Kira 2.0: Real Voices from the Launch Event

At the Kira 2.0 launch event in New York City, Sarah Morin captures rapid-fire insights from educators, administrators, and edtech leaders reacting in real time to one of the most ambitious AI learning platforms to date.

🎙️ Featuring insights from:

• Brandon Chitty, Executive Director of Innovations, Broken Arrow Public Schools
• Brett Roer, CEO & Founder, Amplify and Elevate Innovation
• Harl Roehm, CTE Teacher, Collierville High School
• Jesse Lubinsky, Principal Evangelist, Adobe Education
• Lance Key, Instructional Technology Coordinator, Putnam County Schools
• Rachelle Dene Poth, Educator, Consultant & Attorney
• Hannah Gurmankin, Special Education Teacher
• Scott Brewster, Co-Founder, Hats & Ladders

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Transcript

[00:00:00] Alex Sarlin: Tuck Advisors was founded by entrepreneurs who built and sold their own companies, frustrated by other m and a firms, they created the one they wished they could have hired but couldn't find. One who understands what matters to founders and whose North Star KPI is the percentage of deals closed. If you're thinking of selling your ed tech company or buying one contact Tuck advisors now.

[00:00:25] Sarah Morin: Hey everyone, this is Sarah Morin. I'm in New York City today reporting live from the Kira 2.0 launch event. It is so fun. The energy is just incredible. Listening to this special episode for quick interviews with attendees, talking about parts of this launch that stood out to them. How some of the announcements today relate to their work in education and EdTech?

Enjoy.

[00:00:50] Alex Sarlin: Welcome to EdTech Insiders, the top podcast covering the education technology industry from funding rounds to impact to AI developments across early childhood K 12 higher ed and work. You'll find it all here at EdTech Insiders. 

[00:01:06] Ben Kornell: Remember to subscribe to the pod, check out our newsletter, and also our event c.

And to go deeper, check out EdTech Insiders Plus where you can get premium content access to our WhatsApp channel, early access to events and back channel insights from Alex and Ben. Hope you enjoyed today's pod.

[00:01:30] Sarah Morin: This is Sarah Morin. I'm here at the Kira 2.0 launch. And I'd love to hear who you are and what you're working on right now. 

[00:01:38] Brandon Chitty: My name is Brandon Chitty and I'm the Executive Director of Innovations for Broken Arrow Public Schools. We're a pre-K 12 school district in Northeastern Oklahoma, suburb of Tulsa, 20,000 students, and I've been there for 19 years.

So I have seen, when I started teaching, it was the interactive whiteboard that was the new technology. In 2007, I had the first one in the district, and then in 2011 did one-to-one, first one in the district, right? This was before Chromebooks, before Google Classroom, before all that stuff, and really developed a lot of that.

We were early adopters of a learning management system. Really have just tried to find ways to engage students at deeper levels to prepare them for the future at a high level, and really try to systematically make instructional change for teachers, knowing that students have to have a different level of preparation than what has been happening over a course of decades.

And so. What does that look like to have a successful student in the future? And that's something that has always been at the forefront of our efforts. 

[00:02:39] Sarah Morin: Totally. Yeah. And especially into the age of technology we're in and how fast things are changing. I know a lot of people are thinking about that, of what does it look like to prepare students for the future?

What does that even mean right now? When you think about some of the problems that you're encountering or some of the things that you're really focused on in that work, what comes to mind for you? 

[00:02:58] Brandon Chitty: I think it's just addressing instruction. I mean, addressing the fact that it's easier now to learn what you want.

That's an amazing time to be in education. I mean, if a tool allows you to learn deeply something that you're passionate about, that's huge. But there's a side effect of that. That same tool. Can help you avoid learning at a high rate. Right? And that's because our system currently really celebrates the product, right?

And compliance. So when the system wants that to happen, which we know why compliance is at play, because that's what we wanted out of our previous generations. They were gonna work where they just wanted kids that showed up on time, did the factory work, and went home. And it's a compliance job. It's low skill, high compliance, right?

And so that's different now. So instead of celebrating the product, which AI has washed away, right? AI can create any product you want with very little intelligence put into it, right? You could basically just put the prompt that you're being asked to do, it's gonna provide high levels of support there, right?

So we can't value the product anymore. We can't value compliance. We have to value the process and competence. So that's hard to do because valuing the process has a lot of failure. Right? And how do we assess that? How do we know? And I really feel like Kira can do that. But as a society, we have to change what we value.

