really apply and amplify what students
- 10:31were doing. And I think in looking at that, like,
- 10:36whoa, you know, like it was the right work then
- 10:38and it's the right work now. And generative AI
- 10:41just made it come to like, boy, you know, that
- 10:45six years of work is like super critical. And
- 10:49so when we put it in the guidelines, we just
- 10:51wanted to demonstrate and how AI could mesh with
- 10:57the human competencies and really accelerate
- 11:00or amplify the learning experience. So yeah,
- 11:05that's pretty much it in a nutshell. The POG
- 11:08is something that we are really passionate about
- 11:13and how we can continue to mesh it with the other
- 11:19tools and technologies is always important, so.
- 11:23It's funny, you know, you say POG and my brain
- 11:25just says a 90 as a person of the 90s can't.
- 11:29Yeah, can't help. It's another acronym profile.
- 11:32Yeah. But it sounds it sounds much more, you
- 11:36know, 90s rap style of a thing, you know, a little
- 11:39Snoop Dogg or Nate Dogg, all those kind of everybody
- 11:42had pogs. I love pogs. Yeah, or pogs. You know,
- 11:45I was thinking more the rapping thing, but you
- 11:47know, that works. Yeah. So, Jen, I think we had
- 11:53mentioned this to you. But the listeners of the
- 11:56podcast will know that we had just interviewed
- 11:59Leon Fers, who was part of making the AI assessment
- 12:05scale. And he's based out of Australia. And then
- 12:08he's working with Jasper Rowe and Mike Perkins.
- 12:10And they've got a number of papers and things
- 12:12around how they developed the assessment scale.
- 12:16How did what you did at Byron, how did that model
- 12:20shape your thinking? Especially for the student
- 12:24AI usage continuum, you know they had gone from
- 12:29the first iteration to the second. What was it
- 12:33that about that in particular that inspired Byron
- 12:36to implement that model or use it as a basis
- 12:40for your direction? Well, I think when we started,
- 12:44you know, talking about the guidelines, there
- 12:47really wasn't a lot of work with students at
- 12:50all. Um, you know, it was right now, it was awareness
- 12:54with teachers, you know, and I think for us,
- 12:58it was what we needed at that time. And the stoplight
- 13:02just resonated with the educators on the team,
- 13:05you know, being able to be like, you know, we
- 13:07don't want AI and this activity, but this activity,
- 13:11you know, go full bore with that experience.
- 13:16And so where we are right now, I think that's
- 13:18why we selected the first version. It just makes
- 13:22a little more sense as we're building our own
- 13:26literacy, I guess, among staff. And so that's
- 13:30pretty much it. And I think it's just an easy
- 13:32way to quickly identify. But I will say this,
- 13:37our guidelines are going to be a living document.
- 13:40So a year from now, two years from now, as we
- 13:44are moving on and AI is truly the internet of
- 13:48things, right? Because we use the internet all
- 13:50the time in our classrooms, all the time. And
- 13:53so I can see where it's flexible, where we can
- 13:56just, you know, come onto that next phase. But
- 14:00right now that's just where we're at. And we
- 14:02just felt comfortable with that. And that's,
- 14:05yeah. And I think that's okay. That's what I
- 14:06appreciate about Leon having, you know, both
- 14:09of the different models so that people that want
- 14:12to kind of start slow, start slow to go fast,
- 14:15I should say, but start slow that you have that
- 14:17to look forward. Yeah, and I think, too, what
- 14:20he had kind of talked about in our interview
- 14:23with him is that it isn't meant to, you know,
- 14:27keep you in one level. For example, it should
- 14:30be something where if you're designing an assessment,
- 14:33there's a variety of ways that you can approach
- 14:34that. And there may be parts of an assignment
- 14:37that lend themselves more to, say, a no AI level
- 14:42and then some that may be integrated a little
- 14:45bit. It could be part of the same assignment,
- 14:47but maybe different pieces of that same assignment
- 14:49lend themselves to AI use as far as students
- 14:52are concerned. And so I think that's good. Yeah,
- 14:59totally. And I can see that. When we were in
- 15:04the early stages, we hadn't been integrating
- 15:06with students. I could see that, oh, this course
- 15:11is going to be no AI. Well, I don't know if I
- 15:14see that anymore. And for right now, teachers
- 15:18have the autonomy to make those decisions. But
- 15:21that's where we have the work cut out for demonstrating,
- 15:25showcasing where AI is going in the different
- 15:28disciplines. I appreciate all of the higher ed.
