Edtech Insiders

Stephen Jull, Global Head of AI at Teach For All, connects educators with frontier AI labs. Maruf Hasan is a Bangladesh-based educator building AI tools for low-resource schools. Sean McWeeney is a UK classroom teacher creating teacher-owned AI workflows. They discuss teachers becoming builders, classroom-led AI innovation, AI for underserved learners, global educator collaboration, and teacher ownership of edtech.

Hannah Gurmankin, a 21-year special education teacher using tools to streamline IEP work and parent communication. Brandon Chitty, a K-12 innovations leader focused on system-level instructional change and tech integration. They react to Kira 2.0’s launch, discuss using AI to free teacher time, personalized learning pathways, class- and district-level insights, and rethinking grade bands for real-world readiness.

Ted Dintersmith, education advocate, author, and filmmaker who has visited hundreds of schools to rethink learning. He argues that school math often trains skills AI can do and misses real-life relevance. Short takes cover the split between classroom math and practical math, how testing narrows learning, and classroom examples that make probability and problem solving meaningful.

Steve Tapp, CEO of ACT and a 30-year assessment leader who scaled global testing platforms. He talks about AI reshaping test design and scoring. He explores adaptive, personalized assessments. He outlines connecting academic measurement to workforce-ready skills and how WorkKeys links learning to real jobs.

Chase Rigby, CEO of Tassel and former Google PM, brings product and edtech chops to modernize graduation. He discusses graduation as a major growth and marketing moment. He explains unifying logistics like registration, tickets, and stage flow. He covers monetized digital announcements, AI photo and admin savings, and disrupting legacy cap-and-gown models.

Yoon Yang, CEO and co-founder of Pensive and former AI researcher specializing in knowledge tracing, discusses AI-powered grading and course-specific tutoring in higher education. Conversation covers Mythos and AI-driven security risks. They debate edtech effectiveness, screen time controversies, and how AI is reshaping entry-level jobs and higher education’s response.

Brandon Cardet-Hernandez, founder and CEO of Medley Learning and former multilingual learner, teacher, and school leader, discusses AI-powered scaffolds for multilingual students. He explores embedding supports in core lessons, student-controlled scaffolds, using assessment data to align supports, and the risk of lowering rigor with careless AI. He stresses implementation and local champions for real impact.

Dr. Magdalena H. Gross, a Stanford-trained AI education leader who helps experts translate deep knowledge into AI-ready systems and runs community arts work. She explains how experts train AI through structured thinking. She discusses making invisible thinking visible, parallels between human learning and reinforcement learning, spiral curricula for scaling skill, and why interdisciplinary thinking matters.

Joshua Broggi, founder and CEO of Woolf, modernizing higher ed with competency-based pathways and prior-learning credit. Aaron Cuny, CEO of AI for Equity, building AI leadership capacity in K–12. They unpack NVIDIA’s platform push, agentic AI and solopreneur opportunities. They debate AI literacy versus screen bans, ASU’s AI playbook, school choice expansion, and shifting edtech funding trends.

Mindy Sjoblom, founder and CEO of OnYourMark, scales research-backed virtual high-dosage tutoring for early readers. Catherine Tierney, Head of Product and Program, designs human-centered, evidence-based learning tech. They discuss using AI as an insight layer rather than a replacement, translating RCT-backed research into practical tools, real-time tutor feedback, and how AI’s role should differ by student age.