From Curiosity to Capability at AIxED 2026

By Erica Crane, EdD

At the AIxED Summit last week, sideby’s CTO, Mike Mendelson, led an expert session on AI in practice. As an early adopter of AI in his high school classroom and a teacher of AI at NVIDIA, Mike approaches this technology with a deep understanding of what it is and what it means to engage with it.

Why “all in” on AI?

Mike approached the design of this learning session by considering what it has meant for him to engage with AI in a way that allowed him to explore its capabilities. For Mike, this has meant engaging fully, with curiosity and openness to possibility. He asked participants to reflect on what it would mean to go “all in” on AI in a specific area of their practice. What might this unlock? How might this support their growth? How might this transform experiences for their students?

Mike’s Background

At NVIDIA, Mike served as an Education Product Manager, where he led the design of Deep Learning Fundamentals, a flagship learning program reaching more than 250,000 learners globally. He collaborated with educators and domain experts to translate complex AI concepts into accessible learning experiences, delivered through platforms such as Coursera and edX. He has presented on learning design and AI education at conferences, including the O’Reilly AI Conference, Autodesk University, and GTC San Jose. 

He also taught math at his local high school as recently as June 2025.

What’s Next?

Mike continues to explore the frontiers of AI in teaching, learning, and leading at sideby. He encourages our team to understand this technology fully, consider why we might use it across our application, and how it can help unlock learning at scale for organizations and individuals in our sideby ecosystem.