CC#116: Turning AI into a Competitive Advantage w/ Dr. Michael Martin - 2024 Ohio POY

In this insightful interview, Dr. Michael Martin, a high school principal and AI enthusiast, shares his journey with AI, its impact on education, and practical strategies for integrating AI responsibly in schools. Discover how AI can be a powerful tool for teachers and students alike, and learn about the innovative approaches at Buckeye Central High School. Principal Martin is also the 2024 Principal of the Year from Ohio and published author on the subject. Connect with the guest: [email protected] (mailto:[email protected]) Books by Michael Martin: • Blending Instruction with Technology (https://www.amazon.com/Blending-Instr...) • AI Powered Leadership: 50 Prompts to Transform Your School Today (https://www.amazon.com/AI-Powered-Lea...) ----------------------------------------------------- Contact Cool Coffee host, Principal Rick Sola: [email protected] (mailto:[email protected],)  or [email protected] (mailto:[email protected]) The mission of the Kansas Principals Association (https://www.ksprincipals.org/o/kpa) , an organization committed to educational excellence and the lifelong success of all students, is to develop and support all principals through optimized learning, collaborative leadership, networking, and service. Read more about the KPA HERE (https://www.ksprincipals.org/o/kpa) . Provide Cool Coffee feedback! Click HERE (https://forms.gle/nSVj4nNw1Yn74WVu8) to share thoughts and suggestions--including guests to have on the show! Click for ALL Cool Coffee (https://coolcoffee.podbean.com/) episodes! Connect with Cool Coffee on... Follow us on X: @KSPrincipals (https://x.com/KPACoolCoffee) ; @KPACoolCoffee (https://x.com/KPACoolCoffee) Facebook: KSPrincipals (  / ksprincipals  ) Contact host Principal Rick Sola: [email protected] (mailto:[email protected],)  or [email protected] (mailto:[email protected])   SHOW TRANSCRIPT Rick Sola (00:02.824) Hello and welcome to Cool Coffee with Kansas Principals. My guest today is Dr. Michael Martin, a sitting high school principal at Buckeye Central High School in Ohio, also the 2024 OASSA principal of the year. He's an author and what he calls an operational realist. While tech futurists talk about what AI might do in 10 years, Dr. Martin helps overwhelmed leaders figure out how to use it safely by next Tuesday. As the creator of the ART leadership model, he shows organizations how to escape administrative drudgery and win back time for intentional human connection. He is the author of Blending Instruction with Technology, and he's here to help us turn AI anxiety into a competitive advantage. Michael, welcome to Cool Coffee. Mike (00:53.035) Hey, welcome Rick. Thanks for the invite. I appreciate it. Rick Sola (00:56.702) Yeah, I am super excited to have you on. And as we connected about this podcast and this topic, AI, I literally this morning was in a district meeting where AI was a topic. And there are so many different, I guess, thoughts about AI. And you, I think, it very well, kind of talking about the good, the bad, the ugly, or maybe the helpful as well. So I'm really excited to get into AI here with you. So I would love to just start with AI, you, where did this connection, I mean, this is a new technology, when did you get connected with AI? Mike (01:44.076) Yeah, that's a fair question. I've I've always been really interested in technology, the integration of technology, how to utilize it in schools, how to use it in classrooms to better what we do. When blended learning was a big deal back 10, 15 years ago, I did a lot of research on that. That's actually where I wrote my first book, Blended Instruction with Technology. And it's really when I started, know, to kind of do some speaking and touring and speaking and just kind of laying out how to utilize technology in the classroom. And ever since then, I've always been kind of trying to my best to, you know, to perfect, I shouldn't say perfect, but to use the science of teaching and the art of teaching and integrating that with the technology that we have at our disposal. And so obviously AI is a big deal now, but. I was on the AI bandwagon pre-COVID. I was reading about AI, I was thinking about AI. I'm like, this is coming down the road, right? I was reading about it then. I didn't know what I know now, obviously. But I was thinking about it, I was looking in the future regarding that. And when we came out of COVID, I took an MIT class and I built my own AI just to get a fundamental understanding of how it all works. So I've a...