We have to educate our families on what we're valuing at school. The reason that the A through F scale still stands is not because it's good for kids, it's because our society understands it. Yeah. Because our assessments lean towards that completion of something giving a grade. But I, I mean, I have two kids and I have no idea what they actually know in their academic.

I know that they're good at school, which means they're good at compliance. They're good at doing the tasks that they're asked to do. There is learning that's happening there. That's why we have people that are successful. I'm not trying to demonize everything that we do, but we have to reflect on what the space looks like now.

And I always say like, if AI can change the starting point for students, it can change the end point. Right. Further than it was previously, but we have to teach kids about the tool. We have to teach kids about learning. I think that it's very easy to say that most education environments don't teach kids how to learn.

Learning is a skill, right? Like if you try to learn something, is it easy, 

[00:05:11] Sarah Morin: hard. It's hard. Learning is hard. Hard. It's hard. 

[00:05:13] Brandon Chitty: But a lot of times it's driven by passion, like, so I love music, so I spend a lot of time, but it's learning and it's actually a lot of failure, a lot of things that are tough. But I stay in it because I'm passionate about it.

So how do we, because we can't make everything a passion for kids, right? Because it's great to learn with these tools. So how do we address that? How do we make sure that we value the process? How do we teach kids that learning's hard and there's a lot of failure in there, and how do we value the failure on what happens after that?

So I think things have to just. Start to evolve. 

[00:05:41] Sarah Morin: Totally. Yeah. I love that point on difficulty and failure being a key component of the learning process. And I'd be curious when you think about Kira is, are you already using this in a school setting? 

[00:05:51] Brandon Chitty: So it's actually funny, I'm very wary of AI tools and exposure to students.

There's a big culture in our school district that, oh, this will just pass. Or, oh, I'm not gonna engage in this. And that comes from being overwhelmed with tools. When you bring things to teachers all the time, they get really burnt out on that change and innovation. And so I have a full team that does deep dives on things, and we're very specific that the only things we really give out are things that are gonna make instant impact, that have low adoption strain, right?

So they're very easy to adopt quickly, and they make a big impact for the teacher's Bottom line in student learning. And so I believe that we've learned about, I've had some deep conversations with leadership here at Kira about visioning and where we're going and what we're wanting to do, but we're not, I mean, I'm not looking at just creating another tool to hand to teachers to create a course or curriculum.

I'm looking at a systematic change. I'm looking at changing the bell to bell. What are we doing in that time? If the tool can learn about kids and suggest an opening session. For the students to work independently so the teacher can take attendance and do their thing and then guide the teacher through a direct instruction conversation with students and then even tell them how they could break their student us up into collaborative working, uh, groups and give them activities around that because.

Learning is human. We can't just put kids on Kira for all hours all day. And if you hear that from the demo or when you're looking into those things, that's never the goal. The goal is to rehumanize instruction, right? Get more time in front of teachers. And so if the tool can do things at higher rates in short amount of times, let's leverage that to then inform instruction.

So then they're doing these collaborative things and then they can turn around. Work with the tool towards the end of the hour to reeducate the tool on where the students are to then reeducate the teacher on the pathway for instruction. 

[00:07:38] Sarah Morin: Absolutely. Yeah. And there was such a focus today on leveraging these AI systems and systematic is what you said.

You're focusing on those systematic solutions to give time back to teachers and to really. Support that human teaching learning relationship. I'd be curious from the launch today, which part stood out to you as the most exciting component? I know there were a million things, but if there was kind of one thing that really caught your eye or, or really got you excited, what would it be?

[00:08:02] Brandon Chitty: I mean, I think it's the Atlas page, right? So that Atlas page tells you, you know, obviously he talked a lot about standards and there's a lot of backend work to tie everything to it to provide that right? And we know the investment's only gonna turn out the quality. Of the data, right? So you're gonna have to invest in good standards, alignment, you're gonna have to invest in all those things.

Like I want to get to a world to where we can impact that. It's not just a state standards, but maybe we have essential standards. Maybe we have certain goals inside of our classrooms for instruction that it can guide from. And so I don't know if it necessarily got me super excited about this individual student atlas.

I think a teacher could get really overwhelmed with the depth of that because they look at 30 kids and they saw Andrea spend maybe, you know, 30 minutes on one student to develop a plan around one competency, which. I think as a teacher you'd have to realize that maybe you don't have 30 of the kids that need that level of in tier three, right?

So there's less there, but more. I was excited about the thought that if that's possible, right. Then is there an Atlas page for the class? Is there an Atlas page for the content? So math across all of your district, math across your site and their teachers math across that one teacher. And if it's about a guidance loop, well then you know, if there's an atlas for the class.

