What a Veteran Tech Teacher Can Teach Marketers About AI Trust Literacy and the Next Generation
Ms. Janet Elias · May 8, 2026
ai in educationnext generation
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**Welcome to AI Insiders**
(0:35) Everyone, I'm David Burkowitz with AI Marketers Guild, part of March. Welcome to another edition of AI Insiders. I found this guest through a rather unexpected path and a different approach than I usually have for sourcing guests because the inspiration came when I received an email that one of my daughter's favorite all-time teachers was stepping
**Introducing Ms. Elias**
(1:07) back from her role after decades in the city public education system, and Ms. Elias, as I've known her, it's a little bit weird to call you Janet, but I still have that issue with any of my daughter's teachers. So, Miss Elias was teaching my daughter technology in middle school here in Manhattan. She was wrapping up this wonderful and impactful
**AI Consulting and Education**
(1:40) career and then started to do some work in the AI consulting space. Being this incredible educator and deep in exploring technology from a lot of angles, it was like, sometimes I think getting that bigger lens of where AI fits in, not just with marketing specifically, but with how we learn,
**Welcome to AI Marketers Guild**
(2:08) with how we teach our children, with how this affects our lives. It's like, I've just got to go and see where this one goes. I hope a lot of you are really interested in this, too. So Miss Elias, Janet, welcome to AI Marketers Guild. >> Thank you so much. Thank you, David. And thank you to everyone in AI Marketers Guild for having me. I'm going to have
**Impostor Syndrome and Teaching Experience**
(2:33) to give a big shout out to your daughter because if it wasn't for Zella, I wouldn't be here. But thank you all so much. I feel a little nervous because you guys are real professionals and I'm just a little teacher and I feel like I have that impostor syndrome. Is that what we call it? I am here to tell you that I have spent the last 22 years teaching in
**AI in Classrooms: Future Employees and Customers**
(2:56) New York City public schools. I recently retired on March 1st. And I want to tell you what's actually happening with AI in the classrooms because the kids in those classrooms are about to be your employees, your customers, and your audience. I think you should probably know what they're up to. >> Absolutely. Yeah.
**Follow Me on TikTok**
(3:21) So, take a moment, take out your phones and go ahead and follow me on TikTok and maybe I will go ahead and give you a follow back. Take 10 seconds.
**TikTok First**
(3:37) I like that. I think you're the first guest and we've been doing this for a while. I think you're the first guest to lead with TikTok instead of LinkedIn. This is already something different.
**Learning on TikTok**
(3:45) I'm over LinkedIn. I've learned everything I need to know on TikTok lately. Everything. Go ahead and follow me. Now, >> and Daniel's already impressed with your engagement there. >> Thank you. So, I want to tell you a little bit about myself. I've been teaching public school technology only
**Career at Wagner Middle School**
(4:08) for over 22 years in the New York City public school system, and most recently at Wagner Middle School, what I say is the largest middle school in Manhattan. It's a term I coined. Every time I talk about Wagner, I'm so proud of the fact that I am teaching at the largest public school in Manhattan. Most recently, I just retired March 1st. Now, I started
**Never Too Late to Pivot**
(4:35) teaching at 40 years old. That was a second career for me. If anybody in this room is quietly thinking if it's too late to pivot, let me save you the suspense. It's never too late to pivot. I started teaching at 40 years old and it's my second career. >> Now, chapter one >> is I started teaching at 40 because I loved teaching my own children so much.
**Pursuing a Teaching Career**
(5:04) they would be at nursery school and I would literally be creating lesson plans for that when they came home from nursery school. I went back to school to CW Post, which was in my backyard, and I got my teaching degree. After I got my teaching degree, I knew I needed a master's. So I thought about do I want to do literacy or do I want to do technology and education? Back then we
**From Word Perfect to AI Consulting**
(5:30) were only doing Word Perfect on a computer. I love Word Perfect >> antiquated antiquated and I decided to go right into my masters for technology. That's chapter one, just retired. Chapter two: I just launched my own AI consulting where I'm helping the private sector understand AI and how to adopt it. I've also been consulting with schools and I'm writing
**Developing AI Curriculum**
(5:59) curriculum for them in order to teach AI for their students. Delis home. >> Yeah, it's an early day with math pass. We have some >> special guests that I was not expecting. >> That's what I miss about being in the classroom, the kids. But anyway,
**TikTok Creator and Teacher Advocate**
(6:21) yes, it's really tough missing the kids. Next, I am also a TikTok creator and a teacher advocate. I have a platform on TikTok and a lot of teachers reach out to me for advice. So, I started helping teachers land jobs at the New York City Department of Ed where they send me their resumes and I share it with contacts of people that I've met
**Advocating for Teachers**
(6:45) throughout my career. I love helping other teachers. I'm also advocating for teachers that are having a horrible time at their school. I had one school contact me in Queens and they had a horrible bathroom situation. Within making a video, within one day the bathroom was fixed for them. >> I enjoy doing that and helping people. I'm also a brand collaborator on
**Brand Collaborator and Car Wash Owner**
(7:10) TikTok and Instagram and I work with Target and CVS and Amazon. I'm wearing an Amazon shirt right now. I'll link it later. And other UGC content creation. One of my favorite projects is my husband and I own a car wash in Roslyn. My husband is a real estate developer. We own a car wash in Roslyn. Anybody show of hands know American car
**The Boutique Car Wash Experience**
(7:37) wash in Roslyn? It's located across from the Americana, across from Hermes and Louis Vuitton. >> Any Long Islanders in the room? All right. >> Any Long Islanders or all city slickers? It's a beautiful car wash. I tell everyone it is an experience. It's a boutique car wash with a beautiful curated gift shop and a
**Educational Toys and Grandmotherhood**
(7:59) toy store. The toys that I buy are all high-end and all educational because I never want parents to buy junk for their kids that end up in a junk drawer. You will not find any junk in my car wash. Last but not least, I am a mom of two adult children, Britney and Brandon, my pride and joy. My greatest joy is I've just become a grandmother to a beautiful
**A Full Life**
(8:26) granddaughter, Charlotte. She's just so gorgeous. I love her so much. She's 10 months old. I split my time between New York City, Manhasset, where I am today, and Watermill. That's a little bit about me. >> I love all the varied hats you're wearing. >> Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Let's jump right in.
**AI in Classrooms: Ahead of the Curve**
(8:53) Here is what I want to talk to you about. AI is already in our classrooms. It's been there a while, and the kids are way ahead of us. Today, I'm going to walk you through three things: what New York City just did, what's actually happening in the classrooms, and how to talk to a kid or honestly an employee about anything about AI. New York City schools just released
**NYC AI Guidelines Released**
(9:23) their AI guidelines. Parents can review them and weigh in on them before they're finalized. David, I'm going to put you on the spot. Did you know this? >> No. I thought I heard something about this, but I didn't know about this. >> A lot of people don't know about that. >> I'm glad that we're able to have this so people can know. On March
**Public Comment on AI Guidelines**
(9:47) 24th of this year, New York City public schools released their first AI guidelines for the largest district in the United States, a million students. The public comment closes on May 8th, 2 days from now. And what they want to know is what you think about their guidelines, their guidance, and if you want to make any tweaks to it. The kids in this guidance are about to be
**Take the NYC AI Survey**
(10:14) your future hires, your future customers, and your future audience. If you go on to this website, schools.nyc.gov, and you click on the AI link, anybody is able to take the survey. This is what it looks like when you click on it. It only takes 3 to five minutes. I really suggest everybody taking this survey. If you're a marketer who
**Experts to Weigh In**
(10:42) works for edtech, take it. If you are a parent, take it. If you are neither, share the survey with somebody. Let's take a look at who they want to hear from. If you're on this list, you're the experts. They want to hear from teachers, central office, the UFT, school staff, parents, labor partners, school administrators, students, district leaders, community members,
**NYC Public Schools Seeking Input**
(11:12) parents, and researchers. New York City is officially asking everyone to weigh in on how AI should work in schools. This has never happened before where New York City public schools ask you to weigh in on something. I would not sleep on this. You guys are the experts. You should definitely weigh in on it. Let's talk about right now
**The Chancellor's AI Framework**
(11:41) what the chancellor is doing in New York City schools, because this is called a framework and I recommend anybody stealing this framework and using it because it's pretty good. I'm going to take a moment to let you read this quote from the chancellor. Take a second. Three questions every AI decision runs through: safety, rigor, and
**Safety, Rigor, and Cultural Responsiveness**
(12:12) cultural responsiveness. We're going to look at all three and how they translate to the business world for you. First of all, safety. Does the technology affect student data, their privacy, their well-being in your world? That's probably customer data, employee data, brand safety, having conversations. Question two is rigor.
