In this episode of Build Momentum, Sarah and Katie are joined by Kristina Ishmael. Kristina is an educator, learner, advocate, and agent of change. As the Deputy Director of the Office of Ed Tech, she executes the office mission of developing national edtech policy that enable everywhere, all-the-time learning and support digital equity and opportunity.
Kristina is also listed in the 30 K-12 IT Influencers Worth a Following 2020 by EdTech Magazine.
Some Questions We Ask:
In This Episode, You Will Learn:
Quotes:
“It's not necessarily just making sure that everyone has access to the same things, we know that [is important], but the things that they need, that are going to meet them where they are. And so we talk a lot about that.”
“I was really cognizant about coming back into government because I don't really think there were a lot of healthy boundaries the last time that I was in this role. There were expectations for communication at any time of the day and night or early morning. And I was like, ‘We're not doing that.’ And so we helped establish healthy boundaries.”
“I'm really eager to see where AI is going to take us. I know that there are risks. Don't get me wrong. Perhaps it's the optimist in me, but I just see all of the opportunities that are going to come with this as well.”
“I saw what technology could do in the hands of my multilingual learners when I was in the classroom—not only for language acquisition but for content acquisition as well. It is a tool. It is not meant to substitute for the teacher. And as we are developing our report on AI and education, the phrase that we keep coming back to is that ‘the human in the loop.’”
Connect with Kristina Ishmael
Kristina Ishmael LinkedIn
Office of Educational Technology website
Office of Ed Tech Twitter
Stay in touch with Sarah Williamson:
Free Case Study Guide
SWPR GROUP Website
LinkedIn
Stay in touch with Chad Bolser:
LinkedIn
About "The Secret to Transformational Leadership," which Sarah co-authored with Dr. Quintin Shepherd:
Transformational Leadership Secret website
Purchase the print or ebook
In this episode of Build Momentum, Sarah and Katie are joined by Kristina Ishmael. Kristina is an educator, learner, advocate, and agent of change. As the Deputy Director of the Office of Ed Tech, she executes the office mission of developing national edtech policy that enable everywhere, all-the-time learning and support digital equity and opportunity.
Kristina is also listed in the 30 K-12 IT Influencers Worth a Following 2020 by EdTech Magazine.
Some Questions We Ask:
In This Episode, You Will Learn:
Quotes:
“It's not necessarily just making sure that everyone has access to the same things, we know that [is important], but the things that they need, that are going to meet them where they are. And so we talk a lot about that.”
“I was really cognizant about coming back into government because I don't really think there were a lot of healthy boundaries the last time that I was in this role. There were expectations for communication at any time of the day and night or early morning. And I was like, ‘We're not doing that.’ And so we helped establish healthy boundaries.”
“I'm really eager to see where AI is going to take us. I know that there are risks. Don't get me wrong. Perhaps it's the optimist in me, but I just see all of the opportunities that are going to come with this as well.”
“I saw what technology could do in the hands of my multilingual learners when I was in the classroom—not only for language acquisition but for content acquisition as well. It is a tool. It is not meant to substitute for the teacher. And as we are developing our report on AI and education, the phrase that we keep coming back to is that ‘the human in the loop.’”
Connect with Kristina Ishmael
Kristina Ishmael LinkedIn
Office of Educational Technology website
Office of Ed Tech Twitter
Stay in touch with Sarah Williamson:
Free Case Study Guide
SWPR GROUP Website
LinkedIn
Stay in touch with Chad Bolser:
LinkedIn
About "The Secret to Transformational Leadership," which Sarah co-authored with Dr. Quintin Shepherd:
Transformational Leadership Secret website
Purchase the print or ebook
Hello, and welcome to Build Momentum, a show where we explore thought leadership and education. I'm Sarah Williamson, the founder of SWPR Group.
Katie Lash:And I'm Katie lash, the director of the East Central Educational Service Center.
Sarah Williamson:Together, we explore how to leverage key partners, your constituencies, and the media to authentically impact your organizations and the leaders who champion them. We can't wait to get started. So let's dive into today's show.
Katie Lash:Welcome to Build Momentum. Our guest today can be described as an educator, learner, advocate, and agent of change as we focus on thought leadership for education. That description certainly affirms so we absolutely had to invite Kristina Ishmael on our show. She's making a national impact on the field of education with her work in ed tech policy. As the Deputy Director in the Office of Ed Tech for the US education department. We are so excited to dive in. Thanks for being on the show.
