SAUSD's Amplifying Leadership Podcast

17. Bridging Creativity and Technology in Education: Eric Timmons and the Power of AI in the Arts Classroom, Part 2

• Bianca Barquin • Season 2 • Episode 4

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Ever had a student ready to abandon a passion project because they were overwhelmed by technical challenges? Eric Timmons, CTE, Film and ELA teacher at Santa Ana High School, shares a powerful story about using AI to save a student's documentary on gentrification - just one example of how artificial intelligence is transforming classroom possibilities.

From accidentally discovering AI's creative potential while writing songs about "private buffets" during a trip to Sri Lanka to revolutionizing his classroom management with AI-generated rubrics, Eric takes us on a journey that challenges conventional thinking about technology in education. Rather than treating AI as forbidden fruit, he facilitates student-led ethical discussions where they determine appropriate boundaries for AI use, often finding students draw stricter lines than he would have imposed.

The conversation explores the concerning equity gap emerging between students from affluent communities who use AI despite prohibitions and students in underserved areas who avoid these tools out of fear. Eric argues passionately that educators must integrate AI literacy to prevent widening this divide, ensuring all students develop skills essential for future success. His approach to film education acknowledges industry anxieties while preparing students to thrive in a changing landscape by using technology to amplify their unique creative voices.

Beyond AI, get to know Eric through our lightning round where he reveals everything from his dream superpower (flying) to his persistent teaching style that ensures students complete meaningful projects. The episode concludes with a touching acknowledgment of his mentor Marilyn Turney, whose student-centered approach continues to inspire his teaching philosophy. Whether you're an AI enthusiast or skeptic, this conversation offers practical insights for educators navigating technology's role in modern classrooms.

Visit us at our Buzzsprout site for more ways to listen, links to our social media sites and any referenced materials, and complete transcripts of our full-length episodes: https://bit.ly/SAUSDAmplifyingLeadership

Voiceover:

Greetings Amplifiers. Welcome back to Part 2 of our discussion of AI in the Classroom with SAUSD CTE, Film and ELA teacher Eric Timmons. We hope you enjoy the conclusion of this episode.

Bianca Barquin:

So let's shift gears to technology. How did you first become interested in AI and what applications did you initially explore in media, ela and the classroom?

Eric Timmons:

AI. I don't know if I'd searched up some sort of horror movie on AI or something like before ChatGPT came out, but I was like it was on my Google feed and so I was curious. So I like to explore new technologies and so I started playing with ChatGPT and I thought it was cute, like I would have little conversations with it, and that was kind of it. Over the summer I traveled to Sri Lanka. That was a couple of years ago now. I traveled to Sri Lanka and when I was there we went to this party and they had like it was a group of four of us and this restaurant had private buffets, like where it's like you have your own, like little buffet and I just thought that was the funniest term, private buffet. And I was like I wonder if AI can write a song about private buffets. And it wrote the best song about private buffets and so I went back and I even like sang it for my students. But I was so excited about it is that this, this thing, can create things.

Eric Timmons:

And as a creator, it was slightly threatening at first, but then, as the more I explored it, the more I did research and played with it and then started to realize the thing I hate making are rubrics, and I know that they're so important and I know that I have to have them. But I hate making are rubrics, and I know that they're so important and I know that I have to have them, but I hate writing them. They are just so drab. And so it dawned on me one day what if I could write rubrics? And so then I put that in, I put in my syllabus, and it wrote the most beautiful rubric and I couldn't believe it. And so then I started making rubrics for everything, and so now my kids are inundated with rubrics, but it's wonderful. And then I even I started to do I think you saw the video I did the QR code for organizing our equipment room, and so I went through and I had a student who was in charge of inventory, so they had this whole inventory list, and so I took the CSV file and put it into ChatGPT and then had it start to create QR codes and it did, and it was incredible.