**Rigor: Deepening or Replacing Thinking?**
(12:46) Are we using AI to deepen our thinking or to replace it? Everyone in this group, I want you to be honest with yourself and think, is your AI making your team think harder or less? That's the question everyone needs to ask themselves. And three, question three, cultural responsiveness. Will it reflect the people it's actually
**Cultural Responsiveness and Bias**
(13:13) serving? If your AI was trained on people who don't look like your customers, then you might have a problem even before you launch it. This three-question lens is the exact kind of framework that I help companies build. And for those who might have missed it, last week we had Idil Chuckham who's working with the Advertising
**Mitigating AI Bias**
(13:40) Research Federation and a couple of their execs talk about how AI's gender bias for instance, and I'll put the link to the recording in there, but these are also very timely issues, and it's great to see how all these sessions relate to each other because knowing what that bias is gives you a chance to mitigate it.
**Targeting Specific Students**
(14:09) Absolutely. I totally agree with you, David. Thank you. Now it's built around specific students: the fourth grader, the multilingual learner, and a student with a disability. These students are exactly who the AI is targeting right now. New York Reads is our reading program.
**DOE AI Timeline**
(14:38) New York Solves is our math agenda and future ready is our postsecondary readiness. This is a timeline of what the DOE launched. March 21st, 24th, they came out with the guidance. They're asking for feedback. We have two days to publicly comment. June, at the end of June, the AI playbook comes out. I don't know if anyone heard in the news
**AI School Plans Cancelled**
(15:08) recently, there was a school that they were trying to do next generation and a hundred people protested about it and they wanted an AI school for the New York City Department of Ed on the Upper West Side, but it got cancelled. They would not allow it because the playbook is not done. How could we have an AI school when we don't even have a comprehensive plan
**AI Traffic Light System**
(15:33) yet? The chancellor had to put it on a 2-year hold. Did anyone hear about that in the news recently? Now this is the traffic light for the classroom. Every potential AI gets a color. Green is go, yellow is slow down, red is stop. That's the whole system. If your company doesn't have a green or red AI list, use it. This is a great list.
**Green Light: Approved Uses**
(16:03) This is a compliance strategy. The green light is approved uses: brainstorming and planning, drafting, communications. Notice the pattern. It's very low stakes and a human reviews it. A human is involved. AI is like the intern and the teacher is still the boss with the green light. Marketing parallels for you might be the first draft of a social internal memos.
**Yellow Light: Oversight Required**
(16:33) Or research roundups. Next, we're going to go to the yellow light. The yellow light is oversight is required. It needs a human to check it. This is translation work for multi-language learners, spotting trends in student data, adapting materials for accessibility. In every one of those, AI does the lift
**Human in the Loop**
(16:59) and the trained human signs off before it touches a student. This is the model that your company could use, too. Having a human in the loop, not a buzzword. It's the thing that keeps our name, the school, out of the New York Post. Having a human check it before a student. The red light is where AI will never be used in schools. AI will never ever
**Red Light: Human Only Decisions**
(17:29) grade any assignments, make any discipline decisions. It will never read IEPs or 504 plans. It won't tell us if a student is eligible to graduate. Humans only, full stop. Same thing for your company. Hiring and firing, credit decisions, refunds. You should always have a human intervene with those. Before we go on talking
**Introducing Irma**
(18:00) about AI platforms, there's a four-letter word every AI vendor needs to know, and it's called Irma. Has anyone ever heard that term in this group before? >> I haven't met Irma yet. >> What's that? >> I haven't met Irma yet. >> No, you haven't heard of Irma. Irma stands for Enterprise Request
**Irma: NYC Privacy and Security Vetting**
(18:22) Management Application. It's a New York City privacy and security vetting process for any third-party software. It doesn't matter if the software is paid or free or donated, no exceptions. If you're building an AI tool, it has to be Irma approved. Every product has to be approved before one single teacher can use it in the classroom. It's not a
**Irma Approval Process**
(18:50) barrier. It's an opportunity for the New York City public schools to make sure everything is safe for their 1.1 million students. The vendors who understand Irma get their products approved. The ones that don't understand Irma, they never win the contract. Irma is school's official approval process for any third-party software that is to be used
**Submitting Software for Irma Approval**
(19:20) in the classroom. It's designed for principals, superintendents, and central executives. They're the ones that submit the request. I used to see a platform that I wanted to use and I would submit it to the Department of Ed and ask them if it could be Irma approved. They would have to vet the software and see whether or not it's compliant
**AI in a Child's School Day**
(19:46) and there's absolutely no exception. Let's take a look at what it looks like in a child's typical day at school. A green light for a sixth grader would be using a DOE approved chatbot to brainstorm for a book report. A new classmate comes in from France and they need to get something translated into French. The
**AI Examples: Green, Yellow, Red**
(20:15) bilingual paraprofessional would check it. That would be a yellow. The red would be an AI tool to write comments for a report card. That would never be allowed. Again, you would never be allowed to use AI for an IEP meeting. The teacher's word about your child's stay with your life doesn't get outsourced.
**Questions to Ask Your Child About AI**
(20:45) If you have a child in public school, these are some good questions to ask. Don't ask them in a car ride. Ask them one at a time. The key word here is if they're curious. Have you used AI at school lately? What was it like? Did the teacher show you how to use it or did you figure it out? How could you tell if what I told you was actually right?
**Kids Will Tell You Everything**
(21:16) Kids will tell you everything if you don't want to make it a trial. >> Can I just pause for a sec and ask you a broader question that I just talked to someone about yesterday here? Because I've seen mixed things out there in terms of if we look at Gen Alpha, your latest batch of students, and if you want to speak even a little bit more broadly
**Gen Alpha's View on AI**
(21:46) younger Gen Z that you've seen. I've definitely seen some backlash among the kids, just not wanting to use all the AI stuff, just kind of getting tired of some of the stuff that's being forced down their throats and them seeing some of the downsides of it. Obviously some embrace it for some different activities. I'm
**Enthusiastic and Skeptic**
(22:14) wondering if just from your recent classroom experience you see this generation being more AI enthusiastic or skeptic, or where you might generalize. >> I find them to be both enthusiastic and skeptic. Both of them, David. When I show them a video, very quickly hands will go up. That's AI. That's AI. They will know it's AI before
**Kids Spot AI Faster**
(22:43) I look at it. I'm like, "How did you figure that out so fast?" And they'll tell me, "Look at the background. Look at this. Look at their hands." Whatever. They are really amazing how they can point it out. They're also skeptic as well, and we'll talk about that later, where they're skeptic thinking that maybe one day they're
**Fear of AI Replacement**
(23:03) going to have an AI teacher, a robot in front of their classroom. Maybe AI is going to replace their jobs. They know that it's making people a little bit dumber, doing the thinking for them. It's probably both worlds, David. >> And I'm just so curious when they see that something is AI generated, does that mean they tend to
**Preference for Human Creation**
(23:30) like it less or are they >> Yeah, they definitely like it less that they know it wasn't human created. >> We'll move on. >> Holding both sides at once, the promise, the personalized support, the language access, teacher capacity, and creative exploration.