Kristina Ishmael:Thanks so much. I'm excited to dive in with you.
Sarah Williamson:Awesome.
Katie Lash:There was a piece of this that I think is like super cool that Kristina like when I was that's a direct quote at the beginning of that intro. And that's all like a federal government website. How many people have like a federal government description about themselves? That's pretty cool. I think.
Sarah Williamson:Yes, so we had the pleasure of meeting at SD at that really awesome mosaic outlier party. So fun.
Kristina Ishmael:Yeah.
Sarah Williamson:So just super fun to see you again, and have you on our show, I'd love for you to talk about. It's pretty interesting how you're in your position right now. Could you share how you got into education? And then also how you ended up at the Office of Ed Tech?
Kristina Ishmael:Yeah, absolutely. Apologies to those that have already heard my story. But it's one of those like, I never saw myself in policy. So it's kind of entertaining to think about in that way. But I originally started in business and mass communication, and had one of my first interviews when I had moved to Omaha, Nebraska with my former husband, and I had a massive panic attack. And I was like, Oh, I'm not, I'm actually not supposed to do this, okay. And that was one of those moments, I was like, Oh, I've just been trying to pretend that education is not what I'm supposed to do. But I need to listen to my actual heart here and my gut and go. So I went back to school at that point. And I was teaching preschool while I was doing that, and then pursued early childhood and elementary education, and then was a kindergarten teacher or a second grade, dual language, Spanish teacher. So I taught all content in Spanish, and then was in second grade kind of inclusion teacher for a while, and then move districts and I was an ESL, teacher, kindergarten through sixth grade. So I would pull out through interventions, especially with newcomers, and then try to push in and co teach with folks in that role. I was pursuing my second master's and Ed Tech, and did a my action research was focused on professional learning for teachers across the state of Nebraska. And if they had access to professional learning to integrate technology, and lo and behold, it was good, but it was not great. And there also happened to be a position that opened up at the state level, at that point for the Digital Learning Specialist. And so that was sent my way by one of my former colleagues who I had met at a conference when I was presenting while teaching kind of moment, and I got the job, I got to fulfill my contract and finish out the year with students. But then I moved right to the state level from there. So I left the classroom, no district level in there, but classroom to state level. And it was a brand new position. Yeah, it was a brand new position that I got to create as I went along. And knowing that they really wanted half the job to be internal and focused on the policy development and the relationship building the coalition building with federal programs with curriculum and instruction with the assessment team. And then the other half of the, of the job was going out into the field. And Nebraska is actually a very large state, especially now that I live in DC, which is a very tiny state, not an official state, but I'm gonna call it a state. And I would go across the entire state, usually quarterly, I lived in Omaha worked in Lincoln, and then would kind of navigate all over the state and provide professional learning on anything and everything a tech related, and especially around like copyright, fair use and open educational resources. And that actually led me to my fellowship at ot back in 2016. And so I was already in that space. And the position opened up at OET at the time. And so I had the incredible opportunity to move out to DC back in April 2016. I was a one year fellow so I bridged administration's for a few months, and then the Hewlett Foundation who had funded that project supporting states and schools as he moved away. From traditional textbooks and materials to the use of open educational resources are somewhat unique in the sense that it's a foundation that also supports individuals, sometimes. And I happened to be one of the individuals. And so they were like, we really want to see this work continue and grow, kind of like where do you want to go from here. And so I ended up in DC at a think tank, and at New America. And so I was a part of their public interest technology team as well as their ed policy program. And so I got to work with folks that had just come out of the Obama administration on, you know, like civic technology, and what was my role in that, as well as on the ed policy program and continuing to build out kind of the OER portfolio across the country. From there, I went to an international open education organization, and had planned to go abroad for a year, and then the pandemic hits. So all the hands went out the window. Yeah. And we were safe and healthy, and we were good. So I will take that. But in that process, you know, it's like the universe puts you where you need to be. And I was fortunate enough to join the Biden-Harris transition team, and be a part of the Department of Education Agency Review Team. And it was that moment where I was like, oh, yeah, purpose filled, like mission driven work. I miss this stuff so much. And anxiously, patiently and patiently whatever you want to call it waited for a position to open up in the department, and that I just celebrated my one year anniversary, and so amazing on paper, I'm the Deputy Director of the Office in practice. I'm the director, I get two jobs in one. Leading a small and mighty team, there are eight of us. And yeah, developing national Ed tech policy.