- 15:33educators that are here that, you know, are doing
- 15:36things and in teacher prep even, um, to, to just
- 15:40really get that literacy down. And I think that's
- 15:43where it's evolved. It'll evolve, but I agree.
- 15:46It's going to be flexible. Some things are like,
- 15:48no, this is a human thing. I want to see the
- 15:50human side of the human skills where this is
- 15:52like, you know what, go crazy, do what you got
- 15:55to do to make something awesome. You know, so
- 16:00one of the first conversations that typically
- 16:02comes up with teachers, and I'm going to probably
- 16:04assume that this is a conversation that happened
- 16:06with the teachers that are part of the Byron
- 16:09staff too, is that academic integrity piece and
- 16:12the great fear that teachers have that it is
- 16:15just going to be a tool for students to shortcut
- 16:18their learning, you know, or to find a way to.
- 16:23Just take the easy path, right? You know, so
- 16:27when you when you think about that, how do you
- 16:29try to get teachers supportive of using AI? Do
- 16:33you think that stoplight framework kind of gives
- 16:35them a little bit of leeway and that helps wrap
- 16:38their brain around it? Or do you have the magic
- 16:41button that you can push to get teachers to be
- 16:45willing to go out and explore and try and? innovate
- 16:48and you know and do so in that safe manner don't
- 16:53get me wrong but but still to kind of realize
- 16:56that AI can be a tool that can help be that thought
- 17:00partner for students, not just that that crutch
- 17:03that they're going to rely on too much. Is that
- 17:06I don't know. Does that make sense? Yeah, you
- 17:07know, I wish I had the answer. You know, I have
- 17:11ideas. What's really going to be great is the
- 17:14task force that we assembled this summer. We're
- 17:18going to create the toolkit. um, to launch the,
- 17:21you know, the guidelines. And I think our teachers,
- 17:25you know, really need to be the ones to shape
- 17:27that. Um, it was interesting. I, I recall a conversation
- 17:32where one of our ELA teachers was it's, she teaches
- 17:35a concurrent class. So, you know, students are
- 17:38getting college credit for a speech class, I
- 17:42think. And, you know, her conversation with her
- 17:45professor, um, where they were like, no, you
- 17:49can actually use it to brainstorm, you know,
- 17:51and come up with really great ideas for speeches
- 17:54and storytelling or whatever that was. And I
- 17:57think the more conversations our educators have,
- 18:01and the other big piece is, you know, next year,
- 18:04the sharing of ideas, I think is going to be
- 18:10much more impactful than just, you know, some
- 18:13magical silver bullet, because I really feel
- 18:16like our educators are the ones that are going
- 18:18to have to pave the way. And all we can do is
- 18:21just showcase, demonstrate, you know, and support,
- 18:28really. And beyond the classroom tools that are
- 18:33implemented at Byron, are there things that you're
- 18:37addressing as well just in terms of there's we've
- 18:39had so many conversations about the issues in
- 18:42AI with ethical issues you know even just with
- 18:46the AI itself in terms of bias you know hallucinations
- 18:49those have all been big conversation points as
- 18:51well what what are how is Byron helping to communicate
- 18:57with staff and students about some of those ethical
- 19:00or societal issues Yeah, I would say, you know,
- 19:04we've had initial conversations, but it hasn't
- 19:07been to scale that we want, right? So with every
- 19:13every session that we do, we highlight, you know,
- 19:17here's some things to think about. Personally,
- 19:21once we started talking about our guidelines
- 19:24and doing some other professional development
- 19:27around accommodations and modifications, you
- 19:30know, which is something that AI is just great
- 19:32for that, coming up with ideas to support students.
- 19:36A teacher, an eighth grade teacher, Mark Stangler,
- 19:39reached out and said, hey, Jen, I have this project,
- 19:43and it's a career research project with eighth
- 19:46graders. I'm thinking about integrating AI with
- 19:51it. Would you be interested in helping out? And
- 19:54I'm like, oh my gosh, 100 % yes. And so we came
- 19:59up with some really great ideas. So the research
- 20:02project, traditionally, you know, they'd look
- 20:05at colleges, what, you know, kind of what, what,
- 20:08how do you want to make a living? You know, what's
- 20:10your, what's your, you know, like, you want expensive
- 20:13homes, or you want to live in an apartment, kind
- 20:15of that kind of thing, and then looking for jobs.
