AI, Equity, and Innovation: SBCSS Digital Learning Team's Vision for 2025-26

In the first episode for 2025-26, the SBCSS Digital Learning team: Sonal Patel, Omar Shepherd, Jessica Boucher, and Tonya Coates, share their excitement and strategic vision for advancing equitable educational technology across San Bernardino County. The conversation highlights key initiatives including AI literacy, blended learning, eSports expansion, and design thinking in computer science education. With a strong focus on empathy, collaboration, and innovation, the team discusses both the opportunities and challenges ahead, emphasizing their commitment to supporting educators and students through transformative digital learning experiences.

For more Digital Learning Services information text DLS news to 22828 or find us on Twitter @sbcss_edtech

Music by ItsWatR from Pixabay - Wataboi Flavour

Transcript

SBCSS DLS Bits and Bytes Podcast
 November 2025

[00:00:00] Sonal Patel: Welcome to the SBCSS Digital Learning Bits and Bytes podcast. Inspired by our dedication for equitable and inclusive educational technology and computer science.

[00:00:13] Sonal Patel: Hi everyone. It's so good to be here with my team this morning. We are here, we're ready, and we've got an exciting different kind of episode today. Because today you get to hear from all four of us. My name is Sonal Patel. I'm the program manager for digital learning and computer science Education, and I'm gonna turn it over to Omar. 

[00:00:33] Omar Shepherd: Thank you. I'm Omar Shepherd. I have the honor of serving alongside this amazing team as a project specialist right here at SBCSS. I'll pass it over to my colleague over here to the left of me though, to the left of your audio, Jessica. 

[00:00:48] Jessica Boucher: Thank you, Omar. Hi everyone. I am Jessica Boucher. I am also a project specialist with Digital Learning Services at SBCSS, and I oversee the eSports program and I do some things with blended learning and AI, and I will turn it over to Tanya Coates. She's on my left as well. 

[00:01:09] Tonya Coates: Thank you, Jessica. My name is. Tonya Coates. I also serve as a project specialist here on the DLS team. I am responsible for computer science and digital learning, professional development, as well as AI, which I'm super excited to talk a little bit about today. 

[00:01:24] Sonal Patel: Awesome. And a little shout out to Tonya. It's birthday week today. I just gave a, a very late birthday gift. It wasn't very late. It was just a few days old.

[00:01:32] Tonya Coates: Well, I thank you. Thank you. I appreciate it. Another year older, but another year wiser.

[00:01:36] Sonal Patel: Yeah, so thank you. Thanks so much. And I was just saying to the team that I really wanna give a little bit of a shout out because I love this team. This is what I call the dream team. I think we have this, uh, insane amount of chemistry with one another, and that really helps us to be able to propel. The work that we do here, we have the same kind of vision. We really are dedicated to equitable educational technology, computer science, and artificial intelligence programs. And as we do the work, we get very excited. So that brings me to asking the team what's exciting to you about this upcoming year. 

[00:02:09] Omar Shepherd: Well, for me, this is really exciting. I officially make two years here with a team at SBCSS, so celebrate that.

[00:02:16] ALL: Yay!

[00:02:18] Omar Shepherd: But I would say walking into spaces and seeing familiar faces and them interpreting your smile. As someone that really wants to support them as they are figuring out how they can maybe incorporate some programming or computer science into their classrooms, or being someone that they can explore ideas with as they're looking for ways to integrate AI into what they're doing, whether it's with their administrative teams or ways to be able to engage students in personalized learning. That is, I would say the most exciting. 

[00:02:48] Sonal Patel: Yeah. Awesome. Thank you.

[00:02:51] Tonya Coates: Let's see what I think, um, what excites me about this year is that we're just not slowing down. I think AI is moving at lightning speed, and I think it's our responsibility to make sure that every educator and administrator in San Bernardino County has not just like the awareness, but real practices for navigating and teaching it. And I think that's why our upcoming AIPs are so critical. It's gonna help teachers see the possibilities and, um, the responsibilities of this technology. 