Sarah Williamson:That is a story. That is incredible. I mean, that is an incredible career journey. Thank you for sharing that. Inspiring.
Kristina Ishmael:It's unique, right?
Sarah Williamson:Yeah. totally unique. I mean, the fact that you went from straight from the classroom? That's incredible.
Kristina Ishmael:Yeah.
Katie Lash:I love it.
Sarah Williamson:What's a day in the life like today for you? Can you just talk a bit more about that.
Kristina Ishmael:I wouldn't say that no, two days are the same. But that's not really true because there's just a lot of meetings, a lot of meetings, and a lot of emails and connection with the field, as well as kind of coalition building. This office has historically. So this was an office, it was established in the mid 90s. Congress actually, like had the foresight to be like, hey, technology is going to mean something in education, we should have an office that focuses on that. And so we are congressionally mandated to exist, that does not mean that we get the money to come alongside that. But we are mandated to exist to develop national edtech policy. And so we have just we've been in that space since the mid 90s. And we rely on our Lighthouse publication to really kind of drive that policy, which is called the National edtech plan. And so that is kind of updated on a cyclical basis, almost like your curriculum adoption. So we're, we just kicked off the work to revise that plan back in September. So that'll be another 14-16 months kind of process that we'll be doing. But in general, it's meeting with my colleagues across the Department of Education Today, I was in a policy committee meeting where I got to make sure that when they were talking about, you know, different types of assessments, they were saying, like, what are the different ways that we see assessment delivered? And it's like, well, statewide assessments we deliver via technology now in the majority of our state. And so what are the things that we're thinking ahead about, like, whether it's actual devices or high speed, reliable internet to make sure that there is strong connectivity? Do we have students that are, especially our youngest learners and my former learners. Do we have kindergarteners that are ready to get on a device and take an assessment? Not necessarily. And so
Sarah Williamson:I'll tell you, mine is not, nope.
Kristina Ishmael:So it's consultation with other offices and making sure that Ed Tech and all things digital learning are kind of thought about from the ground up, when it comes to policy, we review the policy or the publications that are coming out from other offices, so that we make sure that there's always kind of a say, from the office. And then just again, kind of connecting with the field as much as possible, staying grounded in the current practices, but also about like, what's on the horizon, we're we've got a report that we're
Sarah Williamson:That's so cool. That's great. working on right now about AI and education. And this will be like the first kind of thing that comes out from the Department of Ed on that topic. And so it's pretty exciting.
Katie Lash:That's very, very cool. I am nerding out on what you just said, because well, it's so interesting. I would have told you just a couple of years ago that like policy sounded like super intimidating or something like policies sounds like a big word. And now like yeah, I feel like that's I what I do, like, how did this happen? So we haven't met in person before but I would love to Yes, but anyway, work with our state to I'm often and in other episodes of this show, I've talked a lot about you can probably tell us I'm talking right now that like my videos a little bit fuzzy because I live in rural Indiana. And so I've talked about like having to report for my daughter's like, I'm actually in the big city right now, like, I am calling you from the big city in Randolph County. But I say that to say I was reading about your work in Nebraska, where you studied some of this, and an equity challenges. And I, again, still curious about your work federally in the same conversation.