**Shaping the World: Promise and Concerns**
(23:54) This is what's shaping the world, the concerns. The last thing I want to tell you on May 8th, it's the last day for your voice to be heard. Take that survey. That's really important. I want to now talk a
**Ethical AI Use and Observation**
(24:22) little bit about my perspective of AI and what's going on in the classroom. I always tell my students, "AI won't replace you. The student who knows how to use AI will." It's really important for them to learn how to use it ethically. Three things that I've noticed, as I said, students can spot AI content
**Kids' Fear of AI and Job Replacement**
(24:58) better than I can. >> Videos, imaging, writing, the instinct, they're trained. A seventh grader, a fake video, they clock it in seconds. Two, they're afraid. The fear comes up in conversation. Will AI take my job, Miss Elias? From this world that we've built? They're fearful of
**Addressing AI Fear**
(25:23) the future. Sometimes they think the robots are going to take over the world. The last one is once the fear gets named, the question shifts: Will it replace me and how do I become the kid that knows how to use it? Everyone on this call should take note. The fear is real. Address it. Don't dismiss it. It's real. One thing I want to let everybody
**Lack of Tech Curriculum in NYC**
(25:58) know, New York City technology teachers do not get a curriculum. I do not walk into school in September and handed a book telling me what to teach. The same way an English teacher will receive written wisdom, a math teacher will receive their curriculum, science, social studies. We have zero curriculum. It is up to the tech teacher to write the curriculum. No textbook, no lesson
**Building My Own Curriculum**
(26:28) plan, no roadmap. I have to build it. Now every school is not like me. Yes, I want to pat myself on the back. I do work hard to research and to create my own content to bring out the best in my students, but that's not at every public school. I'm going to ask everybody when I start teaching an AI unit,
**Starting with The Jetsons**
(26:59) the very first thing I do is I talk about the Jetsons. >> Do you remember the Jetsons, everyone? >> Oh, love it. Think about it all the time. >> If you guys could open up your phone and go to menty.com >> and type in that code, menty.com. >> This is fun. I love Menti. I always want to do it. I put the code in the chat too for
**Jetsons' Predictions Activity**
(27:21) Thank you for putting on the screen. >> Thank you, David. I want you to predict what the Jetsons actually predicted. Excuse me. I want you to write down what the Jetsons actually predicted and what we have today. Type as many as you can think of. I'm seeing robots, vacuums. That's like a Roomba. Remote
**Modern Predictions from The Jetsons**
(27:47) classrooms. Yes. Zoom, flying sauces, flying cars, like robot servants, robotic dishwashers, video calls, time traveling, horrible bosses. That's a good one. FaceTime. Excellent. Digital news, flat screen TVs. Perfect. What I do before I start a lesson is I show them an episode from 1962, The Jetsons, and I tell them, "Guys, I"
**Comparing Jetsons to Today's Tech**
(28:22) used to watch this as a little girl. These products did not exist. My Apple Watch that I'm wearing right now, look at it on the Jetsons, that didn't exist. Zoom classes didn't exist. The Roomba didn't exist. Alexa didn't exist, and I talk about all these products and I talk about how it's amazing that we have them all today and then I lead into our AI platform.
**Teaching About AI Scams**
(28:53) After I start talking about all these AI inventions, I start off my AI unit talking about AI scams because I find that to be the most important one to start with and to teach the students about AI cloning, voice cloning. I have every single one of my students have a homework assignment where
**Family Code Word for Scams**
(29:26) they go home and they pick a code word that only their family knows. It's a password in case they ever get an urgent call from someone that said, "Oh, your mom's not picking you up today. I'm going to pick you up from baseball." Or you need to text X amount of money to us right now. When I have this conversation with my students, they are gut honest with me
**Impact of AI Voice Cloning**
(29:55) and they tell me about family members that have been scammed, grandparents that have been scammed. It's really important for parents to have a code word with their children because the extent of the cloning is just incredible of what is going on. I show them very impactful videos of adults that have been scammed and it's really earthshattering.
**Personal Concern About Voice Cloning**
(30:30) And >> yeah, >> and by the way, I mean ever since 11 Labs came out especially, I think about this all the time because I think about my mom who's fully sharp and with it and everything. I'm like, if my mom got a call from some AI pretending to be me,
**Vulnerability to AI Voice Cloning**
(30:51) would, as I hear my own voice in 11 Labs, would she think it's me? And I'm like, absolutely. I'd think it's her. >> Absolutely. >> Yeah. Why wouldn't we? It's just so easy with a few seconds. If there's a few seconds of our audio out there, anyone could
**AI Voice Cloning Dangers**
(31:10) take 10 seconds of the footage of you on this recording on TikTok and come up with an AI version of you that your students would swear is you, even the smartest ones. >> Absolutely, I agree with that. I'm going to show you a quick clip of a very smart man that was duped. I show it to my students. I put it in Google Classroom and I have them show it to
**Voice Cloning Scam Example**
(31:34) their parents. >> I was the intended victim of a scam using my son's voice and here's the story. I was on my way to work. My phone rang. It was my son. He was crying. He said, "Dad, I was in an accident. I hit another car being driven by a pregnant woman. My nose is broken. They arrested me. I'm in jail. They assigned a public defender to me. His name is Barry
**Son's Urgent Call**
(32:03) Goldstein. You need to call him. You have to get me out of here. Help me. I said, "Brett, I'll call him and I'll call you right back." He said, "You can't. They took my phone. Help me, Dad. I'm a father. I'm a lawyer. My son's in trouble. A pregnant woman was hurt. He's in jail. I'm in action mode. Before I could do anything, my phone rings again. It's Barry Goldstein. I just met with
**The Public Defender's Call**
(32:32) your son. He's hurt. He has a broken nose, but he'll be okay. He hit a car being driven by a pregnant woman. She was taken to the hospital. They arrested your son because he failed the breathalyzer test at the accident scene. I said, 'Wait, my son would never drink and drive.' He said Brett told him that, but he had an energy drink that morning and that may have caused
**Instructions to Bail Out Son**
(32:57) the failed test. He said I should take some steps if I wanted to bail my son out. I said, "Of course I want to do that." He said, "I'll give you the phone number for the courthouse, and here's your son's case number. You should call the courthouse and bail him out." I immediately call the courthouse. They answer correctly. I tell them why I'm
**$90,000 Bail Set**
(33:20) calling. They said, "What's your son's name?" They ask for the case number. They said, "Yes, your son's here. Bail was set at $90,000. You need to post 10%, $9,000, to bail him out. There's a problem." What's the problem? The county bail bondsman was away on a family emergency and he's not available. He said, "But there is a"
**Attorney's Bond Suggestion**
(33:46) solution there. You can post what they called an attorney's bond." I said, "I'm an attorney." He said, "Yes, but you haven't entered your appearance on behalf of your son. There's a Mr. Goldstein that did that. You should perhaps call him back and try to get him to post the attorney's bond." Hang up. I call Mr. Goldstein back. Mr. Goldstein, can you post the bond for my
**Wire Money to the Attorney**
(34:11) son? Yes. You need to wire me $9,000. He said, I'm a member of a credit union, so you need to take the cash to a certain kiosk, which will get the money to me, and I'm scheduled to leave for a conference in California. I'll be leaving to the airport in two hours. You need to move quickly. I learned later that that kiosk was a Bitcoin kiosk that would convert the