Then that tool is an informing instruction, not only individualized, which what we saw, but as a full class and help collaborate. Because if you're really good at something and I'm really good at something, but they're different. Mm-hmm. Being in the same group could be very powerful. Right. Because we're gonna build on each other's knowledge.

Right? Yeah. And so if the tool knows that and can have and help pair kids through instruction and, and activities, maybe we're. Poised to do something to meet the competency through what it knows that we're interested in, and it gives a totally different prompt for that collaborative environment than maybe two other students.

That are on different levels. You know, we say in our district, like we want a year's of worth of growth for every student. Yeah. Does that always mean that they're going to be on grade level? Yeah. That's our goal. But we know we did our work. If we can hit a year's worth of learning, yeah. We have to value that.

We also have to value the fact that culturally we think that kids need straight A's across all content areas. That's a compliance score, right? I think a world when, where we value grade bands. Where we say like my 11th grade student, maybe she's at 12th grade in mathematics, right? Algebra, calculus, geometry, all those core courses.

But she's at a ninth grade level in her literature. Can I, as a parent being in 11th grade, could I be okay with that and say literature's, just not necessarily her scope. So we're gonna really focus in on mathematics and expose her to careers that lean towards that. Obviously she needs foundation here, but why make her take a 12th grade English class?

When she's back here and we can do some remedial stuff, but really focus on what she has a skill base app. Because none of us, like I don't have a mathematics success job. Right? Totally. But I still had to meet those certain standards. So it goes back to societal change and revisioning what we value in our constructive education.

But I think these are starting conversations. 

[00:11:09] Sarah Morin: Absolutely. Yeah. And that idea of both, and one of the features that caught my eye was that feature to show both. Maybe where more support is needed on certain topics, but also to show where students might need more challenging work or where students might need, you know, a different format of the same thing to kind of expand their scope.

And I totally agree that there's. Personalization. I think we often hear about ways that that can be useful for remedial support or useful for catching people up. But what you're saying is this is also useful to say, oh my gosh, this student is so far ahead in the topic. How can we make sure that they can keep going and that we're not, you know, stopping them from continuing to learn about something that they're really good at and something that they're really interested at?

And yeah, that's such a good point. Yeah. 

[00:11:50] Brandon Chitty: I mean, just because you're in your class with a common 12th graders, does that mean that you have to be at what we say, a 12th grade level across all? Curriculum? I don't think so. I, I think that's an arbitrary way to look at. We're too diverse for that, right? And so to me, if a kid is advancing and we get that past tier one process, then we start talking about career, right?

Like that should be focused. Like if we're starting to see these tags on these high level indicators, then we run that across what careers value those things. Now we start for that time that they're supposed to be working, then expose them to career. Pathways and readiness, that's a whole other level, right?

So that's like even in this conversation, we developed this idea, right? Like, I haven't thought about that, but that's what the technology can actually do. When people understand the core efforts of instruction and outcomes, these tools can have such impact on what our goals are. 

[00:12:40] Sarah Morin: Totally. Any final statements you'd like to make on just what this event has made you think about or what you're excited about for the future of, of learning in general?

[00:12:48] Brandon Chitty: I have big thoughts on that, but I think the way I, in brief. 

[00:12:51] Sarah Morin: In brief, 

[00:12:51] Brandon Chitty: yeah. The, the way I, I will close this honestly, is I've been in this space for almost 20 years. I'm 19 years. That's closing out my 19th year. I've been in leadership for about 12 of those years, purchasing ed tech for the majority of that leadership.

Exposed to that ed tech know the space really well. I have never met leadership of a company that is so sound. With learning science that is different. That is not a, a company that's just trying to make money. And I'm not trying to plug it 'cause I haven't spent the dollar on Cara yet. Right. But I'm just saying if we can get companies around the fact that we're trying to actually make proved indicator of c.

Success for students in our country that we know that we're not at high marks, especially Oklahoma does not have a great comparison score to other states when it comes to instruction. But if we can move that needle with technology, it's gonna be a massive change. And I think that Broken Republic Schools is positioned to do that and partnership with Kira if they can meet these indicators and truly do what they're saying they do.

And I'll tell you from the conversations that I've had. It hasn't been false promises, um, to this newest launch. I mean, we were talking about some of these things just four weeks ago. I would say that there's probably a small handful of items in there that were probably influenced by my district, and that's because Andrea, the CEO of the company came to broken Oklahoma for a day to listen and to see what the tool could do to really make impactful change.

[00:14:13] Sarah Morin: Yeah. Wow. Thank you so much. 

