My EdTech Life

What happens when students can finish the assignment without doing the thinking? In Episode 376 of My EdTech Life, Dr. Alfonso Mendoza Jr. welcomes educator, education leader, and author Jeff Piontek for a candid conversation about AI in education, student ownership, and the human relationships that make learning meaningful. Jeff shares ideas from his new book, AI, EI, O, and YOU: Preparing Educat...

AI can give students a confident answer in seconds. But who teaches them to question it, verify it, and decide whether to trust it? In Episode 375 of My EdTech Life, Dr. Alfonso Mendoza welcomes back Dr. Karina Quilantan-Garza , also known as Dr. Q, for a conversation about school librarians, AI literacy, and protecting the thinking students need to do for themselves. A former middle school librar...

In Episode 374 of My EdTech Life, Dr. Alfonso Mendoza Jr. sits down with Jacob Kantor , the Chief DODO, or District Office Door Opener, to explore what it takes to earn educators’ attention, build trust, and serve schools. Drawing on 19 years in EdTech, Jacob explains why district doors stay closed, how sales targets can get in the way of listening, and why even well-liked vendors can lose contrac...

In Episode 373 of My EdTech Life, Dr. Alfonso Mendoza sits down with Dacia Toll , co-founder of Coursemojo , to challenge how schools measure the value of educational technology. Logins, minutes, and completed activities may show that a platform was used, but they do not prove that meaningful learning occurred. Dacia explains why districts must look beyond usage data and demand stronger evidence o...

Parent ProTech and Krystina O'Bryan t join Dr. Alfonso Mendoza on My EdTech Life to challenge one of education’s biggest assumptions: being a digital native does not mean being digitally ready. In Digital Natives Aren't Ready for This, we explore what students are actually facing online and why knowing how to use technology is very different from having the emotional maturity, critical t...

"Step one, step two, step three" isn't how real learning happens. On this episode of My EdTech Life, Dr. Alfonso Mendoza sits down with Cari Orts , also known as Techie Cari, an educational technology specialist at Marble Falls ISD with over 20 years of experience in education, to discuss maker spaces, project-based learning, and why AI will never replace real teaching. Car i shares...

Can AI take away a student's voice or help protect it? In this episode of My EdTech Life, host Dr. Alfonso Mendoza, a top voice in the ed tech space, sits down with virtual education leaders Larisa Black and LaKeshia Brooks to dig into artificial intelligence in education, digital literacy, virtual teaching, and the growing backlash against ed tech in K-12 schools. With a combined 34 years in...

"I Don't Even Like Calling It Claude" ft. Dr. Carol Fletcher | My EdTech Life 368 A college student let an AI chatbot complete his entire research project. When his professor asked him to explain it, he couldn't. That's the story that opens this episode with Dr. Carol Fletcher , Director of EPIC (Expanding Pathways in Computing) at UT Austin's Texas Advanced Computing...

"I can boss my robot overlords around and go, 'I wanna try this thing.'" That line right there? That's the whole episode. This week Dr. Fonz sits down with Dustin Rimmey , aka Rimmey, a 19-year Kansas educator who went from "programming languages just don't stick in my brain" to building his own classroom tools with nothing but a keyboard and a stubborn refu...

The Ultimate Technology Isn't AI, It's You ft. Mark Zeiler | My EdTech Life Ep. 367 In this episode of My EdTech Life, Dr. Alfonso Mendoza sits down with Dr. Mark Zeiler, a 20+ year K-12 education veteran whose career spans ELA teacher, media specialist, assistant principal, dean, and operations and curriculum leadership in Florida. The conversation centers on one core idea: as AI accele...

What does it actually mean to be ready for the real world? Not finished. Not just checked out with a diploma. Ready. In this episode, I sit down with Marnie Stockman and Nick Coniglio , authors of The Business of You and Lead It Like Lasso, to talk about Blue, their app built to help middle school, high school, and college students discover who they are, learn to tell their own story, and step int...

What happens when a former curriculum director becomes an AI strategist for an entire state? You get the kind of zoomed-out view most of us in education never get to see. In this episode, I welcome back my good friend Karle Delo, AI Strategist at Michigan Virtual, for a real conversation about what's actually working in school districts, what's flopping, and what the secret AI culture in...