Eric Timmons:

I used it for a bit and then we moved over to what the district has, the district system, but just the fact that it's there, and so yeah, so once I realized that all the applications that were possible with AI. It transformed the way I teach.

Bianca Barquin:

Yeah, it's really helped all of us with operational efficiency and effectiveness and it gives you time. You reclaim time to spend in that creative space because you don't have to deal with some of the mundane stuff. I totally agree with you. There are things like creating rubrics where you're just why, but it helps you do that. So when and how do you introduce it to your students?

Eric Timmons:

At the very beginning, because it has become an issue where students are told that it is cheating and they are convinced that it is cheating. And I'll be honest, it does sometimes feel like cheating because it is so easy to use, right, and I know it's not a popular thing to say, but it does feel that way, so I can see the confusion. So what I like to do is I just like to have an open, ethical discussion about it, and the way I do it is I have a spectrum that I found in the book Power of AI in the Classroom and he lays out a spectrum of what we would consider cheating with AI and the classroom, and it has. He lays out a spectrum of what we would consider cheating with AI and the internet, and then what is just completely 100% like pen and paper, student, 100% their ideas, and so what I do is, with those seven aspects on the spectrum, I have them come up. I actually used AI to do this. I came up with little scenarios and so then each group we do like a jigsaw Each group gets a scenario and then they have to essentially discuss it and figure out is this cheating or not? Then they go back to their jigsaw groups and then now they have the full spectrum and then they rank it and they try and draw the line, and so I have them literally draw the line on the spectrum.

Eric Timmons:

Where do we draw the line for cheating? And of course, there's always the student who's like none of it's cheating. I love all of it and I'm like okay, clearly the first one is cheating. What's funny is they actually end up arguing with me because I think I'm a little more lenient in what I consider AI use than they are. But we agree as a class, we agree like okay, this will be the line, this is what we consider, and so that's something I can revisit if something comes up. As it does. It mostly happens with screenplays and I can spot it pretty clearly because I'm a screenwriter and I can tell an AI screenplay because they're not good yet. But I think having that discussion about ethics and letting students lead the way in how they want to define the ethics in the classroom empowers them and builds buy-in.

Bianca Barquin:

I think that's so important that you're having those discussions with students, and when I talk to students, the feedback is the same. They actually are the ones who are a lot more resistant to using it, just because they want to hear their authentic voice in the work that they do at least the students I've spoken to. The other thing I think we need to think about and I think you do it intuitively we really have to change the way we teach, the way we lesson plan, the way we assess, and then it really wouldn't be cheating if we're actually doing things a lot differently as teachers. But that requires a lot of reflection and it requires us to change almost essentially all that we do in those areas.

Eric Timmons:

Yeah, it does, because with the direct instruction model, you know you are the keeper of the knowledge, and so then then AI is almost a threat in that structure, right? So, yeah, so, being able to share that power with AI, being able to empower students with the ability to research on their own and find things, it will change education Absolutely. I mean, education has to change. We don't have a choice, right? I remember there was a debate I heard it was someone I think it was like Ms Manners or something Someone called in to complain about texting. They're like I'm just so mad about everyone texting all the time and the person responded and said this was a great conversation 20 years ago, but we're past that point now, and I feel like that's where we are going with AI right now is it is going to become part of our world and we have to figure out how education is going to meet it.

Bianca Barquin:

It actually is a part of our world and you are exactly right. Okay, there have been heated discussions in the entertainment industry about AI. How do these conversations relate to your use of AI in the classroom?

Eric Timmons:

radio. So it isn't existential. I don't think it's just shrinking and so it's going to get smaller. And so, to go back to my earlier point, we need to pivot what we're doing to meet the market demands, which is that there won't be as many of those jobs, and so that doesn't mean that there won't be jobs for videographers locally. That doesn't mean there won't be jobs for students to create their content, just like with the gatekeepers, right. They can go online and they can create movies.

