Campus Technology Insider Podcast November 2024
Listen: Technology and What Makes Us Human
Rhea Kelly 00:00
Hello and welcome to the Campus Technology Insider podcast. I'm Rhea Kelly, editor in chief of Campus Technology, and your host.
What makes us human? That is the question that kicked off our 2024 Tech Tactics in Education conference this fall, posed by our keynote speaker Eric Rodriguez. As a technology leader and former education regional director at Intel, Eric explored the relationship between technology and empathy in his talk titled "Humanizing Technology: The Path to Future-Ready Education." For this episode of the podcast, we're presenting the recording of his keynote. I'll let Eric take it away from here.
Eric Rodriguez 00:52
Hey everyone, good morning, good afternoon, good evening. I am very excited to be with all of you today. My name is Eric, my name is Eric J. Rodriguez. I'm joining you from a wonderful studio in Scottsdale, Arizona, in the Cicospace studio. Thank you again for opportunity to be with all of you today. I'm very excited for a day full of learning and inspiration and connection between everyone. I'm very excited today because today is also marking, actually, we're about to celebrate the 41-year anniversary from this particular event that really refined what it was to be human, right? Not too long ago, 41 years ago, tomorrow, September 26, 1983, Stanislav Petrov was a leader for the Soviet Union. And his role at that time was that he was in charge of the early warning system for nuclear warheads that were coming to hit the Soviet Union. And so his job was basically going into a room probably no bigger than the studio I'm in today, with several of other soldiers that were serving the Soviet Union at that moment. And the role was basically to notify and notice if there was a missile being launched around the, around the Earth, about to hit the Soviet Union. So for weeks, for months, he had just gone and done his job and nothing had happened. But September 26, 1983, he goes into his night shift at that moment, and a few hours after he starts his shift, his, his division gets an alert. The computer system indicates that a missile has been launched from the United States and will be hitting the Soviet Union in the next 15 minutes. And of course, himself and everyone else in that room at that moment, not only they start to panic, but they start looking at him for his leadership, and say, Hey, you're the one that's in charge here. You have less than a few more minutes to notify the superiors of what's about to happen. But Petrov does something very different that moment. He recognizes what the technology is telling them, but he just takes a step back and says, You know what? There's something wrong here. There's something wrong that even though this computer system is telling me a missile is about to, has been launched and is about to hit my country and hit my family and destroy my community, something is wrong. And so he takes a pause, and while everyone else is yelling at him, saying, Hey, notify, you know exactly what you need to do. Why are you not doing what you need to do? He just takes a minute. So a few minutes pass, and he's thinking this through. He's starting to reflect on about what the major decision he needs to do as a leader, and what decision he needs to make, and implications of that decision. As he's thinking these decisions through, a few minutes later, he gets four other notifications. There's been four more missiles launched from the United States and about to hit the Soviet Union, also in the next 15 minutes. And so you could just imagine that room, imagine everyone looking at him, the amount of pressure that was put on this, on this man, 41 years ago. And of course, again, he takes a moment and says, You know what? I understand this technology is telling me what is happening, but I feel the reality is something different. His gut, his human intuition, is telling him to do something different. He starts to question himself and say, You know what, if I make this decision on notifying my superiors, I could start World War III. If my decision, if there's actually missiles being launched, then at the end of the day, we'll be the only ones destroyed, and we have, we'll have not destroyed the world. If the missiles have not been launched, and my intuition is right, then I possibly save the world. What he decides to do for the next few minutes is not make that call. And you could just imagine the room, the tense room, and at that time, right for the next few minutes, and just them thinking, we're going to die. My family's going to die. And he starts thinking about the person that he had just married as well. And he starts thinking about all the implications about the decision he had just made. But he's also very hopeful about his human intuition. It so happens when those first 15 minutes lapse, nothing happened. A missile did not hit the Soviet Union. A few minutes later, the other four alerts also disappear, and nothing had happened. You see, what had happened that morning was that the United States had a low cloud during sunrise. The clouds were very low during sunrise, and so the satellite that the Soviets had at that moment in time did not, was not programmed to detect that anomaly. And so when it, when it saw that image, it showed an image of basically like a rocket being launched. And so it made that determination based on the programming conditions that that satellite had, and it created the right, the proper alerts for