Oct. 6, 2025
Guardrails, Not Shortcuts
What if your classroom AI refused to write the paper—and taught students how to think instead? We sit down with Brittany Ordu from TrekAI at the Gacis conference in Athens, Georgia to unpack a teacher-built, student-centered platform that puts privacy, safety, and authentic learning first. Rather than handing out answers, TrekAI prompts learners to explore themes, gather evidence, and connect new ideas to what they already know, turning quick requests into moments of real understanding.
Website: spotlight4success.com
00:06 - Host Welcome & Conference Setup
00:30 - Meet Brittany Ordu of Trek AI
00:49 - Goals: Teacher-Built AI With Guardrails
01:48 - Avoiding Answer-Giving Machines
03:00 - The Nancy Example: Building on Prior Knowledge
04:38 - Adoption: Schools, Districts, and Brittany’s Path
05:24 - Invitation to Connect at TrekAI.org
WEBVTT
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Welcome to Spotlight for Success by American Book Company.
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I'm Devin Pentosa, your host.
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We are here at the Gacys Conference in uh sunny Athens, Georgia today.
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We are here with our special guest.
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This is Brittany Ordu.
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Yes.
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She comes to us from Trek AI.
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That's Trekai.org.
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So good to see you here today.
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Thank you so much.
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It's great to be here.
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Wonderful.
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Brittany, can you tell us a bit about what brings you here to this Gacis conference?
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Absolutely.
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So my team, the Trek AI team, is sponsoring, and so we are so excited to be here to spread the word about Trek AI.
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Oh, wonderful.
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And is there anything in particular that you had as a goal for this conference?
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Yeah, we just want to make sure that we share the fact that there's a platform out there, an AI platform that is built for teachers, by teachers, but also with students in mind.
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And so we have tons of built-in guardrails making sure that we protect students.
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Privacy is key.
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And we also don't want students to have an answer-giving machine.
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And so we really want students to learn how to use AI appropriately and safely.
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We want to make sure that we provide an on-ramp so that they learn how to do that.
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And we're able to build in and infuse and incorporate curriculum within each district and from each school.
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Wow, that's a tall order to put all of those things together, right?
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You know, the privacy, of course, that's so important, student integrity on the data, and making sure there's guardrails so they can only search the things that are educationally appropriate and age appropriate.
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That's wonderful that uh you're able to have a product that does all of those things.
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How do you deal with the aspect of, like you mentioned, you know, it seems like a lot of these AI things, like you said, Brittany, um, seem to um do the thinking for the student.
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And how does Trek AI kind of allow that process to shift so that the student can get that learning?
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Thank you for watching Spotlight for Success.
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I am Devin Pentosi, the Chief Operating Officer of American Book Company.
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We are located here in our headquarters in Woodstock, Georgia.
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All of our materials are printed in the USA.
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We have originally materials.com.
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We look forward to hearing from you.
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So we definitely see students that are used to using AI go to our platform and ask for Trek to do the work for them.
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And they're met with a response that students that are accustomed to using AI don't love initially, which is I can't write your paper for you, but I can help you to think through major themes that you love.
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What did you like about the book that you're asking me to write a paper for?
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And so it will truly work with students, building upon what they know, and it will also try to draw upon what they know.
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So it's always looking for an access point to build those connections.
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And so one example of that is uh we have a student named Nancy who went to uh Trek and said, I don't know the difference between homogenous and heterogeneous mixtures.
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And so instead of Trek just saying, This is what a homogeneous mixture is, this is what a heterogeneous mixture is, um, and just said, What do you know?
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And so she said, Well, homogeneous reminds me of home, and heterogeneous reminds me of a hot dog.
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And in the time that it would take for me to buffer and ask many follow-up questions just to see what in the world Nancy meant, Trek jumped right in there and said, Of course, homogenous reminds you of home because everything is blended together there, like sugar dissolving in water.
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And of course, heterogeneous reminds you of a hot dog because those are distinct and visible components that you can see.
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And so uh it builds upon what students know.
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Wow, helps to draw those connections to inspire deeper learning, and that's individualized and customized for each and every single student.
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Gosh, I love that, Brittany.
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What a fantastic product to have for the schools.
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Right.
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And uh so so uh so when this rolls out, is it does a school buy it or district, or how does that work?
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So both.
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Okay.
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Yep.
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So we are partnering with schools worldwide, and then we're partnering with districts as well.
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Oh, that's wonderful.
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Wow.
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So how did you get involved with Trek AI?
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Well, I taught for about 10 years.
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I taught, coached, mentored teachers, um, and then I moved into the space of ed tech with a different company, and I've wanted to be a partner success manager.
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I was like, I know that this is the next role for me.
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And so uh I was looking on LinkedIn, scrolling, and I found this role and I was like, this is the perfect fit for me.
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Oh wow.
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And so yeah, the rest was history.
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That is so exciting.
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Uh, and and look, here you are.
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And here I am.
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So um is there um is there anything you're hoping to uh take away from GASIS or anything you'd like to share with the GACSIS community?
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Absolutely, come check us out.
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We are super excited and passionate about the work that we do.
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We would love the opportunity to partner with you, so just check us out on trekai.org.
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We'd love to um learn even more about what you're doing and uh partner together to see the impact that we can make together.
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That's awesome.
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Thanks once again for being our guest, uh Britney Ordu with Trekai.org.
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Thank you.
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Absolutely, thank you.
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