Eric Timmons:

If they love making movies, if they love making music videos, they can still release those. They can release them directly to a market that may love it and then build a following and monetize that. So that is a whole pathway for them, and I would honestly gamble on that job more than a lot of other jobs. In the face of AI, that job's probably not going anywhere for a while. So, yeah, I think that students, that we need to be open and honest about it, but I don't think that Hollywood is going to die. I don't think that television is going to go away completely. It's just the jobs are going to change, and that's why we're doing things like shifting towards virtual production. That's why we're making the adjustments we're making.

Bianca Barquin:

Great. We have to be more agile and we have to be more responsive, which is exactly what you're doing with your students. Have you noticed or anticipated any equity gaps with AI, particularly for our student population in Santa Ana?

Eric Timmons:

Absolutely. I've noticed that my niece and nephews use AI all the time and have used it in school, and they live in South Orange County and even though they are being told that it's cheating, they still use it anyway and they have access to it, whereas I've noticed with my students, they're told that it's cheating and so then they don't use it, they're afraid to use it and they avoid it. Or if they do use it, they use it in a way where it's something like that's bad that they have to hide under the desk. You know to type, and so I just feel like, again, that's going to set them back and that's going to limit how we can amplify their voice and get them out. There. Limit how we can amplify their voice and get them out there is they won't be able to compete in a market where AI is at the center of it and AI skills are at the center of it.

Bianca Barquin:

Agreed. Anything else that you want to add around how you see AI fitting into the arts, including film, television, digital media, is I had a student who was passionate about gentrification in Santa Ana and wanted to address it because he's really concerned with how he saw a fourth street changing and he collected so many interviews.

Eric Timmons:

I honestly don't even remember how many interviews he collected, but, like a lot of adults, he did not log the footage, meaning he didn't keep track of like how many, like what people say. So what you do when you log the footage is you go back, you listen to the whole interview and then you mark kind of the key phrases and things so that you can keep that if you're not going to edit it right away when you have the log and you start to look at themes and things like that. He was overwhelmed and he was honestly ready to quit, and so I what if we try and take the transcript using Speak AI at the time? Now it's actually built into Premiere. You can just do this but take the transcript, put it into chat and then ask it to find the trends and themes. And it did and it saved his movie.

Eric Timmons:

He was able to then go back and he used the timestamps and he went and he cut on Adobe Premiere using those timestamps and cut his movie down. I don't think that's cheating. I think it's using the tools that were provided to help us when we're overwhelmed, and to save him time. It is an incredibly daunting task to go through all of that footage, and so for him to use AI that way, I think it was a really effective use that allowed him to share his voice with the world.

Bianca Barquin:

I think that's applicable not just to that area. So, every listening session and you know that we have listening sessions all the time in Santa Ana we used to have employees that would spend hours listening to all of this and we never got to action because it would be a year later, once that data was analyzed, where they're lifting trends, and now we use AI tools to be able to do it right away. I mean, I've done it with a ton of groups that I meet with as well and we get to action within a very short period of time, which is super helpful. When I tested it out on my own listening session with preschool teachers, when I tested it out on my own listening session with preschool teachers, what I realized is I missed actually a couple of things that putting all of the transcripts into AI tools caught, which was great. So it's like having another set of eyes and just somebody who helps you do that work. So thank you.

Eric Timmons:

Last question before we move into two other segments, that I think be patient with it.

Eric Timmons:

There is a learning curve and the second part is just being ready for students to take the path of least resistance, to not be challenged in the lesson, to just use AI and not proofread, to not think of it as a partner or collaborator, as a brainstorming device, but just to basically copy and paste. But I feel like the same thing is true of a student. If I am in my English class, if I have a student who uses a source and adds a citation, I feel like if they're pulling that in as evidence and it's just the whole paragraph, as we've seen, where it's just the little intro line and then maybe short analysis at the bottom, but then the rest of the whole paragraph is just somebody else's words, really, what's the difference there? Right, it's about taking that time to teach them about what is expected and what people see as their voice and, as you said earlier, like really letting them appreciate their voice and hearing their voice and value their own voice through the support of AI.

