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This morning was so sweet as I joined my friends Eric Curts, Jaime Donally, Rachelle Dené Poth, Gabriel Carrillo, and Victoria Thompson for our Edtech and AI Supershare. The crowd was awesome and had so much energy! (That was surprising for a 9 am session!) That really started the day on an up note!
In today's post I'm going to share some of the cool things I saw, the conversations in the hallway, and just some general observations about what people are talking about. I will tell you one frustration. Social media is not making it easy to connect. The algorithms they use now don't help us connect with others who are there very easily. There was a day when most educators were on Twitter, but now people are in a variety of places. It just makes it harder. One day someone will invent something, that's for sure.
First Stop: Edtech and AI SuperShare
I think we should focus on detecting learning not whether AI was used.
I wish we could focus on detecting if learning is happening rather than detecting AI. The question is does a student know and understand what they are doing. I don't care as much if they use AI to get there.
In five years, AI will be just be everywhere. It will be like asking if we use a calculator on a math problem. It is really irrelevant if we did and more relevant if we can work the problem. I hope we'll have the controls we need to focus on learning and that every tool we use will help us get there and not distract from the process.
For example, let's look at how I'm writing this post:
Voice AI. Throughout this conference I'm recording my day on Plaud Note Pro. I also record my thoughts and big takeaways and what I want it to focus on pulling out from my day. I love the
Compliation and Conversation. Then, I use Claude Cowork to go through the day using my voice notes as a guide. I have it interview me and give my words and thoughts on each aspect of the day.
Draft. Then, I have it pull it all together along with links.
Fact Check. I have Claude Cowork fact check everything. I mean everything. (See below! Sigh!)
Push the Draft to Wordpress. Then, after I read over the draft and am happy with it, I have it push the draft to my blog.
Rewrite. Then, I go through it and rewrite in my own words. Why? Because even with all of my writing, it still sounds like Claude. I really try to get it to sound like me but it doesn't. It puts “stakes in the ground” it em dashes where I wouldn't em dash (and I will use them and not give them up. I wrote about that recently.)
Check links. OK I try to check every link. I really do. Might I miss some? Sure. But most of them, I'll have them.
Add pictures. Then I figure out what pics I want and *gasp* I might even AI generate the featured image. Why? Because I want to!
So, let me ask you this — does it matter that I used AI? Is it relevant that without these tools my blog posts often die in the land of good intentions and digitally rot away to irrelevance because in the rush I can't pull them together?
I really want to help all those teachers not at iste! And some of the most important things are the CONVERSATIONS people are having and one of those conversations is about WORKFLOWS.
So, at this point, I could care less if AI touched something because *double gasp* AI touches everything these days. The qeustion I want to ask is “did this student learn.”
Portrait of an AI Graduate from ISTE, Credit ISTE.org.
ISTE's Profile of an AI-Ready Graduate
I really enjoyed ISTE's new Profile of an AI-Ready Graduate, and I'll admit it — I like the roles humans are playing in it their pavilion. Now, it took me forever to find it as it is on the bottom floor near the entrance.
The framework names six things ISTE says we should want students to become: Learner, Researcher, Synthesizer, Ideator, Connector, and Storyteller. (Here's the framework.)
But I love the booth! Educators from the STEM SIG / SIGTEL were demonstrating how they teach their students to be each of those things! It is so fun. Nothing mass-manufactered here. Lots of small groups of humans talking about what this looks like. Educators teaching educators. In small groups. Human to human talking about the tool. That is the way to go (Karim Meghji from CodeAI says it best below.)
Karim Meghji and Code AI: glass box, not black box
Speaking of Karim Meghji,, one of favorite conversations was sitting down with him! Karim is one of my interviews of the day and is president and CEO of Code AI.
Disclosure: CodeAI is one of the sponsors of my time at ISTE this year as I'm recording a few things for them. Companies like CodeAI make the work I do possible and I always disclose that. Although I've talked about this organization for years because I love what they do!
One of my favorite conversations of the day was sitting down again with president and CEO of Code AI — the nonprofit formerly known as Code.org, the people behind Hour of Code (which is what got me started in Python) and now Hour of AI.
Earlier in the day, John and I took one of their classes in their activation space. I loved the designs of the lessons.
For example, I can stand up front in class and tell my students all day that “AI is biased.” But when they work to generate foods, you can see the bias. For example, when I said to “make the meal appeal to kid” it put a smiley face of food on the baked chicken. One instructor commented that somehow AI thinks kids like to eat smiley faces! See — bias. And that is the point — we see it. We feel it. We talk about it.
CodeAI is free and has built these moments on purpose. I was even amazed as Kari says they have built some lessons where AI answers incorrectly so students learn to inspect it.
The safety controls are pretty awesome as well with multiple steps between students and the AI tool and back from the AI tool. The I highly recommend these free tools for teaching about AI even if you have other tools in place just because of the way they have set it up.
Karim also pushes past the usual “human in the loop” language. Being in the loop, he says, could mean sitting in the passenger seat. He wants the student driving. An active participant, not a passive one.
There was a line he said that I could repeat over and over.
“If you are going to start anywhere with AI education, it starts with humans teaching humans about what the machine is doing.”
Yes!
I could go on so much more even about the delightful man from Mexico, Oskar, that I sat with in the booth!
The Hallway Conversations
Oh the people are just the best:
I ran into Nurlan who had emailed me when I went to Edcrunch in Moscow. That was such a happy memory and a room full of educators.
I talked to Dyane Smokorowski — Mrs. Smoke from my Flat Classroom days and we nerded out on global collaboration for a moment. She's cooking up a very cool project but I'll let her share the story soon, I hope.
I ran into Eric Sheninger who hosted one of the best conferences I ever attended, Edscape. My son was a senior that year. I watched my son get his first sack in Eric's vendor room.
I chatted with Don Wettrick, an awesome entrepreneur who helps bring business into the classroom.
I saw PBL guru Suzie Boss in the hallway. What a brilliant and remarkable human being she is.
I saw Starr Sackstein at my hotel who may just have the busiest few days this week I've ever heard of someone doing! (It isn't mine to tell, but wow, Starr if you read this – you go, girl!)
I've met people who have read my blog. So many are in leadership now and said when they were a teacher getting started, I helped them get started!
We might come to ISTE to talk tech and curriculum but the best thing about ISTE is the people!
I'm so mad with Google search and a digital literacy lesson worth remembering.
I've learned that mistakes are best owned and then we can move on. And when we share our mistakes, someone might learn from our embarrassment. I was prepping for my interview with Karim, and I was looking for recent surveys on how many adults are leaning on Ai for decision making. I was in a rush because I couldn't find the research I had looked at just last week.
OK I'm going to show you the screen shot but DO NOT BELIEVE IT. I'm going to get to it below.
This is what came up in my search, It was even BETTER than the research I saw last week and was so very shocking.
OK so the Google summary said that 78.5% of American's used an AI tool to influence their decision making but only around 17% check the answers. I clicked on Knoxville news sentinel. I did all that I teach my students to do. I vetted sources… or so I thought.
So, after the interview, I did a fact check using my Claude Cowork skill that I programmed to be a “cranky geek curmudgeon” (I've blogged about that too.)
And then I could have just kicked the wall. The number went back to a pay-to-post survey from a marketing agency. This is not a source I'd ever hang my hat on.