**Realization of the Scam**
(34:39) money to cryptocurrency. I hang up. All of these calls happened in two minutes. This is the first time I had a chance to think. I called my daughter-in-law and suggested that she call work and tell them that my son wasn't going to make it today because he was in an accident. A few minutes later, FaceTime call from my son. He's pointing to his nose. He goes,
**The Scam Revealed**
(35:03) "My nose is fine. I'm fine. You're being scammed." I sat there in my car. I was >> He continues his conversation. He's talking in front of Congress trying to get a bill to stop these AI scams. He was unsuccessful because they never got his money. But I feel these videos that are out there are very powerful for
**Irma Approved AI Websites**
(35:30) children to watch. After we learn about AI scams, I start teaching them the heart of AI with some Irma approved websites. One of them is Common Sense Media. >> All of these websites are K through 12 and free. They teach AI literacy. They're built for non- tech teachers, so they're pretty easy for
**Common Sense Media**
(36:03) people to use. As I said, they don't give teachers curriculum. We have to look online and find things to use. This is one of the best ones for teachers to use to teach their students in their classrooms. This would be a little video that I would show them on how AI works. >> We've heard a lot about AI recently, but what is it really? AI or artificial
**Explaining AI to Kids**
(36:32) intelligence is when we teach computers how to do things that usually require human intelligence, like identifying an object, understanding human speech and even talking. But how do you teach a computer to learn and think? It's like when you train a pet to do tricks. Think of AI as a robot dog that you're training to. Very children friendly and very easy for teachers
**Code.org for Dance Parties**
(37:00) to use Common Sense Media. The next one that I really love to use is Code.org. Another free website. I used to teach a lot of coding. I've stopped teaching as much coding because we know AI can create the code for you. But this one is really fun where the kids learn how to make a dance party. I'm going to quickly show you a little snippet.
**Creativity in Computer Science**
(37:36) Hi, my name is Muriel Codby and I'm a dancer, software developer, and creator of Illuminate. Computer science relates to creativity in numerous ways. Immeasurable. Once you have the ability to write software, you can put ideas into anything. I do it with light suits. There's so much you can do once you have the tools to write software.
**Coding a Dance Party**
(38:02) the possibilities are really endless. Over the next hour, you're going to get started with computer science and artificial intelligence by coding your own dance party. We've assembled some hip music and a team of great dancers for you to play with. You'll be using blocks of code to choose different dancers, change your dance moves, make them responsive to music,
**Google Applied Digital Skills**
(38:27) and make them interactive. The kids love this project. It usually takes me about two days with them, and they code an animal to really popular songs using block coding and using AI backgrounds. The next website that I use is called Google Applied Digital Skills. Irma approved. Free. I absolutely love this one. I'll give you a little
**Generative AI Basics**
(38:56) snippet. Five must knows to get started with generative AI. Lately, everyone's talking about artificial intelligence or AI and how it could change things. But, spoiler alert, at Google, AI is not that new at all. We first used it in 2001 when we launched our spellcheck system on Google search. Today, AI is in many Google products that billions of people already
**AI for Content Creation**
(39:20) use. Historically, AI was used to understand and recommend information. Now, generative AI can help us create new content such as images, music, and code, all with a simple prompt. As with anything new, it's important to understand the dos and don'ts. Very children friendly. Love Google Applied Digital Skills. One of the most important skills I like to
**How to Write a Prompt**
(39:48) teach my students is how to write a prompt. It's really important we use the five parts that help. When I'm teaching them how to write a prompt, I start with, "Pretend you're talking to AI and you're ordering food." I tell them, "You can't just say, "Give me food because you might get a piece of cold broccoli from AI." You need to be very,
**Prompt Specificity and Persona**
(40:18) very specific with what you want in your prompt. I use this with my sixth graders and I say, "Let's ask for something explicit." We want hot cheese, pizza, eight slices, and now we're talking. The next thing is your persona. Who are you? Tell AI who you are so it knows how to help you. I tell them to tell them about themselves,
**Defining Your Aim**
(40:50) how old they are, what grade they're in, what sports they like, and what crafts they're into. Their aim: what do you want it to do? Always start with an action verb and tell them what you need. For example, "I want to brainstorm for a cute pet name for our family pet." Anything that you want, I always tell them it should have a verb in the
**Recipient and Theme**
(41:17) action. Recipient. Who is it for? Tell the AI who's going to read it, hear it, or watch it. Then it's the theme. What is the vibe? How should the AI sound? Funny, spooky, hyped up. Maybe we're doing an English project and it should sound like Shakespeare. Maybe we're doing a technology project and it should
**Audience Structure and Format**
(41:44) be in the voice of Steve Jobs. We always want to tell the AI the vibe, who is our audience structure. What should it look like? Tell AI what format you want it into. Do you want it as a rap? Do you want it to look like a group chat with emojis? Then you put it all together: I am, tell them who you are, who you want, who it's for, what's the vibe,
**Prompt Writing Formula**
(42:15) and what's the structure. It really resonates with them. I've seen them really improve writing their prompts with this formula. Okay. Let me see. I'm a sixth grader who just got a new puppy. Help me come up with 10 funny names for my puppy. The names are for my family to pick from. Make them silly and goofy and put it in a number list with one funny
**Homework: Engage with AI**
(42:42) reason for each name. That would be a very similar lesson that I would teach my sixth graders. Now, four things that I would love for you to do this week. If you have somebody at home that you want to have a conversation with, use AI together with a child. Pick a
**Learn, Skepticize, and Question AI**
(43:09) small task, maybe a recipe, maybe plan a vacation together, or maybe a homework question, and have AI by your side. Have them learn from watching you rather than being told. Then ask them to find the wrong answer. Have them push AI until it says something is incorrect. It's the fastest way to teach healthy skepticism. Talk about what AI doesn't see. What
**Ask Your School About AI Use**
(43:47) voice is missing? Whose experience? AI is as broad as it's trained. Then also ask your school what they're using. You have a right to know what every school is using and you can ask how their data is being protected. >> This is fantastic. I love the different perspectives, the interactivity
**Inspiring Perspectives**
(44:15) thank you David. I think it's inspiring on a lot of different levels from your career pivots and your multiple hats, personal and professional, all of this.
**Teaching All of Us**
(44:39) trying to do our best. >> Yeah. You're doing more than that. My daughter was very fortunate to be in your final class, but I love how you're continuing to teach all of us. >> Thank you. >> I look forward to continuing to learn from you and just so you have the TikTok. Is that the
**Connect with Ms. Elias**
(45:04) best way for folks to stay in touch with you? >> Absolutely. Yes. And my website, misselias.com. msel.com. >> Amazing. We'll make sure to keep sharing that out. This has been chalk full of resource. Thanks to everyone for participating and sharing so many resources in your own
**Thank You and Teacher Appreciation**
(45:29) right and glad everyone could join us for this class today. >> Thank you so much for having me. >> Thank you so much, Sally. >> Fantastic. Great. >> Appreciate that. >> And it's Teacher Appreciation Week, so we happened to pick a really good week to do this.