[00:14:15] Brandon Chitty: Yeah. 

[00:14:16] Sarah Morin: Sweet. We're here at the Kira 2.0 launch. Could you introduce yourself and share a little bit about your current work? 

[00:14:22] Brett Roer: Yeah, absolutely. My name's Brett Roer. I'm the CEO and Founder of Amplify and Elevate Innovation, and the title kind of speaks to what we do. We try to amplify what's working in education, what is innovative, and what's really gonna move the needle on, you know, student outcomes.

Teacher retention and allow leaders to make better informed decisions. 

[00:14:40] Sarah Morin: Amazing. So there were so many things that we talked about at the, the launch today that were shared new product features, all of that. What stood out to you as one of the most exciting parts, or maybe one of the most high impact parts when you think about the work that you're doing or what you're seeing in the landscape?

Right. 

[00:14:56] Brett Roer: Yeah, so we do a lot of work across the country and what leaders, teachers, students, and families all want is more clarity on how AI can be used ethically, safely, and impactfully. And so what I saw today definitely checked off some of those boxes from a student perspective. Having learning that's personalized, that meets you where you are, that provides a clear visual as to where you're succeeding, where you're struggling, how to move forward for teachers.

You know, I've seen versions of this. I'm really excited to see how it was done at scale today, and obviously wanna see how that really works with the relaunch of Kira 2.0. But what I thought was the most impressive part of today was there are ways to personalize learning. It does require a lot of work from the teachers.

So it'll allowed this to be a seamless integration. Have it speak to systems. So for example, the IEP today, noting that it was safely integrated. That's what people need to see and believe so that they know moving forward, teachers need, and someone said it really well in the audience, and it's the heart of, when I give keynotes, I always say, keeping humanity at the heart of education in the age of ai.

That's what this would allow you to do. You shouldn't spend, and it's impossible to spend time like as a former New York City educator personalizing 150 lessons a day. That is not possible. So what do you do with that time back? If students really are being met where they are with the scaffolds and supports they need, it's investing in those student relationships and making sure they know there's a trusting, caring adult in the room who wants to see them succeed.

That's usually the missing recipe 'cause teachers are burnt out and, and overwhelmed with making the curriculum, uh, align with where students all are. 

[00:16:25] Sarah Morin: Absolutely very well said. Thanks so much. 

[00:16:27] Brett Roer: Yeah. Appreciate it. 

[00:16:29] Sarah Morin: This is Sarah Morin. We're at the Kira 2.0 launch today. Could you introduce yourself and share a little bit about your current work?

[00:16:35] Harl Roehm: My name is Harl Roehm, and I'm a CTE teacher in Collierville, Tennessee at Collierville High School. I was introduced to Kira a couple years ago, whenever I had to get my CS endorsement in the state of Tennessee. I retired from Mississippi after 25 years, and when I started teaching in Tennessee. They said you had to have a computer science endorsement and I'd already taught all this stuff and then never had to have it.

So I got on board through my CS endorsement and it was through Kira and I just, I fell in love with the platform and I asked them to activate my teacher account, and they did, and then I just started playing with it because I'm one of those kind of people that when I buy in, I'm all in. I wanna know everything I can do with it.

I don't want to get put on the spot and have somebody ask me if I can do something and not know. And so I may have been a thorn in their side. At first, I was constantly asking questions, asking for clarifications, and they were always real quick to respond, and they got me set up and I've been teaching my courses in it.

And now I teach AP Computer Science Principles, AP Computer Science, A coding one in Python coding, two in JavaScript and dual enrollment Cybersecurity one and two through the Tennessee College of Applied Tech through Kira. 

[00:17:47] Sarah Morin: Oh my gosh. You are teaching so many different. Courses, and of course with that comes different needs and circumstances and all of it.

What are some of the problems that you are facing right now in your roles? When you think about what you're hoping for technology to do for you, what are some of those pain points or things that you're really needing support with? 

[00:18:07] Harl Roehm: Well with Kira 2.0 launch, it's gonna take care of several of those things.

I'm still using the 1.0 platform and because of that, whenever the students complete work, I have to go back through and look problem by problem and try to find out and identify the specific standards that they're struggling with so that I can create a remedial lesson to assign to them. And now with 2.0 and it automatically tagging and everything else, that's gonna.

Really allow me to meet the kids where they are on using that student atlas that they have available. I work as the PLC lead for our school for CTE, so it's allowed me to reach out to other subjects, and I've gotten our welding department and our culinary arts on board. I've been reaching out to our nursing program.