- 20:17And while he was in one of the sessions, he's
- 20:19like, I just prompted it, and it came out with
- 20:22the research in like five minutes. So we got
- 20:24to think of something different. And so we talked
- 20:28about like, okay, well, let's add another component.
- 20:30How is AI impacting that job? And what challenges
- 20:35are, is that job, you know, trying to solve?
- 20:39Because I honestly think the days of what do
- 20:42you want to be when you grow up are, are going
- 20:44by the wayside because things are evolving so
- 20:47quickly. And what problems do you want to solve
- 20:49is, is a better question. We also added an AI
- 20:56and ethics session and flip the script and I
- 21:02modeled like here's academic integrity and then
- 21:05I said now for all of you students, here's your
- 21:09topic. You have 30 minutes. I want a presentation
- 21:12and you're going to teach each other how to how
- 21:14to you know about your topic and the kids just.
- 21:19lit up. It was so fun. And we did rapid rounds.
- 21:23It was like speed dating, but speed PD with students
- 21:27around topics like deep fakes, bias, mental health.
- 21:33And while it wasn't deep, I would encourage to
- 21:36go much deeper in these topics. It was an exposure,
- 21:39like using AI to inform, but now I need to figure
- 21:43out how to present this so that it's relevant
- 21:45to eighth graders, my peers. So that was a great
- 21:49project, but that's the work we have to continue
- 21:52to do. And that's where I'm going to lean on
- 21:54the task force in thinking about bias. Next year,
- 21:59we're rolling out AI literacy in the rest of
- 22:04the high school, 9th through 12th grade. And
- 22:06we're doing it in core classes, like ELA and
- 22:09social studies, just because it hits every student.
- 22:13And that's my worry, right? This year, eighth
- 22:16graders got a heavy dose, but we didn't do anything
- 22:18for the seniors leaving. They might know how
- 22:22to use it just on their own personal use, but
- 22:24it's really interesting when you kind of coach
- 22:27and show them some some of these things. So yeah,
- 22:31I'm super excited for the teachers to stand up
- 22:34and be like, you know, I'm willing to tackle
- 22:36this and bias has to be one of those areas when
- 22:41we talk about AI and AI literacy. for sure. You
- 22:46know, it's what's really cool that I'm hearing
- 22:48that you're talking about here and it kind of
- 22:50was going to be my follow -up question to this
- 22:52too is, you know, and here I'll date, I'll start
- 22:54out by dating myself as well. Next fall, I'll
- 22:57be starting my 27th year in education. So I'm
- 23:02right behind you, but I do have lived through
- 23:04many of these different initiatives that have
- 23:07come down and this doesn't feel like many of
- 23:10those other initiatives that I've lived through
- 23:13what you're talking about. It has to do with,
- 23:16you know, if someone comes in, they bring this
- 23:18great idea, right? And your profile of a graduate
- 23:21is this great idea. But if it doesn't follow
- 23:24through... you know, you've got the great idea
- 23:27if you're not giving people the support they
- 23:28need, the training they need, the practical applications
- 23:32they need in order to follow through with the
- 23:34initiative, with the policy, the guideline, which
- 23:37whatever it happens to be, right? And it seems
- 23:40like you guys and your team have really made
- 23:43a concerted effort to make this applicable and
- 23:46find ways that, you know, like you talk about
- 23:50the careers project that allows students to be
- 23:53able to look, which I think kind of opens up
- 23:54a whole new avenue too. And that's a different
- 23:56direction for a different time that I've got
- 23:58questions about, but we're not going to fit into
- 24:00this conversation, but. You know it what other
- 24:05things do you think can be done? Or are you planning
- 24:08to do to help make sure that you're giving teachers
- 24:11professional development and also You know the
- 24:14the actual hands -on experience to the students
- 24:16well one of the things that I really appreciate
- 24:18first of all the profile of graduate that was
- 24:21a hand all hands on deck kind of thing administrators
- 24:24teachers instructional teams, you know and I
- 24:29think that's why it's so ingrained. It wasn't
- 24:34just another thing. It wasn't just another thing
- 24:37we're going to put on our wall, right? Like we
- 24:39had to have deliverables every year going to
- 24:42the board to show like what we're doing. So that's
- 24:45why it's super important. It's still not perfect,
- 24:49don't get me wrong, but I feel the work that's
- 24:51been done by all of the staff back home is incredible.
