My EdTech Life is where education meets innovation with clarity, caution, and purpose. Hosted by Alfonso "Fonz" Mendoza Jr., this podcast features real conversations with educators, founders, researchers, and thought leaders who are shaping the future of learning. From classroom-tested tools to emerging AI trends, we cut through the noise to spotlight what truly works in K–12 and higher education. As a leading voice in responsible AI adoption, Fonz challenges the hype and elevates voices that…
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"Step one, step two, step three" isn't how real learning happens. On this episode of My EdTech Life, Dr. Alfonso Mendoza sits down with Cari Orts , also known as Techie Cari, an educational technology specialist at Marble Falls ISD with over 20 years of experience in education, to discuss maker spaces, project-based learning, and why AI will never replace real teaching. Car i shares why she…
Can AI take away a student's voice or help protect it? In this episode of My EdTech Life, host Dr. Alfonso Mendoza, a top voice in the ed tech space, sits down with virtual education leaders Larisa Black and LaKeshia Brooks to dig into artificial intelligence in education, digital literacy, virtual teaching, and the growing backlash against ed tech in K-12 schools. With a combined 34 years in…
"I Don't Even Like Calling It Claude" ft. Dr. Carol Fletcher | My EdTech Life 368 A college student let an AI chatbot complete his entire research project. When his professor asked him to explain it, he couldn't. That's the story that opens this episode with Dr. Carol Fletcher , Director of EPIC (Expanding Pathways in Computing) at UT Austin's Texas Advanced Computing Center (TACC), where she…
"I can boss my robot overlords around and go, 'I wanna try this thing.'" That line right there? That's the whole episode. This week Dr. Fonz sits down with Dustin Rimmey , aka Rimmey, a 19-year Kansas educator who went from "programming languages just don't stick in my brain" to building his own classroom tools with nothing but a keyboard and a stubborn refusal to quit. No computer science degree.…
The Ultimate Technology Isn't AI, It's You ft. Mark Zeiler | My EdTech Life Ep. 367 In this episode of My EdTech Life, Dr. Alfonso Mendoza sits down with Dr. Mark Zeiler, a 20+ year K-12 education veteran whose career spans ELA teacher, media specialist, assistant principal, dean, and operations and curriculum leadership in Florida. The conversation centers on one core idea: as AI accelerates and…
What does it actually mean to be ready for the real world? Not finished. Not just checked out with a diploma. Ready. In this episode, I sit down with Marnie Stockman and Nick Coniglio , authors of The Business of You and Lead It Like Lasso, to talk about Blue, their app built to help middle school, high school, and college students discover who they are, learn to tell their own story, and step…
What happens when a former curriculum director becomes an AI strategist for an entire state? You get the kind of zoomed-out view most of us in education never get to see. In this episode, I welcome back my good friend Karle Delo, AI Strategist at Michigan Virtual, for a real conversation about what's actually working in school districts, what's flopping, and what the secret AI culture in your…
What if the missing ingredient in your classroom isn't a new tool, a new curriculum, or another PD session, but curiosity itself? In this episode, I sit down with Olivia Odileke, founder of Spark Curiosity EDU, Education Week contributor, and creator of the Spark Curiosity GPT Coach. Olivia brings an industrial engineering background into the world of education, and her perspective on how we…
AI can write your design doc. It can build your storyboard. It can draft your script, your rubric, your assessment, your video outline, and half of your e-learning module before lunch. So what's left for the instructional designer? According to Jonathan De La Cruz, everything that actually matters. Jonathan is an instructional designer at a supply chain company and at a Plano, Texas startup…
What happens to your judgment when AI starts answering before you finish the question? In this episode, Dr. Fonz sits down with Cheryl Strauss Einhorn , founder of Decisive, decision-sciences educator at Cornell and the University of Miami, and author of the new book The Human Edge: Smarter Decisions in the Age of AI (Cornell Publishing, May 8th) . Chery l spent over a decade as an investigative…