They just added our nursing standards, and so I'm allowing them to experience everything that Kira does and they're excited. But they're still excited about 1.0. They have no idea what's just been released, and I'm very excited to get to share it with them. 

[00:19:07] Sarah Morin: Yeah, absolutely. And that's so awesome that you're supporting other people in your school and colleagues to use these tools as well.

When you think about people adopting tools like this, there's some concern that can come up. What has your experience been with maybe being the first person where at your institution to be onboarding with Kira, and how have those conversations been for you? 

[00:19:30] Harl Roehm: I enjoy breaking the mold because I'm 50 years old and usually when you talk about people working with AI and working with new curriculum and new techniques to deliver material, it's not the older, excuse me.

The veteran teachers. 

[00:19:45] Sarah Morin: There you go. Yes. 

[00:19:46] Harl Roehm: It's usually the younger teachers who have just come on board and they've tried new platforms, so having my experience to go beside me whenever I present topics to the teachers they've gotten on board, and because I allowed them to understand that. Kira can be a LMS replacement, but it can also be a standalone or it can be supplemental material where they can take that curated lesson that they've spent the last 10 years perfecting that they think is awesome and they won't ever let go of, and they can still teach that.

[00:20:17] Lance Key: Yeah, 

[00:20:17] Harl Roehm: and they can load that into Kira, and then it'll create a personalized student assignment for the day. And then they can use the results from that assignment to find out whether or not they're truly teaching the material on the level that they want to. And they jumped on board with that and they liked the concept.

But with 2.0 when I show 'em this, it's gonna completely flip the script. 

[00:20:37] Sarah Morin: Love to hear that. So with the 2.0 release today, and the team covered so many different angles of what's new, there's, you know, too much for us to cover in a short time. But you know, one or two things that really stood out to you as being.

A huge change for the circumstances you're thinking about where you're teaching and supporting students? 

[00:20:55] Harl Roehm: Well, the student atlas, being able to have it autotag the material so that I can personalize remedial lessons for the student, and I can do that based off their interest. So if I know that somebody is big into sports, then the remedial lessons that they create will reference sports in the material.

So it's personalized to the student. I really like that. I think that's gonna change things. I mean, there's so many different aspects of it. I was looking at the course builder and I thought about that in relationship to our ITFs and our IT department. If we could get on board and have them build HQIM curriculum, you know, of course, and then share that to all the teachers of the course, so that now as the course is being taught, we have fidelity in the way that it's being delivered.

So it's not 20 teachers teaching the course 20 different ways. I don't know. My head's spinning. There's just so much stuff that they went through today. I started smiling. 

[00:21:51] Sarah Morin: Yeah, 

[00:21:52] Harl Roehm: I know. You saw me. I started chasing at the beginning and I never quit. Like for two hours and yeah, and now I'm just waiting around for them to open up the demos so I get to go play with it.

[00:22:01] Sarah Morin: Oh my gosh. So exciting. Well, thank you so much for sharing more and can't wait to hear about even just how 2.0 is going and Oh yeah. How that goes for you. 

[00:22:09] Harl Roehm: I'll reach out in a heartbeat. You know that. Oh 

[00:22:10] Sarah Morin: my gosh. Amazing. Thank you so much. 

[00:22:12] Harl Roehm: Thank you. 

[00:22:13] Sarah Morin: Can you just share your name, where you're currently working, and other projects you're working on, if that's relevant?

Sure. And then a little bit about what was exciting today from this launch. 

[00:22:22] Jesse Lubinksy: Alright, so my name is Jesse Lubinksy. I am a principal evangelist and community field team manager for Adobe. In the education space and I was invited today 'cause I'm colleagues with a lot of folks who are big connected with Kira and I think they were curious to hear what, I thought this was fascinating.

So rarely do you see a company take a bite at the whole apple. So I think a lot of times we see tools come out all the time that are trying to layer on top of existing workflows that districts are having. But this is like really. Swinging for the fences. So I think we were just talking about what are some of the ways we would approach schools with this.

So as a former director of technology, I think in my head I'm like, okay, how would I even try to sell this to teachers? Because at a time where we're all very worried about who's being replaced, I thought it was interesting that we talked about bringing humanization back to education. But through an AI driven tool.

So I feel like there's a disconnect there that definitely we need to make sure that people feel, 'cause in a time where people are kind of fearing ai, how do we actually make them feel like, no, this is a tool to help. So as an example, I'm a teacher. I've been teaching 15 years. I have all these resources I've built over time.

