By Derrick Brown (follow on Twitter @dbrowndbrown)
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#TheSeeSayShow Fellowship Lab: A KnowledgeBase Model for AI-Enhanced Informal LEarning (2999 Words)
(67th Day Of School)
(Tuesday, November 11, 2025)
By Derrick Brown (Join Our Mailing List!)
Empath Remixes #95 (#TheSeeSayShow Fellowship Lab: A KnowledgeBase Model for AI-Enhanced Informal LEarning) (2999 Words)
Premise: Reclaiming Time, Reframing Purpose
When a trusted colleague, OMcR, told me, “It sounds like you are building a school … maybe this is not the right place for you,” I heard both a challenge and a prophecy.
He was not diminishing my effort.
He meant that the vision I was carrying no longer fit the container that held it.
His words arrived at a moment of exhaustion and profound discouragement, when the language of accountability, containment, and marginalization had almost replaced the language of love, learning, and liberation.
Yet his statement helped me to see that I was not trying to build a “school” in the traditional sense.
I was trying to preserve a sanctuary ... a learning fellowship ... where authentic reflection, artistic expression, and ethical conversation could live in harmony.
#TheSeeSayShow Fellowship Lab is that sanctuary.
The idea of the Fellowship Lab did not emerge from theory.
It was born from memory.
It is a continuation of a twenty-five-year journey that began with the KnowledgeBase Summer Academy (KSA) at Georgia Tech, which I started in 1998 to teach reading, writing, mathematics, leadership, and critical thinking through edutainment.
Students dismantled computers, rebuilt them, and in doing so rebuilt their confidence.
They solved real-world problems with spreadsheets, stories, and scripts.
They learned that knowledge was not a possession … but a practice.
The motto we lived by then still rings true now: the real divide is not digital … it is relational.
That model built bridges across digital divides before “digital divide” was a national phrase.
Two decades later, the divide persists … but it has taken a new shape.
The gap is no longer defined by who has access to technology … but by who can use technology to deepen their humanity.
Artificial intelligence has replaced the digital computer as the defining tool of our era.
The challenge remains the same … how to use that tool ethically, reflectively, and creatively to elevate … rather than erase … the learner’s voice.
The new version builds bridges across spiritual divides ... between reflection and reaction, technology and humanity, self and system.
This essay is both vision and blueprint.
It honors the voices that illuminated the path … OMcR’s affirmation, DW’s faith, and DH’s testimony.
Their words became proof that the mission continues ... through fellowship, reflection, and grace.
Paradox: The System and the Soul
Teaching in public education has revealed a paradox that no technology can resolve.
Systems claim to value communication … but often punish candor.
They champion inclusion while practicing containment.
They adopt innovation … but resist introspection.
My experiences over the past several years have exposed this paradox in full color.
I have watched schools implement “equity” frameworks that repackage old exclusions with new vocabulary.
I have observed evaluation systems that reward compliance more than creativity.
I have seen promising educators lose their purpose under the weight of bureaucratic theater.
These are not problems of policy … they are problems of humanity.
We confuse efficiency with empathy.
We replace dialogue with directives.
We measure learning by how quiet a room sounds rather than how alive it feels.
That is why I continue to teach and write ... because silence is not peace.
Reflection, not retreat, is the remedy.
Artificial intelligence, paradoxically, has become one of my greatest partners in this process.
When used with integrity, AI amplifies reflection … rather than erasing it.
It provides a mirror that helps educators and learners hear their own words, challenge their own assumptions, and see their own patterns.
The “machine” becomes a dialogue partner.
The “prompt” becomes an act of pedagogy.
Through this lens, #TheSeeSayShow Fellowship Lab is not about automation.
It is about awakening.
Pattern: From Classroom to Fellowship
My current course, 23.04200 Oral and Written Communication (Speech), has evolved into what I often call #TheSeeSayShow.
Its architecture is simple … yet profound … students learn to see truth, say truth, and show truth through performance, dialogue, and reflective writing.
It is not a traditional communication course.
It is a space for courage … not just competence.
Each lesson in #TheSeeSayShow follows a rhythm … a pulse that blends storytelling with mathematics, rhetoric with reflection, humor with healing.
Within that rhythm live the creative practices that have sustained me through the turbulence of this year:
· #StandupStorytelling ... where awareness, spoken word, and humor become insight … and vulnerability becomes pedagogy.
· Empath Remixes ... roleplays that dramatize moral and institutional conflict, transforming trauma into teachable truth.
· Public-Facing Essays ... autoethnographic reflections that bridge classroom realities with cultural critique.