Bianca Barquin:

Yeah, it's amplifying that part that makes us human, right, which perfect. Okay, now it's time for a new part of our podcast, and I designed this in honor of you, eric. We call it Teacher in the Spotlight Lightning Round. Here's how it works. I'm going to ask you a series of quick questions and you respond with the first thing that comes to mind Ready, ready. Okay, what's your favorite food?

Eric Timmons:

Baked bao.

Bianca Barquin:

Baked bao Favorite hobby outside of teaching.

Eric Timmons:

Hiking.

Bianca Barquin:

Best book you've ever read.

Eric Timmons:

Heart of Darkness.

Bianca Barquin:

Oh, that was a tough book.

Eric Timmons:

I love it, though Apocalypse Now.

Bianca Barquin:

Yeah, most inspiring artist or creator.

Eric Timmons:

This is a tie my two Davids, so David Bowie and David Byrne.

Bianca Barquin:

David Bowie and David Byrne Favorite subject when you were in school.

Eric Timmons:

Favorite subject in school would be theater.

Bianca Barquin:

Theater. Not surprising Go-to comfort movie or show.

Eric Timmons:

That's a tough one, I think. Weirdly enough, I think Shawshank Redemption it destroys me. I cry every time, but I just love it.

Bianca Barquin:

It is a great one, it's cathartic. It is Dream travel destination.

Eric Timmons:

I really want to go to Nepal, not to hike, not to climb.

Bianca Barquin:

I'm not climbing, but I just want to go. If you could have a superpower, what would it be?

Eric Timmons:

If I could have a superpower, I would want to. This is so basic. But just fly Like. I just really want to fly Like. I just sometimes I'm in spaces usually indoors too, which probably isn't safe but like, if I'm indoors, I'm just like. I wonder what it'd be like just be flying up and like, see this like a bird's eye view.

Eric Timmons:

I love it Favorite app or tool for creativity. Right now it's Google's Notebook LM. I love the podcast on there and I love that they've changed it now so that you can actually correspond with the podcast. You can be part of the podcast.

Bianca Barquin:

And it's actually really good and it's really good, so okay.

Eric Timmons:

So, side story Sorry, can I answer? Yeah, please? So my writing partner, who actually is in the district, tanya Buckley. She teaches at Circulus. She was a writer for Paramount for years and so we're writing partners and she had a series that she had optioned years ago, but we're going back and revisiting it because we want to try and modernize it, and so we're going through and looking at it and what I suggest is let's put it into Notebook LM. It'll learn all the characters, all the information, and then we can have a conversation with the podcast as we brainstorm. And it's been brilliant and we just are developing all these ideas through this conversation because it's about Greek gods and we don't, like, neither of us really know Greek gods that well, which is like, why are we doing this? But Notebook LM is brilliant and it gives us all kinds of stories and it's been wonderful.

Bianca Barquin:

I love it Funniest thing a student has ever said to you.

Eric Timmons:

So when I worked at New Vista, one of my first students that I worked with would run away and we were in the back patio and there's a fence and then a four like a pretty dense, like wooded area, and then there's a water, so it's very dangerous and it's on a slope, and he ran and jumped the fence and I didn't know what to do and so, without thinking, I just shouted stop, there are wild dogs. And he froze and which isn't a lie, because coyotes, if you think about it, are kind of wild dogs. So he, he froze. And then he turned back and he came and he climbed back over the fence and I was so proud of myself because I was like, okay, like I got him back, he's alive, everything's good, I'm not going to, you know, like this is fine.

