NewTech High--It is Personal!

NewTech High Blog May 25, 2026 Happy Memorial Day! For those of us in the Upper Midwest, this was the weekend where things finally broke free. In turn, we are looking forward to a warm and outstanding week. Many of us closed our schools and had graduation this weekend. Other school districts are going to be going through this over the next couple of weeks. Enjoy our transition into June and summer vacation! I had the good fortune of coming across this Substack yesterday from Katie Martin, Co-Director of our partner Learner-Centered Collaborative. If you recall, we hosted Katie last fall in one of our episodes. She has so many great articles on personalized, student-centered learning. Take a look at this graph. If you are intrigued, I will push you on toward the rest of the Substack.  The Title of the Substack is " If We Redesign School, What Should We Build Instead?" This is an awesome   article , a must-read for those who are passionate about our impending redesign! I'm ...

NewTech High Podcast May 20, 2026 Today's Guest - Peter Ladwig, VP Technology & Engineering, Niron Magnetics This podcast certainly appears to be a curveball at first glance. Don't fall for that idea. Pete was a former colleague of mine in Hutchinson and was an influential part of our TigerPath advisory team. When I saw that Pete was now working on this unique and cool company Niron, I have spent some time trying to get an update of where he is at from an education and leadership process.  Not only does Pete explain this exciting new Science, but also talks about how their company has expanded into Sartell, Minnesota. One of the biggest reasons in choosing this next site was   because of their potential success because of the top-flight Sartell HS. This goes to show how a high school can become part of the economic development as a driver of the local economy!  Thanks for sharing with us, Pete!  Peter's Bio Peter Ladwig has over 20 years of experience leading eng...

NewTech High Blog May 13, 2026 Early this week, Senator Klobuchar and Sen. Demuth published early position papers on the platforms they are running on. Here are those two links:  https://lisaformn.com/priorities/ https://www.klobuchar.senate.gov/public/ Today, our NewTech High took on the idea of the reform agenda in the area of education. We had a strong panel to discuss this issue -- Lars Esdal, Bob Wedl, Bill Sommers, Jon Bacal and Jerry Robicheau.  Neither candidate has published anything landmark in the education area. Better test scores, more accountability, etc. Won't it be interesting when we have candidates that are talking about the potentially radical disruption of long-held institutions in there of the event there is no change to the status quo? I am not dogging either candidate. I get it. Electability.  In this conversation, the Board takes on several issues such as personalization, AI, standards, innovation zones, mentorships, CTE, teacher-powered institutio...

NewTech High Blog May 7, 2026 You can't hardly read anything without seeing some reference to AI. We just heard from Will Grube yesterday. We have AI Hawks that predict that AI will take over major portions of our workforce or even a large institution like education. We also have AI skeptics that indicate that things will stay more status quo regardless of the potential impact on paper to stock markets, economies, work forces, institutions, etc.  In my mind, it doesn't really matter. There are some things that HELP you to change regardless of how that change is manifested in your institutions. As an example, we can look back to our first glimpses of the Internet 30 years ago thinking this was going to be the BIG CHANGE. Maybe the Internet changed everything, maybe it didn't? Regardless, there are three topics of interest that I will share in this blog with several shades of AI related to education.  Human-centered approach key in classroom AI implementation This article em...

NewTech High Podcast May 5, 2026 Will Grube, Interview II  On Wednesday, we aired a second interview with Will Grube, of Gruve Education. Bill Sommers joined the cast.  We talked about the advancement of AI in education--trying to understand what is happening from someone that we know on the frontline of this. I want to remind you that Will is only 24-25 years old and a graduate of Lakeview HS near Marshall, and a college graduate of NDSU.  To paraphrase, we sidled the issues of AI, cellphone use and several other controversial concepts that we are facing in the current era. If your district is ready for AI in any form, or limiting it thereof, Will is worth talking to. He speaks about major changes that are happening right under our feet, including those things that even are unexpected for AI people. Computer science programming, of which Will is one of them, may be one of those acutely affected industries today.  Will also addresses Acceptable Use policies, and a va...