- 24:55And as I reflect five, six, seven years of where
- 24:58we were, which was more traditional to where
- 25:00we are today with these really rich experiences,
- 25:05it brings goosebumps. But having that foundation,
- 25:10right? So having the pedagogical foundation of
- 25:13deep learning, meaningful experiences. And by
- 25:17the way, there's still, you know, traditional
- 25:19things that we need. Direct instruction isn't
- 25:21by the wayside. We still need director instruction.
- 25:24Quizzes are great for formative assessment. Like
- 25:25all those things still matter, but they're not
- 25:28our end game. We got to think about the end game
- 25:30in when we look at our standards. So that foundation.
- 25:35of our profile of a graduate is going to just
- 25:38lead to some amazing innovation. And I can't
- 25:41tell you what it looks like because I haven't
- 25:43met with our team and our team are the ones that
- 25:46we have talked about. But one of the things in
- 25:48our guidelines was district responsibilities.
- 25:51And so each of the administrators, each of the
- 25:54buildings have carved specific time throughout
- 25:57their schedule, you know, so that we can lean
- 26:02in when we need to about these, because it's
- 26:05not not a one and done. Um, and so the conversations
- 26:08and opportunity to see each other's work and,
- 26:11and ideas I think is super important. So, um,
- 26:15that professional development is going to be,
- 26:17yeah, it's going to be great. We also had ideas.
- 26:20Um, just one more is finding, um, finding professionals
- 26:26in the workforce and how AI is transforming.
- 26:29Um, because we did, you know, that's you know,
- 26:32what like what does work look like? Our whole
- 26:34goal is, you know, we have certain skills that
- 26:36we want to have for students. But what does the
- 26:39world of work look like? And listening to Mayo
- 26:42Clinic yesterday, you know, just their teaching
- 26:44and learning and how they're shifting things
- 26:47is is just incredible. So I'd love to have that
- 26:51idea of having some panelists of, you know, folks
- 26:56from different industries come and just talk
- 26:59to us about what things, how artificial intelligence
- 27:03is changing the way they do work. So we'll see
- 27:06if that happens. I'm hoping, hopefully it will.
- 27:10And going off that a little bit, you had mentioned
- 27:12earlier that the guidelines that came out, all
- 27:17of it is contingent upon conversations with various
- 27:20people within the district. And so with that,
- 27:25do you have some methods in which you would like
- 27:27to see the conversations continue or just more
- 27:32getting getting data back from those within the
- 27:35district, collecting feedback over time as we
- 27:38move into the years down the road. What is your
- 27:41thoughts there? Well, we consistently, you know,
- 27:45every session that we do, we do exit tickets
- 27:47just to kind of, you know, get a feeling for,
- 27:51you know, how people. um, are feeling about,
- 27:54you know, the tools and, and I just love that
- 27:57because if there are challenges, like, you know,
- 28:00you can kind of tackle that the next time or
- 28:03have that conversation with that, um, PLC or
- 28:07grade level. Um, so definitely, you know, feedback
- 28:11loops are a significant, um, portion of this.
- 28:15Um, At this first round, we didn't have students
- 28:19on our task force. We want to expand our task
- 28:22force to include students and potentially workforce
- 28:25folks. So. feedback from students is going to
- 28:31be important. We had talked about, you know,
- 28:34doing students interviews. We do surveys, right?
- 28:39Surveys are great, but I tell you, doing empathy
- 28:42interviews, you can get really deep into, you
- 28:45know, like what are the issues, if any, or what
- 28:47are the celebrations? That's the fun thing. And
- 28:50it's, you know, typing, you know. is just different.
- 28:54I suppose you could use AI, but I think those
- 28:56empathy interviews, which is a design thinking
- 28:58strategy, like, you know, based on humans, like
- 29:02how you feeling, you know, what are you excited
- 29:03about? What's your what's what's the challenge
- 29:06of the day? And then bringing that back to the
- 29:09team to address. Right. So as we start to think
- 29:14about, you know, many districts are wanting to
- 29:16pursue or to start moving the needle on the AI
- 29:21guidance and AI policies for their districts.
