AI4ALL Open Learning is expanding access to equitable AI education to historically excluded students, empowering high school teachers of all backgrounds to teach artificial intelligence. Offering free curriculum, teaching resources, and a community for educators to discuss strategies and share best practices, AI4ALL Open Learning is adaptable to all classroom settings and is well-integrated interdisciplinarily in subjects like English or Social Studies. All curriculum is approachable to people without math or coding backgrounds.
In this first-of-its kind teacher interview, Jordan Budisantoso, current MBA Candidate at The University of California, Los Angeles, co-founder of Washington Leadership Academy in Washington, D.C, and former computer science teacher, shares his experiences as an AI4ALL Open Learning pilot partner, testing the Open Learning curriculum with his 9th and 10th-grade students, and providing invaluable insight that informed the development and implementation of the program. Speaking with Open Learning’s Education Partnerships Associate, Irena Trifunovic, Jordan discusses what led him to teaching, how he adapted the Open Learning curriculum for his classroom, and why he believes computer science and AI literacy are necessities for all Black and brown students.
Read on to learn how teachers new to AI or our curriculum can achieve what Jordan has in their own classrooms. To follow Jordan’s footsteps, and begin bringing AI education to your high school students, check out our free mini-lessons and teaching guides, here.
As told to Irena Trifunovic of AI4ALL by Jordan Budisantoso; edited by Camryn Burkins.
Can you say a bit about yourself, how long you’ve been teaching, what you teach, and a little bit about what your school community is like?
I’ve been teaching for eight years, four years here in DC. I actually moved to DC to start Washington Leadership Academy. We are a Public Charter School, where every kid in the building takes computer science all four years. We specifically exist because we try to provide opportunities for kids who deserve them in the city that might otherwise not get them.
We’re an open-enrollment charter school. There’s no requirement to come to our school other than youth preferencing us on the entire city-wide charter school application — it’s like a common app of sorts, which is kind of nice. Parents don’t have to individually apply to the school. We don’t get to control who comes here. The only way we have influence on the types of students we get is by recruiting in certain places in the city. DC is broken up into wards and we’re in Ward 5. We generally recruit from wards 5, 7, and 8, which are areas of the city where educational outcomes for kids are not so great. And most of our population reflects that. 75 to 80% of our kids are on free and reduced-price lunch. We have a 20% special-needs population, 92% — 95% African American, and 4 or 5% Latino. So it’s mostly students of color at our school.
We believe, or at least I believe, and I wake up every day teaching computer science because Silicon Valley does not reflect America. And so if you’re trying to build solutions for the next 10–20 years, you’re leaving out a large sector of the population.
What was your experience with teaching AI and the AI4ALL Open Learning Program?
This year was really great. This is the second year I’ve presented your guys’s stuff to kids. The first time I did, it went straight over their heads. The stuff this year is super great. I loved how everything was broken down in the units. Establishing vocabulary in the beginning in Unit 1, like what’s strong vs. weak AI, and speaking like it was not super technical to start, really brought kids into the fold. And that was really cool, getting kids to use that language. [T]he way I wanted to frame it for students, because there [were] a lot of updates and it was kind of new, was “All I want you to get from this course [is], if you’re watching TV, hear something on the news, or read something online about artificial intelligence, you understand what they’re talking about.”
I love the fact that there was a lot of flexibility [in the Open Learning Program] in terms of like, “Here are three ways you can do this thing,” whether it be a gallery walk, some videos, or other things you can do, it was super, super flexible. [Unit 2] got technical too. “Now [that] I’ve hooked you into what [AI] is, how do I get machines to actually learn?” [The curriculum] was nicely scaffolded.
Unit 3 was the one on jobs. I think that was a little like a firehose of information. Sometimes it was hard to keep track of everybody, but I like the fact that we had a lot of conversations about jobs that kids didn’t think existed. I think that’s a problem generally in high school. [Y]ou ask high school kids, “What do you want to major in?” and they all tell you the same thing — engineering or business. There’s like one to five things like that they’ll say. So [Unit 3] was cool because kids don’t know. [If] they don’t have someone in their life who can model that for them, then they don’t know that that job even exists. And it’s nice to know. AI is not all about programming or building things, it’s about shaping policies, talking about the ethics of technology. So that was really cool.
How do you create an environment where all students feel comfortable and included, especially like in the classes that you teach?
Generally, all learning takes place when students are willing to take risks. I’ll pose a question, like a classic introductory computer science problem: “There are 10 people in a room and they all have to shake hands with each other. How many handshakes occurred?” Most people will think it’s 90 or 100 handshakes. It’s not. So I like questions like that because it doesn’t take prerequisite knowledge. Students can just take a guess. Guessing isn’t inherently indicative of how much you know or how smart you are. So we remove that risk from students to say something in class. I think that’s the same with most things in class. The world is not going to end if you get it wrong. And I’ll say that to students.