the leaders at the moment in time. Of course, the story does not come to light on September 27, 1983. It comes to light actually two decades later, right? Because you could just imagine at that moment in time, someone not following the instructions of what a computer system and all the processes that were put in place of what they had to do. You could just imagine the amount of pushback and the reputation he had built inside of that military space as someone that could actually deny what he was supposed to be doing. He was interviewed later in the 2000s because the story comes to life later on, and they asked him about this moment, and he actually remembers it very differently. Today, we remember that moment as the moment of the person that saved the world in 1983. But he remembers the next 20 years of his life being very depressed because of what had happened as well, right? He understands he saved the world, and he's very happy for that, but how he was treated for the next 21 years were very upsetting for him as well. But I share that story with all of you today, because today and we're in this midst of this intersection of technology and humanity, we've always had this conversation, And 41 years ago, Petrov was an example of how our human tuition, even though this world is becoming technologically and digitally more prevalent around us, our ability to be human today is greater and needed more than ever. And so that's what I'm very excited to talk to you a little bit more about today, about this work that we've been working on, right? About humanizing technology. That even though technology today, again, thanks to Moore's Law, and we'll talk about the pace of change, is again prevalent, and it's just normalized around us, our ability to engage our students and engage the next generation and engage our fellow colleagues in the education sector is more of a human experience more than ever. And so that is the path that we could build for a future, future-ready education, which is a more human-centric education system. And again, I'm so privileged to be with all of you today because I know that I stand on the shoulders of giant teachers. I know I stand on the shoulders of giant educators and of individuals that brought to life a very unique education experience in my life and inspired me to become an engineer and today to do what I get to do as a keynote speaker around the country. With that said, I've been on a mission, and my mission has been on really finding that intersection of technology and the human experience. I love this picture that I'm sharing with all of you today, because this was actually taken about 10 years ago in Swaziland, and we had to do this project on bringing, bringing technology to rural communities. And if you would have seen, you know, this room right before this picture was taken, I'll move back just so you could see it a little bit more. You know, this picture was taken, you could see me right there, probably in the back, right before the moment that this picture was taken, I was literally right there in the front teaching the students how to use this laptop. And as soon as the photographer gets in front of us, I get pushed out, and my little arm is still in there trying to reach out to the laptop. But I love this picture because you could see the enthusiasm of the students to not only be part of what technology can mean for their lives, but also for their community. The technology we implemented was not in a community had internet, was not in a community had actually several basic services that sometimes in certain countries where we have normalized. But we knew what we were bringing to the community, and at that time, because I was working at Intel, it gave me an opportunity to understand the implications of what technology could have in communities as well. And so we made sure that we brought not only the proper technology, but also the right content for the students while we were there to help the teachers and the educators. And so it was in that moment that I started realizing, too, that it's not just how technology is impacting me in my life and the communities around me, but where technology could take other communities as well. And this became the first of multiple schools that the country started to implement this type of infrastructure because of the work we started late 10 years ago. And so that's what started basically my mission that I'm on today. But today, I want to have a conversation with all of you, right? I started this conversation with not only a story of Petrov, but his human intuition of the impact that that technology could have. But even today, when we're starting to bring technology to all of our classrooms and understand the implications of technology could have in our education systems, I want to ground us though first. I want to ask all of you what it is to be human. In this world of becoming much more digitized, in your opinion, what is making, what makes us human? All right, folks are starting coming in. So you have heart, brain, choice, the choices we make. I love that, right? We learned that from Petrov's story. Emotion, heart, compassion. I love that. Empathy, fear, relationships, reasoning, curiosity. I love that. Rationalization. These are great. And by the way, we'll keep having them come in, because I love this. And at the end of this presentation, I'll make sure what is sent out to everyone is not only this entire deck, but also these slides as well, with all your answers. These are great. Biology.
