Teddy Garcia: An Educator's Journey to Integrating AI in the Classroom

Kyle James (00:00) Hey, welcome to the AI Chronicles podcast. This is your host, Kyle James. Today we're going to be discussing how a visionary educator in the Dominican Republic is rethinking the classroom with the help of artificial intelligence. If you're an education leader, you need to listen closely. Have you found your AI agent is hallucinating or just miss handling basic conversations? Talk to GPD trainer. GPD trainer fully manages your AI agent for you, eliminating hallucinations for good. while also drastically improving response quality. Go to gpttrainer.com to learn more. For our guests today, I've got Teddy Garcia with me, who is one of the senior information technology educators at Instituto Iberia, a bilingual and private K through 12 school located in the Dominican Republic that is leading the way in AI enhanced education. Teddy is passionate about transforming the power of tech in learning and has positioned Iberia as a leader that works with AI to deepen student engagement while also, most importantly, preparing learners for a tech-driven future. Hey, Teddy. Welcome to the show, my friend. How are you? Teddy Garcia (01:13) Thank you, thank you, I feel great. Thank you so much for having me here. A little bit nervous, like I said at the beginning, but ⁓ I'm really, really also excited at the same time to be in this space, ⁓ sharing my experience and bringing forward what AI is doing in my community. Kyle James (01:19) Alright. Yeah, absolutely. for those who listening in, what kind of first drew you into the education space and what ultimately led you to Iberia? Teddy Garcia (01:46) Well, it's quite funny because ⁓ I definitely didn't want to deal with people. I was ⁓ literally like the kid back in his ⁓ room just talking to machine and working with machines. And even after that, I felt more comfortable working behind the desk with a monitor in front of me instead of having people. And I used to believe that this was the way I would be shaping right the world around me and I will make it better and for a while I thought that was the case until I started volunteering and During these experiences, teaching kids how to ⁓ use computers ⁓ and helped them gain tech skills, I discovered that I was definitely wasting my time because ⁓ there were no better machines, so to speak, to program and help you better the world than the kids. They are essentially the backbone of the Kyle James (02:42) Mm-hmm Hmm Hmm Teddy Garcia (03:00) entire civilization and they are the ones that really shape the world around you for everybody and there is where I drastically shifted my mindset from working with computers directly to working with students with kids and Kyle James (03:21) Hmm Teddy Garcia (03:25) Right after that I shifted and I enrolled into education. I got my bachelor degree and I started teaching. started teaching and My journey to Iberia was not even related to education or technology. It was mainly the power of love. I used to live in Santo Domingo, which is the capital of Dominican Republic. And I had my entire life over there. And I met my wife through... ⁓ Kyle James (03:39) Wow. Teddy Garcia (04:04) to know through the computer and I didn't get to meet her until 12 years later. Kyle James (04:12) Hmm. It's a long time. That's it, made it happen. Yeah. Teddy Garcia (04:13) by that, yeah, it's just like a story to write a movie. And she was already established here and ⁓ I said, well, I love you, let's just do it. I quit everything in Santo Domingo, I left everything behind and I got here, hopefully to get into a call center as a matter of fact, something quick. Kyle James (04:41) A call center like a phone call center, you mean? OK. So ⁓ that's what you were expecting. And then you took a completely different going from IT. And then now you're teaching students on the tech side. Teddy Garcia (04:44) Yeah, I will be there just you know, thank you for calling this company. My name is Teddy. How may I help you today? Yeah, yeah, yeah. my first attempt to get a job, because I wasn't even looking for a job in education, because then again, I was just in a new city, a new space, everything was new for me. I knew nobody here. And then, you know, I got once in a cafe, I started talking with someone, and this person, you know, somehow saw something in me. And it was like, you know what, I will talk to someone Kyle James (05:07) Uh-huh. Right. Uh-huh. Teddy Garcia (05:28) somebody here in this school to see if you can get a job there because I heard they're looking for somebody. And at first, I wouldn't believe it, at first I was supposed to get hired as an English teacher. Kyle James (05:40) Wow. Yeah, wow. Teddy Garcia (05:40) But yeah, but during the interview, I