**Closing Remarks**
(45:50) It's true. Yes. Thank you. >> Thanks everyone. See you soon. >> Bye bye everyone.
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**Welcome to AI Insiders**
(0:35) Everyone, I'm David Burkowitz with AI Marketers Guild, part of March. Welcome to another edition of AI Insiders. I found this guest through a rather unexpected path and a different approach than I usually have for sourcing guests because the inspiration came when I received an email that one of my daughter's favorite all-time teachers was stepping
**Introducing Ms. Elias**
(1:07) back from her role after decades in the city public education system, and Ms. Elias, as I've known her, it's a little bit weird to call you Janet, but I still have that issue with any of my daughter's teachers. So, Miss Elias was teaching my daughter technology in middle school here in Manhattan. She was wrapping up this wonderful and impactful
**AI Consulting and Education**
(1:40) career and then started to do some work in the AI consulting space. Being this incredible educator and deep in exploring technology from a lot of angles, it was like, sometimes I think getting that bigger lens of where AI fits in, not just with marketing specifically, but with how we learn,
**Welcome to AI Marketers Guild**
(2:08) with how we teach our children, with how this affects our lives. It's like, I've just got to go and see where this one goes. I hope a lot of you are really interested in this, too. So Miss Elias, Janet, welcome to AI Marketers Guild. >> Thank you so much. Thank you, David. And thank you to everyone in AI Marketers Guild for having me. I'm going to have
**Impostor Syndrome and Teaching Experience**
(2:33) to give a big shout out to your daughter because if it wasn't for Zella, I wouldn't be here. But thank you all so much. I feel a little nervous because you guys are real professionals and I'm just a little teacher and I feel like I have that impostor syndrome. Is that what we call it? I am here to tell you that I have spent the last 22 years teaching in
**AI in Classrooms: Future Employees and Customers**
(2:56) New York City public schools. I recently retired on March 1st. And I want to tell you what's actually happening with AI in the classrooms because the kids in those classrooms are about to be your employees, your customers, and your audience. I think you should probably know what they're up to. >> Absolutely. Yeah.
**Follow Me on TikTok**
(3:21) So, take a moment, take out your phones and go ahead and follow me on TikTok and maybe I will go ahead and give you a follow back. Take 10 seconds.
**TikTok First**
(3:37) I like that. I think you're the first guest and we've been doing this for a while. I think you're the first guest to lead with TikTok instead of LinkedIn. This is already something different.
**Learning on TikTok**
(3:45) I'm over LinkedIn. I've learned everything I need to know on TikTok lately. Everything. Go ahead and follow me. Now, >> and Daniel's already impressed with your engagement there. >> Thank you. So, I want to tell you a little bit about myself. I've been teaching public school technology only
**Career at Wagner Middle School**
(4:08) for over 22 years in the New York City public school system, and most recently at Wagner Middle School, what I say is the largest middle school in Manhattan. It's a term I coined. Every time I talk about Wagner, I'm so proud of the fact that I am teaching at the largest public school in Manhattan. Most recently, I just retired March 1st. Now, I started
**Never Too Late to Pivot**
(4:35) teaching at 40 years old. That was a second career for me. If anybody in this room is quietly thinking if it's too late to pivot, let me save you the suspense. It's never too late to pivot. I started teaching at 40 years old and it's my second career. >> Now, chapter one >> is I started teaching at 40 because I loved teaching my own children so much.
**Pursuing a Teaching Career**
(5:04) they would be at nursery school and I would literally be creating lesson plans for that when they came home from nursery school. I went back to school to CW Post, which was in my backyard, and I got my teaching degree. After I got my teaching degree, I knew I needed a master's. So I thought about do I want to do literacy or do I want to do technology and education? Back then we
**From Word Perfect to AI Consulting**
(5:30) were only doing Word Perfect on a computer. I love Word Perfect >> antiquated antiquated and I decided to go right into my masters for technology. That's chapter one, just retired. Chapter two: I just launched my own AI consulting where I'm helping the private sector understand AI and how to adopt it. I've also been consulting with schools and I'm writing
**Developing AI Curriculum**
(5:59) curriculum for them in order to teach AI for their students. Delis home. >> Yeah, it's an early day with math pass. We have some >> special guests that I was not expecting. >> That's what I miss about being in the classroom, the kids. But anyway,
**TikTok Creator and Teacher Advocate**
(6:21) yes, it's really tough missing the kids. Next, I am also a TikTok creator and a teacher advocate. I have a platform on TikTok and a lot of teachers reach out to me for advice. So, I started helping teachers land jobs at the New York City Department of Ed where they send me their resumes and I share it with contacts of people that I've met
**Advocating for Teachers**
(6:45) throughout my career. I love helping other teachers. I'm also advocating for teachers that are having a horrible time at their school. I had one school contact me in Queens and they had a horrible bathroom situation. Within making a video, within one day the bathroom was fixed for them. >> I enjoy doing that and helping people. I'm also a brand collaborator on
**Brand Collaborator and Car Wash Owner**
(7:10) TikTok and Instagram and I work with Target and CVS and Amazon. I'm wearing an Amazon shirt right now. I'll link it later. And other UGC content creation. One of my favorite projects is my husband and I own a car wash in Roslyn. My husband is a real estate developer. We own a car wash in Roslyn. Anybody show of hands know American car
**The Boutique Car Wash Experience**
(7:37) wash in Roslyn? It's located across from the Americana, across from Hermes and Louis Vuitton. >> Any Long Islanders in the room? All right. >> Any Long Islanders or all city slickers? It's a beautiful car wash. I tell everyone it is an experience. It's a boutique car wash with a beautiful curated gift shop and a
**Educational Toys and Grandmotherhood**
(7:59) toy store. The toys that I buy are all high-end and all educational because I never want parents to buy junk for their kids that end up in a junk drawer. You will not find any junk in my car wash. Last but not least, I am a mom of two adult children, Britney and Brandon, my pride and joy. My greatest joy is I've just become a grandmother to a beautiful
**A Full Life**
(8:26) granddaughter, Charlotte. She's just so gorgeous. I love her so much. She's 10 months old. I split my time between New York City, Manhasset, where I am today, and Watermill. That's a little bit about me. >> I love all the varied hats you're wearing. >> Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Let's jump right in.
**AI in Classrooms: Ahead of the Curve**
(8:53) Here is what I want to talk to you about. AI is already in our classrooms. It's been there a while, and the kids are way ahead of us. Today, I'm going to walk you through three things: what New York City just did, what's actually happening in the classrooms, and how to talk to a kid or honestly an employee about anything about AI. New York City schools just released
**NYC AI Guidelines Released**
(9:23) their AI guidelines. Parents can review them and weigh in on them before they're finalized. David, I'm going to put you on the spot. Did you know this? >> No. I thought I heard something about this, but I didn't know about this. >> A lot of people don't know about that. >> I'm glad that we're able to have this so people can know. On March
**Public Comment on AI Guidelines**
(9:47) 24th of this year, New York City public schools released their first AI guidelines for the largest district in the United States, a million students. The public comment closes on May 8th, 2 days from now. And what they want to know is what you think about their guidelines, their guidance, and if you want to make any tweaks to it. The kids in this guidance are about to be
**Take the NYC AI Survey**
(10:14) your future hires, your future customers, and your future audience. If you go on to this website, schools.nyc.gov, and you click on the AI link, anybody is able to take the survey. This is what it looks like when you click on it. It only takes 3 to five minutes. I really suggest everybody taking this survey. If you're a marketer who
**Experts to Weigh In**
(10:42) works for edtech, take it. If you are a parent, take it. If you are neither, share the survey with somebody. Let's take a look at who they want to hear from. If you're on this list, you're the experts. They want to hear from teachers, central office, the UFT, school staff, parents, labor partners, school administrators, students, district leaders, community members,
**NYC Public Schools Seeking Input**
(11:12) parents, and researchers. New York City is officially asking everyone to weigh in on how AI should work in schools. This has never happened before where New York City public schools ask you to weigh in on something. I would not sleep on this. You guys are the experts. You should definitely weigh in on it. Let's talk about right now
**The Chancellor's AI Framework**
(11:41) what the chancellor is doing in New York City schools, because this is called a framework and I recommend anybody stealing this framework and using it because it's pretty good. I'm going to take a moment to let you read this quote from the chancellor. Take a second. Three questions every AI decision runs through: safety, rigor, and
**Safety, Rigor, and Cultural Responsiveness**
(12:12) cultural responsiveness. We're going to look at all three and how they translate to the business world for you. First of all, safety. Does the technology affect student data, their privacy, their well-being in your world? That's probably customer data, employee data, brand safety, having conversations. Question two is rigor.
