Episode 45: Nick Potkalitsky

“We missed the mark with social media. We can’t miss it with AI.”

“College has to reach down and figure out what students are actually learning instead of just existing in this gap space and resenting K–12.”

In this episode, Nick Potkalitsky offers a K–12 lens on AI Literacy, reflecting on how schools, students, and parents are navigating this moment of rapid change—without repeating the mistakes made with social media.

Drawing from over 20 years in education, Nick shares how his work with school districts across Ohio is building more intentional, discipline-specific, and developmental approaches to GenAI in education. Nick outlines a framework that includes policy development, infrastructure security, teacher capacity-building, and student-centered instructional redesign. At the core is the belief that AI Literacy must be more than prompt engineering—it must foster agency, ethical reasoning, critical thinking, and metacognitive awareness.

Nick also warns of the dangerous asymmetry between how fast tech companies are moving and how fractured K–12 systems are. He calls for AI-free zones, authentic process-based writing, and more parent-facing AI education, especially to combat risks of AI misuse and companionship tools that are quietly shaping student behavior.

You can follow Nick on LinkedIn (https://www.linkedin.com/in/nick-potkalitsky-phd-0313ba126/) and at Substack (https://nickpotkalitsky.substack.com/).

(Disclaimer: episode quotes and summary were created using Youtube's Transcript and ChatGPT and edited by a human. Any errors are the responsibility of the human).