Eric Timmons:

And the next day we were sitting out there and here I'm thinking like maybe he thinks they're wild dogs out there. No, he's not going to go out. He was so much smarter than I ever was and that was also a turning point in my career was learning that sometimes the students are smarter than you and so we sat there and he was like Mr Timmons, do you want to count the wild dogs with me. He's like I see one, two, three, four. Do you see any wild dogs? And I was like this kid knows what's up. He still didn't go over the fence, though.

Bianca Barquin:

Fantastic, that is funny. Most played song on your playlist.

Eric Timmons:

Gloria by Laura Branigan.

Bianca Barquin:

Wow.

Eric Timmons:

I love that song. I love that song. It is just such a good song. It's so much fun.

Bianca Barquin:

I love it If you could trade places with anyone for a day. Who would it be?

Eric Timmons:

If I could trade places with anyone for a day, I would trade places with I think I think like a railroad conductor, I think that would be really fun. I don't know why. It's like the ticket punching and like, and it's just kind of fun to be on a train. I wish I lived in a place where I could be on a train more.

Bianca Barquin:

Hmm, I like that Morning person or night owl.

Eric Timmons:

I am a night owl in denial because I'm definitely a morning person. But I really want to be a night owl and I really want to like be cool, but I'm just not. I get so tired and I'm just so unbearably perky with my colleagues in the morning. So I'm clearly a morning person, but I wish I were a night owl.

Bianca Barquin:

I think I would be the same'm clearly a morning person, but I wish I weren't at all. I think I would be the same. I am a morning person, for sure. One word to describe your teaching style.

Eric Timmons:

I think the word to describe my teaching style would be persistent. I am pushing forward and we are delivering, and students will deliver and I tell them I'm like the theater is booked, the Frida is booked for May. Your movies are going on that screen. You are going to finish these movies and they're going to be something you're proud of and that really motivates them to keep going.

Bianca Barquin:

That was clearly exemplified in all the stories that you've actually shared. Okay, this has been a truly fascinating discussion. Before we wrap up, it's time for our last segment. It's called the Amplifier Acknowledgement Segment. If you could amplify the message or lesson of an educator or leader who has made a significant impact on your journey, who would it be and what is that message?

Eric Timmons:

So the person is Marilyn Turney. She really shaped who I am with tough love. She's a private school teacher, whole life private school teacher, and I remember I was saying something about a parent. I was like, well, don't they understand? She said, stop right there. The only thing they understand is what you're doing for their child. They don't care about anything else, it is about their child.

Eric Timmons:

And that was a oh my gosh. Yes, that is so true and I need to get over myself moment. I mean I was in my twenties, you know, and I was all about myself and she's my lifelong friend where we talk almost weekly. She's retired now, but I call her, I run ideas by her and I just she is all about students. She's one of those teachers who she had a student who refused to come out from under the desk and so she crawled under the desk and sat with him on the floor and just had like the most like heartfelt conversation with him and got him back out of the desk and back in his seat and she just loved what she did for all those years. And so I love talking to her because she, you know, she gets excited going back and thinking about what she did in the classroom and it drives me forward.

Bianca Barquin:

That's beautiful. Thank you for providing such a powerful acknowledgement. Remember, leadership is not just about guiding, but also about celebrating and honoring those who paved the way. Thank you so much for joining us and sharing your expertise, Eric. For listeners who want to connect with you or learn more about the Santa Ana High School, Saintly Film Academy, where can they find you?

Eric Timmons:

So we're at Saintly Films on Instagram and you can also follow me, Eric Timmons, on LinkedIn, and you can follow us on YouTube at Saintly Films 7730. At saintlyfilms7730.

Bianca Barquin:

Wonderful. Thanks again, eric. That's all for today's episode of SAUSD's Amplifying Leadership. If you enjoyed this conversation, don't forget to subscribe to the podcast. We'll be back soon with more inspiring stories. Until then, this is Bianca Barquin reminding you to keep leading, keep learning and keep amplifying the positive messages and impacts of those around you.