11:02
Future. Our intellectual, I lost that one, our intellectual ability, support, soul. Oh yeah. I love this. Thought, emotion, morals. These are all fantastic, right? And so when we talk about what it is to be human today, right, and we talk about the intersection of technology, the question is, where does technology play in all of this, or does it? Right? Or if technology is here to play a particular role in the work that we get to do, how do we make sure as educators and as leaders in our communities, we're still making sure this comes front and center, right? Our empathy, our emotion, our leading with compassion, our building relationships with students and our fellow colleagues in the education sector. And so that would be my encouragement too, is to always remember what makes us human today, because that will never change. Right? If I would have asked this question during Petrov's time, my guess is more than likely, the majority of the answers will be very similar. If I would ask this question before ChatGPT became a thing, the answers probably would have been very similar as well, right? And so I encourage you to think from that perspective too, is that what makes us human today is what's always made us human, and the role of technology could play is to also, certain extent, expand what it is to be more compassionate, empathetic, share our emotions and build relationships. So when we talk about the ability to be human today and the role technology gets to play, my story actually started in the seventh grade. If you're here joining us as an IT professional, if you're here joining us as an educator in the computer science space, I stand on your shoulders today. It so happens that when, I was born and raised in Houston, Texas, so I'm a Gulf Coast boy. And at the age of 11 years old, we moved to Ecuador in South America. My family is an Ecuadorian family, and we had an opportunity to move there for the next few years. And so, of course, as an American student walking into an Ecuador classroom, of course, there was already this, this announcement that an American student was walking into a classroom in this elementary school. And of course, I hear that there's like this level of excitement for me to go and walk in and be this American student coming into this Ecuadorian classroom. And of course, when I walk in, they're shocked, right? Because they were imagining a Ken doll walking in, a blonde, blue-eyed kid, and what they see is me, right? And there's nothing wrong with me, absolutely. But it was just not their expectations, right? They were expecting that stereotypical, what they thought that moment in time, what an American student was like. And I walk in and they're like, yeah, man, you look just like us. Like, what's up with that? And I remember that moment because I started feeling also out of place. As an, as a person that was, that was a first generation in the United States, I didn't feel very necessarily how I was fitting in in Texas, and then I moved to Ecuador as a child of Ecuadorian parents, and I also didn't feel like I was fitting in. And it so happens that in the seventh grade, our school opens up its very first computer lab. And it had this thing called the internet, and it was a big deal, and our classroom was the very first one to walk in. When I walked into that classroom, I remember vividly, it was, it was a room of around 20, 25 computers, and it was around 60 of us walking into our classroom, so we had to share it. And I remember pulling up the chair, sitting down there and just logging in, and realizing that the world was getting much flatter. That my ability to connect with another human being around the, around the world was much easier today because of this technology. And it was those moments of, of intersecting with technology that became an inspiration for me to become an engineer. And I could just imagine the amount of work that it took in 1995 to bring technology to communities in South America, to bring the internet to communities in South America, to bring multiple desktop computers to a classroom in South America. And so the work that you get to do today in your schools, in your communities, in your district, is that you are opening the eyes and hearts for so many students. And I just want to thank you for that too, because I would not be here if it was not for the work that all of you get to do every single day and bring this work to life for students. But it was in this experience that I had an opportunity to not only understand the world was getting flatter, but understand that the world wasn't defined by where it was coming from. It was defined on where we were going, and that the future was becoming not only digitized, but gave us an opportunity to lower those barriers of entry into different communities because of technology, because of the internet, and because of computing. And so that was my inspiration for many