This year’s Georgia Educational Technology Conference (GaETC) theme is “Passport to Innovation,” which signifies a journey into new ideas, creativity, and progress.
Electric keynote speaker, global educator and author Ayo Jones, speaks to this theme in her “SHIFT Towards Legacy” presentation. This engaging talk centers on the idea that, as educators, we have the ability to leave a profound and lasting legacy in what we choose to do in our classrooms and in our professional lives—a legacy that lives on for generations.
We chat with Jones, who is passionate about helping educators navigate their path into the Intelligence Age, about how to make the most of networking events with a three-step conference gameplan.
It’s Time to SHIFT
Jones’ intriguing family history reveals educator-relevant key ideas she calls “The Three Foundational SHIFTs,” which form the heart of her SHIFT System guide to the AI Age:
- The SHIFT to Humanize through Community Intelligence — inspired by her great-grandparents and their focus on collective action.
- The SHIFT to See through Intentional Perception — inspired by her grandmother, a market woman whose success depended on her ability to see details, patterns, and the big picture.
- The SHIFT to Iterate through Forward Motion — inspired by her father’s “Forward, Ever. Backward, Never,” mantra and personal story.
These three shifts are essential “stamps” in the passport every educator needs to navigate this new era, says Jones. As we enter a generative AI-influenced world that includes a brand new language, a brand new culture, a brand new everything—how are we going to connect and relate to these emerging realities in a way for students to have the best result?
“In this moment as educators, there’s some anxiety and we’re not feeling confident about where we’re standing,” she says. “By sharing the story of these lessons from my ancestors, it highlights that we leave a legacy. We leave a legacy not only for our own children, but as educators, for all the kids we teach.”
Jones suggests that this is an opportunity to shape that legacy by examining ourselves and our journeys, as well as those who helped to shape us.
“This idea of sitting pleasantly and empowered in the fact that we guide the future by what we do today in our classrooms—it’s so powerful!” she says. “But it’s also a great reminder that we aren’t teaching to get through to Friday. We aren’t teaching to make it to the end of the school year. We are teaching to equip kids with what they need to be successful so they can live their own legacy and become an extension of everything that we’ve learned and the knowledge we’ve gained. Much like in the days of a small village where everybody benefited from the knowledge of the elders, there’s a little bit of that opportunity to pass that forward, and I don’t want us to miss it.”
Changing Mindsets
Experts believe the tides of generative AI influence in everyday life have not only already hit shore, but we are standing ankle deep.
”When we look at what industry is doing and what the business sector is doing in terms of AI adoption, education at large is just behind,” says Jones. “We’re so far behind, we need a new word for ‘We’re behind.’”
Despite her passion to light a fire and inspire action, Jones understands the discomfort of taking such big leaps into the future.
“We are all very worried about the tech taking over—Terminator is going to happen, iRobot is real,” she says. “But the tool is only what we direct it to be. We can take this moment and declare that our human connection, our connection with our ancestors and our students and our children—that’s the important thing. So what do we want to make of it?”
The answer is thoughtful and intentional adoption of new tech, using that passport to innovation to travel outside our comfort levels.
“We need to have a mindset shift, almost a cultural shift, to be able to feel confident we are doing the right thing,” Jones says. “Even if we’re not ready to have a conversation about student-facing AI tools, we can teach a foundational AI-ready skillset to students—things like creativity and critical thinking and problem solving. We can teach sequential thought, the process of thinking, to our students even if they have no AI tools in the classroom.”
Jones notes that it seems as if AI in education is in an all-or-nothing place between use and abuse, which is a challenge for leaders to navigate. She suggests it’s crucial to focus on opportunity now, rather than risk.
“Our students have to have AI capacity in order to be reliable in the workplace,” she says. “Yet we still look at using an AI tool as cheating. It’s because of the way we’re delivering instruction and assessments in the classroom. We have to rethink what that looks like. If we do that, it won’t feel like an unfair advantage.”
Educators facing a school system that has not fully embraced AI in the classroom can still help their students prepare.
“We can teach AI readiness as early as kindergarten without having a single AI tool in our classroom,” Jones says. “We can be really intentional about building these skills without ever touching a chatbot or opening Gemini. Don’t we want to start working on critical thinking and problem solving and creativity in the classroom today? The answer to that question is always yes.”
According to Jones, the mindset shift and change in workforce mentality must happen now, within the next six months.
Put On Your Own Mask First
When faced with an overwhelming level of change and pressure to catch up, it can be tempting to rush to the end goal.
“We really need to understand this is going to be a journey of a thousand little steps,” Jones says. “It starts with getting our own workforce up to snuff. Our adults cannot lead our students into this new intelligence age without some heavy duty professional development and targeted intervention. Put your own mask on before you help anyone else.”
This can be a relief for some administrators reluctant to jump into unfamiliar waters.
“This is about workforce readiness and reexamining our instructional pedagogy—two parallel tracks we have to be on at the same time,” Jones says. “Leadership is really having a struggle because you have to be thoughtful about getting your workforce ready and what that looks like. At the same time, you have to take care when it comes to making structural changes to the way instruction happens in the classroom. It has to benefit our students and not put them in a position of entering the workforce behind, which is where we are right now.”
Jones suggests educators think about AI tools as a collaborator, or student assistant or TA in their classroom.
“As adults in the workforce, educators need to know how to use AI tools,” she says. “I feel like we are going to end up failing kids if we don’t get ourselves in a position where we can really guide them. Our students are falling into AI naturally, but not effectively, because they don’t have the skills that they need to be collaborators and evaluators of the tool itself.”
Jones feels on a large scale at the industry level, education needs to shift their expectations of what education looks like in this new reality, which is not something a principal or superintendent is going to solve in a silo.
“That’s why the collaborative piece is so important at conferences,” she says. “It’s your opportunity to interact with other people who are also standing in the same space that you are, trying to figure things out and collaborate in a way that says, you know what? I think that this is the right direction for education at large. Let’s move in that direction.”
3 Tips For A Conference Gameplan for Success
Attending conferences such as GaETC to gain insight from speakers, connect with potential partners, and network with other people in the AI realm is extremely valuable for those enhancing or just starting their future-ready program.
Jones offers advice to get the most out of such opportunities.
1. Look for a strategy, not just a collection of tools. “A lot of people come out of a conference exhibit hall where it is, ‘Look more AI! Even bigger AI! Better AI!’ That can feel really overwhelming,” Jones says. “You feel like you’re just collecting AI tools like free pens down the exhibit hall.” Instead, seek a strategy for what’s going to work for your institution.
2. Don’t get stuck in, “Does this work?” You should ask, “Can it work for my staff, for the adults in my institution, my district, my school, my building, my team? Will this work for us? How can we make it work for our workforce?”
3. A perfect product or plan doesn’t exist. Focus on that next level from where you’re at currently, the next pedal to push so that you’re making progressive steps. “Commit to improving the capacity of your workforce—from the counselor to the administrators, from the teacher to the custodian,” says Jones. “Commit to building the skills our students are going to need when they get out into the workforce in 2, 5, 10, 20 years. If we start making small steps, it doesn’t feel as overwhelming, but it gets us moving in the right direction.”