Kristina Ishmael:Yeah, absolutely. Well, it's interesting. So Nebraska is one of seven states that do not allow charters, so they have a very strong public school system. And there were also a lot of one room schoolhouses that had to be consolidated to across the entire kind of date. And so when I was there in 2013, that's when I first started there. And I think even through late 2016, when I left for DC, about 245 public school districts across the entire state, and it really varied. I mean, you had Omaha Public Schools, my former district that is actually the same size as Boston and San Francisco Unified, it's about 54-55,000, pre K through 12. And then you've got some of the, you know, the suburban areas nearby that are still part of Omaha or in Lincoln. And then you've definitely got your rural districts that have only, you know, anywhere from 25 to 50 learners across their K 12. And so, it's interesting because we think the infrastructure more often is available in the larger urban or suburban areas. But what I found across the more rural areas, the infrastructure, as far as like the reliable high speed internet may not have necessarily been there. But I did notice that they were more agile, and they were more willing to try the EdTech and the tech integration, in general, because they could quickly make a pivot or favorite word of 2020. They could quickly move around, you know, and so, but you also see the inequities, of course, and even my first year teaching in Omaha Public Schools, there were inequities that I would see because I was in a magnet school in South Omaha, so a large Latin X population. And we had Spanish math and technology that were our magnet. So we had not only our regular school budget, our title one budget, then we had a magnet budget for all of those things. So I had access to technology, way more than my colleagues down the street at the other like regular elementary school. And so I saw those inequities right away. And I remember having those conversations, we would do like district wide professional learning, where I would be with my other kindergarten colleagues or second grade colleagues, and I pulled out my MacBook, because all of us in my building had MacBooks. And the other schools didn't have that. And I was like, wait a minute, what? what? you know, and like, and you start to see even those things firsthand, from the very beginning. I mean, you understand it. And so it's not necessarily just making sure that everyone has access to the same things, we know that, but the things that they need, that's going to meet them where they need. And so we talk a lot about that. Now, of course, if the digital equity work that we're doing in the office, and we have two of our team members who have been focusing on that for the past year, and led an initiative called digital equity education roundtables, because they were able to identify, like the five populations that are furthest from those digital equity and opportunities, students of color, students from rural areas, students from urban areas that have been digitally redlined, where you know, one street has access to connectivity. And then the next three over doesn't have access our native and indigenous students, as well as our higher ed, adult learners, those that are involved with justice system, kind of that whole range of our adult learners as well. And so we wanted to hear the voices of these populations in any sort of publication that we would put out. And we were able to identify kind of the three elements of that digital equity, which are availability, affordability, and adoption. And like we've been working on the availability, we've been working on that for a long time, the actual infrastructure, the pipes and the wires and the fiber in the ground. And then you've got the affordability, which is hard. A lot of times, we've certainly made efforts with the federal government's programs like the affordable connectivity program that has that $30 subsidy that more or less can cover a lot of people's broadband service because of the interest from the internet service providers to also provide something that's affordable for folks. But it's an adoption piece too. Unless it's coming from a trusted community based organization, then we have a lot of people that are like, Hmm, I'm good. I don't need these programs, or I'm not interested in your program here. And so those are kind of the things that we've been working on in the digital equity space now within OET and how do we continue to lift up the community work that requires those relationships that are deeply ingrained in that Community.
Katie Lash:Yes, that's, yes, you speak my language because we certainly see that I serve a bunch of school districts, so I have some more urban settings. So what you're describing is so true, like, depends where you live if you have access within that community, but then also, I think then some of our rural districts that may not have the fiber optic in the ground, actually, I'm advocating for that right now in my community where I live. But anyway, they might not have the fiber in the ground. But somebody said this the other day, and it's so resonated, one of my more rural districts who said, you know, we're not a cruise ship, but we're a kayak, and we can move like, we can turn a lot quicker. And I was like, that's, yeah,
Sarah Williamson:That's it.
Katie Lash:And I thought that was so smart,
Kristina Ishmael:Oh I need to find out who said that because I want to use that.
Katie Lash:I will. I'll connect you. They would love to meet you.
Kristina Ishmael:Okay, great.
Katie Lash:Yeah. You said, Yeah, I love that analogy. So when you said that this was just a conversation the other day of like, we have some pretty nice because we can skew Yeah.
Kristina Ishmael:Yep. Absolutely.
Sarah Williamson:Well, real districts have been doing it longer for them. pandemic. I think you guys had a head start.
Katie Lash:Yeah.
Sarah Williamson:Katie. I mean, you guys had to be innovative. Otherwise, yeah. What would you do? Right?
Katie Lash:Yeah. Survival.
Kristina Ishmael:I will, I'll never, You know survival, right? I will never forget, Sarah, since I know that you'd mentioned Oregon. A dear friend of mine is the former state ed tech director for Oregon, Carla Wade, who's now at CoSN. And one of the first Sita meeting, if she's the state ed tech Directors Association of which I used to be a part of as a state folk. But she mentioned like some of the rural areas having satellites for access, and then heavy snowfall, they'd have to go out and shovel the snow off the satellites. And I was like, wait, what? I mean, we got snow in Nebraska. But I don't know, I don't know if anyone was doing that. So really, like we that is when you, you know, the principles out there. And so as the second grade teacher that's helping with that. That's the beauty of small rural districts as well.
Sarah Williamson:Yes. Oh, oh, my goodness. Okay. So I'm curious, Kristina, how and when? And if do you work with Edtech Providers? So I partner with a lot of providers through our company. So SWPR Group, it's a PR agency focused on edtech. So I'm curious, I know, it's a sensitivity for you. But do you ever work with those organizations to find out what they're doing?
