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S5E9 AI, Classrooms, and Real Skills: Yara Alatrach
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What if AI literacy wasn’t about prompts or platforms, but about thinking that endures? We sat down with AI strategist and educator Yara Alatrach to unpack how schools can move past the hype and build true fluency—skills that help students question systems, evaluate data, spot bias, and decide when human judgment belongs in the loop.
Yara’s journey from reservoir engineering to consulting and AI leadership at Microsoft gives her a rare vantage point: end users, tech teams, and leaders speak different languages. She explains how that gap shows up in classrooms and why a cross-curricular, teacher-friendly approach matters. We get into the UAE’s bold AI mandate, the idea of treating technology as nation building, and what it looks like to design a weekly, one-hour curriculum that fits real schedules while raising the bar on critical thinking.
We also tackle the hard line between education and product training. Yara makes the case for vendor-agnostic AI education that still welcomes public–private collaboration, so students learn concepts they can transfer across platforms—whether that’s Azure, Google, or open-source stacks. From embedding ethics in every lesson to preparing 10-year-olds for a 2035 workforce, this conversation maps the practical path from curiosity to confidence.
If you care about edtech that empowers teachers, AI literacy that sticks, and a future-ready generation that can frame problems and ask better questions, this one’s for you. Follow the show, share with a colleague, and leave a review to tell us how your school is approaching AI—and what you want us to explore next.
Links:
Chapters
1. Host Intro & Topic Setup (00:00:00)
2. Guest Background & Career Journey (00:01:20)
3. Translating AI Across Stakeholders (00:03:18)
4. From Hype to Fluency in Schools (00:04:33)
5. UAE’s AI Mandate & Opportunity (00:06:33)
6. Designing Teacher-Friendly Curriculum (00:08:22)
7. Ethics Embedded, Not Bolted On (00:10:54)
8. The Skills 10-Year-Olds Truly Need (00:13:08)
9. Vendor Neutrality vs Training Agendas (00:15:05)
10. Closing Thanks & Listener CTA (00:18:17)
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