Dad gum it, as we say in Camilla, Georgia. Google let me down.
Here's what happened. Google found information but it doesn't fact check sources,. It can't tell a vetted study from a press release.
It looked authoritative. It wasn't. I'm going to have to edit that stat out of the interview even though his response is pure gold. I'm not going to perpetuate the problem by sharing it!
So, I'm working to figure out how to turn off AI search on Google. Or, I'm just going to have to use Perplexity which tends to be more accurate than AI's search.
So, here's the lesson. We all need digital literacy. I got burned by an AI summary from Google. (And perhaps you could argue that my well tuned fact checking skill in Claude opened my eyes to the source and helped me fess up where I messed up so I can get better!)
Doggone it. That's another Camilla Georgia saying. But I'm not going to be gone. I'm going to open up. Below are some ways that I'm working to try to turn off Google's AI summaries. Some work now and may stop working so be aware.
Try this: digital-literacy moves we can all use against bad AI summaries
Since an AI summary is what burned me, here are the habits I'm taking back to my own searching — and teaching my students:
Click through before you quote. Don't cite a number an AI summary hands you until you've opened the original source and seen who actually said it.
Watch the URL. If it contains /press-release/ (or “PR”), it's paid placement, not reporting — and seeing it on several sites usually means one press release was syndicated, not independently confirmed.
Ask who ran the study. A university, Pew, or Gallup is one thing; a company with something to sell is another.
Bypass the AI summary. Add &udm=14 to a Google results URL (or click the “Web” tab) to get plain links with no AI overview. In Chrome, you can set google.com/search?q=%s&udm=14 as your default search so it skips the summary every time.
Teach the habit. Have students trace one AI “fact” back to its source. It's the fastest digital-literacy lesson there is.
The “AI dean”: helpful, as long as humans don't hand over the decision
At the AI-Ready Graduate pavilion, I heard Phyllis Shepherd of Alexandria City Public Schools talk about equity in school discipline. The numbers behind it are sobering — students with disabilities are far more likely to face long-term suspension — and she built an AI decision-support tool to make discipline more consistent and policy-aligned.
It was interesting, and I think it could be genuinely good — as long as the humans involved don't offload the decision-making to it. That's the line for me. A tool that helps a human be more consistent and fair is one thing. A tool that becomes the one deciding is another. Keep the human in the chair.
Workflow and Claude Cowork
So funny when I said “Claude Cowork” in the first session, some people cheered. The people who are fans are superfans. And we are nerding out, I've got to tell you.
I got a lot of questions about my Plaud notetaking tool and my Remarkable tablet and how my whole workflow fits together.
Lots of people are quietly changing how they work. They aren't testing new apps because they have gone underground reengineering their workflows. They are forming attachments to their AI tool of choice. They are comparing their time savers.
The conversation among many leaders is about habits. They say we're moving from the attention economy to the attachment economy. It is happening. You'll say “are there any Gemini users in the house” and they'll cheer. Claude Cowork and more cheers. Not as many for ChatGPT — not sure why. Interesting. I still use it but for certain things.
Oh, and vibe coding. We're all showing each other the apps we've built. Again, not as much about the apps on the floor because we're all building them. English teachers. Non geeks. People with ideas. People who understand workflows. Making apps. This is great!
Walking the exhibit hall – my observations
The floor was its own education. A few things stood out:
Adobe Premiere on the iPhone with Firefly generation built right in — that one's awesome, and it changes what's possible for quick video.
A genuinely good, extended demo of Renaissance Intelligence — there's a lot there worth a longer write-up. (Disclosure: I'm doing work for them too and I adore Nearpod which is central to what is happening with this cool tool. More on them later.)
Canva is still a huge hit; their booth was packed the whole time.
The curated vendor tracks — booths grouped by the job you're trying to do — were really popular, and honestly that's a smart way to walk a hall this size. Curating by the educator's actual job description is a hit.
The BBC's free learning resources were awesome — a lot there for teachers at no cost. (Another sponsor of my work at ISTE)
And there was a child-sized walking robot. Robots and drones still pull a crowd — people find them genuinely interesting — though I'll admit I looked at the walking one and thought, I'm not sure why you'd put this in a school. The interest is real; the classroom use case isn't always.
If you're at ISTE, I've got two more sessions on Wednesday, July 1, and I'd love to see you there:
🎬 Empowering Digital Storytelling from Pitch to Publish (with AI) — 10:00–11:00 a.m., Room W206BC (also streamed). I'll take you through helping students go from idea to finished story using AI at every step — pitch, produce, publish — and share my gear, my gadgets, the projects I use to teach storytelling, and the websites that make it easy.
🧰 50+ AI/Edtech Tools and Teaching Tips to Transform Your Classroom — 11:30 a.m.–12:30 p.m., Room W312AB. A practical rundown of 50+ classroom-tested tools organized by the teaching job they help you do — assessment, creativity, coding, and productivity — plus the pedagogy that goes with each. This one isn't streamed, so you have to be in the room for the goodies. Resources: bit.ly/50AI-EdtechCCT.
Where Day 2 left me
The day opened with five friends and an energetic room having fun teaching together, and the best line I heard all day was Karim's: it starts with humans teaching humans. Meanwhile, under all the booths and demos, people are forming real attachments to their tools — the attachment economy isn't coming, it's here.
So, here's where I finish out Day two. Let the attachments be to the humans and then use the tools to help improve how we humans live. Don't be lonely, live life and get out there. Don't watch on a screen (if you can help it – when I broke my foot, I had to). Get out there if you can and see the people. The tools are cool but the people are remarkble.
Let's be human beings not human doings. Let's work on help kids and loving them well. Let's have the conversations that matter.
That's Day 2. I gotta run. Lots of people to see. And there's this vendor who has edible ink. Talk about eating your words! (ha ha) Oh and there's a squirrel at the Hilton who isn't afraid of humans. I don't like him. I've named him Napolean. He's a little aggressive. And short.
OK enough with the stuff. See you later, educator.
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I started the morning in the lazy river with for some quiet time with my Bible, Journal, and a moment. The water was moving slowly, the conference hadn't started the intensity yet, and then my friend Angela Maiers — founder of the You Matter movement — came over and brought me breakfast.
We floated and we talked. And what we talked about was kids: how we help them build social skills, how we help them know they matter, how we teach them to relate to other people, get along, and get out of the house. I didn't know yet that the last thing I'd hear at the end of the day — a keynote built on neuroscience — would say the same thing right back to me. More on that at the end.
Smart glasses, with Jaime Donally and Hall Davidson
My second stop was a conversation I'd been looking forward to: Jaime Donally and Hall Davidson showing me their Meta display glasses — the ones with Meta AI built in. I recorded a hilarious video below for those of you not here so you can feel like you're here!
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ISTE 2026 is really a joy for me. It is 19 years since my first ISTE, and this year they named me a “Featured Voice.” That just thrills me so much! I do hope to be helpful. In this post, I'll share the sessions I've got going on, and I'll add links to the resources as well, so you can bookmark it!
I will also be recording and sharing interviews with remarkable educators, thought leaders, and more. The schedule is so full, but it always has room to learn, and it is so exciting! Stay tuned to my social media for clips, thoughts for you, and info on what people are talking about at ISTE.