· AI-Assisted Reflection ... dialogues with artificial intelligence that extend and refine the teacher’s internal monologue into public testimony.
What has emerged from this practice is more than curriculum.
It is a form of community care … a mirror where empathy and intellect coexist.
Practice: Building the Fellowship
1. Purpose
#TheSeeSayShow Fellowship Lab is a year-round model of informal LEarning ... a deliberate reimagining of how reflection, fellowship, and technology interact.
It is not a course, a class, or a club.
It is a fellowship circle built around five verbs: See, Say, Show, Learn, and Heal.
Each participant enters as both student and teacher, both mirror and window.
The guiding question is not “What do you know?” … but “What have you learned that others need to hear?”
2. Pedagogical Core
The Lab integrates three intertwined practices that I have refined through classroom experience and #StandupStorytelling:
1. Story Circles: Structured dialogues where participants unpack real-life experiences of conflict, identity, or resilience. These are guided by the Empath Remixes roleplay scripts ... autoethnographic episodes that turn emotional complexity into teachable moments.
2. Prompt Studios: Small workshops where learners design and refine AI prompts to deepen self-awareness. Prompts might include, “Describe a time when you misunderstood someone. What did that reveal about you?” or “How can AI become a mirror for empathy instead of a mouthpiece for bias?”
3. The LEarning Lab (Reflection Projects).
Each participant selects a personal narrative or challenge to explore through
creative production. Some write essays … others compose songs, scripts, or
podcasts. The Lab provides frameworks for translating raw experience into
refined expression. Participants learn to analyze their own stories as data ...
qualitative, affective, and communal.
This process echoes the KnowledgeBase tradition of learning through making.
It honors the ancient understanding that to teach is to testify … that creation
is both reflection and revelation. Together, these practices transform the
classroom into what I call a sanctuary of structured honesty.
3. Operational Model
The Lab operates on a three-season cycle:
·
Season One: The Story of Self.
Participants examine their personal narratives through #StandupStorytelling and
guided autoethnography.
Deliverable: a reflective narrative titled “Before the Mirror.”
·
Season Two: The Story of Us.
Participants co-create Empath Remix roleplays that dramatize shared
experiences.
Deliverable: a script, short film, or performance titled “Through the
Window.”
·
Season Three: The Story of Now.
Participants design prompts, workshops, or multimedia reflections that teach others
what they have learned.
Deliverable: a public presentation titled “Beyond the Door.”
The learning outcome is not mastery of content but cultivation of character.
4. Technological Integration
AI functions as the co-author, not the authority.
Participants learn to use language models as “thought partners” that assist
with brainstorming, editing, ethical reflection, and visual storytelling.
Every session teaches prompt literacy: how to ask better questions, how to reflect through iteration, and how to treat technology as a mirror that amplifies intention. The term “AI-enhanced informal LEarning” means learning that is both human-centered and algorithmically supported ... creative, contemplative, and co-constructed.
5. Ethical Framework
The Lab is grounded in five guiding principles derived from my teaching practice:
1. Honesty: Speak truth, even when it trembles.
2. Humility: Know that no one owns wisdom; we share it.
3. Hospitality: Make every space a safe space for reflection.
4. Healing: Let storytelling transform not only the listener but the teller.
5. Hope: Teach as if tomorrow depends on what we learn today.
Alignment: Where Legacy Meets Innovation
#TheSeeSayShow Fellowship Lab aligns naturally with emerging educational priorities across institutions. It offers a model that integrates AI literacy, cultural responsiveness, and social-emotional learning without reducing any of them to slogans.
1. AI
Literacy as Human Literacy:
The Lab teaches prompt fluency as an extension of communication skills. To
design a good prompt, one must think clearly, empathize deeply, and listen
sincerely.
2. Reflective
Pedagogy as Research:
Participants generate autoethnographic data that can inform teacher training,
curriculum development, and wellness initiatives.
3. Community
as Curriculum:
Fellowship replaces hierarchy. The circle becomes the classroom. Learning
happens at the intersection of authenticity and accountability.
4. Peace
as Practice:
The Lab embodies a philosophy where peace is not passive rest but structured
reflection. Participants learn to replace chaos as routine with peace as
structure.
Philosophy: AI as Mirror, Not Machine
Artificial intelligence, when used wisely, can model the same virtues it seeks to teach.
It can demonstrate patience through revision, humility through correction, and empathy through attentive listening.
The Fellowship Lab treats AI not as oracle but as mirror … a reflective surface that returns language to its source.
In this model, each participant becomes both user and author.