years and the work that I get to do. But the reality is that we are in a brand new pace of change. The pace of change that we are today is exponential. If I were to tell you that, you know, receiving this computer lab in the 1990s in Ecuador, I remember there was a saying that we used to say, yeah, we're just two years behind the United States. Like in two years, everything United States has, we will have in our communities, we will have in our schools. But guess what? Two years in the 1990s, being behind two years in the 1990s is very different than being two years behind in the 2020s — and COVID was an example of that. When we went through COVID and most of our communities went hybrid or full remote in our education systems, we really got to see the discrepancies of what it was to be just a few months behind technology-wise. And I think that's also highlighting how big these gaps are, but also the rapid pace of change that we're in today. Sterling Hawkins, the author of Hunting Discomfort, has this really interesting saying that I've adopted into my talks as well, and that's that the slowest rate of change you will ever feel is actually today. It will only get faster from here on out. And that is thanks to technology that not only Intel was doing, that, or Intel does today, but companies like Nvidia, AMD, and all these other tech companies are leading across the way. And that's because we're now in this exponential era of change. And when these gaps become much bigger, these questions sometimes become bigger than the answers that we have. And I understand that that creates a certain sense of uncertainty as well, but that's where I think educators thrive. You see, when we have bigger questions than the answers that we could, that we have for these challenges, it also creates a very unique and massive opportunity for us to engage. If we had all the answers to all the questions that we have in our education systems or in our communities, we wouldn't be doing the work that we're doing today. We wouldn't be engaging the students how we're engaging with them today. So I would argue that this rapid pace of change that we're living in today actually is creating greater opportunities for our education systems, for our communities, and for our students as well. And I realize that the pace of change also creates a lot of uncertainty. With that said, one of the first examples that I saw this rapid pace of change was actually my very first job. You see, I was inspired to become an engineer in Ecuador, and we went back to Houston several years later, I pursued my engineering degree in Houston. And if you know anything about Houston, if you pursued an engineering degree in the 90s or early 2000s, you're joining the oil and gas sector, right? And my very first job was actually in a refinery. And my job was as an automation engineer, which basically meant I had to bring all these computer systems, all these instrumentation systems, and basically predict or help these machines do the work that humans had to do maybe 10, 20, or 30 years ago, right? Because now we have instrumentation and technology that was, that was much more predictable, much more safer, much more efficient, and I could do this work, right, and it would create safer jobs for others. And I remember doing this PM with one of our, with one of our operators one day, and we went out to the field, and I was just having a conversation with them, and asked them, said, Steve, how many people used to operate this side of the refinery just a few years ago? He said, Eric, you know, when I started, we used to have 20 operators on this side of the refinery, and today we only have six. And I remember looking at him and asking, was like, What happened to the other 14? And he said, Well, they either got displaced, or they had to change jobs, or they left the company, or they had to learn some new skills. But you could see the sense of distraught because he found a lot of pride in the work that he got to do, but he's starting seeing technology starting to take over this work as well. And it was in that moment that I realized that my job as an automation engineer, even though I was making jobs safer, more efficient, I was also disrupting work. I was changing how the industrial model of work was already in place, probably for the last few decades. But don't get me wrong, I'd rather work in a refinery today in 2020s than in the 1980s, because of technology, right? It's because of technology we were able to bring these energy systems to not only our communities in our country, but all over the world as well. But I understand there was a sense of displacement as well. And so the question was how we're going to help the next generation navigate this new future of work that we're all dealing with. And so it was at the early stages of my career that I started asking myself, What is the role that I have in this work that I'm doing today?