started helping the HR department with some computer stuff. And they saw my curriculum and they were like, but you also have tech expertise. And I was like, yeah, yeah. a matter of fact, I'm a former programmer and I also did this, this, and this course. And I've been teaching kids how to develop tech skills and stuff. Kyle James (06:02) Wow. Teddy Garcia (06:09) completely swap the offer they were like how would you be ⁓ interested in a technology position and I was like what technology Kyle James (06:17) Geez. So you literally, you literally came in like, you know, helping out or apparently going into English. And then from there it was a, Hey, I I've got, I've got skills. You have the skills on the HR or not the HR, but the IT, the programming side. And then that's, and then thus it turned into, Hey, we have an opening for essentially like an IT. ⁓ or a tech teacher for students? And what grade are you teaching, if I may ask? Teddy Garcia (06:46) ⁓ okay, it's right right now right now right now. I'm currently teaching ⁓ first second third fourth fifth fifth grade. Yeah fifth graders from primary But I started teaching everybody Like I was Everybody Everybody everybody everybody ⁓ Kyle James (06:47) or the very. Okay. Everyone, anyone and everyone. Because not just the students, but even the teachers, I imagine, because they're needing. Teacher for all. Universal teacher at the school. You'll teach anyone and everyone. Teddy Garcia (07:16) It was crazy because I had a lot in my play, right? And that was my first year. But then the second year we got somebody right in the middle before the first year was over. We already got somebody, right? Because sometimes they will see me sussed in a sofa, just not talking to anybody after four fight shifts in a row. And I'll be like, oh my God, I love this. Kyle James (07:22) Yeah. Yeah, like I'm fried I'm Geez Wow, okay. So so then from that point on though you you started teaching the kids within the tech space and then you did something unique here where you started introducing AI and for the students and Teaching them about AI prompting during those moments Was there a time when you realized like, wow, AI could actually shift how students learn at Iberia? Teddy Garcia (08:12) ⁓ Well, before that, have the, you know, the relentless... you know, the school first adopting it. And everything started with the teachers. know, teachers were reluctant to use AI and they didn't want students to use AI as well. In their mind, their conception, AI came in just to help cheaters cheat and to provide students with a shortcut to better grades, even if they didn't learn the material or if they didn't, you know, acquire the skills that were supported. Kyle James (08:29) Mm-hmm. Right. Teddy Garcia (08:50) to during the learning process. So the first part was actually ⁓ using the teachers as a child, right? Like showing them Kyle James (08:58) Hmm. Teddy Garcia (09:00) like what kind of good stuff AI can do for them because during my bachelor they teach you, I have this particular subject in college, but they teach you how the students, you help the students by improving the Kyle James (09:01) ⁓ Teddy Garcia (09:19) the professional expertise of the teachers, right? That's how you really help the students. You don't go... Kyle James (09:25) OK, so you had to like. You had to, you had to first start with the teachers. wasn't just like, Hey, the students were ready. It was, Hey, I need to go to the teachers first. Because if the teachers were able to understand the concept and the value of the AI, then it would translate over to the students. Teddy Garcia (09:42) Yes, that's it. First, we have to teach teachers how AI can actually improve every single aspect and process of their workflow, every single one of it. And we didn't get it at first, of course. Out of the entire population, probably we got to convince 10%, roughly nine people. But we didn't stop there. I knew that if they were Kyle James (09:44) Okay. Teddy Garcia (10:12) wouldn't learn it in the easy way. I had to use the hard way, and that was providing the students with the tools. Now, at first, getting AI into the classroom during my regular hours was kind of a struggle, right? So then I had this idea of introducing AI with extracurricular classes in the afternoon. the school provides this space where a group of kids, can Kyle James (10:34) Okay. Teddy Garcia (10:42) opt for extra curricular classes, sports, technology, ⁓ math, and things like that. Kyle James (10:51) So just on their own time. So after school, they can go in there and sign up for different. And that's where the AI was, where you initially introduced it to the students at first. Okay. Teddy Garcia (10:55) See? Yes, yes, we have this class for microcontrollers. And I would teach the kids how