The prompts that guide the Lab are co-written by human insight and algorithmic synthesis.
The machine assists in structure and pacing, but meaning remains a human endeavor.
This approach transforms AI into what I call a “reflective partner.”
It extends the teacher’s reach without diluting the teacher’s humanity.
It honors the principle that true intelligence ... artificial or otherwise ... requires humility.
The same way the KnowledgeBase Summer Academy used computers as instruments for creativity, #TheSeeSayShow Fellowship Lab uses AI as an instrument for clarity.
The goal is not to replace human imagination … but to refine it.
Participants learn to dialogue with AI ethically, treating it as an extension of inquiry … not an authority of judgment.
In this context, prompt writing becomes a new literacy.
It requires precision, empathy, and purpose.
A well-written prompt is an invitation to truth.
It is a digital form of discernment.
This emerging field ... AI prompt design for learning ... is not hypothetical.
It already exists across education, leadership, and creative industries.
Yet very few practitioners approach it through a moral and narrative lens.
The Fellowship Lab does.
It asks not only what we can make AI do, but what we should make it say.
Through guided practice, participants learn to write prompts that cultivate empathy, conflict resolution, and ethical reflection.
They learn that the art of the prompt is the art of the pause ... the discipline of asking before answering.
Application: Pathways Forward
The next stage of development involves translating this vision into actionable design. The Fellowship Lab can operate in multiple formats:
1. In-School
Fellowship Pods:
Pilot programs embedded in existing classes or advisories.
2. Community
Story Labs:
Evening or weekend sessions that gather students, parents, and educators around
shared themes such as Grace in Tension, Boundaries and Belonging,
or Peace as Practice.
3. Summer
Intensives:
Reimagined KnowledgeBase Academies that blend reflection, technology, and
artistry.
4. Digital
Fellowships:
Online environments where participants interact with AI co-facilitators trained
on ethical storytelling frameworks derived from #TheSeeSayShow.
Each context honors the same principle: that learning begins with listening, and that wisdom emerges through reflection.
Impact: Toward a Culture of Reflective Leadership
#TheSeeSayShow Fellowship Lab is not only a teaching model.
It is a leadership incubator.
It prepares participants to engage the world as reflective practitioners capable of balancing truth and tact.
Educators who experience the Lab learn to navigate tension without surrendering integrity.
Students who complete it learn to translate self-awareness into civic engagement.
Institutions that adopt it gain a blueprint for moral imagination ... an operating system that values empathy as efficiency.
In a time when polarization has replaced conversation, this model offers an alternative language for growth.
It replaces argument with articulation … performance with presence … and compliance with consciousness.
Proof: Living Testimonies
The evidence of impact does not reside in standardized tests … but in human correspondence.
The letters from DW and DH, and the quiet encouragement from OMcR ... all of these contribute to the dataset of dignity.
Each note, each reflection, is an empirical verification that peace can be practiced, that fellowship can be taught, and that learning can be love made visible.
These testimonies validate the necessity of the Fellowship Lab.
They prove that what we build together outlasts what we endure alone.
OMcR: The Mentor’s Mirror
When OMcR told me that I might be building a school, he named the truth I could not see. His observation was not about institutional ambition; it was about calling. He reminded me that every act of teaching is also an act of creation, and that creation sometimes outgrows its context. His insight reframed my frustration into purpose. The “new thing” I was building was not a building. It was a movement.
DW: The Student’s Song
DW’s message came during one of my most weary days.
She wrote, “You always make me feel special and intelligent, even on my worst days.”
Her words redefined success.
They reminded me that teaching is not a transaction of information but a transmission of worth.
Her gratitude was not for geometry … it was for grace.
Her testimony became an essential verse in the Fellowship curriculum … proof that sincerity is still contagious, that kindness still teaches, and that patience still saves.
DH: The Heir’s Voice
Then came DH’s note.
He wrote that since losing his father, he had searched for guidance and reassurance.
He said that my honesty and consistency reminded him of his father’s wisdom.
His message ended with, “You have shown me that being a strong and respectable man is not about being perfect but about being kind, real, and consistent.”
That is the highest compliment an educator can receive ... to be seen not as a performer of authority … but as a practitioner of integrity.
His testimony transformed the abstract goals of the Fellowship into a living curriculum on character.
DH’s letter, DW’s reflection, and OMcR’s counsel collectively became the foundation stones of #TheSeeSayShow Fellowship Lab.
They are evidence that learning is a shared act of remembrance ... that every mentor, student, and peer writes a verse in the same gospel of growth.