21:03
With that said, I understand there's a lot of sense of uncertainty, and AI has brought that as well to our, to our lives over the next, over the last few years. Even though some of us in the tech sector, or if you're in IT or in these areas, you've probably been talking about AI for some time. But now I want to ask all of you, right? You're either in our classrooms or in our school districts or in our administrator offices answering those questions about what AI could play, but I want to ask you also, too, what type of uncertainty you have about AI. What scares you about AI? And so I already see some of the similar responses coming. So let's see what we have. All right, so that companies have turned their backs on ethical standards. Very good answer, right? What other, what other things scare you about AI? And it's, and it's interesting — I'll come back to the answers as they keep coming in — just today, in the morning, I was listening to a Perplexity podcast, and I realized one thing. I realized that the podcast is an AI podcast, created by AI, and Perplexity is going out there, basically, you know, curating the information, and they're bringing it in and, and creating a very interesting podcast, right? And so it's an informative podcast, but it's very interesting to see how they have engaged in this. Ethical standards. It's discouraging people from engaging in their own critical thinking. Intentional or unintentional bias. We lose our own voice. Not controlled enough, not enough regulations. Knowing real from fiction. We're getting left behind. Using AI without human agency, fake news, ethical design, anti racist ideologies, ethical standards. I see a lot of ethics in here. Loss of social engagement. Okay, these are great, and I know we'll get many more responses, but let's talk about some of them. Let's talk about where companies are, right? That was the very first answer that came in, right, that they're turning backs on these ethical standards. And I think that's a, that's a fascinating conversation to have. I think when we talk about humanity in these conversations, we need to talk about how we are leading and being empowered by these new technologies that are coming in. Potential for lack of independent and critical thinking. Yeah. And so one of the conversations, one of the things I remember learning when I was working in the tech sector, was that how technology is implemented in different communities matters. And at times we think that, you know, because it works great in Costa Rica, it's going to work great in Ecuador, and therefore it's going to work great in Houston. Or because it works great in San Diego, it's going to work fantastic in New York. And the reality is that that's not how communities, the best deployment of technology is in communities. You know your communities better than anyone else. You know your students better than anyone else. You know the challenges, you know their hopes, you know their dreams, you know where they want to go. And so my, my encouragement to all of you, when we talk about how we navigate these scares of AI, it's we need to be part of this conversation. As leaders in our communities, of leaders in our school districts, as leaders in the education sector, we need to be part of the solution. And I know that's easier said than done, but I also know that, again, these questions are bigger than the answers that we have today, and to be part of those answers will be part of this conversation. I think this conference is an example of that, and it's really having these conversations about technology and education, that's what these conferences are about. But my encouragement too would be, don't shy away from just engaging today, right? The conversation needs to continue tomorrow, needs to continue on Monday, when we go back to our school districts, or what, or whatever you go back right after you come for this conference, that's where the real work starts. Right? Today, we connect, we learn. Tomorrow, we implement, right? But being scared about AI, being scared about technology, is nothing new. You see, just a few years ago, there was this ATM scare. You see, when ATMs were being implemented in the banking sector, there was a sense of fear. They're like, whoa, whoa, wait. Let me get this right. You're going to bring this machine in into my banking branch, and you're going to replace all these employees that I have, a good portion of them, with these two or three machines. And the proposal was, yes, that is exactly what we're going to do. And of course, you could see the sense of fear, the sense of uncertainty, and certain branches did not take it. Certain banking companies said, You know what, thanks, but no thanks. I have 20 employees in my, in my branch. I don't want to disrupt their work, their lives in the community, and what have you, which is a fantastic answer, and rightfully so, that was their approach. And some other banks said, You know what? We'll lean into that and we'll see what we could learn. And what they learned was that the cost of operating a branch went significantly lower. Don't get me wrong, they were right. Out of 20 employees, now they had probably six working in the branch and a handful of ATMs. But the cost of operating a branch was significantly lower, and now they could open up new branches in communities that did not have access to financial services. And today, when we look back at those moments of how they implement technology, the banking sector has more employees today than it did just a few years ago, before the ATMs were implemented. Today, we have access to new financial services and more