Are We AI Literate? - S3E54 - An Expert Panel Discussing AI in Schools

<p><strong>Summary</strong></p><p>There is a question sitting underneath most conversations about generative AI in schools right now. Not whether it belongs in the classroom. That debate is largely settled. The harder question is what happens to the parts of learning that cannot be automated.</p><p>For this episode of Season 3, Garth Nichols and Jason Rogers put that question to a panel of education experts: Alan Gertner, Justin Medved, Natalie Vera, and Eric Hudson. Rather than a single guest working through a single book, this conversation brings several voices into the room together, each carrying a different vantage point on where AI is already reshaping classrooms and where it still has no business being.</p><p>The panel moves quickly, but it stays grounded. Talk of curriculum and tools gives way to something more personal: student agency, the discipline of keeping a human in the loop, and what it might mean for a generation of students to grow up fluent in tools built to think for them.</p><p>What lingers longest is a claim offered almost in passing, that real education happens in the parts that cannot be Googled. Not because the tools are unwelcome. Because the parts that cannot be searched are the parts that were never really about information in the first place. Literacy, ethics, leadership. Everything the panel touches keeps circling back to that idea.</p><p><strong>Chapters</strong></p><p>00:00 setting the stage: why ai matters for schools right now<br>04:00 the panel introduces itself, and where each perspective differs<br>09:49 stories of ai already at work in classrooms<br>20:12 practical strategies for bringing ai into a school<br>29:59 the ethics of ai, and why a human still needs to be in the loop<br>40:03 a future vision for ai and school leadership<br>50:10 helping educators and parents step into ai with confidence<br>59:57 closing thoughts and where to find more</p><p><strong>Key Takeaways</strong></p><p><strong>Agency, not automation.</strong> The panel keeps returning to student agency as the center of AI literacy. The goal is not a generation that defers to the machine, but one that knows when to.</p><p><strong>Inspiration before implementation.</strong> The most convincing case for AI in schools comes not from policy, but from small classroom stories. The panel offers several, and they do more work than any framework could.</p><p><strong>A human still has to be in the loop.</strong> Ethical use of AI is treated as a design constraint, not an afterthought. Every strategy discussed assumes a person is still making the final call.</p><p><strong>What cannot be searched.</strong> For all the ground the panel covers, the conversation keeps returning to the same idea. The most important parts of education are the parts a search engine was never built to hold.</p><p><strong>Quotes</strong></p><p>&quot;Centering student agency in AI literacy.&quot;<br>&quot;Real education happens in the parts that can&#39;t be Googled.&quot;<br>&quot;Generative AI can push civilization forward.&quot;</p><p><strong>Resources</strong></p><p>Learning on Purpose Newsletter: <a href="https://substack.com/learnonpurpose">https://substack.com/learnonpurpose</a><br>Cohort21 Blog and Resources: <a href="https://cohort21.com">https://cohort21.com</a><br>Kinship, Precision Learning: <a href="https://buildkinship.ai">https://buildkinship.ai</a> (double check, see note above)<br>NETI, Network for EdTech and Innovation: <a href="https://linkedin.com/groups/12345678">https://linkedin.com/groups/12345678</a></p><p><strong>Guest Links</strong></p><p>Justin Medved, LinkedIn: <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/justinmedved/">https://www.linkedin.com/in/justinmedved/</a><br>Natalie Vera, LinkedIn: <a href="https://ca.linkedin.com/in/natalie-vera-3b1ab840">https://ca.linkedin.com/in/natalie-vera-3b1ab840</a><br>Eric Hudson, LinkedIn: <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/ejhudson/">https://www.linkedin.com/in/ejhudson/</a><br>Alan Gertner, LinkedIn