**Rigor: Deepening or Replacing Thinking?**
(12:46) Are we using AI to deepen our thinking or to replace it? Everyone in this group, I want you to be honest with yourself and think, is your AI making your team think harder or less? That's the question everyone needs to ask themselves. And three, question three, cultural responsiveness. Will it reflect the people it's actually
**Cultural Responsiveness and Bias**
(13:13) serving? If your AI was trained on people who don't look like your customers, then you might have a problem even before you launch it. This three-question lens is the exact kind of framework that I help companies build. And for those who might have missed it, last week we had Idil Chuckham who's working with the Advertising
**Mitigating AI Bias**
(13:40) Research Federation and a couple of their execs talk about how AI's gender bias for instance, and I'll put the link to the recording in there, but these are also very timely issues, and it's great to see how all these sessions relate to each other because knowing what that bias is gives you a chance to mitigate it.
**Targeting Specific Students**
(14:09) Absolutely. I totally agree with you, David. Thank you. Now it's built around specific students: the fourth grader, the multilingual learner, and a student with a disability. These students are exactly who the AI is targeting right now. New York Reads is our reading program.
**DOE AI Timeline**
(14:38) New York Solves is our math agenda and future ready is our postsecondary readiness. This is a timeline of what the DOE launched. March 21st, 24th, they came out with the guidance. They're asking for feedback. We have two days to publicly comment. June, at the end of June, the AI playbook comes out. I don't know if anyone heard in the news
**AI School Plans Cancelled**
(15:08) recently, there was a school that they were trying to do next generation and a hundred people protested about it and they wanted an AI school for the New York City Department of Ed on the Upper West Side, but it got cancelled. They would not allow it because the playbook is not done. How could we have an AI school when we don't even have a comprehensive plan
**AI Traffic Light System**
(15:33) yet? The chancellor had to put it on a 2-year hold. Did anyone hear about that in the news recently? Now this is the traffic light for the classroom. Every potential AI gets a color. Green is go, yellow is slow down, red is stop. That's the whole system. If your company doesn't have a green or red AI list, use it. This is a great list.
**Green Light: Approved Uses**
(16:03) This is a compliance strategy. The green light is approved uses: brainstorming and planning, drafting, communications. Notice the pattern. It's very low stakes and a human reviews it. A human is involved. AI is like the intern and the teacher is still the boss with the green light. Marketing parallels for you might be the first draft of a social internal memos.
**Yellow Light: Oversight Required**
(16:33) Or research roundups. Next, we're going to go to the yellow light. The yellow light is oversight is required. It needs a human to check it. This is translation work for multi-language learners, spotting trends in student data, adapting materials for accessibility. In every one of those, AI does the lift
**Human in the Loop**
(16:59) and the trained human signs off before it touches a student. This is the model that your company could use, too. Having a human in the loop, not a buzzword. It's the thing that keeps our name, the school, out of the New York Post. Having a human check it before a student. The red light is where AI will never be used in schools. AI will never ever
**Red Light: Human Only Decisions**
(17:29) grade any assignments, make any discipline decisions. It will never read IEPs or 504 plans. It won't tell us if a student is eligible to graduate. Humans only, full stop. Same thing for your company. Hiring and firing, credit decisions, refunds. You should always have a human intervene with those. Before we go on talking
**Introducing Irma**
(18:00) about AI platforms, there's a four-letter word every AI vendor needs to know, and it's called Irma. Has anyone ever heard that term in this group before? >> I haven't met Irma yet. >> What's that? >> I haven't met Irma yet. >> No, you haven't heard of Irma. Irma stands for Enterprise Request
**Irma: NYC Privacy and Security Vetting**
(18:22) Management Application. It's a New York City privacy and security vetting process for any third-party software. It doesn't matter if the software is paid or free or donated, no exceptions. If you're building an AI tool, it has to be Irma approved. Every product has to be approved before one single teacher can use it in the classroom. It's not a
**Irma Approval Process**
(18:50) barrier. It's an opportunity for the New York City public schools to make sure everything is safe for their 1.1 million students. The vendors who understand Irma get their products approved. The ones that don't understand Irma, they never win the contract. Irma is school's official approval process for any third-party software that is to be used
**Submitting Software for Irma Approval**
(19:20) in the classroom. It's designed for principals, superintendents, and central executives. They're the ones that submit the request. I used to see a platform that I wanted to use and I would submit it to the Department of Ed and ask them if it could be Irma approved. They would have to vet the software and see whether or not it's compliant
**AI in a Child's School Day**
(19:46) and there's absolutely no exception. Let's take a look at what it looks like in a child's typical day at school. A green light for a sixth grader would be using a DOE approved chatbot to brainstorm for a book report. A new classmate comes in from France and they need to get something translated into French. The
**AI Examples: Green, Yellow, Red**
(20:15) bilingual paraprofessional would check it. That would be a yellow. The red would be an AI tool to write comments for a report card. That would never be allowed. Again, you would never be allowed to use AI for an IEP meeting. The teacher's word about your child's stay with your life doesn't get outsourced.
**Questions to Ask Your Child About AI**
(20:45) If you have a child in public school, these are some good questions to ask. Don't ask them in a car ride. Ask them one at a time. The key word here is if they're curious. Have you used AI at school lately? What was it like? Did the teacher show you how to use it or did you figure it out? How could you tell if what I told you was actually right?
**Kids Will Tell You Everything**
(21:16) Kids will tell you everything if you don't want to make it a trial. >> Can I just pause for a sec and ask you a broader question that I just talked to someone about yesterday here? Because I've seen mixed things out there in terms of if we look at Gen Alpha, your latest batch of students, and if you want to speak even a little bit more broadly
**Gen Alpha's View on AI**
(21:46) younger Gen Z that you've seen. I've definitely seen some backlash among the kids, just not wanting to use all the AI stuff, just kind of getting tired of some of the stuff that's being forced down their throats and them seeing some of the downsides of it. Obviously some embrace it for some different activities. I'm
**Enthusiastic and Skeptic**
(22:14) wondering if just from your recent classroom experience you see this generation being more AI enthusiastic or skeptic, or where you might generalize. >> I find them to be both enthusiastic and skeptic. Both of them, David. When I show them a video, very quickly hands will go up. That's AI. That's AI. They will know it's AI before
**Kids Spot AI Faster**
(22:43) I look at it. I'm like, "How did you figure that out so fast?" And they'll tell me, "Look at the background. Look at this. Look at their hands." Whatever. They are really amazing how they can point it out. They're also skeptic as well, and we'll talk about that later, where they're skeptic thinking that maybe one day they're
**Fear of AI Replacement**
(23:03) going to have an AI teacher, a robot in front of their classroom. Maybe AI is going to replace their jobs. They know that it's making people a little bit dumber, doing the thinking for them. It's probably both worlds, David. >> And I'm just so curious when they see that something is AI generated, does that mean they tend to
**Preference for Human Creation**
(23:30) like it less or are they >> Yeah, they definitely like it less that they know it wasn't human created. >> We'll move on. >> Holding both sides at once, the promise, the personalized support, the language access, teacher capacity, and creative exploration.