Promise: Beyond Containment
In the landscape of public education, containment is the silent curriculum.
It teaches students to conform, teachers to comply, and leaders to conceal.
The Fellowship Lab exists to reverse that instruction.
It teaches liberation through listening, accountability through articulation, and hope through honest reflection.
Containment isolates.
Fellowship integrates.
Containment silences.
Reflection restores.
Containment restricts.
Storytelling releases.
KnowledgeBase once turned recycled computers into new opportunities.
The Fellowship Lab turns recycled pain into new pedagogy.
Peace: Teaching in the Key of Grace
Peace is not the absence of difficulty.
It is the discipline of returning to purpose.
In the rhythm of #TheSeeSayShow, peace becomes the pause between the seeing, the saying, and the showing.
It is the stillness that allows meaning to echo.
As I prepare for whatever season lies ahead, I carry with me the assurance that this work ... born from reflection, refined by resistance, and revived by grace ... can help others find their own voices amid the noise.
To teach is to testify.
To testify is to tell the truth with love.
To love is to listen … until understanding takes root.
Partnerships – KnowledgeBase Reborn
To bring this vision to life, collaboration is key.
The next iteration of KnowledgeBase will not be a company or a campus … it will be a network of fellowships that bridge education, art, and ethics.
Potential partners include:
<SNIP>Each partnership would support a distinct pillar:
1. Pedagogy: The curriculum of reflection.
2. Publication: The dissemination of stories.
3. Performance: The embodiment of empathy.
4. Policy: The advocacy for humane learning environments.
The Fellowship Lab becomes both archive and accelerator, collecting testimonies and generating templates for other communities to replicate.
Practice-to-Policy Pipeline
#TheSeeSayShow Fellowship Lab serves as a practical research hub for ethical AI and autoethnographic education.
Participants’ reflections will produce data ... qualitative narratives, quantitative metrics, and aesthetic evidence ... that demonstrate the emotional, social, and intellectual benefits of reflective learning.
Long-term, these findings can inform district-wide wellness initiatives, teacher training programs, and national conversations on the human role in artificial intelligence.
Just as the KnowledgeBase Academy once prepared young minds for the digital revolution, #TheSeeSayShow Fellowship Lab prepares whole communities for the moral revolution that AI demands.
Selah: Somewhere Out There
The phrase “somewhere out there” used to feel distant, almost wistful.
Now it feels like a destination.
Somewhere out there is a classroom where honesty is safety, where teachers are mentors rather than managers, where AI listens rather than dictates, and where every learner is both student and story.
#TheSeeSayShow Fellowship Lab exists to find that place ... and to remind us that “out there” begins “in here.”
It stands as both continuation and correction of my lifelong journey through education.
It honors the KnowledgeBase legacy of technology as empowerment … while advancing a new understanding of artificial intelligence as mirror, mentor, and muse.
In the quiet of reflection … in the courage of confession … in the artistry of empathy … we discover that learning is not an outcome … but an encounter.
And when a student like DH writes that he has found in you the echo of his father’s wisdom … or when a student like DW thanks you for making her feel intelligent on her worst days … or when a colleague like OMcR tells you that you are building something beyond measure ... then you know that the work is still holy.
That is enough reason to keep building.
Selah.
(The "Follow The Leader (changED - Volume 2)" Audio and Video Album / Mixtape is also available at TeachersPayTeachers.com)
(The "changED (Volume 1)" Audio and Video Album / Mixtape is also available at TeachersPayTeachers.com)
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I am a “standup storyteller.”
I fuse rap, spoken word (poetry), oration (traditional public speaking), singing, and teaching into messages of hope, healing, and change that I write, direct, and produce to help people who help people.
Everything must change - and stay changED.
Tradition begins and ends with change.
Change begins with me and the renewing of my mind ... then continues through efforts to effect small-group discipleship (equipping others to equip others) with audiences that respect and embrace mentoring, mediation, and problem solving as tools of change.
I am the product of my mentoring relationships, peacemaking (and peacekeeping), and problem-solving ability.
My education began when I finished school.
After school, I enrolled in a lifelong curriculum that includes classes in ministry, entrepreneurship, stewardship, literacy, numeracy, language, self-identity, self-expression, and analysis / synthesis.
My projects execute a ministry that has evolved from wisdom earned through lessons learned.
I want to share this wisdom to build teams of "triple threat" fellows - mentors, mediators, and problem solvers.
We will collaborate in simple, powerful ways that allow us to help people who help people.
I now know that power is work done efficiently (with wise and skillful use of resources, interests, communication, and expertise).
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