What if the missing ingredient in your classroom isn't a new tool, a new curriculum, or another PD session, but curiosity itself? In this episode, I sit down with Olivia Odileke, founder of Spark Curiosity EDU, Education Week contributor, and creator of the Spark Curiosity GPT Coach. Olivia brings an industrial engineering background into the world of education, and her perspective on how we...

AI can write your design doc. It can build your storyboard. It can draft your script, your rubric, your assessment, your video outline, and half of your e-learning module before lunch. So what's left for the instructional designer? According to Jonathan De La Cruz, everything that actually matters. Jonathan is an instructional designer at a supply chain company and at a Plano, Texas startup b...

What happens to your judgment when AI starts answering before you finish the question? In this episode, Dr. Fonz sits down with Cheryl Strauss Einhorn , founder of Decisive, decision-sciences educator at Cornell and the University of Miami, and author of the new book The Human Edge: Smarter Decisions in the Age of AI (Cornell Publishing, May 8th) . Chery l spent over a decade as an investigative j...

There's no opt-out button for AI. That's the reality Valerie Brock, Curriculum Lead at Day of AI, brings to this conversation, and it changes how we think about AI literacy in K-12. In this episode, Dr. Fonz sits down with Valerie to unpack what AI literacy actually means (hint: it's not prompt engineering), why early childhood classrooms belong in this conversation, and how Day of...

Episode 360: The #1 AI Governance Mistake Schools Are Making ft. Betsy Cooper What's the biggest mistake schools are making with AI right now? According to Betsy Cooper , it's not taking it seriously from day one. In this episode, Dr. Alfonso sits down with Betsy Cooper , Founder and Executive Director of the Aspen Policy Academy, for a powerful conversation on the AI governance decision...

What happens when you take public high school students with zero computer science background — 87% of whom are below the federal poverty line — and put them in one of only two quantum computing programs for high schoolers in the entire nation? That's exactly what A.M. Bhatt and his nonprofit DAE are doing in Connecticut, and the results are challenging everything we think we know about educat...

They’re Only 19… And Already Rethinking Education What happens when two 19-year-olds look at education and say… this isn’t working? In this episode, I sit down with Almar Tishenko and Max Litvinenka , two young founders building Reading Rooms , a platform designed to rethink how students read, write, and receive feedback in the age of AI. This isn’t about replacing teachers. This is about giving t...

Student voice is one of the most powerful forces in education — but only when it has a real stage. In this episode, Dr. Fonz welcomes back returning guest Tim Belmont, Language Arts teacher and Technology Coordinator at Lyndhurst High School in New Jersey, for a rich conversation on what it actually means to give students an authentic voice — and the innovative project he built to make that a real...

In this episode, Dr. Alfonso sits down with Caleb Hurd , founder of Chatperone , an AI chat platform built specifically to keep kids safe online. As a father of two and a 20-year tech industry veteran, Caleb built Chatperone not for investors or school district contracts, but for his own children first. What started as a personal solution has become a mission to give parents and educators peace of...

Dr. Alfonso sits down with Aaron Makelky of Descript to unpack the real future of podcasting beyond vanity metrics, beyond over-polished edits, and beyond the AI hype. This conversation is a masterclass for creators, educators, and entrepreneurs who want to amplify their voice without burning out. From workflow wisdom to sponsorship strategy to the rise of hyper-niche podcasts, Aaron delivers prac...

Four years after ChatGPT changed everything, schools are still treading water. In this episode, I sit down with Dr. Kip Glazer , principal of Mountain View High School, home of Google, and author of Ready to Lead With AI: A Practical Guide for School Leaders . Dr. Kip has been in this conversation since 2015 and she is bringing ALL of that experience to the table. We talk about why the AI cheating...

Neuroscience expert Dr. Mark Hobson reveals why educators MUST understand how AI works—and why your brain learns exactly like AI does. What You'll Learn: The shocking AI gap between business and education How your brain processes information (90% through emotions—AI can't) Why banning AI fails students Practical ChatGPT strategies for classrooms The 4 Rs: Read, Recite, Repeat, Remember H...

Simplifying EdTech for Teachers & Amplifying Learning for Students Bonus episode recorded live at TCEA Recorded live at TCEA, this bonus episode of My EdTech Life cuts through the EdTech noise to focus on what actually works in classrooms. Joined by Elaina Kloecker and Spencer Wright , Dr. Fonz unpacks why ease of use, strong pedagogy, and teacher agency matter more than shiny tools and usage...