I was making such progress on my new book, AI Literacy in Any Class.

The premise: AI literacy shouldn’t be a separate class — or just taught by the tech teacher. It can be taught by any teacher in just about any grade level or content area — and it can be done with teeny tiny shifts to teaching they’re already doing. (Plus, it can even strengthen their teaching of their core curriculum.)

In December, my manuscript was complete. It was time for me to revise and refine.

Then the winter break and holidays happened. And then I was traveling and presenting more than usual in January. (Funny how traveling to speak AND teaching high school Spanish AND writing these newsletters AND being a dad takes a lot of time!)

The TCEA Conference (that I just returned from) is over, and that marks the end of my busy travel season. It’s time to get this book finished!

I’m doing my own AI-assisted editing (more about that on another day), and I’m getting close. The good news: The more I re-read it to edit it, the more excited I am about this book!

I’m hopeful that editing will be done sometime in the next week or two — and the book will be available to purchase sometime in March.

I’ll keep you updated here on my progress — and let you know when it’s available!

📚 New AI resources this week

1️⃣ Paper isn’t the villain, but technology isn’t either (via Ditch That Textbook on Facebook) — This reel, from one of my presentations at the FETC Conference, shares how “tech vs. paper” is the wrong battle to wage.

2️⃣ Despite Platform Fatigue, Educators Use AI to Bridge Resource Gaps (via eSchool News) — A new report reveals that while 65% of educators are using AI to combat burnout and budget cuts, "platform fatigue" remains a major hurdle for district-wide implementation.

3️⃣ Minnesota School District Pilots AI and Cameras for Teacher Evaluation (via GovTech) — Southwest Metro Intermediate District 288 is testing an AI-powered system that analyzes lesson recordings to provide administrators with faster, rubric-aligned feedback for coaching.

Last week’s poll: What do you think: do AI's risks outweigh the benefits?

🟨⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️ Agree (risks dominate) (4)
🟨🟨🟨⬜️⬜️⬜️ Disagree (benefits dominate) (13)
🟨🟨⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️ Rich are getting richer, poor are getting poorer (9)
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 It's too early to call (21)
⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️ Other ... (3)

Other: AI is a lot like the automobile. It is going to bring a lot of good and some dangers at the same time. It is not an "either or," it is an "and." Cars have shaped the way we live our lives, the way towns/neighborhoods are built, our ability to travel, etc. Many of these aspects would generally be considered positive. At the same time, we now have more car crashes, more pollution, etc. With this in mind, we didn't stop building cars but instead invented seatbelts and traffic lights. The challenge with AI isn't deciding whether to use it but how quickly we can build the social and legal 'brakes' to keep up with its engine. — A. Mayszak

Other: When guided intentionally, tools like Snorkl, Class Companion, SchoolAI, and MagicSchool can offer valuable, real-time feedback that helps students grow. Still, unlimited access to AI requires care. There’s a clear distinction between using AI to support learning and using it to substitute for thinking. AI can help connect the dots, but it's vital students develop the dots (foundational understanding) initially. — K. McCoy

It’s too early to call: I believe it’s too early to call, but at this point right now for me as an Elementary School principal, I see it as a benefit. But speaking as this, I don’t have as many students utilizing or abusing AI. I use it for good to help my own practice and to better support my teachers, but it is still early. — M. Geoghegan

Agree (risks dominate): The environmental impact that AI data centers is something that needs to be direly examined. Communities with data centers are dealing with fresh water depletion, absorbed energy costs and health issues caused by pollution. AI has great benefits but at what cost? — D. Duran

What’s a topic you’d like to see covered here? Hit REPLY to this email and let me know.

Have you done anything you’d like to share with the AI for Admins community? Hit REPLY and let me know.

Would you like to write a guest post to support and equip AI for Admins readers? Hit REPLY and let me know.

🗳 Poll: AI transition challenges

Instructions:

🎨 Will AI kill our students’ creativity?

A few weeks ago, I did a keynote and workshop about the place of AI in education at a school in Texas.

Colin, a fine arts teacher, emailed me with a question that’s a concern for lots of educators (whether we teach in the arts or not) …

He wrote: When AI supplants the process of creating infographics or songs or podcasts, are we not missing out on a chance to train students in thinking creatively?

In the workshop, I had demonstrated how to use NotebookLM to create teaching materials like infographics and podcasts (and how Google has given student access to it, too) — and how you can generate curriculum-based songs with Suno.

It’s a very fair question — and one place where we need to be really, really careful in education. (For readers of this newsletter like you, this is a focus we need to be aware of as we make decisions.)