[00:03:19] Sonal Patel: Yeah, you're absolutely right. It's definitely not slowing down. I feel like our team has been on a little bit of a road show. We've been out there at different school districts and helping support their AI implementation programs.

We're trying to be very thoughtful this year. We want to take a systematic approach where we use a tool like the Coen, uh, maturity tool and help districts to be focused areas based on where they're at. Currently, uh, with their AI implementation and create a roadmap. Let's have a roadmap and let's really help everyone, not just educators, not just teachers, but let's, let's really help everyone to be able to be successful and, and use some of these tools that are out there.

[00:03:58] Sonal Patel: For productivity efficiency and of course for helping our students, uh, reach their outcomes. And I'm just so excited about that part of it. We're, we're definitely on an AI mission over here and turn it to Jessica. 

[00:04:10] Jessica Boucher: Yes, I definitely agree. AI is exciting and it's great to see where districts are going with developing policies and how it's being implemented throughout San Bernardino County. So that work is very exciting as well as some of the changes that we've been implementing with eSports to add more accessibility and equity. We are changing up some of the ways that we are bringing gaming opportunities to the districts that we serve and the students who are gamers and the school sites that have gaming clubs, gaming classes.

We're now doing more of a regional type approach, and that is bringing the East Valley, West End and High Desert together to be able to have those gaming communities more tight knit. So we are looking forward to this year seeing what that's gonna bring. Also, our continued collaboration with, uh, what was generation eSports, but now, um under the umbrella of Play Versus, so that is a, something I'm excited about as well to see that continue to grow. So eSports have some changes and, uh, we're, we're looking forward to how that's going to affect the, the eSports programs. 

[00:05:32] Sonal Patel: Thank you, Jessica. I just remember the first year that you came into our department and we gave you eSports and you looked at me with wide open eyes and the excitement on your face at that moment, uh, really, really showed.

And, uh, the fact that you've grown the program so much, that eSports symposium that our entire team went to last year was absolutely phenomenal. And for you to see that we need to now, uh, think, think bigger. With regards to eSports is truly a, a wonderful thing, to witness. Um, I also have to give another big shout out because it was actually Jessica that invented our very own prompt party.

[00:06:09] ALL: Oh my. Yes.

[00:06:10] Sonal Patel: Can you tell us a little about prompt engineering?

[00:06:12] Jessica Boucher: Yes, absolutely. So with the, explosion of AI, there is, kind of a, need or a, guidance that goes along with how we are now doing the prompt engineering, how we're using the AI to get the results that we want or to be able to have it be that thought partner for us.

So learning how to prompt is a, a valuable asset to be able to get an outcome that is usable and viable and being able to, to talk to the AI, for lack of a better word, and be able to kind of, uh, design it to give you that output. There's strategies to it. And so with the prompt party, we just have a really fun and exciting approach to how we're playing around with generative AI and practicing how to get those good outputs that we can keep, um, prompting.

So once you get an an output, there's 0.1% chance that that's the exact output that you want. Um, that's not a statistical number, I just made that up. Um, but you are gonna get an output and then you keep talking to it, you keep refining it. And so with the prompt party, what we're doing is we're going over a framework that helps us get a good first output that we can keep working with, and I think that's something with AI as well, is just learning that it's not a end all be all. You don't get a output and then you copy paste and go with that. We, we are the ones that are designing it. We're bringing that human element into it. And so we're using it as a thought partner, not to just be the thinker for us.

[00:08:00] Sonal Patel: Thank you so much. And actually, Omar, I know this excites you.

[00:08:03] Omar Shepherd: It does.

[00:08:04] Sonal Patel: Especially with the work that you're doing in AI literacy. Do you wanna share with us what has happened this year for you? 