I know the way I teach my Algebra two course. Are you telling me this is just gonna do a whole new thing? So how do I marry this idea of taking these existing resources that I have as a teacher, but building on top of it some of the things they were talking about. So like aligning it to standards, building in connections to other interdisciplinary.

Subject areas, which normally would take me, I'd have to go learn the other subject area or connect with another person to do all that. The way I kind of described it just now was it's trying to convince teachers you're not bringing an Android in. We're actually trying to put the Ironman suit on you and turn you into the SUPERPOWERED teacher.

So I think if they can make that pivot, you've got something, but it's like, how do you do that? 

[00:24:17] Sarah Morin: Absolutely. Oh my gosh. Thanks for sharing. Beautiful. 

[00:24:21] Jesse Lubinksy: Thank you. 

[00:24:22] Sarah Morin: Could you introduce yourself and share a little bit about what you're working on right now? 

[00:24:25] Lance Key: Yeah. My name is Lance Key. I'm a Putnam County School system and I am our instructional technology coordinator.

So a lot of what that entails is teacher training, course creation, things like that. But I'm also our specialist. And I've ran our virtual school for the last 12 years. 

[00:24:39] Sarah Morin: Amazing. So are you already using Kira in your workflow? Do you have direct experience with the platform? 

[00:24:45] Lance Key: Yeah, so I'm also our computer science lead.

So we started with Kira because they had computer science in the state of Tennessee. Uh, also a teacher for computer science. So we're using it for that. But now we started, uh, looking into using it for a course creation. 

[00:24:57] Sarah Morin: Amazing. Yeah. So there were so many things that the Kira team announced today and a lot of details.

What part of the launch stood out to you the most as something that's just super exciting when it comes to the use case you're working in? 

[00:25:09] Lance Key: Sure. Yeah. So with our course creation in the past, it's taken us three to four years to really get a course fully built out and all the bugs worked out of it and, and where the teachers like it today, they showed something that you could create a course a little like in about 10.

I don't think that'll be our final product, but I think it will cut down on our time and we can get it straight to reviewers, see what edits need to be made, and then we can go through Kira and make those edits and hopefully get product out to our teachers to use with their students a whole lot quicker.

[00:25:37] Sarah Morin: Amazing. Yeah. And do you feel like the course creation tool that Kira shared, and of course we just got a glimpse, but do you feel like it is addressing some of those. Biggest problems that you're navigating in creative development? Of course there's the time side of it, but are there other components that stood out to you as really addressing the things that you need?

[00:25:54] Lance Key: Yeah, so with textbooks and even online curriculum that we're using, when you get them, they can be out of date the next year because standards change, things like that. So the ability to go in and be able to change, you know, standards and be able to realign curriculum quickly, I think will, will help us a lot.

And also with cost savings, you know, we spend hundreds of thousands of dollars on textbooks each year. And if we can find a way to start supplementing that or not having to spend as much to stay relevant and prepare our students for the future, I think that would be great. 

[00:26:23] Sarah Morin: Amazing. Yeah. Thank you so much.

[00:26:25] Rachelle Dene Poth: So my name is Rachelle Dene Poth. I am a longtime educator of Spanish and a STEAM Emerging Technology course, also a consultant and an attorney. So I've been working with AI for a little over eight years now and always testing out the different tools, do a lot of work, presenting on and teaching my students about to work with educators.

So it's always exciting to see new things come about and I've been using Kira. Since last summer is when I found out about it initially and dove right in testing out all the different things, evaluating. I love reading the legalese because I do a lot of work with AI in the law now too. And so it's really important to protect students and everybody that's using it.

So I've been very excited about their launch because. Using it up until now, it already offered so much for educators and getting started. It can be very overwhelming to know what tools to use, which ones are safe, how to navigate the whole experience. And that's one thing that stood out from the beginning is like how easy it was to get started.

And a lot of educators find, especially once I've worked with, have found like, wow, this is great. So the. Launch of, you know, next version. I was thinking like, what more could there be? And then seeing all the things that they shared today, looking at the student insights, creating the assessments and the course creation.

I spoke with a woman about a month ago that was told that she was gonna teach an audio video course. And I said, oh, is that your background? And she said, not at all. She said they just didn't have anybody to teach it. And so. I said, well, I think you have some options. So this for her is gonna be like a lifesaver game changer.

Not to take away any of her own adding materials in, but to get that start, I think it's just really great. And then just the message and the vision and the work of this team being so connected to educators and getting the feedback, inviting people in wanting to hear, you know, what do you think about it?

How can we improve it? Like they value the educator voice. So much, and that really sets them apart from others that are working in this space. And that's something that you really need to do because teachers are the ones using it, students are the ones using it, and families also need to be informed about it.