financial services in communities that were ignored and displaced and probably not even acknowledged because they didn't have access to certain technology tools, and today they do. Now, don't get me wrong, displacement and the future of work and the challenges, I understand it comes with a sense of uncertainty. But what I ask all of you today is ask you, what is that ATM in your work? What is that ATM in your community, that if you just lean in, it gives you an opportunity to unlock what is possible in your students, in your community, in your schools. That could be a piece of technology, that could be a new initiative, that could be a new process. The other thing too, I think that we have been probably normal, we probably normalize as a community, is that we think that technology is simply just something that comes with the screen. And it's not, right? If you work in IT today, if you work in these sectors today, you know that technology is beyond that, right? And so I encourage you to is ask yourself, what is that exponential change that sometimes we have in our community, that we're a little bit hesitant today, we're a little bit scared today to lean into that, but it could unlock what we could, what we could experience. Today when I walk into a banking branch, I have a very different experience than I did just probably 20, 30, 40 years ago, maybe when my parents were doing it. I have a more personalized experience when I walk into a bank, because they have my, they know my needs a little bit differently, they know my community very differently. They probably know my business I'm trying to build a little bit differently. They could be much more intentional, better service. So the question is, what could that look like also in education? What are those certain pieces of technology that if we just implement, it gives us opportunity to be more empathetic, more compassionate, bring those ethical standards to life in the work that we get to do and in our communities. And so that, I wanted to make sure that you all are aware of that ATM approach as well. And that takes me to my next question, right? We're here because we care about our students. We're here because we believe in the next generation, and we believe in the potential the next generation. So if you could help your students with one skill today, what would that be? One skill that you can help your students with? You know, we've talked about the role technology could play, what makes us to be human. What, you know, maybe the fears that we have around technology as well, but what is the potential that we could see also, right? If we have that one skill, what could it be? AI literacy. Effective prompt engineering.
29:14
Critical thinking. Hello from Virginia. Okay, cool. All right, we can do that too.
29:21
Time management, prompt engineering, empowered to manage change effectively. Oh, wow. These are great. Stress management, critical thinking, AI literacy and understanding, prompting, the ability to think critically about the world around them. Adaptability, these are fantastic. Keep them coming. So let's talk about this a little bit more, right? Let's talk about some of the skills that we're thinking about our students. It's wonderful to see this, because not only it creates, you know, you have this sense of, again, we come in from all different backgrounds into this space, right? And we care about our students. And I think when we talk about social skills as well, right? When we talk about the role technology could play, we always think about some of these things too, right? We think about when we go to school, there's so many things that we need to do, that we need to accomplish for our students, but sometimes there's just one or two things that you're like, Man, if I could just do this for them, that will last them a lifetime, that will prepare them for the future of work, that will prepare them for the future that they care about, right? Because you know that that's what these students need. Because you're in the classrooms, you're in your community or in your school districts, right? And so again, when we talk about being part of the solution, being part of that, of that big answer that we want to have, these are type of things you can bring to the table, right? Because you know your students better than anyone else, you know your school district, you know your educators, you know your leaders better than anyone else. Again, as someone that's worked in tech sector, we are very passionate, just as passionate as sometimes our educators are. I like to think so, but I know, I know a lot of passionate educators, so it's really hard sometimes to meet up to their bar, but we try our best to bring the best technology solutions to the communities. Back in the day, it's all of you that could bring this to life. Technology for technology's sake is no different than just a laptop being a really good paper holder, right? But it's all of you that bring technology to life, and it's all of you that bring all these type of interests, and sense of fears, but sense of promise as well, into our communities. When we talk about the skills that we could learn today, I'm always reminded about a lesson that I learned from someone very dear to my heart, and it was my grandmother. You see, my grandmother believed in not only the potential of the human condition, but in the potential of su familia, of their family. You see, my Abuelita Pepa grew up in Guayaquil in Ecuador, and she grew up very poor. She grew up, a single mother, single mother of five, and she as she was growing up, sorry, as she saw her children deal with poverty, she