Oh yes, I've been vibe coding to prepare for this year's ISTE. Of course, I had a friend tell me if I know how to code (which I do), it isn't really vibe coding because I can read it all and am just coding with tools. That said, it is really incredible to be able to crank out these useful, simple html resources to teach. I've been doing it all year long in class and have taught my students to do it as well. It is so exciting to share this at ISTE! I've got links below to play them.
Details for each Session
Note: I have a few tools I'm adding to these, so come back and reload them on the day of the presentations. I'll also come back here and add links.
⚡ AI & Edtech Power Hour: Turbocharged Tools for Every Subject and Grade (panel)
Mon June 29 · 9:00–10:00a · Room W311CD · Also streamed for virtual attendees A fast-paced, interactive panel spotlighting practical AI and Edtech tools and pedagogies across subjects and grade levels. This year, the panelists are Dr. Rachelle Dene Poth, Eric Curts, Gabriel Carrillo, Jaime Donally, and Victoria Thompson. It is always high energy and so much fun, and I always have some surprise intros that I write for each of them. The room has always filled early and been closed, so this is one of those that is a fun three-pete (this is the third time we've done this one at ISTE!)
🎬 Empowering Digital Storytelling from Pitch to Publish (with AI)
Wed July 1 · 10:00–11:00a · Room W206BC · Also streamed for virtual attendees Take students from idea to finished story using AI at every step — pitch, produce, publish. I'll share my gear, my gadgets, my projects for teaching storytelling, and some cool websites that make it so easy.
🧰 50+ AI/Edtech Tools and Teaching Tips to Transform Your Classroom
Wed July 1 · 11:30a–12:30p · Room W312AB Cut through the AI noise with 50+ classroom-tested tools organized by teaching need — assessment, creativity, coding, and productivity. In this session, I'm sharing my current thinking on AI. How I teach about it. I have some tools to test your knowledge on AI terminology, and a model of innovation that really works. I've updated my recommendations on lots of tools and also share the pedagogical best practices that goes with the recommendations I'm sharing! This won't be streamed so the only way to get the goodies is to be in this one.
🎮 Play the games: Spy the AI (vocabulary) · Turtle Tracker – I have vibe coded these and also share how I made them and the tips and tricks to teach your students vibe coding too!
I hope to connect with some of you at ISTE 2026. I hope you are having a great June! I'm about to get in the car and head out! (I live close enough in Georgia to Orlando to drive so it is time to hit the road!)
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Today we're focusing on a thought leader and classroom AP Psychology teacher, remarkable educators! Here's something I've believed for most of my 24 years in education: if you don't have a student's attention, you just can't teach that student. Blake Harvard is the AP Psychology teacher behind The Effortful Educator. Blake says attention isn't a “nice to have.” It's a necessary component of learning, and it's exactly where we lose kids the most. This show with Blake will change how you think about every lesson you design.
In these ten minutes, Blake unpacks how students actually learn — the power of a quick pre-test, why piling a “fun” complex activity on top of complex content backfires, and the two strategies with more than a century of research behind them: retrieval practice and spaced practice. My favorite line? “You're not going to prepare for a game by watching practice.” That one will stick with you — and it might just change how your students study tonight.
Sponsor. Today's show is sponsored by EF Explore America and their STEM Tours. Lead your students on a STEM tour to places on the cutting edge of innovation to show them how STEM thinking often shows up where you least expect it. Imagine your students coding robots with MassRobotics at MIT, exploring marine ecosystems in Florida's coral reefs, or even sitting down to talk with a former spy in Washington DC. If you want to inspire your students and give them a fresh perspective on the power of STEM, visit efexploreamerica.com/STEM.
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About Blake Harvard
Blake Harvard how to get student attention
Blake Harvard is a full time teacher in Alabama. He is in his 20th year of teaching and currently teaches AP Psychology. He has a particular affinity for reading research into cognitive psychology for implementation in his classroom to improve student outcomes. He began writing about how he implements these research findings on his website (www.effortfuleducator.com) 9 years ago. Blake recently released his first book, Do I Have Your Attention? Understanding Memory Constraints and Maximizing Learning. It focuses on memory processing and learning strategies that over a century of research indicates improve learning in the classroom.
Blake has worked with numerous organizations like ISTE, Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, and the US Department of Education and has also presented to numerous faculties across the world about memory and learning.
If this episode made you think, share it with a teacher friend.
Disclosure of Material Connection: This is a sponsored episode and blog post. EF Explore America has compensated me to share information about their STEM Tours. However, all opinions expressed are my own. I have personally reviewed these resources and only recommend tools I believe offer genuine value to classroom teachers. My endorsement is limited to the educational products and services discussed in this episode. This post also contains affiliate links; if you choose to buy a book through one of them, I may earn a small commission at no additional cost to you. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission's 16 CFR, Part 255: “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.” The sponsor has no impact on the editorial content of this show.
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Today's show is full of ideas — how to teach in today's world based on the current research and the best thinking, an AI researcher who stays grounded in being human, and a set of practical tool tips from instructional coach Amy Storer. But all the tools in the world don't matter if we don't build our classrooms on a foundation of relationship. So here's the throughline: the heart comes first, and then we pick the tools.
You'll hear from Dr. Patricia Dickenson, author of Smart Teaching in the Age of AI, on teacher-driven instruction and using AI to plan, differentiate, and rethink how we assess. You'll hear from Dr. Jie Tao, who leads Fairfield University's AI & Technology Institute, on building AI out of compassion and using it without giving up control. And you'll hear from Amy Storer on the tools teachers are most excited about right now. I think you'll come away with lots of ideas, real insight into the tools educators are using today, and practical tips you can use tomorrow. Heart first, tools second.
A note: part of this episode touches on suicide and the research being done to detect and prevent it. If you or a student you love is struggling, you can reach the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline anytime by calling or texting 988.
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Key Takeaways for Teachers
From Dr. Patricia Dickenson — Teach heart-first, then let AI help
Bring your authentic self into the room. Patricia's design starts with the teacher's gifts, energy, and lived experience — not just the standards. Her own fourth-grade teacher, Miss Santa Maria, showed up through chemo and shaped her for life. More is caught than taught.
Use AI to plan, differentiate, and assess — without offloading your thinking. From custom GPTs that “unpack a standard” for a new teacher to analyzing 150 quizzes for skill gaps, AI can amplify a teacher's work. Used the wrong way it's a diminisher; used well, it's an amplifier.
Teach AI literacy, don't ban the tools. Frameworks like UC Davis's PAIRR keep writing human while using AI as a feedback partner. Students will use AI regardless — better that we teach them to use it wisely.
Keep it balanced. A composite-shapes lesson became a ten-minute, AI-built city-skyline art project that still let her differentiate up to a seventh-grade standard. Put your toe in; mix it up.
From Dr. Jie Tao — Build (and use) AI out of compassion
The best technology solves real human problems. Jie pledged to work only on research his own mother would care about — including a model to detect suicidal ideation and a free tool that summarizes medical research for patients.
Stop “prompt and pray.” A consistent prompting structure beats hoping for a brilliant answer. The interview pattern (have the AI ask you questions) and a “scratchpad” that uses only the information you provide make AI far more reliable.
Use agentic AI without giving up control. Jie defines the steps and gives the agent limited autonomy within each one — and cautions that fully autonomous agents still have “the memory of a goldfish.” Keep AI in a controlled environment; test it and try to break it before students touch it.