So it's been a great day and I'm excited to see what's ahead with the rest of it. 

[00:28:30] Sarah Morin: Amazing. Oh my gosh. You already shared so much about how this is relevant to your work, but there was just one thing from the presentation. There were obviously so many new, exciting tools they shared today. Which piece stands out the most to you and you're thinking about impact and the settings you're working in?

[00:28:44] Rachelle Dene Poth: It's hard to always pick just one thing. The one thing that does stand out is like the course creation because one thing that was said, well, even just like writing curriculum, over all the years we've had many different ways to write curriculum back in the just on, you know, handwriting, typing in documents.

It is very time consuming. And then once you get to that point, then things change. New materials, new technologies come in. And so it does take away that time that you could be spending with students. And so that is like a big difference for educators to be able to have that time back. And have an assistant just like they would if it's a person.

But finding that time to work together, it's so hard to do. So having that, I think that's gonna make a big difference for people like me who might teach five or six different courses and trying to think like, I have to write curriculum for, okay, how many years is that gonna take me? So I think that's gonna stand out for a lot of people as well.

[00:29:33] Sarah Morin: Amazing. Thank you so much.

[00:29:34] Rachelle Dene Poth: Yeah, of course.

[00:29:35] Sarah Morin: So we're here at the Kira 2.0 launch. Could you introduce yourself and share a little bit about what you're working on right now? 

[00:29:42] Hannah Gurmankin.: Sure. My name is Hannah Gurmankin. I am a special education teacher, 21 years, and so I am here at the Kira launch because I am very invested in the tool and all of the ways that it can.

Just make life easier for a teacher. So I've been working with Kira for several months now. They are a fantastic bunch of people, and it's what keeps me coming back. Their dedication and the perseverance and the hard work that they put into making this fantastic product that's meant solely to make teachers' lives easier.

It's so admirable. I mean, it's blood, sweat, and tears that they really put into this. So. I'm in awe of them. 

[00:30:36] Sarah Morin: Yeah, absolutely. I'd be curious, from your perspective of your role in education, what are some of the biggest challenges that y'all face and. Potentially the ways that Kira is supporting that, but also just in general what you're seeing and what you're seeking out of adding new tools or new support systems.

[00:30:53] Hannah Gurmankin.: So one of the things that is just so simple when you think about it, but so massive on a grand scale for a teacher. Is parent notes, letters home to parents. I actually spend significant amount of time writing notes home to parents, like newsletters, those sorts of things. I put a lot of time and effort into it because that communication between home and school is so key to a successful school year.

And with Kira, I found that you can actually. Write those letters just with a simple prompt. And so for me it's something that simple, but that gives me back an hour of my time because I would literally spend an hour writing that letter and I tested it out and it, I mean, it was beautiful the way Kira brought out that letter that I was looking to write, so.

[00:31:55] Sarah Morin: Wow. 

[00:31:55] Hannah Gurmankin.: Yeah. 

[00:31:55] Sarah Morin: When you think about how. Adopting a new tool. Mm-hmm. Like Kira? Yes. Or any tool. How is that supporting your relationships with your students, your relationships with their families? How are you thinking about that when you're deciding what tools to use or even when you're using them? 

[00:32:10] Hannah Gurmankin.: Oh yeah, a hundred percent.

So for me. A tool is not meant to replace ever a teacher or a relationship because one of my favorite quotes is, no significant learning happens without a significant relationship. Yeah. So that relationship has to come first. With that being said, if I have a tool that allows me to do some of. The simpler tasks real easily, with a prompt, with that sort of thing.

It gives me extra time to be spending, making those relationships, fostering them, talking to parents, talking to students. And so tools like this, they're not meant to replace. They're meant to enhance, and I firmly truly believe that when used the right way, the possibilities are endless. 

[00:33:05] Sarah Morin: So well said. And maybe just to close us out, I know there were so many different product features and things that were released today and, and we really got to dive into so many different components of the Kira platform.

Mm-hmm. Was there one part of the presentation and the release today that really stood out to you as something that's super exciting for either just how we think about learning and kind of the future of learning, or in your particular role and what you're planning to use these tools for? 

[00:33:32] Hannah Gurmankin.: Yes. So for me, the student atlas was just incredible and I watched as they were demonstrating and explaining and I wanted more.

Yeah, I wanted to hear more about it and I, I was curious and I came and I talked to. To some people here about it at Kira, because I'd love to delve in deeper and really understand because there's so much great data that you can get from that atlas. And data should be used. I mean, we're all using it right now and, and it needs to be used to drive instruction.

