AI Literacy in K-12 and the Workforce Gap with CIESC's Lena Darnay

Lena Darnay spent years as a school librarian before she landed at the Central Indiana Educational Service Center, and that librarian's brain turns out to be exactly what the AI moment needs. In this School's Out Saturdays conversation she and Jason dig into why K-12 has to expose kids to AI early instead of blocking it, why every industry panel she has ever sat on names the same must-have skill, spreadsheets, and why the old blame game between K-12, higher ed, and employers has to end. Jason makes his case against Carmel Schools, which trained its teachers on AI for two and a half years and still keeps it out of the classroom. The two get into anthropomorphism, sycophancy, and the Character AI tragedy that should worry every parent. They also cover Indiana's new diploma seals, the SAIL leadership work at CIESC, vibe coding a conference app in Replit, and what Plato's Republic has to do with Sam Altman. Lena closes on grief, sci-fi, and radical acceptance.ABOUT THE GUESTLena Darnay is Director of Communications at the Central Indiana Educational Service Center, or CIESC, the largest of Indiana's nine educational service centers, serving 35 member districts and about 220,000 students. A former high school librarian and instructional technology specialist, she moved into the service center world during the pandemic and now helps lead the SAIL AI leadership work through Keep Indiana Learning, CIESC's professional development arm. She holds an undergraduate degree in marketing and a master of library science from Indiana University.GUEST LINKSLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lena-g-darnay/CIESC: https://ciesc.org/Keep Indiana Learning: https://keepindianalearning.org/TIME STAMPS00:00 - The service center model most people never see07:20 - What SAIL is and why Jason got pulled in10:45 - Carmel Schools and the case for AI in K-12 now16:22 - The entry-level job is about to change20:44 - The one skill every employer names: spreadsheets22:31 - Why philosophy and library science degrees matter again28:06 - Socrates, Plato, and AI's philosopher kings33:21 - Ikigai, Alpha School, and exposing kids early46:37 - Anthropomorphism, sycophancy, and the Character AI tragedy54:34 - Sci-fi, grief, and The Poppy FieldsCONNECT WITH JASON PADGETTDirector of Partnerships and Growth at [email protected]: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jason-grant-padgett/X: https://x.com/NoCodeCAIONewsletter (No Code CAIO): https://www.linkedin.com/build-relation/newsletter-follow?entityUrn=7399599285849346048AGI PODCAST NETWORKSchool's Out Saturdays: https://schoolsout.agipodcast.ai/All AGI Podcast shows: https://schoolsout.agipodcast.ai/networkTOOLS JASON RECOMMENDSMindStudio: https://get.mindstudio.ai/q7n7u5cttkdqRiverside.fm: https://riverside.sjv.io/e1xyBrWispr Flow: https://ref.wisprflow.ai/jason-padgettRESOURCES MENTIONEDCentral Indiana Educational Service Center: https://ciesc.org/Keep Indiana Learning: https://keepindianalearning.org/Alpha School, 2 Hour Learning model: https://alpha.school/The Poppy Fields by Nikki ErlickRobopocalypse by Daniel H. WilsonReplit: https://replit.com/Notebook LM: https://notebooklm.google.com/Character AI: https://character.ai/People referenced: Ryan Murray, Tanika Kennardle, and Jenna Cooper at CIESC and SAIL, Dr. Nicole Adams at Purdue, Ann Lefwich at Indiana University, Geoffrey Hinton, Amanda Askell at Anthropic, Reid Hoffman