It's an “overconfident intern,” not Google. Knowledgeable but not always right. Understand what it can and cannot do, and step in to steer.
From Amy Storer — Coaching that clicks (and tools you can use tomorrow)
Adobe Express keeps getting more classroom-ready. Create a Podcast (studio-quality, with an Enhance button to clean up hallway noise), Animate a Character, and Quick Actions like editing or merging PDFs — all in one place.
Canva Code builds the interactive you imagine. Describe your “dream interactivity” (like a food-chain sorting game) and Canva AI → Code writes it for you — no coding required. Magic Studio handles background removal and more.
Little time-savers add up. Press a number key in Canva presentation mode for a timer overlay; use Scribe to auto-generate step-by-step, screenshot-rich how-to guides for families and colleagues.
Tools should lighten the load. “I'm team anything that saves teachers time.” Comfort and good policy help teachers move from worry to wise use.
About the Guests
Dr. Patricia Dickenson shares how AI in the classroom can help teachers plan, differentiate, and assess.
Dr. Patricia Dickenson
Dr. Patricia Dickenson is a Professor of Teacher Education. She began her career as an elementary teacher, and taught middle school mathematics. Dr. Dickenson was also a Mathematics Coach for the Los Angeles Unified School District.
Dr. Dickenson has been a teacher training and consultant for Princeton Review, Harcourt Mathematics and Pearson. Dr. Dickenson is also a Cal TPA Assessor.
Dr. Dickenson's work has focused on designing instruction, planning lessons, and assessment. She has expertise in technology integration, Universal Design for Learning, and Adult Learning Theory.
Dr. Jie Tao on how the best technology is built out of compassion for real human problems.
Jie Tao is a leading AI Educator and Instructional Designer, and the founding director of Fairfield Dolan's AI & Tech Institute, specializing in translating complex AI concepts into practical business skills for non-technical leaders.
He designs and implements high-impact AI literacy curricula and strategic workshops for C-suite executives, as well as conducting academic research and practical consulting, designing agentic AI workflows and systems.
He is dedicated to demystifying artificial intelligence through a proprietary, hands-on methodology, and empowering professionals to lead with confidence and make smarter business decisions in the era of AI as an associate professor of analytics and the director of an international graduate program at Fairfield Dolan, and has received numerous research and teaching awards from top academic journals, conferences and institutions. He has also received recognitions from professional organizations (e.g., Nvidia Deep Learning Institute).
Instructional coach Amy Storer shares the practical tools teachers are most excited about right now.
Amy Storer is an Innovative Learning Specialist and respected speaker in Montgomery ISD who is passionate about empowering educators through purposeful technology integration.
She thrives on partnering with educators to enhance the great learning already happening in their classrooms and schools by leveraging powerful digital tools. Amy is a certified educator and trainer for Google, Microsoft, Adobe Express, and Canva, and she brings energy, expertise, and heart to every professional learning experience. Her work centers on meaningful PD, authentic classroom connections, and innovative strategies that make learning stick.
Each of these conversations will be edited into its own solo episode of the 10 Minute Teacher Podcast in the coming weeks. Subscribe so you don't miss the full interviews with Dr. Patricia Dickenson, Dr. Jie Tao, and Amy Storer.
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Disclosure of Material Connection: This episode includes some affiliate links. This means that if you choose to buy I will be paid a commission on the affiliate program. However, this is at no additional cost to you. Regardless, I only recommend products or services I believe will be good for my readers and are from companies I can recommend. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission's 16 CFR, Part 255: “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”
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Happy Wonderful Classroom Wednesday, remarkable educators! Experiential learning works inside the classroom. It is especially powerful outside the classroom when you can travel with students. For 24 years, I've watched a single trip rewire how a student sees my classroom. This show with Angela Cannava will remind us exactly why experiential learning through travel is so powerful.
Watch on YouTube and subscribe for new episodes every week.
In This Episode
0:00 — Introduction
0:25 — Meet Angela Cannava
1:04 — Why she started traveling with students
2:39 — Curriculum-aligned trips: forensics in Great Britain
4:30 — What changed back in the classroom
7:33 — Belize: Ridge to Reef
9:12 — The midnight bat workshop
11:36 — Real-world connections
13:34 — Choosing the next trip
14:22 — Can any teacher do this?
15:44 — Closing & sponsor
Key Takeaways for Teachers from Angela Cannava
Curriculum-aligned travel turns “learn this” into “I've stood in this.” When Angela's students ran real DNA fingerprinting in a Great Britain forensics lab, a reluctant learner told her, “Everything you taught me is actually what they do in the real lab.” That's experiential learning through travel — the lesson stops being abstract and starts being real.
The trip changes the relationship, and the relationship changes the classroom. A student who'd said maybe ten words in three years came home from the tour and couldn't stop talking — about baseball, about traveling the world, about being inspired. Relate to educate: travel builds the trust that makes everything else teachable.
The learning ripples to kids who never left home. Students who stayed behind started seeing the subject — and the culture of the class — differently because Angela made it real-world, and her HOSA chapter grew because kids wanted in on something bigger than a normal school day.
You can absolutely do this — pick a partner and set expectations. Angela was terrified before her first trip; now she won't stop. Her two rules: build a diverse chaperone team so every student has at least one adult they connect with, and tell students exactly what they're signing up for (Ridge to Reef means mountains first, beach later).
Resources Mentioned in This Episode
EF Explore America — STEM Tours: The sponsor and Angela's travel partner for both trips. Curriculum-aligned STEM itineraries with local tour directors who handle logistics. efexploreamerica.com/STEM
Health Sciences in Great Britain (EF tour): The nine-day Scotland-and-England tour Angela led — forensics lab, DNA fingerprinting, anatomical museums, and the London Eye. EF Explore America
Belize: Ridge to Reef (EF STEM/conservation tour): Mountains to ocean — a midnight bat workshop with a research NGO, rainforest zip-lining, snorkeling, and a microplastics beach cleanup. efexploreamerica.com/STEM
HOSA — Future Health Professionals: The career and technical student organization Angela advises; her travel program helped grow the chapter. hosa.org
International Baccalaureate (IB): Northfield is an IB school, which is why Angela's international connections tie so naturally back to her lessons. ibo.org
Science teacher Angela Cannava shares how she brings experiential learning to her students through travel.
For the past 19 years, I have been a dedicated high school science and Career and Technical Education (CTE) educator, currently teaching at Northfield High School. During my time at Northfield, I established the CTE Biomedical Sciences Pathway and proudly serve as the advisor for our HOSA Future Health Professionals chapter. I am driven by a desire to take learning beyond the classroom walls — I began integrating international student travel into my program five years ago to help students apply their knowledge in real-world, global settings. I have been group leader for 2 tours including a Health Sciences trip to Great Britain as well as Belize from Ridge to Reef. Experiencing the world alongside my students has been transformative, positively impacting both their educational journeys and my own passion for teaching.
Other Shows for Science and CTE Teachers
Cool Cat Teacher Talk — “Traveling With Students”: The full radio/TV show where Angela and four other teachers share their student-travel stories. coolcatteacher.com/travel
10 Minute Teacher e936 — STEM Field Trips That Made Students Say “I Could Do This”: The multi-guest companion episode featuring Angela and three more EF group leaders. coolcatteacher.com/e936
If this episode made you think, share it with a teacher friend.
