AI Speakers for Schools Scored

Only evidence about AI counts: generative AI, chatbots, AI companions, deepfakes, AI literacy and AI policy, as they affect young people and schools. A speaker's general work on social media, screen time or cyberbullying is left out. A media item or talk counts only when a page outside the speaker's own websites confirms it, and each figure links to that page. Every speaker was researched with the same written method. The counts are floors: many AI sessions for schools are never posted online, and several speakers list AI talks on their own sites that could not be confirmed elsewhere.

Ranking

1
Sameer Hinduja
62.4/100
2
Ken Shelton
54.1/100
3
Amanda Bickerstaff
51.8/100
4
Jennifer Casa-Todd
34.1/100
5
Devorah Heitner
23.5/100

Sameer Hinduja leads by about eight points; Ken Shelton and Amanda Bickerstaff are close behind each other. Each leads in something different: Hinduja in AI research, media and credentials, Shelton in event stages and publications, and Bickerstaff in AI news coverage and recent activity.

Points by criterion

Speaker	AI media ×20	AI publications ×15	AI event caliber ×15	Audience range ×10	Credentials ×10	Testimonials ×10	AI recency ×5	Score
Sameer Hinduja	3	2	4	0	5	4	5	62.4
Ken Shelton	2	2	4	2	4	2	4	54.1
Amanda Bickerstaff	3	1	4	2	4	0	5	51.8
Jennifer Casa-Todd	0	1	3	2	3	2	3	34.1
Devorah Heitner	1	0	0	0	4	4	0	23.5

Raw figures

Speaker	AI media items Nov 2023–26	AI publications Nov 2021–26	Latest AI talk	AI audiences reached
Sameer Hinduja	10	4	Oct 2026*	None confirmed
Ken Shelton	4	3	Jun 2026	Staff
Amanda Bickerstaff	10	1	Nov 2026	Staff
Jennifer Casa-Todd	0	1	Mar 2026	Staff
Devorah Heitner	2	0	None found	None confirmed

* Self-reported on the speaker's own events calendar. All other dates in this column are confirmed by an outside page.

No speaker has a confirmed AI session for school-age students or for parents. Several list such sessions on their own sites, which would add points here once confirmed.

The evidence

Sameer Hinduja

62.4

AI Expert · Professor of Criminology and Criminal Justice, Florida Atlantic University · Co-Director, Cyberbullying Research Center · hinduja.org

AI media: 10, including two Associated Press stories on deepfakes in schools (Dec 2025), MIT Technology Review twice (2026), HealthDay on teen chatbot use, The Guardian on AI companions, and three Tech Policy Press bylines. 3 pts
AI publications: 4: a national study of teen AI chatbot use in the Journal of Adolescence (2026) and three Tech Policy Press bylines on AI and child safety. 2 pts
AI event caliber: International keynote and workshop. 4 of 5
Audience range: Neither confirmed AI talk was for K-12 students, parents or school staff specifically. 0 pts
Credentials: Full professor, PhD, Berkman Klein Center faculty associate, journal co-editor, senior author of a national teen-chatbot study. 5 of 5
Testimonials: At least 19 named organisers on cyberbullying.org, plus AI-talk testimonials on hinduja.org. 4 of 5
Latest AI talk: "Child Safety and Generative AI", an invite-only Tech Coalition event in Washington, DC, 21 October 2026 (under 1 month), self-reported on his 2026 events calendar. His latest AI talk confirmed by an outside page is the Stellenbosch keynote, September 2025. 5 pts

Ken Shelton

54.1

Educator and consultant · Co-author, The Promises and Perils of AI in Education · kennethshelton.net

AI media: 4: an Edutopia byline on AI bias (Aug 2024), Tech & Learning on vetting AI tools (Jan 2025), an ASCD Educational Leadership interview (Feb 2025) and EdTech Magazine on his CoSN keynote (Apr 2025). 2 pts
AI publications: 3: The Promises and Perils of AI in Education (2024), its companion guide, and the Edutopia article. 2 pts
AI event caliber: National headline keynote (CoSN) and an international conference (Hong Kong). 4 of 5
Audience range: Staff and school leaders. His one student talk was a university class, which does not count for a page about teens. 2 pts
Credentials: MA in educational technology, 20+ years teaching, ISTE and CUE awards, California State Superintendent's Ed Tech Task Force (bio). 4 of 5
Testimonials: A named quote from Penn State's TLT senior director and a short bureau review. His own site could not be read. 2 of 5
Latest AI talk: Mobile Learning Conference, June 2026 (5 months). 4 pts

