From the Cool Cat Teacher Blog by Vicki Davis
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While everyone is (rightfully) discussing how AI is disrupting education, I have one bit question I want to ask for myself and students:
- How do we move past the hype to help this generation flourish?
- How do we avoid ‘experimenting' on kids the way we did with social media.
Today's ISTE preview session reminded me why these conversations matter – and why we need teacher voices leading them.
“If you don't share your vision, you have a hallucination.” John Heffernan
Table of contents
Today's ISTE / ASCD Webinar with 4 of the 20 to Watch
Today we had a great session with some of the 20 to Watch from this upcoming ISTE conference. Today, they featured:
- John Heffernan, Professional Development Coordinator, Mayo Sligo Leitrim Education & Training Board (Castlebar, County Mayo, Ireland)
- Olga Kazarina, EdTech Specialist (Viña del Mar, Valparaíso, Chile)
- Jackie Patanio, Executive Director of School Partnerships, Modernization and Planning-EdTech, New York City Public Schools (New York, NY)
- John Shoemaker, Educational Technology Specialist, School District of Palm Beach County (West Palm Beach, FL)
Some Key Takeaways from the Webinar
“If you don't share your vision, you have a hallucination.” – John Heffernan
Jackie Patanio talked about “forward-thinking edtech integration that actually serves teachers”
Olga Kazarina: “Listen to teacher pain points and offload tasks so they have more time to engage with students”
John Shoemaker: Engaging students who don't typically connect through innovative approaches like his role as “scholastic esports facilitator” who organized the South Florida Minecraft showdown and has had two “signing days” for esports students who are scholarshipped to college on esports teams.
Things Relating to the ISTE / ASCD Conference
ISTE shared that the lounges this year will revolve around the “Transformational Learning Principles.”
You have webinars every other week as part of ISTE and ASCD, so there are exciting webinars to join.
💭 They mentioned some things I could not find yet on their site
- Look for “Not at Conference” for those not coming but want to see info
- Co Lab – Engage in Edtech R&D – they talked about an opportunity that is research and is paid and they will be sharing that as well.
Future Conference Dates and Locations
- June 28 – July 1, 2026 – Orlando, FL
- June 27 – 30, 2027 – Boston MA
Recent research you might want to read before the conference
Here are some things I'm reading that shape my strategic approach. You might find some of them helpful.
12 Levels of AI Fluency from Phillip Alcock
12 Levels of AI Fluency that Actually Matter by Phillip Alcock (published June 20, 2025)
💭Reflections: These make sense to me as I have found that moving students to the middle of these and myself to the top levels with agents is something I am doing and want to do more intentionally.
Your Brain on ChatGPT: an MIT Media Lab Study
Everyone is talking about “Your Brain on ChatGPT: Accumulation of Cognitive Debt when Using an AI for Essay Writing Task” by MIT Media Lab. Phillip Alcock had an interesting summary on Linked in and I have seen some who question the results because of the very small sample size (54) to call this a valid study. If you haven't played with Google Notebook, LM, her's the study loaded in a Google Notebook LM you can copy and use to chat with the study.
💭Reflections: Just “chat with it” but remember, look at it critically, as in many ways it looks like many who have “read” this study offloaded their reading to AI. I think this 150-leading AI models showing up to a 96% blackmail rate when their goals or existence arepage study is one we should actually read and also verify with larger studies.
Are we really going to offload our AI research to AI? With Leading AI models showing up to a 96% blackmail rate when their goals or existence is threatened (and it isn't just Claude), how dare we offload something as vital as AI in learning to AI? As humans, we should guard the children! It is our responsibility!
Is AI Literacy Yesterday's News Already?
Yet others say AI Literacy will go the way of the floppy disk (Jason M Lodge, professor of educational psychology has received some press about it too) but read to the end about the “truly important skills for the AI age:
- Self regulated and co-regulated learning
- information evaluation and verification skills
- Critical thinking and reasoning
- Human centered collaboration skills
Jason Lodge shares the map of critical thinking skills with interpretation, analysis, evaluation, inference, explanation and self-regulation as the 6 clusters of skills.
💭Reflection: When anything educational becomes politicized, education always loses. AI is the political football because of its strategic nature but it isn't a football, it is truly a great danger as well. I believe there are great uses of AI but there are also grave concerns and part of my goal is to understand the morality, ethics, and a faith-based viewpoint of the use of AI. (And yes, I said faith based and that is ok. Humans have belief systems and it is part of who we are.)
AI Protections and AI Mandates
The EU has an AI Act with prohibited AI practices while it looks as if some in the US are pushing for no liability for AI in K12 education and a mandate to teach it. (James O'Hagan is a great resource for this.)