What is your favorite thing about being a teacher? Why did you decide to become a teacher?
My favorite thing about teaching is telling stories. [When] there are about 25–30 kids, all focusing on a single point in time and space, nothing else matters. A kid could essentially forget everything else that’s going out in the world because whatever we’re doing right now is the coolest thing in the world. It’s not easy to do and I definitely don’t do it all the time. But when [the lesson] hits like that [it] feels good for everybody in the room. [When] you see a kid go from curiosity and wonderment to understanding, that’s cool to see.
Why I do it is very different. My dad’s a teacher and he has been a teacher for 20-some years. He’s 62, almost 63 this month, actually, and he’s been teaching since I was in the third grade. But he always told me not to be a teacher. He says they’re overworked and underpaid, so I never really considered it.
In high school, I got a chance to teach a class. I was a freshman. And my Algebra 2 teacher was frustrated with me [because] I was a kid who didn’t do homework, but clearly knew what was going on. She was going to be absent for a couple days from school and she said, “I want you to teach the class on this thing.” I don’t remember exactly what the topic was… something to do with extraneous solutions. But I remember I taught and I lesson planned. And ninth grade Jordan liked it. I liked it a lot.
When I was in college I was at this conference, commemorating the 40th anniversary of the Educational Opportunity Program. It’s a program in California about college access and equity. I was a student in the program, in my third or fourth year in college. There were 300 undergrads across California public schools that [went] to this conference. One of the speakers showed us these two PowerPoint slides. He showed us a list of 10 names, and said, “Does anyone know who these people are?” I’d recognize[d] two names, Bill Gates and Warren Buffett, [but] didn’t recognize [any]body else. Then on a new slide, he showed us a list of another 10 names. And he said “Does anyone know who these 10 people are?” Everyone raised their hands. Martin Luther King. Cesar Chavez. Mother Teresa. It was a list of impactful people.
And he says, “Anyone know the difference between the first list and the second list?” And the room went silent. Then he said, the first list is a list of the 10 richest people in the world. [T]he second list is [a] list of 10 people who made a big difference in the world. He drove the point home — “It is easy to make a dollar. It’s much harder to make a difference.” And that stuck with me. I thought, “What do I want to do when I graduate? [W]hat impact do I want to leave on the world?”
In teaching, you make a difference. It’s really hard, but I think education is a pillar of equity in our society.
I think that computer science is a language of power in this country, just like the language of business or the language of law. Those who understand it, shape our world, and those who don’t are subjected to the influence of those who do understand it.
In 2020 and beyond, if kids don’t understand how our world is driven by computing, [they’ll] be subjected to the people who can wield that influence.
Do you have any advice to other educators that are thinking about implementing the Open Learning Program in their classrooms?
I think, if teachers are curious about this field, they should just do it.
[Y]our interest and passion can drive and overcome the hurdles that you might face or that you’re scared about. I think for me, if you’re an experienced teacher, then this wouldn’t be the first time you’ve learned something and then had to teach it and explain it. [AI] is just like any other thing.
I think if a teacher reframes [teaching AI] as a new subject you’ve had to teach similar to the other times in your career, then it’s more manageable. I’m gonna read a unit ahead of kids. I’m gonna go through these plans. And what’s great is that AI4ALL has that support for you, where I didn’t make any of this stuff on my own. [AI4ALL] did great work and the heavy lifting, and then I just looked at the plans and made my notes. I think teachers might be apprehensive about the whole topic of [AI], and it is intimidating, but you will realize that most of the stuff — slides and all that other stuff — has been done for you. Just go through it. Then, it’s about your context and your kids, and that becomes less intimidating.
About Jordan
Jordan Budisantoso is currently an MBA Candidate at UCLA’s Anderson School of Management, where he intends to explore the intersection of technology, education, entertainment, and business. Prior to UCLA, he taught in high schools for 8 years. Jordan was the founding Computer Science Teacher at Washington Leadership Academy, an open-enrollment public charter school in Washington, DC that provides a 4-year computer science education to all of its students.
Jordan began his teaching career in Liberty City, Miami by way of Teach for America. He started a CS program there in order to give his students access to knowledge and career pathways unavailable to them. From participating in prestigious teaching fellowships to partnering with elite CS organizations and universities, to spending evenings teaching adults coding at a night school, Jordan has spent several years dedicated to CS education advocacy. Providing access to a quality CS education to all people is both a country’s economic and social imperative.
Jordan’s work as a Computer Science Teacher has been published in US News and World Report and in 2015 he was honored by the Governor of Florida for his contributions to the field of education. In 2018, Jordan was named a National Geographic Grosvenor Teacher Fellow, where he embarked on an expedition to the Arctic. He earned his B.S. in Computer Information Systems from California State Polytechnic University, Pomona, and also serves as a Captain in the United States Army Reserves.