He added some context: My background is fine arts education. I've spent the last 25 years trying to build the capacity for creativity in my students. We write poems and short stories and songs and stage plays. We read and interpret art on and off stage. I love it because it truly challenges students on the highest level of Thinking. It fosters flexibility and empathy. Most of all, art and music and theatre (to use an AI term) prompt creativity!

I have to say that Colin is not alone here. (And you probably know this, too.)

As I’ve traveled to schools all over the U.S. over the past three years to talk about AI in education, I’ve met so many of them …

AI is an existential threat to everything that they love about teaching.

And as you can see, it’s not because they’re “clutching their pearls” and desperately hanging on to old, obsolete practices. All of this still develops important timeless skills in students that (I believe) will serve them in the future.

So, what Colin is asking is really what all of these teachers are asking, too.

Because Colin asked about fine arts, I want to look at this through the lens of fine arts — because, honestly, it’s a fantastic comparison to what we’re going through right now.

(Brace yourself: This is the Spanish teacher trying to talk about teaching art. I’m not qualified for this, but I’ll do my best!)

In some ways, you can compare this to a potter’s wheel. It’s an innovation that transformed how artists created pottery.

It’s an illustration that technology can do as little — or as much — as we want it to. It’s up to us to decide.

And when it comes to creativity — much like education …

So, can AI supplant creativity? Here’s what I wrote to Colin …

Yes, absolutely ... if we aren't careful.

I believe that AI use exists on a spectrum, and it's up to us as humans (as teachers AND to help our students, too) to identify where to fall on the spectrum. I'm going to make a little graphic (on Google Slides, not with NotebookLM ha!) to demonstrate ...

(Just a couple quick examples off the top of my head ... we could think about this much more and get better and more nuanced examples I'm sure!)

I think the key is to use AI to fill the space that we don't (won't) (cannot) fill as humans ... and it has to be a conscious decision by us. At some point it crosses over from an aid/support and completely does the work for us.

Some of that comes down to instructional design ... how we set up the lesson and the activity to get students to succeed. They might not (ok, likely do not) know how AI can support their work instead of doing it for them -- and the benefits of doing it themselves. (It also has to be work that matters to them that they want to do a good job on ...)

Below, you'll see an image I took of my daughter and I on a run. I did a quick whiteboard sketch of the two of us standing in front of the eiffel tower. I uploaded both images to Gemini and said, take the two of us, use the framework in the sketch, and put us in front of the Eiffel Tower as an impressionist watercolor (I think that's the style I requested).

It did take effort and creativity from me ... but Gemini did some of the work.

The question is ... how much of the heavy creative lifting do you want AI to do for you?

(Someone said using too much AI was like having a forklift do your weight lifting / bench press for you ...)

I can’t remember who came up with that forklift weight lifting analogy, but I love it — and think it’s very fitting!

We know that AI technology will continue to improve.

We know that companies will continue to develop new AI-powered or AI-assisted apps (for the K-12 space AND for the general public that will be used in schools).

We know that AI will transform the workforce, eliminating some jobs, changing some jobs, creating some jobs.

We know that AI can support students in their learning (and the tasks that they do to show their learning) — but it can also do the work for them that causes them to learn.

So, how do we proceed? Two things …

First: We encourage teachers to focus on instructional design. (Or if that term will sound too academic and complicated … focus on how they plan lessons.)

Second: We make decisions as leaders based on what causes learning to happen in our students.

Leaders (or admins, by the name of this newsletter) are already making lots of decisions around AI in schools and classrooms now — and you’ll have to make more in the future.

And when I say decisions, it’s not just “which AI platform should we buy?”

They’re decisions like …

Since we were talking about fine arts …

When I started teaching in the early 2000’s, there was a new phenomenon that was sweeping the art world: Photoshop.

(Forgive me if my timeline is a bit off. Remember, Spanish teacher here trying to talk about art!)

At my school, my friend Chuck, the art teacher, was embracing it. He saw it as a way for some students to develop new skills and express themselves through a new medium — digital art.

Art teachers at other schools undoubtedly pushed back — for some of the same reasons that there’s pushback around AI now.

I’m trying to remember conversations with him from the past, but I do remember that he was able to reach certain students in new ways with this new technology.

In my mind, AI is like this in some ways. It can open up new skillsets and inspire students to do more, learn differently, and open up new possibilities.

But in some ways, AI is NOTHING like this.

With Photoshop, those students still had to do lots of the work themselves. They needed creative inspiration — and they needed to do the work to bring that inspiration to reality.

With AI, there’s always that temptation to let AI do it for you. The temptation is fierce — especially when creativity is hard work.

That’s why design matters. When students see it being used in the right way — and their humanity preserved — it starts to shift the culture and help them to see how to handle their business the right way.