to do the recognition of the component and also how to do the wiring. But of course, I wouldn't teach them how to program C++ because of course not. It's like... Kyle James (11:17) Sure. Yeah, a little too much, too advanced. Teddy Garcia (11:20) Not, not, not, not. And then again, we also have this philosophy of keeping learning fun and C++ is not fun. I'm sorry, programmers out there, C++ is not fun. Kyle James (11:28) is not fun. Yeah, not not your go to to introduction. You want to do something different instead. Teddy Garcia (11:35) Absolutely and instead of like teaching them how to program C++ I actually helped them how to prompt a machine, an AI to do the programming for them and my god they love it. Kyle James (11:46) Okay. And so pause right there though. So talking about prompt, just give us an Avery for those listening in, they may not even know what the heck is a prompt, right? Like what exactly you mean when you say prompt, what does that mean? Teddy Garcia (11:58) A prompt ⁓ is the most effective way to get results out of an AI. I explained it even easier. Sometimes when you use an AI, you might ⁓ think that it's your friend or it's somebody else and then you just casually talk with the AI and this usually do not lead to good results. Now, ⁓ in prompting, a prompt is like a very structured paragraph, right? With specifics for the AI to do and depending on what you're looking for the the prompting will tell the AI exactly what you need. You know, it has like some basic components like things like what you want, what's your audience, how do you want the AI to act, things like that. Kyle James (12:44) Okay. Okay, so almost like instructions, it's the instructions on the back end of the AI that give it clearer outputs to what people are essentially using it for. Teddy Garcia (12:57) Yeah. Yeah, yeah, that's it. That's it. I mean, it's instead of telling Jack, JPT, Joe, let me shit on this exam. You tell them, add as a senior engineer and Kyle James (13:07) Mmm. Teddy Garcia (13:13) of 30 years of experience. I want you to build a model to solve this mathematical problem ⁓ using that expertise. ⁓ Show me the results for an audience of ⁓ 6th graders. If you want to ⁓ use, ⁓ you know, do call this, and bullets to highlight certain ⁓ specifics. Boom. I just literally Kyle James (13:16) Mm-hmm. Right. Teddy Garcia (13:43) just lay out a prawn in front of you. the results from the AI will be completely different. Kyle James (13:49) Okay. So based on that bat, on the instructions of that AI, it'll, you know, you can control how it, how it, how it essentially responds by building out the prompt for the AI for, and so when you, when you took that to your students for the first time, what was their, what was their response? Teddy Garcia (13:54) That is great. Well, ⁓ at first they would do it just mechanically. As a matter of fact, I remember that one of the pivotal problems that we encountered was that ⁓ they would often say that the code didn't work. Okay, so the code didn't work even when I gave them like a specific prompt and we iterated through different prompts as well. Kyle James (14:25) code, okay? Teddy Garcia (14:40) That was the people problem because the code will most of the time never work for them. Now, why wasn't it working? ⁓ In the case of microcontrollers, the code was not working because the AI will give them, for example, the connections using examples. And they will just literally copy and paste. They were not using ⁓ AI as an enhancer, but as a shortcut at first. Kyle James (15:00) Mm-hmm. Right, right. Teddy Garcia (15:10) Well, this is what the teachers told us to do. Kyle James (15:10) Okay. And how did you get them to not do it? Teddy Garcia (15:15) And then there is where we got into the programmer mindset as well. Let's go critically think what we're doing. So then I will have them then revise the code. and compare what the code has with what we've been learning. Essentially, I will show them the pins and the Arduino and the components. Okay, this one is connected in one pin. In what pin? Pin number eight. Okay, let's check the code. Now, can you identify? Luckily for us, AI will always give you comments. ⁓ Can you look in the code? Is the penis correctly written there? be like, no, it says pin 13. And like, okay, now in this point we can do two things. First, you could change the number there for the number of the pin you have in your Arduino, or you can change your whole connection. Whatever is easier for you, do it. And then we have the kids. Kyle James (16:03) Mm-hmm. Teddy Garcia (16:19) Instead of copying and pasting, we have them then analyzing what the AI was providing, in fact checking the AI. So after that initial approach, the problem of the code not working literally exists to exist. Like every time