Episode Transcript
This transcript was generated using AI and has been reviewed by humans for accuracy. Minor errors or artifacts may remain but I worked my best to find any issues with the transcript as I reviewed the show. – Vicki
Click to read the full transcript
Vicki Davis: Today's show is sponsored by EF Explore America and the STEM Tours. To show your students how STEM impacts the world up close and in action, go to efexploreamerica.com/STEM and stay tuned at the end of the show to learn more.
Vicki Davis: Today we're talking with Angela Cannava. She's a high school science and career and technical education teacher in Denver. She's been doing that for 19 years. She has established the CTE Biomedical Sciences Pathway and serves as advisor for HOSA, Future Health Professionals. For the last five years, she's been taking her students beyond the classroom walls and leading international tours, including a health sciences trip to Great Britain and a Ridge to Reef expedition in Belize. So we're talking about how student travel transforms learning and your experiences, Angela. Why don't you start with your first trip.
Angela Cannava: My first travel experience with students was with EF Tours, in Great Britain. The reason I decided to take kids to travel in the first place is because I had actually gone on a tour with EF with one of my friends, Brian Jenkins, the year before. And when I was on that tour with him, I saw how much students' eyes were opened when they were traveling and how you could build different relationships with them and see them on a different level and get to know what their true interests are. That's what sparked me to want to lead the Health Sciences in Great Britain tour with EF tours. I was very nervous leading my first trip. I was like, my gosh, I can't believe I'm taking kids all the way overseas. But EF did a great job with helping ease my anxiety and my worry. I had chaperones with me, I had support, I had a tour director that met us right at the airport, and as soon as we got off that plane, the kids — you could just tell how excited they were because some of the kids that I took had never left Denver before. This was an absolutely amazing experience for them to actually get to be in a different country.
Vicki Davis: Wow.
Angela Cannava: So that trip was absolutely incredible. I had an amazing tour director, and one thing that EF does that's amazing is they have all local tour directors, so they know the area really, really well. I had an outstanding chaperone team, which for any teacher that's thinking about traveling, that's a very important thing to consider when you're doing your pre-planning — who your chaperone team will be. You want a nice diverse chaperone team where all the students will have a relationship with at least one of those chaperones. Just a little side note. We got to see so many cool things in both Scotland and England. The great part about the tour was the trip was aligned to the curriculum I'm teaching. One of the highlights was we went to this forensics lab and we got to do real DNA fingerprinting, look at fingerprint analysis. This was a real lab in a different country, so the kids got to see it from a different perspective too, which was so interesting. One of the students who wasn't necessarily the most excited to be in class sometimes — I just remember him coming up to me after the whole forensics workshop and being like, my gosh, Ms. Cannava, everything you taught me is actually what they do in the real lab. This is so cool. We did everything from health science related things, anatomical museums, seeing anatomical artifacts that have been collected from years ago, a lot of the old paintings that were done of anatomy, some of the first anatomical paintings that were ever done. That hooked really nicely into the anatomy class that I teach. But beyond the learning part, we went on the London Eye, and it was like sunset, and I have this picture of these students just looking out across the skyway, all smiles. I've never seen such happy kids in my life. It was a really good mix of getting to see really good sites plus the learning. A key for any teacher wanting to take students on a trip is, number one, knowing that you can definitely do it. If you build strong relationships with students, they will want to travel with you. And I was so surprised by how much the students actually wanted to interact with me. I could go on for hours about it.
Vicki Davis: When you brought those kids back from Great Britain from this tour, did anything change in your classroom or your relationship with your students? Like what happened after in terms of the culture around what you teach?
Angela Cannava: A lot — I took students all the way from freshmen through senior level. It was a very diverse group of students, and a lot of those students I did have in my class the next year. I saw they would talk about connections from the trip when we were learning material in class. For example, when I was talking about those anatomical drawings that were done ages ago, when we were starting our anatomy unit looking at some of these historical pieces of anatomy, one of the kids was like, oh my gosh, we saw that! And I was like, wow, what a cool connection to make. I got so many more students in HOSA, the career and technical student organization I run, because of that trip — because they saw that traveling beyond and being a part of something that's bigger than just your normal school day can do so much to enrich your life and your learning. We also travel through that organization too. It was very eye-opening, and we are an IB school as well, so having that international component that I can relate my lessons back to is really helpful. And like I said, building those relationships with students — having kids come in and just want to eat lunch with me and go back through the pictures from the trip, or talk about, do you remember that really gross dinner that we had? Because yes, most of the food was wonderful, but there were a couple dinners that some of the kids didn't love. And they're like, do you remember that? I don't think I could ever eat that again.
Vicki Davis: A lot of that is not because the food's not good, it's because it's different. And I think it's good for kids to have different experiences in different countries.
Angela Cannava: Exactly. Is it called haggis, I think, in Scotland? Trying — a lot of the food is just so different. And I also remember the kids talking about how they felt so much better when they were in Europe because we were eating so much non-processed food. They came back changed. There were a couple of students that barely spoke a word in class who decided to sign up on that tour, and they came back — I was teaching three levels at that time, so it was the third year I had one student, and he had never said maybe ten words to me before. And after we went on that trip, he just hit it off with me, telling me all about his weekends and about his baseball games and about how he wants to travel the world now and about how I inspired him. Moments like that were just so incredible and so touching.
Vicki Davis: And you know, Angela, all this resonates with me because I've traveled with kids and this is exactly why we travel with kids. It changes everything about the relationship. It changes how even kids who don't go on the trip view our subject and view the culture of our class, because we've made it real world. Now you took another trip — you went to Belize. So tell us what was the purpose of that trip and what did your students experience and do? What are some of the stories you have there?
Angela Cannava: Yes, so very different. EF offers a very diverse menu of trips, and I wanted to do a STEM trip that was more centered around conservation. So we decided on Belize from Ridge to Reef, and this one was super fun. I knew most of the kids that were on this tour — I'd had most of them in class before, they were mostly upperclassmen, so I had a pretty strong relationship with them already, which made it really fun. But it was a different type of student that wanted to go on this one rather than going to Europe, because it was a very different type of trip. It was so funny — we landed and I remember our tour director. He was amazing, this Belizean just full of energy, and he picks up our group and he's like, okay, we're going to the zoo right now! And the kids are like, wait, what? I'm still in my clothes from the plane. He's like, no, no, we're gonna make the most out of this experience, we're gonna do everything we can. So we went to the zoo there, which is very different than zoos here — it's all about saving animals and restoring their lives in natural habitats. That was the first experience and it happened within 20 minutes of us being on the bus. Then Belize was the ridge part — the mountains — and the kids got to experience so much. One of my favorite memories was we got to do this bat workshop in the middle of the night. This NGO — I can't remember the name of it exactly — took us, and we did a bunch of science-related activities during the day, looked at some ecology and different plants and botany. But then that night we did a bat workshop and they showed us how they do studies on bats — the bats fly into these nets and they catch them and very slowly untangle them. Even though we were all so hot and sweaty and tired at this point, the kids were just in awe, getting to see this bat up close. We were like ten feet away from it and they're explaining all of the anatomy about the bats, about how the bats are all so different from one another. That was definitely one of the highlights. Another was zip lining through the rainforest — one of the longest zip lines there. That trip was more for the adventurous kid, the kid that likes to get their hands dirty.
