Author: Team CALIE

When I joined the CALIE board of Directors in the summer of 2024, we were still called CUE, short for “Computer-Using Educators.” It’s a name that carried significant weight in the education community, representing 40+ years of California educators gathering around technology, building community, and pushing outcomes forward. No one on our board took that history lightly.

When conversations started about who we were becoming, we didn’t move quickly. We deliberated and asked hard questions. We brought our members into the process, looked at where education was heading, and listened to what our community was telling us. Over time, the answer became clear: the organization had grown beyond what the name described.

That’s how CALIE was born. And now, that same evolution is reaching our annual conference.

In 2027, Spring CUE is becoming SPRING FORWARD.

I want to share why this feels right to me, and why I think this moment in education is exactly when it should happen.

The Mission That Made Us

When CUE was founded in 1978, the mission was clear: expand access to emerging technology and develop a community of educators to use it well and support each other in doing so. Schools were gaining access to the tools, and then they needed the knowledge to use them. CUE brought people together around that shared mission for more than four decades, and it worked.

Since then, the classroom has changed. The tools are already there. More than 1.6 million devices were connected to California schools through pandemic-era federal funding alone. The average district accesses nearly 2,700 distinct edtech tools in a single year. We made real gains in closing the access gap, including rural districts and communities that historically couldn’t afford these tools. But what has all of this technology actually accomplished, and how is it being measured?

From Access to Impact

That question is live and loud right now. It’s the conversation educators are walking into every day. And it’s the conversation they deserve a community built for.

The CALIE board’s work over the past few years has been pointed toward exactly this moment. We didn’t rebrand to CALIE because we wanted a new logo. We did it because our mission sharpened. What California education needs now is discernment, not just adoption. It needs educators who can evaluate technology, not just implement it.

We’re still gathering in the spring. We’re still bringing together teachers, coaches, technology leaders, and administrators from across California and beyond. But now, we’re not just gathering around technology. We’re gathering around impact.

What We’re Building

I’ll be honest: the name Spring CUE was beloved by many, myself included. People have strong feelings about it, and when changes like this are announced, the first instinct is often to ask, “Why change something that worked?”

My answer is that we’re not changing because it stopped working. We’re changing because we grew, and we want to keep working for you and what you need.

The educators I talk to want a community that takes their judgment seriously. One where the conversation is honest about what technology is actually doing for students (and what it isn’t). One that helps them go home and do their jobs better, in whatever role they hold.

That’s what SPRING FORWARD will be. And it’s going to be built the same way everything we do is built: by educators, for educators, for every role.

We’ll see you in March.

Christopher Hoang
Board President, CALIE

ChatGPT dropped in November 2022. Schools met. Schools wrote policies. Schools debated bans. Students did not wait.

While leadership hoped teachers would get comfortable with the technology, kids quietly started using AI on their own. Just like social media, they used it without discretion. It became part of their lives before it became part of our lesson plans.

Now, AI is no longer a destination website you have to navigate to intentionally. It’s baked into phones, Google Docs, social media feeds, and search bars. We can no longer wait for professional development while technology becomes unavoidable.

Bans Don’t Build Judgment

In most schools, teachers mainly noticed the cheating. So the response was predictable: ban it, block it, police it.

But AI literacy does not equate to a ban. It belongs in a lesson plan.

If students are already using AI outside school, a ban just guarantees they’ll use it without guidance. And bans create a hidden equity gap. Students with tech-savvy parents and paid subscriptions will learn to use AI as a powerful tutor at home, while students without those resources fall further behind.

We need to stop asking “How do we keep them from using it?” and start asking: “How do we teach them to question it, verify it, and think with it instead of letting it think for them?”

“You’re not just giving kids a tool. You’re getting a window into their minds.”

What This Actually Looks Like in a Classroom

AI literacy is not handing every kid a ChatGPT account and calling it innovation.

The better move is teaching AI literacy through guided moments within real learning, with guardrails. Platforms like SchoolAI, Brisk, or Flint let teachers build guardrail experiences where students get instant feedback, practice evaluating outputs, and strengthen their reasoning — without replacing teaching.

Here’s a concrete example. Your class is studying the pyramids of Giza. A teacher builds a focused chatbot that only discusses that unit’s content. Students can explore in any direction, but within a safe boundary. And while they’re asking questions, you’re seeing their questions — what they’re curious about, what they misunderstand, who’s going deeper, and who’s stuck.

That data helps fuel your next instructional moves.

A Simple Sequence Any Grade Can Run

You don’t need a new course. You need repeatable habits woven into real assignments.

Start by having students evaluate an AI-generated response connected to current content. What looks accurate? What feels vague? Whose perspective might be missing? Then teach them to improve their prompts — not to get the answer, but to deepen thinking.

Build verification as a default: pick one claim, find a trusted source, confirm or contradict it. Then have students reflect on what they accepted, what they rejected, and why.

Replicate that in small bursts throughout the year. Tie it to real content. Make it normal. That’s how literacy is built — not with a one-time assembly or a policy PDF, but with routines.

I’ve been teaching since 1996. This moment isn’t about moving faster. It’s about moving intentionally.

If we do this well, we don’t just reduce cheating; we also improve learning. We increase thinking, gain better insight into students’ understanding, and build safer habits before bad ones take root.

If you want to go deeper on using AI safely and intentionally with kids, I’ll be giving a keynote on just this at Spring CUE powered by CALIE next month. Hope to see you there.

Holly Clark is a California educator who works with schools around the globe on their intentional use of AI. You can follow her story on social media at @HollyClarkEdu (Instagram and Linkedin) and on The Digital Learning Podcast or by reading the AI Infused Classroom.