[00:08:09] Omar Shepherd: Oh wow. It's been, I would say, a tectonic shift, if you will, especially when you think about how this opportunity to explore AI gives us rise to new curriculum, new opportunities to engage students, to personalize learning, but really to help clarify, this is not magic, it's machine learning.

And through the day of AI resources, we've been able to introduce opportunities for teachers, K-12, to be able to support their students in developing foundational understanding around AI. Now, one of the most exciting things I'll share is to be able to witness when a teacher experiences a new program, in this case, Google's teachable machine.

In a lesson with Day of AI, a science teacher. Was inspired to create a lesson to engage their students to evaluate tissue samples. A lesson that was normally just a worksheet has now been samurized. Yes, those terms still apply to be able to support those students and really deeply engaging with content.

And you know, even though we've talked about things we're excited about, I wanna make sure I circle back to share. You know, it's exciting when you realize that while sometimes it seems as if hasn't everyone already heard about some of these ideas. There's always more to share.

You know, here in San Bernardino County, we actually have 33 school districts serving hundreds of thousands of students, which means every opportunity we have to engage an educator to support them in building their capacity, whether it's raising awareness around AI tools, resources, AI literacy curricula, or ways they can lighten the load. That's a direct impact you're making on the students we're serving right here in San Bernard Bernardino. 

[00:09:50] Sonal Patel: Oh, yes, absolutely. Thank you so much. And you, you, you talked about teachable machines earlier, and I know teachable machines actually computer science, computer science and AI really do intermingle and I really wanna give Tonya an opportunity to share a little bit about the, the new design thinking program that we are, we are working on right now. 

[00:10:10] Tonya Coates: We are definitely keeping up with the momentum of Seasons of CS. Uh, we had a very successful CSPD week and we are definitely gonna keep CS alive by embedding design thinking in computer science, um, at at Day Creek, for example, um, day Creek Intermediate.

Students are getting the opportunity to engage in an elective and getting, um, the opportunity to tackle real world challenges by like going through steps to process their thought process and developing projects that are meaningful and that can affect their local community as well as globally. And we also implemented an afterschool program.

Now, let me tell you about this. They had over 300 students at this wait list, and this tells us that students and families are hungry for this kind of learning.

[00:11:03] Sonal Patel: Right and I think that will be the case at any school site that we work with. I think the, the ability to be able to go through that design thinking model. Empathize with a problem that you really care about. And in this case it was around the United Nation global goals. Uh, but to empathize and then to be able to ideate and think of different solutions, I just think that, uh, it really gives the, the students that ability to be able to create, problem, solve with their peers, all essential skills in the age that we're in, the age of AI, I wanna call it.

Um, speaking of ai, I'm not ready to leave this question. I'm sorry, but we didn't mention the blended learning course, the new course, the brand new course that we have happening. Jessica, please, please tell us about it. 

[00:11:46] Jessica Boucher: Thank you, Sonal. Yes. We are launching our asynchronous blended learning with AI course. We call it blended Learning with AI, A Practical Guide for Educators. And through this we're taking the approach of blended learning, and that is where we are taking the components of offline traditional learning with. Online learning and taking like the positives of each of those, the best practices, and putting them together to help students be able to learn in a way that best suits them.

So it goes with UDL, they're getting those multiple means of representation, multiple means of action and expression, and of course that engagement. And through that, we're weaving in ai. How to help teachers take that lift of blended learning, where before that planning process and trying to find those activities that meet students' needs was a very time consuming process for teachers, and it would be a barrier to having them implement blended learning.

And now being able to prompt an AI to be your thought partner with what that's going to look like is helping blended learning to be more successful. So throughout this course, we are weaving in. Ai I, um, each module will be showing them how to use specific tools and how to use them for multiple means of representation, action, expression, engagement, those UDL, uh, principles, as well as our blended learning framework, the SBCSS blended learning framework with six promising practices. So it is a very robust course. There's a lot that, um, people will be able to learn about as far as research-based best practices, blended learning implementation, and leveraging AI. 

