Conversation #31 with Patrick Gittisriboongul, Assistant Superintendent of Technology & Innovation for Lynwood Unified School District was fascinating from an AI integration and innovation standpoint. Patrick is part of The AI School Teams Collaborative with The Learning Accelerator and Leading Educators. Thank you Jin-Soo Huh for making the connection!

I love Patrick's "why" behind this work, which involves the concept of "AI Natives".

"My focus is on fostering student-centered learning environments while strategically integrating emerging AI technologies, a dominant theme in my role over the past few years. The concept of 'AI Natives' — students born into a world where AI is increasingly ubiquitous — is reshaping our approach. We must rethink our curriculum, instruction, and assessment to meet the needs of this generation, while keeping relationships and meaningful experiences at the heart of our schools. We need to focus on skills that AI cannot easily replicate, like communication and collaboration. Public speaking, even at the kindergarten level, is crucial!

To this end, we have partnered with Leading Educators and The Learning Accelerator to build AI literacy across high school content areas. This collaboration empowers teachers to develop student-facing and teacher-facing AI applications that enhance productivity. We’ve also held a summer institute to help teachers 'AI-ify' their classrooms. While there is a natural focus on AI's potential for cheating, we are also exploring how to streamline mundane operational tasks, freeing up educators for more impactful work. We have started developing our own practical tools like sight word bots, substitute plan bots, Cornell notes tutors, and rubric bots.

We are focused on the long-term impact of AI integration through our 'ROI your AI' initiative and we are making sure that the work we have begun with partners, which includes setting a baseline understanding of AI usage and crafting theories around AI, can be sustainable for us. We have already scaled operational and organizational AI tools, and we are developing a framework for evaluating AI. It is critical that we sanction only high-quality tools for district-wide rollout.

At leadership meetings, we share AI tools and insights, ensuring our leaders are prepared to address questions and concerns from parents and students. We are developing responsible AI implementation guidelines, emphasizing that the answer to "Can I use AI?" is often, "it depends." Classroom and district policies, along with an FAQ document, help us navigate this rapidly evolving landscape. We are also exploring how to embed AI thinking into our content areas, using AI systems to teach students how AI itself works.

Family and community engagement is essential. Through our Parent University, we are educating parents about AI, bridging the gap between their understanding and their children's expertise. This ensures that those furthest from opportunity are closest to the learning table.”