- 29:24And having gone through this with your team,
- 29:27what sort of advice would you give to schools
- 29:29that are just starting out on their journey of
- 29:33acceptable use of generative AI? I would say
- 29:37make the journey very visible. Um, our whole
- 29:42high school and secondary, well, the whole district
- 29:45knew, but we know that secondary is where kids
- 29:48are, you know, starting to utilize AI, even though
- 29:51I was, I hear fourth graders talking about talking
- 29:54to Siri or talking to Alexa and Alexa just got
- 29:57a huge upgrade, by the way. She's just a little
- 30:00bit smarter. Um, so having those conversations
- 30:05and broadening those conversations, you know,
- 30:09I think. for us having a teacher from each PLC
- 30:13at the table, and then they can go back and have
- 30:16the conversations with the rest of the members.
- 30:20Just opening it up, I think, is very valuable.
- 30:25So I would say I would never have just four or
- 30:28five people in a room create the guidelines without
- 30:31feedback or anything from the staff. Open it
- 30:36up so you know you can get people on on board
- 30:39to help you know guide that because I think some
- 30:45so many times things feel very top down and we
- 30:47need to be work partners with our teachers. Because
- 30:51you know they're they're in the they're in the
- 30:53trenches and they're the ones that are seeing
- 30:56the possibilities and the challenges and having
- 30:59those conversations and sometimes they're hard
- 31:01conversations, but. Yeah, so that just make it
- 31:05very transparent and invite people to the party
- 31:08Right Jen, could you tell us a little bit for
- 31:14the listeners? Can you tell us where they can
- 31:16go to find some of Byron's work? That's been
- 31:18done Maybe looking at the guidelines or and also
- 31:22just you know, your social media is things to
- 31:24connect with you as well Yeah, I share a lot
- 31:28about artificial intelligence and kind of our
- 31:30journey and my journey as a tech director on
- 31:33LinkedIn. And that's at Jen Hegna. I am on Twitter,
- 31:37but I think LinkedIn is, is, you know, has become
- 31:40kind of the new professional path for learning
- 31:44from one another. So definitely if you want to
- 31:48connect there, we are going to publish the guidelines
- 31:52under the technology department on our website.
- 31:55And if anybody like it, it's just not quite visible
- 31:59yet, but we need to make it more visible. So
- 32:02it'll be on our tech website as well as under
- 32:05our academic tab, I think on our website, bears
- 32:13.byron .k12 .mn .us. One thing to note too, is
- 32:17we did get feedback from our parents and the
- 32:21guidelines are going to go into the student handbooks
- 32:25for secondary schools next year too. So that
- 32:28they have access, you know, they've seen it,
- 32:30they've reviewed it. But yeah, I would go to
- 32:34buyers .byron .k12 .amend .us, find the technology
- 32:38department, you'll find them there. And I think
- 32:40we can definitely put a link to that as well
- 32:43in the description. Yeah, I'd be happy to share
- 32:45the guidelines. And this work, like I said, was
- 32:48St. Cloud piloted this work the year before.
- 32:55And we looked at their work. We're thankful that
- 32:58they put a Creative Commons license on it so
- 33:00that we could freely adapt it. We've got a Creative
- 33:03Commons license on ours. So for those districts
- 33:06out there that wanna just look and see and, you
- 33:09know, mess around with some of the wording or,
- 33:11you know, copy paste, whatever, you know, we're
- 33:14all working on this together. So take what you
- 33:17need. Yeah, I love the shareability that that
- 33:21you guys have definitely put into this as well.
- 33:24But Jen, we just are so grateful for your time,
- 33:26and we really appreciate you carving out part
- 33:30of your conference schedule to join us today.
- 33:33And we look forward to connecting you connecting
- 33:35with you more here. Well, for the rest of the
- 33:38day today, but then hopefully it continues down
- 33:42the road as well. So Yeah, maybe next year when
- 33:45we roll out our first year of it, what does it
- 33:47look like? Yeah, a year later. I love it. All
- 33:50right. Well, thank you very much and I hope you
- 33:52have a great conference. Thanks, Jen. Thank you,
- 33:55everyone.