Kristina Ishmael:Yeah. Yeah. I mean, that is definitely one of our charges, as well as, as we're developing policy, we have to stay informed by the field. And that's not just the practitioners, but that's also the developers and the entrepreneurs. So this is something new that we're trying in the office, I think it's working right now, we're a couple months into this little pilot here. But I was really kind of cognizant about coming back into government, because I don't really think there were a lot of healthy boundaries, the last time that I was in this role, and there were expectations for communication, at any time of the day and night, for that matter, or early morning. And I was like, we're not doing that. And so
Sarah Williamson:Good for you.
Kristina Ishmael:So we helped kind of establish those healthy boundaries. And one of those boundaries that we set up was like, we as a team have to stay informed in the research and the current kind of events that are happening. So we've instituted a no means Friday, so that we can spend time, not only catching up on the correspondence with folks from the field, but also like making sure that we are reading and that we are, you know, perhaps doing more professional learning on our own, because we need to be modeling that learning as well. But the second Friday of the month, we've held for meeting with folks. And that's where so like after edtech week in September, I had quite a few people that wanted to connect with us and say like, you know, a theater a demo or find out more information about our office, and that holding that kind of sacred second Friday of the month has been really good. And so we get, we stack those meetings, and you know, it's a marathon. And so I also have to You said the sensitivity like it, that is really important thing for us to note as well, like, we cannot endorse content, curriculum tools, software hardware, like any of that. So we have to walk that fine line. And then unlike some of my other offices at ED, we're not a grant making office either. So we have no money to give anyone, we just get to develop the policy.
Katie Lash:That's actually awesome, though, because then you could be like, they're not in it for money, because I've gotten done. So like it's fine.
Kristina Ishmael:And so I mean, we have those ongoing conversations, or like I was at CO the past two days, their leadership summit here in DC, and they have their partners, so I got to meet some new folks yesterday, like they want to connect afterwards. And so again, it allows us to stay connected. One of my favorite words that I learned about whenever I got to the federal level is the bully pulpit. And that is where we get to leverage the power of the Office of the administration and like the agency itself. And so we have a pretty unique convening power that does not exist in many other places. And so I can call up the folks from X, Y, and Z company to say, hey, we're gonna have this convening, we need to talk about AI and education, we need to talk about the ethics and the use of your algorithms. Come join that conversation. And they're gonna come, because they want to be a part of that conversation. Yeah, so there are those kinds of pieces that we also get to like flex that bully pulpit. It's also just a really fun word to say, but and so we get to do that. And that's how we really stay connected to the ed tech side of things.
Sarah Williamson:Yeah, brilliant. That's great. Okay, thank you for answering that. Are you looking to build brand awareness and expand your impact as an organization, but maybe you're struggling to find the ROI with your general marketing and PR efforts, it could be time to try something a little different. At SWPR Group, we approach every organization through the lens of how you can help them add the most value to the conversations that are happening in education today, for one of our clients, the Institute for Education innovation, this led to the launch of Supe's, choice, an award that we co created to build incredible brand awareness and his firmly established organization as an industry leader driving impact, growth and awareness on every level. For Edmentum. This meant the launch of thought leadership panels at education conferences, and a new webinar series featuring influencers and partners that are making a difference in education. What will your success story be? Let me know when you're ready to get started. Reach out at Sarah sarag@SWPR-group.com. We look forward to hearing from you. What about one more question on that subject is is there any product out there that I know during the pandemic we sought tons and tons of tutoring companies and SEL companies? Is there any product? I'm sure you saw that as well. Anything that sprung up that you think we still need that you want seen?
Kristina Ishmael:That's a good question. I don't know if it's necessarily a product. But I'm really, perhaps it's because we have been focused on the AI and education. And as far as like the future of teaching and learning. But I'm really eager to see where AI is going to take us. I know that there are risks. Don't get me wrong. And like we want to acknowledge that there are risks. But I also perhaps it's the optimist in me, but I just see all of the opportunities that are going to come with this as well. And, you know, I had the chance to meet with a vendor at South by Southwest edu back in March. And as a former early childhood elementary teacher, I was like, Why didn't this exist when I was in the classroom, because it was a diagnostic for reading for fluency and comprehension. And the learners would get on, they would record the reading passage. And it did all of the actual like running record check marks, the substitutions, the omissions, the deletions, like all that for you. And I mean, I spent hours of instructional time doing that with each of my learners, when I could have been providing more targeted intervention, whatever the case may have been. And I just see some of that technology being applied in classrooms that we were just on the like the very early stages of that right now.