**Shaping the World: Promise and Concerns**
(23:54) This is what's shaping the world, the concerns. The last thing I want to tell you on May 8th, it's the last day for your voice to be heard. Take that survey. That's really important. I want to now talk a
**Ethical AI Use and Observation**
(24:22) little bit about my perspective of AI and what's going on in the classroom. I always tell my students, "AI won't replace you. The student who knows how to use AI will." It's really important for them to learn how to use it ethically. Three things that I've noticed, as I said, students can spot AI content
**Kids' Fear of AI and Job Replacement**
(24:58) better than I can. >> Videos, imaging, writing, the instinct, they're trained. A seventh grader, a fake video, they clock it in seconds. Two, they're afraid. The fear comes up in conversation. Will AI take my job, Miss Elias? From this world that we've built? They're fearful of
**Addressing AI Fear**
(25:23) the future. Sometimes they think the robots are going to take over the world. The last one is once the fear gets named, the question shifts: Will it replace me and how do I become the kid that knows how to use it? Everyone on this call should take note. The fear is real. Address it. Don't dismiss it. It's real. One thing I want to let everybody
**Lack of Tech Curriculum in NYC**
(25:58) know, New York City technology teachers do not get a curriculum. I do not walk into school in September and handed a book telling me what to teach. The same way an English teacher will receive written wisdom, a math teacher will receive their curriculum, science, social studies. We have zero curriculum. It is up to the tech teacher to write the curriculum. No textbook, no lesson
**Building My Own Curriculum**
(26:28) plan, no roadmap. I have to build it. Now every school is not like me. Yes, I want to pat myself on the back. I do work hard to research and to create my own content to bring out the best in my students, but that's not at every public school. I'm going to ask everybody when I start teaching an AI unit,
**Starting with The Jetsons**
(26:59) the very first thing I do is I talk about the Jetsons. >> Do you remember the Jetsons, everyone? >> Oh, love it. Think about it all the time. >> If you guys could open up your phone and go to menty.com >> and type in that code, menty.com. >> This is fun. I love Menti. I always want to do it. I put the code in the chat too for
**Jetsons' Predictions Activity**
(27:21) Thank you for putting on the screen. >> Thank you, David. I want you to predict what the Jetsons actually predicted. Excuse me. I want you to write down what the Jetsons actually predicted and what we have today. Type as many as you can think of. I'm seeing robots, vacuums. That's like a Roomba. Remote
**Modern Predictions from The Jetsons**
(27:47) classrooms. Yes. Zoom, flying sauces, flying cars, like robot servants, robotic dishwashers, video calls, time traveling, horrible bosses. That's a good one. FaceTime. Excellent. Digital news, flat screen TVs. Perfect. What I do before I start a lesson is I show them an episode from 1962, The Jetsons, and I tell them, "Guys, I"
**Comparing Jetsons to Today's Tech**
(28:22) used to watch this as a little girl. These products did not exist. My Apple Watch that I'm wearing right now, look at it on the Jetsons, that didn't exist. Zoom classes didn't exist. The Roomba didn't exist. Alexa didn't exist, and I talk about all these products and I talk about how it's amazing that we have them all today and then I lead into our AI platform.
**Teaching About AI Scams**
(28:53) After I start talking about all these AI inventions, I start off my AI unit talking about AI scams because I find that to be the most important one to start with and to teach the students about AI cloning, voice cloning. I have every single one of my students have a homework assignment where
**Family Code Word for Scams**
(29:26) they go home and they pick a code word that only their family knows. It's a password in case they ever get an urgent call from someone that said, "Oh, your mom's not picking you up today. I'm going to pick you up from baseball." Or you need to text X amount of money to us right now. When I have this conversation with my students, they are gut honest with me
**Impact of AI Voice Cloning**
(29:55) and they tell me about family members that have been scammed, grandparents that have been scammed. It's really important for parents to have a code word with their children because the extent of the cloning is just incredible of what is going on. I show them very impactful videos of adults that have been scammed and it's really earthshattering.
**Personal Concern About Voice Cloning**
(30:30) And >> yeah, >> and by the way, I mean ever since 11 Labs came out especially, I think about this all the time because I think about my mom who's fully sharp and with it and everything. I'm like, if my mom got a call from some AI pretending to be me,
**Vulnerability to AI Voice Cloning**
(30:51) would, as I hear my own voice in 11 Labs, would she think it's me? And I'm like, absolutely. I'd think it's her. >> Absolutely. >> Yeah. Why wouldn't we? It's just so easy with a few seconds. If there's a few seconds of our audio out there, anyone could
**AI Voice Cloning Dangers**
(31:10) take 10 seconds of the footage of you on this recording on TikTok and come up with an AI version of you that your students would swear is you, even the smartest ones. >> Absolutely, I agree with that. I'm going to show you a quick clip of a very smart man that was duped. I show it to my students. I put it in Google Classroom and I have them show it to
**Voice Cloning Scam Example**
(31:34) their parents. >> I was the intended victim of a scam using my son's voice and here's the story. I was on my way to work. My phone rang. It was my son. He was crying. He said, "Dad, I was in an accident. I hit another car being driven by a pregnant woman. My nose is broken. They arrested me. I'm in jail. They assigned a public defender to me. His name is Barry
**Son's Urgent Call**
(32:03) Goldstein. You need to call him. You have to get me out of here. Help me. I said, "Brett, I'll call him and I'll call you right back." He said, "You can't. They took my phone. Help me, Dad. I'm a father. I'm a lawyer. My son's in trouble. A pregnant woman was hurt. He's in jail. I'm in action mode. Before I could do anything, my phone rings again. It's Barry Goldstein. I just met with
**The Public Defender's Call**
(32:32) your son. He's hurt. He has a broken nose, but he'll be okay. He hit a car being driven by a pregnant woman. She was taken to the hospital. They arrested your son because he failed the breathalyzer test at the accident scene. I said, 'Wait, my son would never drink and drive.' He said Brett told him that, but he had an energy drink that morning and that may have caused
**Instructions to Bail Out Son**
(32:57) the failed test. He said I should take some steps if I wanted to bail my son out. I said, "Of course I want to do that." He said, "I'll give you the phone number for the courthouse, and here's your son's case number. You should call the courthouse and bail him out." I immediately call the courthouse. They answer correctly. I tell them why I'm
**$90,000 Bail Set**
(33:20) calling. They said, "What's your son's name?" They ask for the case number. They said, "Yes, your son's here. Bail was set at $90,000. You need to post 10%, $9,000, to bail him out. There's a problem." What's the problem? The county bail bondsman was away on a family emergency and he's not available. He said, "But there is a"
**Attorney's Bond Suggestion**
(33:46) solution there. You can post what they called an attorney's bond." I said, "I'm an attorney." He said, "Yes, but you haven't entered your appearance on behalf of your son. There's a Mr. Goldstein that did that. You should perhaps call him back and try to get him to post the attorney's bond." Hang up. I call Mr. Goldstein back. Mr. Goldstein, can you post the bond for my
**Wire Money to the Attorney**
(34:11) son? Yes. You need to wire me $9,000. He said, I'm a member of a credit union, so you need to take the cash to a certain kiosk, which will get the money to me, and I'm scheduled to leave for a conference in California. I'll be leaving to the airport in two hours. You need to move quickly. I learned later that that kiosk was a Bitcoin kiosk that would convert the
**Realization of the Scam**
(34:39) money to cryptocurrency. I hang up. All of these calls happened in two minutes. This is the first time I had a chance to think. I called my daughter-in-law and suggested that she call work and tell them that my son wasn't going to make it today because he was in an accident. A few minutes later, FaceTime call from my son. He's pointing to his nose. He goes,
**The Scam Revealed**
(35:03) "My nose is fine. I'm fine. You're being scammed." I sat there in my car. I was >> He continues his conversation. He's talking in front of Congress trying to get a bill to stop these AI scams. He was unsuccessful because they never got his money. But I feel these videos that are out there are very powerful for
**Irma Approved AI Websites**
(35:30) children to watch. After we learn about AI scams, I start teaching them the heart of AI with some Irma approved websites. One of them is Common Sense Media. >> All of these websites are K through 12 and free. They teach AI literacy. They're built for non- tech teachers, so they're pretty easy for
**Common Sense Media**
(36:03) people to use. As I said, they don't give teachers curriculum. We have to look online and find things to use. This is one of the best ones for teachers to use to teach their students in their classrooms. This would be a little video that I would show them on how AI works. >> We've heard a lot about AI recently, but what is it really? AI or artificial
**Explaining AI to Kids**
(36:32) intelligence is when we teach computers how to do things that usually require human intelligence, like identifying an object, understanding human speech and even talking. But how do you teach a computer to learn and think? It's like when you train a pet to do tricks. Think of AI as a robot dog that you're training to. Very children friendly and very easy for teachers
**Code.org for Dance Parties**
(37:00) to use Common Sense Media. The next one that I really love to use is Code.org. Another free website. I used to teach a lot of coding. I've stopped teaching as much coding because we know AI can create the code for you. But this one is really fun where the kids learn how to make a dance party. I'm going to quickly show you a little snippet.
