Being a leader with new technology is a trick.

Move too slowly, and the world can pass you by.

Move too quickly, and you can find yourself chasing every shiny new thing that comes along.

I’ve been thinking about that a lot lately as I build the new S-Cubed AI Coach App.  

Because the funny thing is, I’ve been here before.

Not with artificial intelligence, of course. But with technology.

I Remember the “Old” Way

When I started teaching in 1989, Apple was the "new tech".  Everyone was up in arms about Apple.  The Mac.  

In 1989, I stood in front of students. I watched their faces. I listened to their voices. I figured out when they understood something and when they didn't while the next-level older teachers were telling the other young ones and me...Apple is it.  

They were right.  

Over 30 years in the classroom, though, something interesting happened.

Technology kept changing around me.

Mac has arrived.  

Then the internet.

Then digital resources.

Then YouTube.

Then social media.

Eventually, a teacher could create something in one classroom and share it with teachers all over the world.

That changed my life.

At Some Point, I Had a Choice

I could keep doing things the way I had always done them.

Or I could ask a different question:

Can this new technology help me do what I already know how to do—better?

That question eventually helped turn the lessons I had created for my own students into the S-Cubed Sight Singing Program using tech long before AI came around.  I just used the tech of the time.  

Technology didn't create those lessons.

Years of teaching children created them.

Years of watching students struggle created them.

Years of trying something, failing, changing it, and trying again created them.

Technology simply gave me a way to share what I had learned with people far beyond my own classroom.

That's an important distinction.

And now, all these years later, I'm asking myself essentially the same question about AI.

AI Feels Different

I understand why some teachers are uncomfortable with artificial intelligence.

I'm not dismissive of those concerns.

In fact, I think some skepticism is healthy.

We should ask questions.

What are we giving up?

What happens to creativity?

What happens to critical thinking?

What happens to the relationship between a teacher and a student?

Those things matter enormously to me.

But there's another question I think we need to ask:

What becomes possible now that wasn't possible before?

That's the question that has me excited.

Old Knowledge. New Technology.

I've spent the last several weeks putting years of my own teaching experience into the S-Cubed AI Coach App.  The same way I spent thousands of hours getting my original work into the hands and classrooms of teachers 13 years ago.  

And there is something almost surreal about it.

I'm doing it all over again.  

I'm taking lessons I developed long before anyone was talking about generative AI and putting them inside one of the newest technologies available.

Old and new are meeting each other.

The teaching philosophy is still mine.

The sequence is still mine.

The mistakes are mine.

The successes are mine.

The stories are mine.  I told them when I set my iPhone 4 into a corner of my classroom in 2013.  I took control then.  And I am still taking control.  This blog is my spot.  It has been my spot since 2013.  Look.  It will always be my spot as times change.  

The experience behind it comes from real classrooms filled with real middle school students.  I did it. 

AI didn't create any of that.

What AI may be able to do is help me make that experience available to a teacher at the exact moment they need it.

A teacher doesn't necessarily need another 90-minute professional development session.

Sometimes they need someone to say:

"You're on Lesson 3. Here's what you should pay attention to today."  

Or:

"Don't panic. Your students are supposed to struggle with this part."

Or maybe:

"Try this tomorrow."

That's where I see the opportunity.

And I am working as hard on this as I did when I created the original program.  

It's all documented.  I made sure of it.  Nobody gets to tell my story but me.  

Maybe This Is What Leadership Looks Like

For a long time, I think I associated leadership with knowing the answer.

Age has changed that for me.

Now I think leadership often means being willing to walk into something new before you completely understand it.

Not recklessly.

Curiously.

You bring your experience with you.

You ask questions.

You experiment.

You keep what works.

You throw away what doesn't.

And most importantly, you don't abandon the principles that got you there in the first place.

I'm 62 years old.  That- actually-  is currently my power.  And I am owning it.  

I'm not trying to become a 25-year-old technology entrepreneur.

I'm bringing decades of experience into a technology that didn't exist for most of my career.

And I'm discovering that those two things aren't in conflict.

They may actually belong together.

Because New Doesn't Automatically Mean Better

I've watched plenty of technologies come and go.

Some promised to revolutionize education and disappeared a few years later.  I've been there for it.  

So I'm not interested in AI simply because AI is new.

I'm interested in it because I'm beginning to see ways it might solve problems I've been thinking about for years.

That's different.

Technology should serve the mission.

The mission shouldn't serve the technology.

My mission hasn't changed.

I want teachers to feel successful.

I want students to experience the incredible feeling that happens when they suddenly realize:

"Wait. I can actually read music."

I wanted that when I was standing in front of my own students in all of the videos I have posted since 2013 on YouTube before people trusted YouTube.  

I did it to document my work.  

And I want it now as I build an AI coach.

The tools have changed.

The purpose hasn't.

Maybe That's the Trick

Perhaps being a leader with new technology isn't about always being the first person through the door.

And it certainly isn't about adopting every new tool that comes along.

Maybe it's about knowing when a new tool can help you carry something valuable forward.

That's where I find myself right now.

Taking 30 years of teaching experience, 13 years of building S-Cubed, thousands of interactions with teachers and students—and introducing all of that experience to something completely new.

I don't know exactly where AI is going.

None of us do.

But I've been through enough changes in my life to know this:

I'm not afraid of something simply because it's new.

And I'm not willing to discard something simply because it's old.  And I want to stay that way.  

The best part of moving forward may be figuring out how to bring the best of the old world with us.

That's what I'm trying to do.

And on October 6, I'll get to share the next step of that journey.