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Despite being a self-proclaimed “technology dork,” Marlon Styles Jr. is also an educator, an author, and an influencer who insists technology should never lead educational initiatives.
“I love immersive reality. I love virtual reality. It’s cool. It’s fantastic,” he says. “But I need a purpose for that to show up inside of a classroom and have that technology really influence the kids’ experience.”
Marlon will be keynoting next month’s Tech & Learning Leadership Summit at NCCE 26 in Seattle, WA. During our conversation, I was able to pull some exclusive insights into what he has in store.
Marlon will propose something many leaders might find uncomfortable: breaking the habit of relying on the same “inner circles” to make strategic decisions. “We break the habit of engaging the same inner circles to make strategic decisions in our systems. Inner circles mean the same people show up to the table to make decisions,” he explains. “What I’m proposing is that we really leverage expertise in a unique way and bring specific intentional expertise from our employee base to the table to help us engage in strategic decision-making.”
Marlon also challenges another education buzzword: data-driven decision-making. “I’m no longer saying that we need to be data-driven decision-makers,” he suggests. “I’m saying that we need to be really strategic about how we collect and interact with intelligence from across our system to better inform the kind of decisions that we might make.”
Finally, Marlon advocates for what he calls “agentic AI” — artificial intelligence that acts as a partner in decision-making rather than just a productivity tool. “How might we uniquely engage agentic AI with a specific set of expertise that we’ve convened to help us really make better strategic decisions?”