**Creativity in Computer Science**
(37:36) Hi, my name is Muriel Codby and I'm a dancer, software developer, and creator of Illuminate. Computer science relates to creativity in numerous ways. Immeasurable. Once you have the ability to write software, you can put ideas into anything. I do it with light suits. There's so much you can do once you have the tools to write software.
**Coding a Dance Party**
(38:02) the possibilities are really endless. Over the next hour, you're going to get started with computer science and artificial intelligence by coding your own dance party. We've assembled some hip music and a team of great dancers for you to play with. You'll be using blocks of code to choose different dancers, change your dance moves, make them responsive to music,
**Google Applied Digital Skills**
(38:27) and make them interactive. The kids love this project. It usually takes me about two days with them, and they code an animal to really popular songs using block coding and using AI backgrounds. The next website that I use is called Google Applied Digital Skills. Irma approved. Free. I absolutely love this one. I'll give you a little
**Generative AI Basics**
(38:56) snippet. Five must knows to get started with generative AI. Lately, everyone's talking about artificial intelligence or AI and how it could change things. But, spoiler alert, at Google, AI is not that new at all. We first used it in 2001 when we launched our spellcheck system on Google search. Today, AI is in many Google products that billions of people already
**AI for Content Creation**
(39:20) use. Historically, AI was used to understand and recommend information. Now, generative AI can help us create new content such as images, music, and code, all with a simple prompt. As with anything new, it's important to understand the dos and don'ts. Very children friendly. Love Google Applied Digital Skills. One of the most important skills I like to
**How to Write a Prompt**
(39:48) teach my students is how to write a prompt. It's really important we use the five parts that help. When I'm teaching them how to write a prompt, I start with, "Pretend you're talking to AI and you're ordering food." I tell them, "You can't just say, "Give me food because you might get a piece of cold broccoli from AI." You need to be very,
**Prompt Specificity and Persona**
(40:18) very specific with what you want in your prompt. I use this with my sixth graders and I say, "Let's ask for something explicit." We want hot cheese, pizza, eight slices, and now we're talking. The next thing is your persona. Who are you? Tell AI who you are so it knows how to help you. I tell them to tell them about themselves,
**Defining Your Aim**
(40:50) how old they are, what grade they're in, what sports they like, and what crafts they're into. Their aim: what do you want it to do? Always start with an action verb and tell them what you need. For example, "I want to brainstorm for a cute pet name for our family pet." Anything that you want, I always tell them it should have a verb in the
**Recipient and Theme**
(41:17) action. Recipient. Who is it for? Tell the AI who's going to read it, hear it, or watch it. Then it's the theme. What is the vibe? How should the AI sound? Funny, spooky, hyped up. Maybe we're doing an English project and it should sound like Shakespeare. Maybe we're doing a technology project and it should
**Audience Structure and Format**
(41:44) be in the voice of Steve Jobs. We always want to tell the AI the vibe, who is our audience structure. What should it look like? Tell AI what format you want it into. Do you want it as a rap? Do you want it to look like a group chat with emojis? Then you put it all together: I am, tell them who you are, who you want, who it's for, what's the vibe,
**Prompt Writing Formula**
(42:15) and what's the structure. It really resonates with them. I've seen them really improve writing their prompts with this formula. Okay. Let me see. I'm a sixth grader who just got a new puppy. Help me come up with 10 funny names for my puppy. The names are for my family to pick from. Make them silly and goofy and put it in a number list with one funny
**Homework: Engage with AI**
(42:42) reason for each name. That would be a very similar lesson that I would teach my sixth graders. Now, four things that I would love for you to do this week. If you have somebody at home that you want to have a conversation with, use AI together with a child. Pick a
**Learn, Skepticize, and Question AI**
(43:09) small task, maybe a recipe, maybe plan a vacation together, or maybe a homework question, and have AI by your side. Have them learn from watching you rather than being told. Then ask them to find the wrong answer. Have them push AI until it says something is incorrect. It's the fastest way to teach healthy skepticism. Talk about what AI doesn't see. What
**Ask Your School About AI Use**
(43:47) voice is missing? Whose experience? AI is as broad as it's trained. Then also ask your school what they're using. You have a right to know what every school is using and you can ask how their data is being protected. >> This is fantastic. I love the different perspectives, the interactivity
**Inspiring Perspectives**
(44:15) thank you David. I think it's inspiring on a lot of different levels from your career pivots and your multiple hats, personal and professional, all of this.
**Teaching All of Us**
(44:39) trying to do our best. >> Yeah. You're doing more than that. My daughter was very fortunate to be in your final class, but I love how you're continuing to teach all of us. >> Thank you. >> I look forward to continuing to learn from you and just so you have the TikTok. Is that the
**Connect with Ms. Elias**
(45:04) best way for folks to stay in touch with you? >> Absolutely. Yes. And my website, misselias.com. msel.com. >> Amazing. We'll make sure to keep sharing that out. This has been chalk full of resource. Thanks to everyone for participating and sharing so many resources in your own
**Thank You and Teacher Appreciation**
(45:29) right and glad everyone could join us for this class today. >> Thank you so much for having me. >> Thank you so much, Sally. >> Fantastic. Great. >> Appreciate that. >> And it's Teacher Appreciation Week, so we happened to pick a really good week to do this.
**Closing Remarks**
(45:50) It's true. Yes. Thank you. >> Thanks everyone. See you soon. >> Bye bye everyone.