[00:13:38] Sonal Patel: Yeah, and there's a huge focus on AI literacy, I believe, as well in that course, and I, I am really looking forward to getting that feedback from our first set of educators. That will be beginning, I think, November. November the first. Our first cohort, yes. Awesome. Thank you. So the, so we talked about all the exciting things, and by the way, there's so much more, but we'll be here all day if I try to tell you all about all of the things that we're doing. But we know that, you know, there are also challenges or opportunities ahead.

Tonya, do you wanna get us going with this conversation? What challenges and opportunities do you see ahead? 

[00:14:13] Tonya Coates: Of course, there's always challenges to anything, but I think also the pace of AI, the way programs are being implemented and developed, it's being introduced to the masses at an astronomical rate.

So I think making sure that we are giving great services to districts and giving them access to make sure no school is left behind. But I also see that these challenges are also opportunities to lead the way we show up as partners with our educators and administrators. You know, modeling, curiosity, ethics and creativity.

But I think at the end of the day, it's about giving our students the skills and the confidence to shape their future. 

[00:14:52] Omar Shepherd: Absolutely. Absolutely. And I would say as we think about the opportunity to impact the future, it makes me think about some of the work that we're doing to support our CTE educators, our adult ed instructors, with finding ways to infuse digital learning to meet the needs of the students and learners they serve.

And I wanna make sure that we take a moment to really tease out the work that we're doing with adult ed because there is an opportunity for us to have a direct impact on the communities right here in San Bernardino as we provide opportunities to introduce them to the notions around AI, ways they can support their families as they began to become aware about AI and making sure that we are doing things that really are anchored in good practice of teaching and learning and engaging.

[00:15:39] Sonal Patel: Wow. Beautiful. Thank you. And did you wanna add anything else in addition to that, Jessica? 

[00:15:45] Jessica Boucher: So, some of the challenges that I'm working with, specifically with the eSports community are being able to overcome some of the barriers as far as hardware and equipment and being able to have coaches at the school sites who are um, there to support the students.

At the, the times that the tournaments are happening and the gameplay is happening, so trying to be creative. We're collaborating with many different partners and trying to figure out what are the best game titles that we can play that are accessible to students, and how we can overcome some of those barriers that each school site is facing and one of the focus areas that we are looking at is growing eSports programs at the middle school level.

So we've been really, um, collaborating with eSports coaches at the middle school sites and principals trying to see what we can do to bring these opportunities to students where if we can get them engaged in this program at sixth, seventh, eighth grade, it could be something that is a vertical articulation into high school and helps to solidify them with, you know, their attendance, engagement, having a sense of community. So that would be a great part of their schooling experience if we can go ahead and lock them in. So that's been a focus area and a challenge, um, but it's been exciting to learn about the culture and communities within districts and school sites and how we can make a difference.

[00:17:20] Sonal Patel: Yeah. And I just love how you created that positive twist to that question. 'cause rather than challenges, you're, you're thinking what are the opportunities based on these challenges, and, uh, it was really nicely expressed. And that's really what we stand for. And as we continue to do this work, I want us to think about now, like, how do we show up?

How do we show up for our, you, you mentioned Omar. Uh, thousands of hundred thousands of students. I think we have 400,000 students in San Bernardino County, approximately 400,000. How do we show up for our educators and students? 

[00:17:53] Omar Shepherd: I would say just acknowledging that it's really all about the relationships. As Tonya shared just a moment ago, this AI pace is at such a rapid, um, speed that trying to stay on top of tools, trying to be aware of emerging resources, trying to look at ways it can really be anchored in good teaching and learning practices takes an opportunity for deep reflection as well as considering what.

Tools are actually relevant to bring forward to these various communities and realizing that at the end of the day, it's the relationships that we build that will give us an opportunity that can help to transform lives through education. 

[00:18:34] Sonal Patel: Awesome. Mic drop. Mic drop. Yes. 