they will... Kyle James (16:40) Because they were going back in and they figured out, I can go in there and analyze it if I need help. Then the AI can at least say, hey, check here, check this as options versus what you're saying is versus them going, hey, let me just ask the AI to do it for me and does it for you. But in that case, they're not really learning. in this case, what you're sharing is, hey, it shows them how to find, I guess, essentially the answer. Teddy Garcia (16:53) Yes, Kyle James (17:10) to get to the right correct answer and then make the changes themselves to a point where, hey, I don't really need the AI here. I can just, I know where to go myself. Let me just do that and make the adjustments. Teddy Garcia (17:21) Yes, yes. So that part because that part it's exactly what they were learning, know, the connections and they I was essentially just providing the programming for the C++ that we didn't need it at that precise moment. So yes, they started and then again, that problem just stopped occurring and every single time new things will come up. I remember that one time we were doing something with a small LCD screen. Kyle James (17:51) ⁓ Teddy Garcia (17:51) And we were using this platform. Can I mention this platform name? Kyle James (17:57) Yeah, go ahead, please. Teddy Garcia (17:58) ⁓ right. That was Tinkercat. It's awesome for the teachers out there. Tinkercat is awesome. We also had Wokey, which is also another simulator for microcontrollers. Wonderful tool for teachers. one of the problems was that they were programming these little components physically, right? Not only virtually, but physically, but they would not match. All right. Now, some of them figure that was crazy. for me, some of them figure that if they will list the components, mean the terminals of the little screen to the AI, the AI and ask them to transform the digital component and make like a cross-reference with the physical component that they're matched, they will get like an exact match because the AI will tell them, okay, you see this terminal that it's ACC in virtually is 3 4 4 and ⁓ I can contain my emotion. They figure a way to use the... again they were translating the digital components into the physical components. ⁓ instead of like getting stuck because you know the physical is different to the digital, they literally learn how to use the AI to transform this. Kyle James (19:15) Interesting. And that's not something that you taught them. It was something that they just figured out by experiment. And what was that like though when you saw that they figured it out on their own? Teddy Garcia (19:28) No. They figured out that was mind-blowing. I tried to contain myself but I couldn't. It's not good when you show students emotion like that strong. I almost cried because then again it was not something I thought it. It was something they figured themselves. Kyle James (19:46) Wow. And what was that like though? just seeing that your students, you know, figure that on their own, like as a teacher, like how did it, how did it, how did it change the way you approached your teaching? Teddy Garcia (20:00) I get chills. I got chills man. Then again, was like how would they know that AI could do that? Okay, because they knew AI could come up with programming, right? But how do they know that AI could also figure? I mean, I felt nothing but joy. And I remember we even bought pizza the next day we bought pizza. No, we're not gonna learn anything. We're just gonna have some fun here. Kyle James (20:12) Wow. Wow. Pizza, no learning where pizza and sodas and wherever, what else y'all want? We'll, we'll get it. Cause you guys have been doing great. Okay. So going, you said something earlier though, you initially you talked about the teachers and making sure that teachers first kind of understood the AI and then obviously it trickles down to the students. So in comparison to the students learning and taking the grasp on AI, how do you feel like the teachers like did in comparison and what was that like? Teddy Garcia (20:39) Yes. ⁓ Well, you know that in the school we have different... different type of educators, right? And we also have different age, right? So for example, I'm 37, but we have teachers over there that are 25, there are 23, but at the same time, we also have teachers that are 50, there are 60, that are, you know, and it was difficult to balance like, you know, all of the age gaps with Kyle James (21:20) Okay. the whole range of different. Teddy Garcia (21:38) the aforementioned advantages of AI. Paradoxically, the senior teachers were the ones that initially got Lee into using AI. Kyle James (21:46) Respectfully, respectfully. ⁓ Wait, you got what? Lee? ⁓ Teddy Garcia (21:57) Yeah, they got the lead in terms of they discovered that AI