AI, CS, & Digital Literacy

Back-to-school season is busy enough without adding “figure out AI” to your already-full to-do list. So this year, we're making it a little easier.

Starting September 15, the Columbia Gorge ESD and Columbia Gorge STEM Hub are hosting weekly virtual AI & Digital Literacy Office Hours.

Learn a Little. Try a Little. Ask a Lot.

We'll kick off the year by working our way through the new Google AI Educator Series - starting with "Introduction to Gemini for Education" - with short, focused lessons designed to build your AI skills and help you work toward Google Educator Series badges and Gemini Educator certification. Each session includes brief, targeted instruction, tool walkthroughs, and time to put what you're learning into practice.

We'll also use our time together for Q&A, discovery, troubleshooting, and hands-on exploration.

Wondering if AI could save you 30 minutes a week on a task you hate?

Welcome to the 2026–27 school year!

With another school year underway and AI continuing to reshape the way we teach and learn, it might be time to retire one of our favorite AI debates: How do we stop students from using AI?

Of course, we still need to talk about academic integrity. Of course, there are times when AI should absolutely be off the table. And of course, students can use AI to do work they should be doing themselves.

But if our AI conversations stop there, we're missing the bigger opportunity.

From “Using AI” to “Applying AI”

Dr. Elizabeth Radday and Matt Mervis recently wrote an excellent piece for ASCD called Sparking Curiosity with Applied Intelligence, and they offer a distinction that I think is worth bringing into our classrooms:

Welcome back, educators! 🎉

A new school year means new notebooks, new seating charts, new names and faces to remember… and approximately 47,000 new things competing for our students’ attention.

It also means it’s a good time to dust off one of our most important digital literacy skills: figuring out whether the information in front of us deserves our trust. And that’s where SIFT comes in.

What Is SIFT?

Developed by digital literacy expert Mike Caulfield, SIFT is a simple framework for evaluating information online. Rather than asking students to immediately read, analyze, and decide whether a source is “good” or “bad,” SIFT gives them four moves to help them investigate first.

🛑S — Stop

What if you could build the thing you wish existed?

Not someday. Not after finding someone who knows how to code. Now. That’s the idea behind vibe coding — and it’s something we think everyone in our districts should be playing with.

Start With a Problem, Not a Coding Project

Superintendent Wesley Benjamin of Kalama School District in Southwest Washington is a great example. Kalama serves about 1,200 students, and Wesley has been using vibe coding to tackle real problems across his district.

In this Google EDU On Air conversation, he walks through his process:

• Start with a “What if?” problem.