Sarah Williamson:I agree. Yeah. So it's better than dibbles.
Kristina Ishmael:Sure,
Katie Lash:Dibbles is still a thing. It's just now we do it in like other ways. Yeah,
Kristina Ishmael:That is true. That is true.
Sarah Williamson:What a great word. dibbles. Are you kidding me? I mean really
Katie Lash:Kinda like the bully pulpit or whatever you said, bully pit. Whatever.
Kristina Ishmael:The bully pulpit. Yeah.
Sarah Williamson:When that teacher told me that dibbles were a thing. I was like, what dibbles anyway, It's kind of funny.
Kristina Ishmael:Uh huh.
Katie Lash:So that's still a very well used, like lots of companies with Yea h, I still a thing
Kristina Ishmael:It is. It's a thing. It's a thing
Katie Lash:It's not like how we used to do it, not how we used to do it.
Kristina Ishmael:Right.
Katie Lash:Okay, so Christina, you said your department doesn't have any money. But you know, who does have money, lots of school districts that are getting all of these relief dollars. And companies happen to know that districts have this money?
Kristina Ishmael:Yeah.
Katie Lash:Which obviously again, schools need this money this is desperately need. That's really accelerated what we've needed for a long time. But again, they're getting it from every angle of like, let me tell you how you could use your extra dollars. That's a pet peeve of mine, by the way. I don't like that. But anyways, we qualify for us are okay, that's yes.
Kristina Ishmael:Yeah.
Katie Lash:Okay.
Kristina Ishmael:Yeah.
Katie Lash:Tell me what you do. Right. Anyway. What ideas or advice do you have for districts in trying to prioritize or sort through that because it's an exciting time, but it's hard.
Kristina Ishmael:It is. It is. I think it comes back to knowing It's hard. your why and your school district. And also it kind comes down to needs assessments like what do our learners need in this moment? Do we need to invest more in social emotional learning and mental health services? Do we need to invest more in our conductivity and devices? Because we know that this is going to fall off at the end of this year? And we need to think about the money right now for that? Or do we need to look at more teacher recruitment and retainment? And so it really comes down to the priority areas, but it has to start with the why, like, why are we doing this? What? How are we serving our community, and then making sure that there's representation from folks as you're thinking about each of those areas. And so whenever I lead go open, it was, you know, the district would make the decision to move away from a traditional textbook to the use of OER. But it had to be this team from across the district, it had to be classroom teachers, if you had to include your librarian, or you meet a specialist, because they're trained in this to your district level decision makers, your chief academic officer, your Director of Curriculum Instruction, I think that that also has to be replicated in how you're thinking about spending these dollars as well as like, you have to have representation across your entire district. And for that matter, where student voice and parent and caregiver voice and all of this, because I'm sure that they have some different feelings about things to
Katie Lash:No, I appreciate what you're saying, though. It's really that's the student voice. I think it's so easy to sometimes, you know, we make a lot of decisions really quickly, because we have to, and then why did we do that?
Kristina Ishmael:Yeah. And I think the other thing right now, as we're thinking about the millions of dollars that are out in schools, we're also hearing from people that are like, scared to spend it. And the Secretary and my director, the Assistant Secretary have reminded us recently, please spend your money. Half of Congress didn't want schools to have these relief dollars. We need everyone to spend their money.
Sarah Williamson:I know. And a lot. Yeah, they're not a lot of them. So yeah, spend it.