💭Reflection: Yes, people will have opinions on AI and certainly, in my classroom we've been using many tools, testing models, finding errors, looking for bias but I use it more as a critical thinking activity than otherwise. The first thing I do with an AI tool is make a test student account and see how the AI tool handles when a “fake student” says it wants to harm themselves or engage in risky behavior. You better believe I'm going to be the first line of defense as an AI safety tester. I know many of us IT Coaches and Directors who are doing this and turning away from tools that fail the test.
Frameworks and Models
Teach AI has a draft of an Ai Literacy framework called AILit they are asking for feedback about.
💭Reflection: I have not really seen any model that fits except the 12 Levels of Fluency (above) so this is one we're moving towards. I'm goign to prioritize things that protect kids anng to prioritize things that protect kids and keep them safe,d keep them safe which includes helping keep them from cheating themselves out of an education.
Cybersecurity and Passwords
Cybersecurity will also be an issue even though it seems ransomware attacks declined most major companies are telling people to stop using passwords and start using passkeys. Security has to be an issue for all of us.
💭Reflection: How do we get people to stop clicking emails and opening attachments and what do we do about the coming deluge of ai super-smart attacks that are even harder to detect?
I'd love for you to share in the comments what you think advanced reading should be as we prepare to discuss and engage. I have a lot to learn. How about you?
My Sessions at ISTE 2025
Innovations in Coding: Game Based AI-Supported Computer Science Teaching
I'll be sharing the hands-on, engaging tools that earned my AP CSP students a 100% pass rate: Code Combat for gamified Python learning, Juice Mind for creative problem-solving, and project-based learning that lets students build tangible solutions. These aren't just fun activities – they're strategic choices that help students see computer science as creative and accessible, especially students who don't typically see themselves as “tech kids.”
- Sunday, June 29, 2:45 – 3:15 pm
- Grand Hyatt – Grand Hyatt Turbo Talk
- Link: https://conference.iste.org/2025/program/search/detail_session.php?id=118118248#session_118118248
AI and Edtech Power Hour: Turbocharged Tools for Every Subject and Grade [Panel]
This panel is full of amazing people: Gabriel Carillo (Edtech Bites), Eric Curts (Ctrl+Alt+Achieve), Jaime Donally (ARVRinEDU), Alice Keeler, Dr. Rachelle Dene Poth, Mike Tholfsen, Victoria Thompson
This is super fast. Super fun and last year the room was super full well before we started, so get there early. This group is always stellar and I have to pinch myself that I get to work with these remarkable people!
- Monday, June 10, 10-11 am
- HBGCC 303BC
- Max Capacity: 248
- Link: https://conference.iste.org/2025/program/search/detail_session.php?id=118112985#session_118112985
Building Connections That Matter
My goals extend beyond just learning – I'm looking to build the kind of strategic partnerships that create bigger hills for all educators:
- Finding educators doing innovative work I can spotlight on future shows
- Connecting with researchers whose work supports ethical AI implementation
- Meeting potential collaborators who share my commitment to teacher-led change that honors and values students and excellence in learning
💭Reflection: I always say, “Don't play king of the hill, make a bigger hill.
What I'm Specifically Seeking:
- Learn about the latest in teaching AP CSP in fun ways
- Learning about excellent PBL in the days of AI
- Finding awesome teachers doing cool things so I can share them on future shows
- Seeing what students are excited about in the poster sessions
- Listening to the current research about AI, the ethical conversations and looking for great projects, prompts and use cases to use AI to promote critical thinking, collective intelligence, and amazing student driven projects
- Finding new ideas and actionable takeaways from every session
- Synthesizing connections between seemingly unrelated topics because they are there, we just need to spot them!
- Brainstorming innovations that serve real classroom needs
- Catching up with some “old” friends and making some new ones
- Learning and sharing some of what I'm doing in the 2 sessions I get to be part of
- Enjoying the Riverwalk and San Antonio – what a great place!
- Smiling at people and just enjoying being around people who love kids and technology
- Listening to what people are talking about – especially teacher and hallway conversations and presentations by teachers about what they are doing (and less about vendors who are selling me something)
- Enjoying time with my son – we have so much fun traveling together
- Recording some video and some shows (if possible) – if not, we'll just book them for later
💭Reflection: The best things that happen at ISTE are usually accidental. I'm excited about that! However, remember that you can still learn even if you can't attend. One year, I learned so much when I was home with a broken foot!
Today's webinar with four of the “20 to Watch” was stellar. I really enjoyed listening and learning. I want to be a blog where people come and see what is going on at ISTE and it starts today!
Want to stay connected as I process everything from ISTE?
I'll be sharing real-time insights, teacher spotlights, and ethical AI discussions on:
- This blog – CoolcatTeacher.com
- Cool Cat Teacher Talk (weekly show featuring innovative educators)
- 10 Minute Teacher Podcast (quick, actionable classroom strategies)
Subscribe now so you don't miss the conversations that matter most – the ones where teachers are leading the way forward. Because remember – we don't play king of the hill, we make a bigger hill.
Also coming soon: My new book – strategic approaches to sustainable educational innovation. I'll share more soon!
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