Adam Sparks is a licensed educator with seven years of secondary English and Social Studies teaching experience. He recently finished his master’s degree in Learning Design & Technology at Stanford where his work focused on formative assessment, writing instruction, and technology integration.
Alexa Sparks is a software engineer with a masters degree in Education Data Science from the Stanford Graduate School of Education, where she studied machine learning, natural language processing, and the other underlying technologies that power Generative AI tools. She’s published original research in Dr. Dora Demszky’s research lab on AI’s ability to provide effective feedback on student writing.
AI In the Loop, Teachers in Charge is the newest offering from our team. This interactive, hour-long talk focuses on the promises and perils of AI in K12 education. We invite attendees from across the AI enthusiasm spectrum – from pessimists who feel AI represents our impending doom as a species to optimists who think AI will save the world – to meet us in the middle. To do so, we discuss the basics of AI, its societal implications, the technology powering it, and what research tells us about best practices in implementing AI in the K12 classroom. Our goal is for teachers to walk away energized to harness the opportunities AI presents to the K12 educator while mitigating its (many!) flaws.
A Bot & A Hard Place: Writing Instruction for the Age of AI is our flagship workshop. This half-day, in-person session provides a 5-point framework for adjusting instruction and assessment in the wake of AI. Educators walk away with an understanding of how new AI tools work along with practical policies, strategies, and tools to effectively integrate AI into the classroom. Find out more and read feedback on the workshop here.
In addition to keynotes and half-day workshops, our team offers shorter professional development sessions (read more here) focused on specific topics across K12. These include:
Schools who purchase Short Answer licenses also gain access to 1-1 coaching and support. This most often takes the form of Digital Office Hours: On a selected day, the Short Answer team is available to staff in a Zoom link. Teachers can pop in during their prep period or whenever it works best throughout the day to ask questions or build curriculum 1-1 with the Short Answer team.