Vicki Davis: Yeah.
Angela Cannava: A very different type of trip, and some advice I'd give to teachers thinking of traveling is make sure kids know what they're getting into. Belize from Ridge to Reef — exactly as it says, Ridge to Reef. Three days were in the mountains, four days were in the ocean. So the kids kept asking, when are we going to the ocean? When are we going to the ocean? And we're like, we'll get there, but it's from Ridge to Reef. They thought they'd be hanging out at the beach the whole time. So really setting students up with the expectation for the trip is super important. Versus going on the Health Sciences in Great Britain — you need to be ready to walk five, six, seven miles a day and handle it without complaining. Very different types of trips. One of my other favorite memories of Belize is we got to go on a boat tour, and it was so eye-opening. I don't teach any of those science courses such as biology or ecology or earth science, but the kids were making connections on that boat tour to their other classes, which was so cool. They were like, oh my gosh, I remember learning in Mr. Bobbler's class that this type of tree is unique to islands — saying all these facts and connecting what they were learning in other classes as well. We went snorkeling, learned all the different species of fish, just got to be immersed within Belize. And that tour director was so life-changing for so many students, because he told his life story of being born in Belize. When we were on the bus he would always be telling stories, and the kids were like, does this guy ever be quiet? And I'm like, no, he's telling us a story. And they just started to eat it up — stories about how people build their houses from the ground up, building it as a family, and about how different the culture is there. I remember him having the bus pull over to get some fresh fruit for us — he got a bunch of mangoes and cut them up and gave them to the kids, and the kids were like, oh my gosh, this is so fresh, I've never had fruit like this in my life. The tour director said, I want you to taste Belize, I want you to feel Belize, I want you to experience Belize, and then bring that learning back to your classroom. We did a beach cleanup and talked about microplastics — the kids felt like they were impacting the world, which we were. And my absolute favorite thing that came from that is one of the students who went on that trip is actually going to work at the NGO this summer where we did the bat workshop. He just told me that last week and I was like, good for you, how cool! So not just classroom connections, but connections beyond that, for life.
Vicki Davis: Really? Wow. So as you look at what's next for you and your students, how do you go about making that choice?
Angela Cannava: I like to get student interests, so I'll give out a survey and ask kids if they're interested in traveling and where they'd like to go. That seems to help with our enrollment numbers. A lot of the kids really want to go to Europe, that's what I've noticed. But then once we came back from Belize and the kids were hearing the stories, they were like, wait, can you do Belize again? In a couple of years, please. So what's next? I'm actually running a trip this summer on the Mediterranean coast and the Swiss Alps with another EF tour, chaperoning that one. And then I'm doing Health Sciences in Great Britain again — not this summer, but next summer, because it was such a hit.
Vicki Davis: That is great. So Angela, is this something that somebody who doesn't really have a lot of experience traveling with kids can do?
Angela Cannava: Yes. My biggest piece of advice would be to make sure you go with some sort of travel company, travel agent, or travel group. There are a lot of them out there. EF is our flagship for our school, so we all use EF, and we have a travel program at our school with a lot of different trips going to lots of different areas of the world. Definitely having somebody that can help with the organization and the planning — because we're so busy as teachers, as you all know, we have no time. EF makes it so easy. They make my flyers, they make my PowerPoints, they make everything for me, and it's just ready to go for my promotion nights. They give you deadlines, a website to help kids raise money. Having that tour director and having all the hotels and meals ready for you — making it doable for the workload. It definitely can be done. I was very nervous at first, but now I am not. Now I'm not going to stop. I love it.
Vicki Davis: That's wonderful. So Angela Cannava, a high school science and career technical education teacher in Denver, has been doing that for 19 years, and she also works with the Future Health Professionals. Thank you for coming on the show and telling us your story of travel with kids. I just love these stories and they really fit with my experiences. I planned a lot of my trips myself — I wish I had used EF Tours now.
Angela Cannava: Absolutely. Thank you so much.
Vicki Davis: Thanks for coming on the show, Angela.
Vicki Davis (Sponsor — EF Explore America STEM Tours): If you're a STEM teacher like me, you want your students to see how STEM impacts the real world, not just read about it. On an EF Explore America STEM tour, they might code robots with MassRobotics at MIT, explore marine ecosystems in Florida's coral reefs, or even sit down with a former spy in Washington DC to discover how STEM thinking shows up where you least expect it. Every itinerary is designed by experts to amplify what you teach through hands-on experiences that can't be replicated in the classroom. Visit efexploreamerica.com/STEM and see what an EF Explore America STEM tour can do for your students. Some of the greatest things I've ever done with my students have been tours — and they make it all easy for you. So again, check out efexploreamerica.com/STEM.
Disclosure of Material Connection: This is a sponsored episode and blog post. EF Explore America has compensated me to share information about their STEM Tours. However, all opinions expressed are my own. I have personally reviewed these resources and only recommend tools I believe offer genuine value to classroom teachers. My endorsement is limited to the educational products and services discussed in this episode. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission's 16 CFR, Part 255: “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.” The sponsor has no impact on the editorial content of this show.
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An uncanny comment from my son coupled with some pretty serious allegations of prose malpractice have me contemplative on the state of word smithing — and even podcasting today.
And I just did it!
I actually used the dreaded em dash.
“Mom, You Sound AI”
But back to the uncanny comment from my son. (And we'll get to the prose “malpractice” in a minute.)
He was editing my latest show — Season 6 Episode 7. It was about systems to help find individual kids who are struggling. A pretty important topic to anyone who has a kid who struggles — or was that the struggling kid when she was 7?
I recorded it twice. My lighting was off the first time. Plus, I usually do feel like I do better the second time.
I open with standard words, “Welcome back, educator,” then I state the name of the show & leave a pause for the bumper to play.
I did it twice. The second time I slightly changed the name of the show but not much — Building Systems and Supporting People. I felt good about it.
So, John had just started editing & snatched his headphones off his head & threw them on the desk. When either of us does that, it usually indicates we want to talk about the show. Sometimes that headphone slam might mean someone has said “you know” for the 129th time (the record — yes we count sometimes, you know. (I couldn't resist! Grin.)) It might also mean we don't like the show and we want to go a different direction, or it might mean the show is so good it is making us think differently and we need to talk.
But sometimes — not always — but sometimes my son slams his headphones because Mom (that's me) did something.
“Mom, I can't use this intro?”
“Why?” I said.
Confused. If I mess up, usually I know it. But I spent a lot of time writing this show. School is out & writing is my happy place, and perfect words are like ripening wheat on a crisp fall day. Ready to improve humankind’s need for mental sustenance.
”Mom, you sound AI. And the title sounds like a title written by AI. We can't use it. I'm not going to let it stay in.”
It is rare that I'm speechless. Time slowed. The clock ticked.
We looked across our desks at one another. I processed his words and jumped up.
”Well, John, I wrote the whole script, and I recorded it! What do you MEAN that I sound AI? It's me, I recorded & wrote it. It's me!!”
”No, but you SOUND AI. Your voice had a slightly mechanical tone for a second, and the title sounded AI.”
”OK, we'll pull from the first recording, John. I don't even know what to say.”
And I did something I just don't do.
I huffed.
