{"type":"rich","version":"1.0","provider_name":"Transistor","provider_url":"https://transistor.fm","author_name":"Make It Mindful: An Education Podcast","title":"#88 AI Policy and the District Reality in Texas with Dr. Alfonso Mendoza, Jr.","html":"","width":"100%","height":180,"duration":3222,"description":"In this episode of Make It Mindful, Seth talks with Dr. Alfonso \"Fonz\" Mendoza Jr. — Teaching and Learning Coordinator at Kami and host of My EdTech Life, a 373-episode podcast that has reached more than 8,500 educators — about what AI actually does and doesn't do for teachers, and what it means to find meaning in work when automation keeps changing what work looks like. This is a crossover episode, appearing on both Make It Mindful and My EdTech Life.\nTogether, Seth and Fonz explore the argument that teachers remain the ultimate technology in the classroom — not because AI isn't capable, but because the ability to read a room, improvise, and form genuine relationships with students isn't something that scales to a statistical prediction machine. They talk about the difference between cognitive offloading and cognitive stunting, the concern that students aren't just delegating skills they've developed, but missing the chance to develop them at all. Fonz pushes back on the language of \"neural networks\" and \"learning,\" drawing on Dr. Emily Bender's stochastic parrots framework to argue that borrowing human vocabulary for these tools obscures what they actually are. They get into AI governance at the district level, including why Texas still has no state AI policy, what it looks like when a task force actually follows through versus when the conversation dies at back-to-school season, and why equal stakeholder representation (including parents) changes what a policy can do. The episode closes with Fonz's signature speed round, with finding meaning in the concept of NOW.\nKey topics:The teacher as the ultimate technology in an AI-saturated classroomCognitive stunting vs. cognitive offloading in student AI useStochastic parrots and the danger of anthropomorphizing LLMsAI governance failures at the district levelTrust between students, teachers, and parents in the AI eraFinding purpose and meaning when automation reshapes workGenerational differences in AI attitudes...","thumbnail_url":"https://img.transistorcdn.com/aX0c3Zcu_BWgnhhPpU7UI3YNLxRjFjQabj8M1H8irwE/rs:fill:0:0:1/w:400/h:400/q:60/mb:500000/aHR0cHM6Ly9pbWct/dXBsb2FkLXByb2R1/Y3Rpb24udHJhbnNp/c3Rvci5mbS9hZjhi/ZWY0ZTA5YTUxYjE1/YTlmY2NlYTQ3NDkz/ZDZlYS5wbmc.webp","thumbnail_width":300,"thumbnail_height":300}