could do certain tasks that for them were tedious and time consuming. And yeah, for the seniors. And then, ⁓ after a couple of workshops, we have to come up with a couple of workshops. Kyle James (22:09) For the senior teachers, you mean? OK. Teddy Garcia (22:21) And after a couple of workshops and using even myself as a prime example. the rest of the teacher started joining in, all right? And I remember the director in the school told me like, Teddy, only 10 people are using this tool and we're paying for it. So if they don't use it, if they're gonna use it, we're just gonna get rid of it. And I was like, no way, hold on. If you do that, I quit. If you do that, I quit. Kyle James (22:45) you Wow. Wait, we're going to make this work. So you started having these workshops to get them more engaged because there was such a small percentage initially. And when they did those workshops, though, did you start to see a little bit more engagement from teachers? Teddy Garcia (23:17) Well, according to statistics, the percentage of usage skyrocketed to 92%. To put it into perspective, we went from only nine teachers using the platform to 80, 87 teachers using the Kyle James (23:26) 92 % like student. So that's that 92, so 92 % increase in engagement from the teachers after you had hosted the workshop. Teddy Garcia (23:52) Yep, that is correct. Kyle James (23:53) And what were you, what were you doing? I mean, I'm just, I'm curious here. What were you doing in those workshops that, that was engaging the teachers? Teddy Garcia (24:02) Look, I don't know any other places, but one of the things that working in Dominican Republic is showing, not telling. Kyle James (24:10) Mmm. Teddy Garcia (24:11) and I will literally just show them. Look, I will give you an example. We have these teachers I remember that they say, know we're not using AI because we have physical books and all the things we got to do comes from the physical books. And you know what I did? I showed them a way for AI to do the entire planning for them by taking pictures of the book. I did it in one of the workshops. All right. I just took pictures of the book. and then I told the AI look I want this ⁓ unit plan for this week you're gonna be using this standard and you know I gave them the whole format that the school uses and boom hit enter, they saw that, job drop they couldn't believe it Kyle James (24:55) Sure. So they had, it's like they had to literally see it. So when you, when you just showed them first, then it, then it just opened their eyes. And then from there, I mean, how much resistance did you face if any at all? Teddy Garcia (25:13) very very Right now we just have a couple of people that they are actually new to the company. I believe they haven't discovered yet the good things of AI and we still have to show them. then again, it's just I show them and they will see me because they saw me on the aisles. They saw me playing basketball with the kids during this very busy time. Kyle James (25:39) Right. Teddy Garcia (25:45) school you know like end of the school periods and all the things and they would just see me playing with the students taking it into the gaming room the VR salon and I mean some of them asked me like yo Teddy how are you doing all this planning until I I mean I was also showing in the workshop but I told him look remember this whole planning that took you guys years months to complete Kyle James (25:46) Yeah, in a semester period, yeah. Teddy Garcia (26:13) With AI, we did it, the technology department, academics, we did it in eight hours with three people. Kyle James (26:23) Eight hours or three people compared to, what would you say? Teddy Garcia (26:27) months, years. Kyle James (26:30) Wow. Teddy Garcia (26:30) months and years and not only completed but approved by the administration, know, by the coordinators approved by them like they're certified this is good. All right. They give them 100 % tomato. So this is good. So it was not only us telling them, you know what, you can do it and it probably it's not going to work. It was us showing them like, you know, you can do it and save time. ⁓ Kyle James (26:39) Mm-hmm. Wow, that's absolutely incredible. something that as we kind of wrap this, start getting close to wrapping this up, ⁓ what would you say is, for all the school leaders who are listening in and they're a little nervous, right? They're not sure about the AI, they've heard about it. They're afraid that these students are not going to be thinking critically. They're afraid that teachers are going or students are going to cheat, right? What honest advice would you give on, for those leaders, how to take that first step into adding AI into their school? And what would you say to them? Teddy Garcia (27:40) It has to start with the teachers, right? If