And I turned & walked out of the office, trying to process this criticism. Is that what it was? Criticism?
Now, suddenly, if a human sounds like AI, is the human somehow at fault?
I could feel my em dashes in jeopardy, as well as a few words I like to use. I know some who intentionally put typos in their text just to prove their humanity. Has it come to this?
The Valley in Our Minds
You see, somehow, I had reverse traversed the uncanny valley.
The Uncanny Valley Explained
If you want to better understand the uncanny valley, go to thispersondoesnotexist.com to see the face generator. The face above was AI-generated. There's something about the right eye that bothers me and makes me think the picture isn't human. I don't know what. That “what” is the uncanny valley. You'll find, however, that many of the images go past the uncanny valley and look very, very human. We're literally about to have an identity crisis with no way to tell if the person we haven't met but are talking to online is who they say they are.
There's this valley people talk about — it isn't in the world, but it is in our minds. You see, the closer something gets to looking like a real human, we like it, but suddenly we hate it. The AI-created thing is too close to human but not quite. Just enough for us to tell it isn’t real. Just enough so that we hate it.
But close only counts in horseshoes & hand grenades, to quote a highly disturbing childhood metaphor. But when it comes to imitating humans, humans hate—and I mean hate—close. We notice the weirdly askew finger or eye slightly off. It's the uncanny valley. We want to put the generated item in the human category, but we can tell it's not. So we hate it.
So what happens now when we accidentally reverse traverse the uncanny valley, and although we are very human, we accidentally slide towards AI? Not quite human and not quite AI, we decide we need to somehow climb the walls of the valley and, in some strange way, prove we’re human, though I would think the breath in our nostrils would do that!
We Don't Like Being Fooled
It was a big deal when AI traversed the uncanny valley & humans started being fooled.
There's only one problem — we as humans don't like anyone, or in this case, anything, making us feel dumb. We don't like being fooled.
(This is why, though everyone insists Survivor is “just a game” after they blindside their best friend on the show, we see real anger because lying is never ever just a game, nor should it be.)
A Lie in My Classroom – When I Looked Dumb to Everyone
Years ago, I had a boy on the spectrum in my keyboarding class. He also had ADD. He wouldn't finish his typing assignments in class but asked if he could finish at home. I felt compassion for him. He really did struggle to finish. I felt like his work in the classroom showed he was learning.
So, I talked to his mom & she agreed she'd keep an eye on him. Well, he actually typed pretty well in class & his work from home was good.
At the end of the semester, he earned 2nd in the class — I was so proud of him!! Until he returned to his seat at the table & loudly said, “My mom typed it all. Thanks, Mom.” And he waggled his trophy and gave a toothy grin, and everyone looked at me, the seemingly clueless teacher who couldn’t tell when a kid wasn’t doing his own work.
I felt like an idiot!! I was lied to! Blindsided! By the son & mom!! Somehow, I had been voted off the island & made to look like an idiot.
The loss of credibility when we as teachers miss AI-created work, and even worse, we reward it has some teachers rethinking every assignment. In the back of our minds is the fear of being blindsided at the tribal councils held in our classrooms every day. This is a real problem. But maybe we're working to detect the wrong thing!
Teach long enough, and it will happen. It is not a good feeling. It sort of makes you think — why did I waste my time? The lie diminished everything about that semester's class for me. I felt like a failure!! I thought he was learning. He didn’t. He just learned how to lie. I had been fooled and rewarded him for his deceitfulness. It undermined my credibility, and rightly so. (I still wonder if he was just showing off, as I did indeed see his speed pick up in class for timed writings!)
Now, every writing assignment feels like a Survivor Tribal Council, where we might be blindsided. Anyone who teaches and gives writing assignments – as really all of us should be – lives in fear of the blindside. Of looking dumb in front of the whole school, as our credibility torch is snuffed because we didn’t know we were being lied to.
And teachers who used to assign writing assignments decide not to, to avoid another trip to the tribal council. If they can’t catch it and defend it and prevent the blindside, they just won’t give that assignment.
So now this horrible feeling I felt all those years ago with my keyboarding student happens just about every day in classrooms across the world. It makes teachers question everything & puts teachers into a gotcha mode that isn't healthy for relationships but necessary for having any modicum of pride in the work happening — the learning — in your classroom.
And if you haven't lived it. I'm sorry, but you don't understand how it feels to be duped like this. Parents and students are constantly having a conversation about who is “getting away” with AI. And kids are bragging to their friends that the educators who are trying to teach them are being duped.
It is hard and hurtful. But there is a way forward.
The Uncanny Valley We Invent
So — we are having to create an uncanny valley — one we invent.
“AI detectors” invented it.
Teachers invent it.
The problem is, because AI studied good writing, elements of good writing now arrive with a long, bony finger of accusation and the Grim Reaper's scythe ready to cut down the wheat of words in hope of not being deceived.
Are we negatively focusing on writing that looks “too good,” and as a result, rewarding students for mistakes by not scrutinizing them for AI use? Do we see what is happening as a result of our desire to “detect” AI? Are we happy with the results of this approach?
If a student’s paper is great, we teachers now ask ourselves – is this paper too good? Is it a blindside, or is the student really growing and learning?
Is our point to improve writing? To improve learning? Or is the point to just not be fooled?
We in education, I am afraid, are trying to detect what we think has bubbled up from AI-created writing. We delve into the tapestries of lies we tell ourselves about detecting AI, without thinking of whether we even should.
A Question of Word Choice
And tell me you didn't just have a visceral, angry response to the word “delve” or “tapestry”?
That proves my point, doesn't it?
And I flat-out wrote that myself!
Delve. Tapestry.
Are you angry yet? Why?
I wrote those words. You know a human created those words, and a human can actually choose to write them! (ahem, we’re reverse traversing the uncanny valley – do you believe me yet?)
Why are we angry at the d or t word? Or at my Mom’s em dash in her journal written in 1972. Why? Get at that feeling and ask – is this good? Will good writing survive in a desire to use a scalpel to cut the AI away from the human who is writing it, and using the tool to help communicate?
Learning Detectors Needed
As a teacher, I'd rather detect if learning is happening, and that is easy to do.
I've taught kids to use AI to make presentations, and it largely improves their presentations. However, I had a student pull up slides & attempt to read them, and he couldn't even pronounce the words. It didn't take any kind of detector to know he didn't do the research and wasn't qualified to present on it. He couldn't answer questions. He had not learned anything. Nobody was fooled. I detected he hadn't learned anything, and it wasn't his work. My learning detector showed he knew nothing about his topic. He didn't earn credit. He didn't deserve it.
There was no “flaw” in my lesson design. The kid tried to fake it & his grade suffered. It wasn't my assignment's fault that he used AI. Other students used AI and did just fine because they knew their topic. They just had better slides. I'm glad they know how to use AI to make great slides. That is great! See the difference when we focus on learning detection? AI is just a tool.
I saw this happen 20 years ago, when a kid brought a presentation to school that his mom had made & he didn't know the topic. Mom was mad but had to admit her kid didn't do the presentation, the research, or anything. She did it. He learned nothing. My learning detector showed me he knew nothing. He didn't earn credit. He didn't deserve it.
Both students failed for dishonesty. In my book, whether AI or Mom did it was irrelevant. I didn’t care whether a human created it or not. AI detectors only attempt to see if AI wrote it, but just because a human wrote something doesn’t mean that THIS human wrote it or learned anything. We’re missing the point here.