realized something. She realized that education and learning was the way forward. Education and learning was the way out of the situation. And when she, when she started instilling this in her children, it became not only an expectation for her children, but eventually an expectation for her entire family. So much so that a few years later, she immigrated to New York, to Queens, where I think 50% of Ecuadorians immigrated, and in the 70s, and she had, she lived the rest of her life there in Queens. And of course, like I shared with you earlier on representation, I grew up in Houston, and so my relationship with my grandmother was a long-distance relationship. And I would get calls from her every other month or so, and I remember vividly in the first grade having a conversation with her and her asking me, mijo, how are you doing? How's school? Great, Abuelita. Are you learning? Yes, mijo, I'm learning, yes, Abuelita I'm learning. What are you learning? And I'd tell her what I'm learning. Great. A few months later, I'd have another conversation with her, ask me the same question. She comes home, she comes to Houston for Christmas. First thing she does when she walks in, she gives me a big hug, says, Mijo, how's school doing? Are you still learning? I said, yes, Abuelita. I'm still learning. And it so happens that I did that in the second grade, in the third grade, in the fourth grade. I moved to Ecuador, and I still have my conversations with my grandmother years later, and she's still asking me this, are you still learning? So I understood her passion for education. I understood that. I understood how important it was for her grandchildren to go to school because she didn't have that same opportunity. So eventually, when I graduate high school, you know, we fly her down so she could be part of my graduation. And then a few years later, I graduate my engineering degree, and here's a picture of me with my grandmother and my, in my college graduation at the University of Houston. And she was so proud of me. She was like, Mijo, adelante, right? Keep learning. And I remember, a few years later, I actually moved to New Orleans, I got my master's degree, and her health started to decline significantly, and she was unable to fly out to see my graduation for my MBA. And I remember still having the conversation with her, and her sharing with me how proud she was of that, of that event, but she kept asking me, Are you still learning? I said, Yes, Abuelita. You know, I just learned this in my last year of school, but we're good. And a few years later, I find out that her health is significantly declined. And so my wife and I decided to fly out to New York and join her in her final days. And there's a picture of her and her in her last months. We went to go and celebrate her birthday, and I remember, as I walked in, she looks at me, and she gives me a big hug as well, as strong as she could at that time. And she looks at me, she says, just like clockwork, mijo, are you still learning? And I remember looking at her and being like, well, maybe, you know, her health is in decline, I'll just remind her that her grandson is done, right? I'm done with, with, with my education. And I just friendly reminder, said, Abuelita, you know your grandson is done. I finished my MBA, and you know, you know, I'm good. I'm done with my education. And she sits up on her bed at that moment, becomes like a different person. She looks at me and she says, mijo, I'm asking you, are you still learning? I'm not asking you about your degrees. I'm asking you, are you still learning? And I realized there that for all this time that she was asking me, she never asked me for my grades, she never asked me for my certificate, she never asked me for my, for my diplomas. She was asking me, Are you still learning? And she was instilling in me this sense of being a lifelong learner, that to this day, I take that to heart. I had this flashback, out-of-body moment at that moment in time when I, when I had that conversation with her, and I realized that this whole time, what she was trying to do with our, with the grandchildren, with her family, was creating a generation of lifelong learners. And that's a superpower that we all have today. We have an ability to learn today better than ever before. And I think about how we talk about technology today in the classroom and in our communities, or even as an adult learner today that I am, I think about, what would she think about this generation that we're in today? What would she think about if she was in this world of 2020, in the 2020s, and saying, Abuelita, you know, I have this really cool thing in my pocket, and it could connect me with anyone on this planet, and it could give me access to pretty much almost any learning experience that I want. What would you, what do you think she would say? She'd be like, whoa, whoa, wait, you could do that today? So what are you doing about it to learn something new? I'm not saying the education system is going to go into our pockets. That's not what I'm suggesting. But I am saying our ability to learn something new and access some new knowledge and insights today is greater than ever. And I think about my grandmother being in this space today, and I think about how she would react, and the only thing that comes to mind is, you know, her unlocking this world for all of us. And she's probably feeling something like this, right? She's this "I know kung fu" moment in the matrix, right? That Neo just goes into this moment and says, Hey, you know, I want to go and learn this skill, and I could learn it. And again, don't get me wrong, I know