Katie Lash:That's an interesting note. I don't want to take us, I don't want to take us off tangent. But Kristina, I want to be your best friend. Because I want to learn from you all this to like, define when the money is spent, right? encumbered versus like, implanted. Like, I digress, I digress. But that's it's so interesting that Yeah,
Sarah Williamson:Okay. One quick one more question for me, Kristina. So I'm just curious, you kind of talked about the future of education being really AI focused on this show, we really talked about thought leadership and how we can kind of how we can work together with edtech companies, school district leaders, and really embrace that from both sides. And I'm just curious what you think, really is the future of education? How are these ed tech partners going to help support take us there? How is it going to? How's that going to shake
Kristina Ishmael:Yeah. I mean, it's nothing new in the sense out? that even as much as I love technology, and I saw what technology could do in the hands of my multilingual learners, when I was in the classroom, not only for language acquisition, but for content acquisition as well, it is a tool, it is a tool, it is not meant to substitute the teacher. And as we are developing kind of our report on AI and education, the phrase that we keep coming back to, is that the human in the loop. And like, how are we incorporating educators as we think about the development of new tools and solutions, whether it's using AI or machine learning, or whatever, you know, the actual technology is, how are we making sure that educators are involved in that process? Because there are a lot of really smart people out there that are like, Oh, I remember when I was in K 12, this was a problem. When's the last time you actually talk to someone to make sure that that is indeed still a problem? And then how do they develop those solutions alongside like, we need to co design with educators and with learners. And so I don't know if it's necessarily like I said, I don't know if it's really new by any means. But I just see some companies that are intentionally reaching out to educators, you know, compensating them for their time making sure that they're not, you know, expecting free labor by any means. But then they're co design some of these solutions. And it's just different. It focus, like it functions differently when you see it co designed with education and with those educators at your side.
Sarah Williamson:Yeah, I love that. It's great answer
Katie Lash:Me to. It's like, we need the students, they like our decisions impacting students, but also as what we're developing, helping the teachers like. So we've kind of talked a little bit about this earlier, but I'm fascinated by policy, education policy. So when you get a stage in front of district leaders, what priorities you highlight, I've sensed a few of them already. But then and then what policy do you see ahead?
Kristina Ishmael:Yeah, so we spent some time at the beginning of this year when the Secretary had released his priorities for this administration and kind of for the Department of Education under President Biden. We really wanted to focus on response and recovery from the pandemic, of course, we wanted to look at achievement gaps, which we know are quite wide right now, especially with new nape scores that recently released, we wanted to look at making higher education affordable and accessible. And then we also wanted to look at the pathways for higher education. You know, there are multiple different ways to get there. And it may not necessarily be higher education, and may be more career focused. So what are the different pathways there, we also are, have been working on the pipeline, which is, I think, just an ongoing thing that we have to address, whether it's recruitment or retention, we are deeply understaffed across the entire country. So once we saw those priorities come out, our team spent a quite a bit of time saying, Okay, what is this look like then for our office? What are we going to focus on? Yes, we know that the national ad tech plan has to come out of our office, we need a revision that will be coming over the next 14-16 months, however long it's gonna take. But how do we then think about these priorities within the context of Ed Tech. And so we kind of framed everything through digital equity and opportunity. Because once we get that digital equity, we get to those opportunities. And the challenge of our office is not only developing national and tech policy for K 12, it's actually p 12. Higher Education and adult learning or workforce. And so we have that entire continuum to consider. And that's, I mean, like, that's a big lift. So what are the ways that we can think of, you know, tying it back to the priorities where we can see p 12. Here in higher education, or adult education over here, and one of the ways we're gonna get that and operationalize kind of that charge. So digital equity and opportunity, and then our three priorities within that our digital inclusion, ecosystems and emerging trends and technologies. And so with the bipartisan infrastructure law that President Biden signed a year ago, November of 2021, we knew that that was going to bring a lot of money to infrastructure, especially towards broadband. And we also got for the first time ever codified in law, we have the definition of digital equity, and digital inclusion. And so we took that we're going to build off of that. And so digital inclusion is not only connectivity and devices, but it's also access to content. And so we wanted to expand that to also talk about instructional models, especially when it talks when we're using technology, and then technical assistance to make sure that folks can actually operate the devices and the connectivity that's being given to them or, you know, figure it out in their homes. And then the final piece is digital literacy. We did a really good job in March of 2020. And at the beginning months of the pandemic, trying to get out hotspots and kind of that emergency remote learning to ensure continuity of learning. And sometimes those paper packets trust me those hotspots don't always work in rural places, we know that. But we also recognize that was just the first step. And you know, the districts that have been one to one and have been sending computers or devices home for quite some time, already knew this long before the pandemic, but that was just the first step. So what are the skills that we now need to make sure that everyone can not only get on their devices, but then navigate the different tools and the applications? And so that's where that the digital literacy, which also encompasses information literacy, and mis and disinformation, media literacy? How do we navigate the different types of media that are coming like digital citizenship, that all falls in within that digital literacy, and then we moved on to the ecosystems, but we were I was thinking boxes and wires, like boxes and wires, we need to think about the infrastructure that backbone that everything works off of. And so that's student data, privacy, cybersecurity, interoperability, are these different tools that we are using talking to one another? Most often they're not?
