ShiftED Podcast #97 In Conversation with Gina Tesoriero: Get Curious Before You Get Concerned

Gina Tesoriero just finished her PhD — and her research is a reminder that the best way to understand how students use AI is to just... ask them.A special education teacher turned researcher, Gina spent years watching STEM transform engagement for her most overlooked students. That spark sent her into a doctoral program studying how recent high school graduates are using tools like ChatGPT to navigate school, work, and life — including some of her own former seventh-graders, now adults.The findings? One student built herself a custom writing tutor at midnight. Another group used it to spot bias in job listings. And one case study that made Gina uncomfortable ended up teaching her the most important lesson of all: how someone uses AI tells you exactly what's missing in their learning environment.We get into neurodiversity, UDL, co-design, why AI literacy belongs in every classroom (not just the tech teacher's), and what happens when you stop policing the tool and start getting curious about the person using it.