And if with this atlas, I mean, you really, you can figure out who needs what intervention or how to best help your students. 

[00:34:19] Sarah Morin: Yeah. When you think about using data and instruction, how does that currently work? And you know, how are you navigating that right now? 

[00:34:26] Hannah Gurmankin.: Right, so right now. There's a, a lot of different tools we use.

It's just kind of, we pull the data from each of the different tools, which can be overwhelming. Especially, you know, as a special education teacher, we have to write, for me they're called a Plath. But, you know, present level of academic performance achievement, all those things. And functioning. Can't forget that, the F in there, but so we have to write that and we use data to really write those reports.

I mean, it's so important. That then that IEP, that pla that allows, if that student goes anywhere to a different school, it allows their next, or even just within the same school. It allows that next teacher to truly understand where that child's at. So data is so important, but yes, when you're getting it from all these different sources, it makes writing an IEP.

Very time consuming because you've gotta go to one source, you write about the data from there, and then you go to the next source and you're just pulling and pulling and pulling. Yeah. So to have one place where all the data is coming from, I mean, would be a wonderful thing. 

[00:35:36] Sarah Morin: Oh my gosh. Amazing. Do you have any final thoughts as we close out on just anything that you're thinking about from our day and our afternoon together at this launch?

[00:35:45] Hannah Gurmankin.: I'm just really excited to continue to explore and to delve deeper into this journey with Kira and to really, again, foster relationships with them so that the tool in itself. Can better help all teachers but special education teachers along the way. 

[00:36:06] Sarah Morin: Amazing. Thank you so much. 

[00:36:08] Hannah Gurmankin.: You are welcome. 

[00:36:10] Sarah Morin: We're here today at the Kira 2.0 launch.

Could you introduce yourself and share a little bit about what you're working on currently? 

[00:36:16] Scott Brewster: Yes. I'm Scott Brewster. I'm one of the founders of Hats and Ladders. We're a workforce development ed tech company located in Chelsea, New York City, and we are here at Kira Education Learning a little bit about what they're releasing today to the public, which has been amazing to know about.

[00:36:31] Sarah Morin: Awesome. Yeah. Could you share just. One of the things that caught your eye today, I know there was so much, but one thing that stood out. When you are thinking about all these new product features or what Kira's working in that applies to the field you're in or some of the people you're working with, what are you noticing?

[00:36:47] Scott Brewster: Absolutely. I think the one phrase that comes to mind is career connected learning, because obviously. Kira can be used to create classes where you remix and mix together two different subjects. For example, you could be interested in teaching algebra one, but understand that you've got a room full of folks who are, maybe they wanna be a skilled worker, like a carpenter, or perhaps a welder.

So you could create a course automatically that combined the nuances of algebra with a point of view. Of a carpenter, for example. So that kid is gonna go in day one, understanding how this subject is gonna be relevant to the rest of the course. 

[00:37:25] Sarah Morin: Totally. Yeah. When you think about other approaches that other tools are taking to that personalization, that creating a course on something very specific, do you feel like you're seeing anything else like this that exists, or does Kira stand out as something that feels unique or doing something new?

In this case, 

[00:37:40] Scott Brewster: I'm not seeing anything like this, and so I am envious a little bit of. What Kira is doing, and in fact, I'm hopeful and part of the reason that I'm here is to maybe partner to deliver on some of the workforce development work that we're doing. I think it could be a good compliment to our work.

[00:37:56] Sarah Morin: Absolutely. Yeah. And then what's one thing in, in workforce development that. You're noticing is like one of the biggest problems that people in this field are constantly encountering? 

[00:38:04] Scott Brewster: Yeah, I do think there's a stigma about not going to college, and so I think that understandably we are in an environment where we know, for example, even to be a STEM professional, you do not have to have a college degree.

And so how do we suggest to young people that they can go in a direction that may be 20 years ago, might have not? It might have seemed like a foreign concept to them. And so I do like the direction that we're going in. We're understanding that kids can do whatever they want to do. They can reach higher, and there's a path for them that may involve college, but maybe not.

Maybe that ROI is spent in a different way and they get right to work and make a big difference in this country. 

[00:38:44] Sarah Morin: Amazing. Yeah, I love that expansive perspective on education and how it's changing. Thank you so much. 

[00:38:49] Scott Brewster: Alright, thank you. 

[00:38:51] Alex Sarlin: Thanks for listening to this episode of Ed Tech Insiders. If you like the podcast, remember to rate it and share it with others in the ed tech community.

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