we're not there yet, and I know I cannot go into the computer and learn a skill in the next three minutes. But for my grandmother, it probably feels that way. For the generations before us, and for the shoulders that we stand on, it probably feels that our ability to learn something new today, the barrier of entry of learning something new today, is greater than ever. And so I also leave that with all of you today, right, that as we think about how we're engaging our students with technology, what are some of those exponential moments that we could create for them, that could leave an inspiration in the sense of fulfillment of them learning something new. And what I love about the conversation we just had is that you also have this insight of what, what you want to teach them, and some of that could be taught in a matter of minutes or a matter of days, and sometimes might take years. But again, in this exponential era that we have, we have an ability to accelerate these changes as well and make a greater impact. With that said, this will be my final question for all of you. So with all that, what does the future of learning look like for you? You're here, you're in the forefront, you're in the front lines of this work, you're in our communities, you're with our students, you're in our classrooms. What does the future of learning look like for you? What is your promise? What would you like to see the future of learning look like? Let's see some of those answers. In one word: AI-enhanced. I love that. Individual choice. Wow. A much more personalized experience, it sounds like, yeah. Online, transformative, personal, flexible,
39:00
inclusive, streamlined, opportunities, yes. Focused, adaptive, open, transformative, yes. These are fantastic. So I could see you're finding what that ATM looks like in your work, right? As you find these ways of implementing technology in your spaces, what does that unlock, right? How does it help us address that one skill that we want to teach? But also, how does it create these experiences that we envision for education as well? I love this. These are great. Evolving, possibility, experiential, yes. Experience, yes. So all these are fantastic. These are great. Thank you so much for the engagement. So with that said, I want to, I want to wrap up with this. One of the ways that I've been using AI is I want to find new books, new books for me to read, new books for me to engage my family with. I have a 10 and a seven year old student, right? And we want to talk about not only cultura, but also the intersection of culture and technology, right? And so one of the, one of the books I found was The Last Cuentista. And again, I can't see the chat right now, but I'm sure some of you, if you're in the education sector, you've probably either been introduced to this book, or maybe some of your students have read it, but it's this fascinating book about this intersection of, of the future and what it is to be human. I know our time is running out, but I want to make sure I shared this with all of you, and the way I found it was, I was just having a conversation with ChatGPT. And I say, ChatGPT, these are some of the interest levels that I have, and I want to engage with, with my family on, you know, again, as someone that has not been reading young adult novels over the last few years. Can you give me some exposure, some, to some new ones. And, and these, this was one that was on the list, and I've had a fantastic time reading it. So again, I recommend this book for anyone that, that's interested in only the intersection of humanity and technology, but how you can have those conversations in the classroom as well. And as we wrap up, we're in this era of co-intelligence. And so I encourage you to think about that right? Think about how when we talk about this AI-enhanced or this technology-driven future, at the end of the day, technology is an extension of the human condition. It's not a replacement of it. Everything we talked about the beginning of our conversation today, when we talked about Petrov's intuition, we talked about what it makes us, what, what it is that makes us human. Keep that in mind. Keep that in heart in everything that we get to do. And as you get to do your work over the next few, few, few hours in this conference, keep that in mind as well. Right? That all this technology that's coming in is wonderful, and it's, and it's there to enhance our education experience, but more importantly, it's there to extend our human experience. And as we wrap up, I know this technology and the world that we get to live in today, we could focus on the exponential work. We could spoke. We could focus on how fast the world is moving, but the work that you get to do today is much more meaningful. The work that you get to do today is about bringing the individuals with us in this work as well. And so again, I want to thank all of you today for not only being committed to this conference, being committed for the next few hours to continue to learn and be inspired by what's possible in our education sector, but also for all the work they get to do outside of this conference. Thank you for inspiring individuals like myself and my children every single day on sharing them what is possible in the education sector and preparing the future generations.
Rhea Kelly 42:30
Thank you for joining us. I'm Rhea Kelly, and this was the Campus Technology Insider podcast. You can find us on the major podcast platforms or visit us online at campustechnology.com/podcast. Let us know what you think of this episode and what you'd like to hear in the future. Until next time.