The best question is, did this human learn anything? Is this paper a representation of their learning and progress, or just a waste of tokens and time?
We keep getting angry at the data centers being built, but what would happen if education focused on the learner and on detecting whether they learned anything?
We are literally driving the construction of new data centers as we play this AI pickleball game, where one person creates it, then humanizes it, then the teacher tries to detect it, then the teacher creates AI feedback, then the student ignores the feedback, and the cycle continues.
Everything around essay writing is hooked to data centers that are already overloaded. And look at the impact on the humans playing this AI pickleball game! Why should we focus on detecting AI? Shouldn't we focus on detecting learning instead?
Sadly, learning is not optional. AI use might be, but really, I want students to know how to use AI. So I would argue the use of AI and knowing how to master it is not optional.
Detecting learning in the human is really the only thing that matters, not whether they used AI or not.
The EM Dash Explained
But now, in our effort to avoid looking like we’re using AI, we are removing em dashes? Admit it. Have you removed the em dashes you used to avoid suspicion that they were written by AI? I have! My husband, who is an engineer, has always written with em dashes – he admits to removing them too!
Do you avoid certain words because you don’t want to sound AI? I have! (Delve and tapestry among them!)
Seriously? Do I need to mark out all the em dashes in the journal Mom wrote to me to prove to my descendants she wrote it? No!
I'm penning this — yes, penning. On my Remarkable tablet.
I'll convert to text to save a bunch of typing, but I’ll keep the original to avoid criticism should someone delve into my use of delve and wear a tapestry of lies because of my ancestral love of the em dash.
I’m adding some handwritten pages to this post so you can see them. Half of what I wrote, half of you can’t read. So, how do we think that getting everyone to handwrite everything will work? So then, those of us who struggle with dysgraphia (like me) are now in jeopardy of failing your class? Are we measuring the ability to write or the quality of student handwriting?
And good luck if you’re a dysgraphic dyslexic, because we would rather go back to cave paintings than make use of modern tools.
Start cracking rocks and hunting for caves, people, because if we write it on a wall, it must be a human, because AI can’t write on a rock wall. Right?
You even examine this image with the uncanny valley in mind, I suspect. For this piece, I wrote what I wanted and used Claude to help me write prompts for Google Gemini. It took several iterations, but I finally got what I wanted. I worked with it until I thought it was funny. I went through multiple iterations. I would argue with you that I totally had the idea for this artwork, but I used AI to make it happen because I couldn't draw it. Should my limitations with the art medium mean I can't create art? Should someone's struggle with dysgraphia mean they can't learn to write? Does AI use matter more than learning or effective communication? Does what we're doing even make sense?
And the litmus test is, somehow, whether it’s human or not, but does that help us be better humans? Good golly, Miss Molly, who cares how we wrote it? Does communicating it help us live better?
So, you say, Vicki, this post is too long. I would prefer it to be shorter. Well, let’s see, I could use Claude to help shorten this and give me feedback, but that would make it look like AI wrote it, and gasp, would I really want to do that?
No, this is going to be a human arguing for the wise use of AI in a very human way.
The Pangram Scandal
So let's talk about the prose pandemonium scandal. A story won a big shot story competition & gasp — the newest “AI detector,” Pangram, claims the piece was AI-written.*
So now people are writing their pieces by hand but paying for a litany of detectors to ensure they won't be flagged.
Literally, we are detecting if our human-written pieces are detected as AI. Just in case. So we unwrite what we write to prevent reverse-traversing the uncanny valley and having our human-written text flagged as being written by a bot.
Radiologists don’t care if they’re using AI as long as it helps them find cancer better and detect broken bones faster. Air traffic controllers don’t care if they are using AI as long as it makes flying safer. Athletes don’t mind using AI coaching tools as long as they get better at their sport. And yet somehow the USE of AI means the human didn’t learn. Seriously?
Yet in education, we are dancing with ourselves, shadowboxing, or whatever you want to call it.
More likely we have our hands & mouths duct-taped by an algorithm that can't even be explained by its inventors. They don't know how LLMs learned Persian or became so good at organic chemistry, so how could anyone give a foolproof method for detecting AI?
Why not instead focus on detecting good writing? Why not create learning detectors that bridge out-of-class and in-class work for a student? Let’s focus on detecting learning instead of feeding MORE MONEY into the AI ecosystem.
What will cost schools more money? Well, the AI companies would rather have kids use AI to write, and us use AI to detect and feed the AI pickleball cycle, and in ten years we’ll be in a real pickle because we took our eye off the ball – whether kids are actually learning anything.
With the many learning differences I've seen in my family, many of us had to go to “writing labs” for feedback. They were helped by writing labs that looked past the dyslexic dysgraphic diagnosis and helped them traverse learning with technology to become well-educated humans at the other end. And then became good writers. Authors even. We had help so we could learn until we no longer needed it. Except for commas. (Sorry, Mrs. Caldwell.)
But not only good writers — they spoke better too. They knew their topic — their topic became part of them. They somehow became educated and could write, speak, and create with the knowledge to be a contributor in their profession. To make the world a better place. The moral character to serve and love and bring knowledge and the human heart together to fulfill their God-given purpose on this planet for the short time they are here.
I have no words to explain the magnificence and joy that it is to be human. I cherish my humanity and yours, dear readers. When you're a bot crawling this page — and bots will just try to either imitate me or summarize me — but no bot could ever, my friends, understand me.
AI might claim to think – it can’t.
It might say you “have this piece in your head” – as Claude did this morning. It doesn’t have a head. Not one bit. Just some slick, manipulative programming to try to fool me into feeling like Claude is human. It’s not.
And that is what makes this Word Rodeo so dangerous.
Do we understand AI? No. None of us understands AI, yet we somehow look to it to help us understand the human heart. Good luck with that.
The worst lies are those we tell to ourselves, and perhaps right up there with those lies, whether an AI detector could even work, and if it did, whether it would be wise to ever use them.
Somehow instead of focusing on being beautifully, marvelously, epically, amazingly human, we are focusing on NOT being AI.
And that's not uncanny.
It's just plain sad.
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Footnotes and Disclosures
* In 2026, AI-detection company Pangram flagged the Caribbean regional winner of the Commonwealth Short Story Prize — Jamir Nazir's “The Serpent in the Grove,” published in Granta — as machine-written, along with several other Commonwealth Prize winners. Nazir denies using AI, and AI detectors are documented to produce false positives, especially on polished prose and the writing of non-native English speakers. Sources: Literary Hub and The Walrus.
How did I create the graphics? I used the word pictures I handwrote from this post to determine which I thought would make good cartoons, then I fed the words into Claude's Cowork along with my thoughts on what would make a good cartoon. Claude Cowork wrote the prompt, and I pasted it into Google Gemini. Then I would take the output from Gemini and paste it into Claude Cowork, along with a critique of what I liked and didn't like. I continued the process until I was happy with the result, and then I pulled the final graphic into Canva to add the title and compress it for the web. I would argue that the ideas were mine. The iteration was mine. The metaphors were mine. So, does it matter that I used an AI tool because I literally cannot draw? And can I make the world a better place because now I can use a tool to create my own cartoons to illustrate the words I'm trying to communicate?
What do you think? Please share in the comments below!