the teachers do not believe in the transformative power of AI for their own work, the students will not see it as well. ⁓ whatever in education, in education I learned that the first investment has got to be the teachers. It could be like, I don't know, contrary to common belief, but no, you gotta show the teachers how AI can help them, can improve their workflow. And I guarantee that once they discover it, they will want students also to have the same. because in education, whenever technology was in bowl, it always came with controversy. Come on, with the first study using calculators, it was like a nightmare for every single school. Nigh calculators are basically standard tools for every single school. So the same thing will happen with AI. And you gotta help teachers understand how good of a tool can be. Kyle James (28:31) Mm-hmm. Teddy Garcia (28:48) and of course ⁓ with the students. Yes, you will see students that they will use it to cheat, but it's been ⁓ demonstrated that the people, the students are actually using it for the good, to enhance their learning experience. All right? So ⁓ I will say that. To first convince the teacher on the good of AI, the teachers will do the job with the students. And once you got those Kyle James (29:11) Mm-hmm. Teddy Garcia (29:24) two elements synchronized then you just need to provide them the candies. The things to sweeten the whole thing. Kyle James (29:35) Right. Yeah. Teddy Garcia (29:39) But AI in education is a powerful tool. I don't see myself working in education without the help of AI. And ⁓ I guess that we show that here during the interview, during the podcast, that students can find their way also with AI. And they can rocket and move like from zero to 100 the way the process information Kyle James (29:55) Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Teddy Garcia (30:09) and the things they can achieve. And at the end of the day, AI is here to save us time, to make the learning process less of a task and more of what it's supposed to be, which is experience. Kyle James (30:26) Yeah, absolutely. I it made me think about, ⁓ just even what the work with, not just the teachers, but even the students. I've heard this analogy explained it this way that, you know, AI usage, it's, it's kind of like, ⁓ you know, swimmers, snorkelers and scuba divers, you know, in the ocean. And the swimmers are actually those who they come across the AI and they have basic knowledge. They understand they use chat GBT like. They get that part of it. And then you have the snorkelers who they know a few tools and they can operate fairly efficiently. But then you have the third group, which is the scuba divers, which I love. And I think you're a scuba diver, Teddy, if I'm not mistaken is, is those who take their AI literacy and their knowledge to that next level where they're deep diving head first. And I think that's so important because there was a study done, ⁓ on LinkedIn and the data shows that by 2030, the year 2030, 70 % of skills used in most jobs will change with AI as that catalyst. I think like looking at these students, you're setting up the future for the next generation of workers and for them to have access and understanding to the AI and the prompting and the deep logic behind it is gonna take them to their next phase in their career path as they get older. So I just love it what you guys are doing and I applaud you for playing a huge role, really an AI champion at eBedia and looking definitely forward to hearing more about the future. So absolutely amazing. Thanks everyone for listening in. We're gonna wrap it up from here. Thank you, Teddy, for joining us and sharing such thoughtful insight into the work that's happening at Institut eBedia. Hope I said that right. Thank you for paving that way and shaping the future for learning here. So, and remember if you're in education and your AI agent is hallucinating or just mishandling basic conversations, go to gpttrainer.com to learn a little bit more. And Teddy, before we wrap it up, where can people learn a little bit more about you, about Ibadia moving forward? Teddy Garcia (32:40) We have, you can go to Instagram. have Instituto Iberia there. You can see because we have social media usually take pictures and video of what the students are doing and they throw it there in Instagram. You can also find me in LinkedIn as Terry Garcia. Terry G. teaches you. That's actually my handle. And you can also visit the website, Kyle James (33:06) Nice, I like it. Teddy Garcia (33:10) and over that you can see like a chronogram of everything that is happening here in Instituto Iberia. Kyle James (33:24) Awesome. Love it. Great. Thanks, everybody, for listening in. Have a good rest of your day, and we'll see you on the next episode of the AI Chronicles.