[00:18:38] Tonya Coates: Also, um, in addition to that, I think also it's important to create spaces where teachers, administrators, students feel supported and where they see themselves as being capable of not just creating technology, but also shaping how it's gonna be for our future.

[00:18:56] Jessica Boucher: With us, we go in and do professional development. And so there's different dynamics in different school sites and different districts, and I think as we are approaching topics like ai, we're understanding there's different points of views, different perspectives, different um, ideas that teachers and educators are coming to the table with.

And I think our team does a really great job of being able to, to empathize. With people to being able to listen to where they're coming from and to, to show them there's options and opportunities. So I think the approach that we take, how we show up is, is one of, of empathy and knowing that we, we are maybe asking teachers to change their instructional practice, asking them to change some of the ways they've been doing things for, for years.

And so having that lens that, okay, there may be some growing pains, there may be some, some educators that may just take a little more time or have some more concerns. And I love what Omar said about the relationships and having that people piece because it is technology, but we also bring in that human component to know we're working with people that have ideas and thoughts and opinions, and so we, we do like to hear those voices.

[00:20:22] Sonal Patel: Yeah, absolutely. Thank you Jessica and I, I know that you do a tremendous job with, with bringing well. Into our spaces and, and really, uh, promoting that empathetic human approach. We're humans first. We know that our, you know, our mission is really to make folk folks really feel comfortable in what they're doing.

Presence and partnership is what I was hearing, being visible, accessible, and reliable, not just as service providers at the county, but really as a collaborator. We've done so much in, in the way of, uh, you know, opening up these channels for listening to, to folks' needs and concerns and aspirations, and having all these network meetings from our technology leadership network meetings to our EdTech coaches network meeting, to our computer science impact meetings.

And if, if you wanna know more about any of those meetings, please do reach out. We are the, we, we do definitely like to have our meetings, but not your traditional kinds of meetings. If you go to any one of ours, you will agree that you have a lot of fun. Uh, but that concludes, uh, this very first Bits and Bytes podcast of the year 2026.

Any final words? 

[00:21:28] Omar Shepherd: Just be on the lookout because our digital learning team is doing some amazing things this year. In fact, coming up, we have an opportunity to lead a virtual community of practice with the Cal MSCS community on October 6th. In addition to that, there's some other exciting things coming up, so you don't wanna miss it at SBCSS.NET looking at the digital learning services page. As a matter of fact, don't forget, we've actually launched a brand new Instagram page, a space where you can take a look at things that we're doing out in the field, serving our educators right here in San Bernardino. 

[00:22:02] Sonal Patel: Be sure to follow us at SBCSS_DIGITALLEARNING, that is our brand new Instagram handle where we'll be sharing the latest and greatest of what is happening in all things digital learning, computer science, and AI education. We also have another Instagram handle, SBCSS_ESPORTS, which is specifically about eSports. We're excited to continue to share all the greatness that is happening there as well.

And if any of you are interested in being on any of our future podcasts, you know where to find us. Please do reach out. We'd love to feature you in our upcoming episodes. Anything else for the good of the team Dream team. 

[00:22:41] Jessica Boucher: Looking forward to an exciting year and the, the evolution of AI, computer science, eSports, professional development opportunities, and seeing what the, Omar, what did you say? The tectonic shift.

[00:22:58] Omar Shepherd: Oh, yes. Uh, the tectonic shift that's taking place right now here in San Bernardino County, as our districts begin to find ways to incorporate AI into their classrooms and in support of their educators. 

[00:23:10] Sonal Patel: Awesome. Thanks. Bye everyone.

[00:23:12] ALL: Bye.

[00:23:13] Sonal Patel: Join us next time for more bits and bytes of digital learning and computer science.

[00:23:18] Sonal Patel: And remember, if you are hungry for more, you can simply text DLS News 2 2 2 8 2 8. Or find us on Twitter at SBCSS_EDTECH.