Sarah Williamson:Oh, my gosh, I know, right?
Kristina Ishmael:And accessibility. And so when I presented that to Assistant Secretary, Roberto Rodriguez, he said, love it. But where are the humans? Like, where are the humans in your ecosystem? And I was like, Okay. And so, you know, like, we had to go back and think about that, well, educators and educational leaders are part of our ecosystem, and their families and communities, because we could not have done what we did in the past three years, without our families and communities. And so then we've kind of added them on as part of like, not only the digital infrastructure, but we also need the humans as part of our ecosystems. And while the digital inclusion and the ecosystems work kind of stays grounded in the current practices, we also have to keep our eye on the horizon of what's coming. And so that's where the emerging trends and technologies comes into play. And that's leveraging the bully pulpit to vision and bring those folks together. It's talking to developers about responsible use and design. Are you responsibly thinking about how you design X tool to work with preschoolers? I don't know. Let's have that conversation. And then the last one is on evidence. And this is something that we're still like for the very beginning of this work as well. Our office historically has done some work in rapid cycle tech evaluation, which is because you can't do like your traditional research or Ed Tech. Because the tool changes so quickly. So if you want to study like this tool in a second grade classroom, and it takes a two or three year study, that tool is very different two or three years later. And so how can we think about it more like action research and iterate on the types of things that we put in front of our learners, and then make changes accordingly. And we know that with ESSA, Every Student Succeeds Act that was signed into law in 2015, as well as all of the relief dollars, we're supposed to be making decisions and purchases based on evidence. And not everyone knows that. There are the four levels of evidence, and it can start level one, like maybe it's just a logic model that an edtech company has put together to say, hey, we think this is our theory of change. If you put this in a classroom, we think then this will happen. That is level one to level four that has been studied and peer reviewed, and all of that. But that evidence piece is another missing piece right now. And so we're trying to start working in that space.
Sarah Williamson:We're hearing that more and more states are creating or at least school districts are requiring that evidence to be a part of an RFP, or a metric that's becoming more commonplace. Yeah.
Kristina Ishmael:Great.
Sarah Williamson:I think that interesting. Yeah.
Kristina Ishmael:I think, Katie, that goes back to what you were saying about the relief dollars, where you've got all of these vendors send in the things saying, Hey, we can take your money, we can take your money. Great. So maybe evidence would not be a fun conversation to be a part of.
Katie Lash:Yeah, absolutely. No, that's so interesting, though, the amount of spaces that you get to work like all of the I mean, you talked about ecosystem, but all of those things you described are just part of this. Yeah. Yeah.
Kristina Ishmael:That's amazing. Yeah,
Sarah Williamson:It's super amazing. You're truly making an agent for change. I should say you're an agent for change. I love it.
Kristina Ishmael:Thank you I appreciate that.
Sarah Williamson:Yes. Thank you, Kristina.
Katie Lash:Do you have more questions Sarah? Are we wrapped up?
Sarah Williamson:I don't know, We're getting long here.
Katie Lash:It's great though. Like, I mean, this is one of my favorites so far. I mean, maybe I shouldn't have said all of them. were my favorites. Anyway, so Kristina, great to have you. If people want to know more about your work. How should they reach out to you? What's the best way to learn what you're doing?
Kristina Ishmael:Yeah. tech.ed.gov is our website. And it is a living breathing website. It is an anomaly in that our office gets to own it. So trust me when I say I have access to our website, and I'm updating it on a weekly basis.
Katie Lash:Wow,
Kristina Ishmael:That is true. Not everyone can say that.
Sarah Williamson:Yes.
Kristina Ishmael:And for good or bad, or for better or worse? I don't know. Right now. We are on Twitter. And we are still communicating with folks on Twitter, whether or not you have stayed or you have decided to leave that platform. I do not know. But we are Office of Ed Tech on Twitter.
Sarah Williamson:Awesome. This is so fantastic. Kristina. I hope to see you at a conference coming up. Hopefully you're traveling again soon.
Kristina Ishmael:Me too. Look forward to that.
Sarah Williamson:Thank you again for chatting with us today.
Kristina Ishmael:Absolutely. Thank you.
Sarah Williamson:If you're looking for more of this thought leadership goodness for your organization, you're in the right place. Visit us at swpr-group.com to learn more about how we work with education organizations and their leaders, superintendents and influencers to increase your impact. Again, that's swpr-group.com. Thanks for tuning in today and we will see you next time on Build Momentum.