Amanda Bickerstaff

51.8

Co-founder and CEO, AI for Education · aiforeducation.io

AI media: 10, including the Associated Press on AI literacy (Aug 2026), ABC News (Aug 2026), CBS News (Feb 2025), CBS News Chicago (Feb 2026), Stateline via The 74 and Government Technology. 3 pts
AI publications: 1: a Federation of American Scientists policy memo on teacher AI literacy (2024). 1 pt
AI event caliber: National headline keynote (OLC Accelerate). 4 of 5
Audience range: Staff and school leaders, for example the Charleston County educator symposium. Her parent webinar appears only on her own site; her student session was at a university. 2 pts
Credentials: Former high school biology teacher and edtech CEO, 20+ years in education, regularly cited by national outlets on AI in K-12. 4 of 5
Testimonials: None found. 0 of 5
Latest AI talk: IETC 2026 keynote, 11 November 2026. 5 pts

Jennifer Casa-Todd

34.1

Teacher-librarian, author and Lakehead University Faculty of Education instructor · jcasatodd.com

AI media: 0 in established news outlets. 0 pts
AI publications: 1: a research paper on AI literacy in school libraries (2025). Her media literacy toolbox covers AI as one strand among several. 1 pt
AI event caliber: National conference sessions (FETC, TMC8), not keynotes. 3 of 5
Audience range: Staff, mainly teacher-librarians. 2 pts
Credentials: 30+ years in education, MEd, ISTE Digital Citizenship award, author. 3 of 5
Testimonials: 2 named organisers on Speakers Canada. 2 of 5
Latest AI talk: ECOO, March 2026 (7 months). 3 pts

Devorah Heitner

23.5

Author and founder, Raising Digital Natives · devorahheitner.com

AI media: 2: NewsNation on parents and AI (Feb 2024) and OK! via Yahoo on AI companions (Oct 2026). Most of her AI writing is on her own Substack. 1 pt
AI publications: 0. Growing Up in Public (2023) is about privacy and social media, not AI. 0 pts
AI event caliber: No AI talks counted. 0 of 5
Audience range: None confirmed for AI. 0 pts
Credentials: PhD in Media, Technology and Society, Northwestern; two books with Penguin Random House. 4 of 5
Testimonials: 15 named organisations on her APB Speakers profile. 4 of 5
Latest AI talk: None found. 0 pts

Method

Each criterion converts to 0–5 points, multiplies by its weight, and the total is scaled to 100. The number of AI talks a speaker gives is not scored, whether confirmed or self-reported, because many school sessions are never posted online and speakers differ widely in how much of their schedule they publish. Talks still inform event caliber, audience range and recency. Count-based criteria earn one point for each threshold met. Credentials and testimonials cover each speaker's whole career; every other criterion counts AI work only.

Criterion	Weight	1 pt	2 pts	3 pts	4 pts	5 pts
AI media items, last 3 years	20	1	3	6	12	20
AI publications, last 5 years	15	1	3	6	10	20
Months since most recent AI talk	5	≤36	≤24	≤12	≤6	≤3
AI event caliber (judged)	15	local · regional · national · international, TEDx or national headline keynote · top-tier main stage
Audience range	10	confirmed AI sessions for school-age students, parents, and staff: one audience 2 pts, two 4 pts, all three 5 pts
Credentials (judged)	10	practitioner · degree or 5+ yrs · senior or 10+ yrs · professor, director or recognised authority · field-defining
Testimonials (judged)	10	one · a few informal · several named organisers · many reputable · extensive top-tier

An item counts as AI when AI is its main subject; items that mention AI in passing are left out. Media items are quotes, interviews, features and bylines in established news, education trade and tech policy outlets, excluding a speaker's own site, newsletter and podcast, press releases and independent podcasts. For event caliber and audience range, a talk counts when a host, conference or news page confirms it, its title or description is about AI, and its date has passed. For recency, an AI talk also counts when the speaker's own site or speaker-bureau page lists it with a date that has passed, because many school and private events are never posted publicly; posting dates alone do not count. This rule was applied to every speaker, and only Sameer Hinduja's recency changed under it. "Students" means school-age students, because this page is about teens; university classes do not count.

Under the main alternatives the order holds. Counting university student sessions toward audience range would raise Ken Shelton to 58.8 and Amanda Bickerstaff to 56.5. Ken Shelton's keynote at IETC on 12 November 2026, the day research closed, is not counted; counting it would raise him to 55.3. Counting Devorah Heitner's November 2026 parent session, which treats AI as a sub-topic, would raise her to 37.6.