Technology Should Make Room for Relationships, Not Replace Them
Author: Vrinda Kokje
Key takeaways:
- TalkingPoints joined school and district leaders and educators in Orlando for the ISTELive and 2026 ASCD Annual Conference.
- The dominant theme wasn’t just AI itself. It was using technology to give educators more time for relationships, not less.
- Dr. Jose Dotres, Superintendent of Miami-Dade County Public Schools, shared how his district reframes AI as “additional intelligence” that supports pedagogy, not replaces it.
- Howard County Principal Dr. Rachel Edoho-Eket named TalkingPoints during her panel on building family trust, pointing to two-way communication as the reason it works.
- Educators everywhere asked the same question: how do we build stronger family relationships without adding more work to our plates? That’s exactly the problem TalkingPoints exists to solve.
Earlier this month, the TalkingPoints team traveled to Orlando to spend a few days alongside school and district leaders and educators at the ISTELive and 2026 ASCD Annual Conference. We came home with pages of notes, several new friends, and one question we couldn’t stop thinking about: not how we use technology in schools, but why.
That single word, why, ended up shaping almost everything we heard. In session after session, in expo hall conversations, and in a handful of moments we won’t forget, one theme kept rising to the top. Technology should make more room for connection, not add more work for the people doing the connecting. Here’s what we saw, who we met, and why it has us more energized than ever about the work ahead.
AI was everywhere. Relationships were the point.
There was no shortage of excitement around AI at this year’s conference, and rightfully so. But what stood out to our team wasn’t the technology itself. It was how rarely the conversations centered on replacing teachers or relationships. Instead, they were about giving educators back their time, so they can do what they do best.
That idea showed up again and again on the mainstage.
Dr. Jose Dotres, Superintendent of Miami-Dade County Public Schools (nearly 300,000 students and 16,000 teachers), offered a simple but powerful reframe. Before communities can embrace “artificial intelligence,” he said, they need to trust “actual intelligence.” He encouraged educators to think of AI as additional intelligence: tools that help build the attributes of Miami-Dade’s community-owned Portrait of a Graduate, rather than an abstract force to fear.
His clarity about keeping pedagogy and technology tied together, never letting one get ahead of the other, was the message that stuck with us most from his keynote. It’s the kind of leadership that makes this work feel possible at scale. Our team also had the chance to meet Dr. Dotres in person during the conference, and it only reinforced how genuinely he leads with that belief. It’s inspiring to see a Superintendent leading a district that size who holds so firmly to the belief that technology only matters if it strengthens the humans using it.
That belief is the foundation TalkingPoints was built on. Our platform exists to strengthen the relationship between schools and families, not to stand in for it. From multilingual messaging to two-way conversations, every feature is designed to help schools, districts, and families understand each other better. Hearing Dr. Dotres describe that same principle at the district level was a powerful reminder that we’re building toward the same goal: technology in service of people.
Learn how TalkingPoints equips educators at all levels to connect with families to build trusting relationships.
What educators are actually asking for
As our team talked with educators throughout the week, a pattern emerged. Very few conversations started with, “We’re looking for another communication tool.” They started with challenges:
- How do we get families more engaged?
- How do we improve attendance?
- How do we help teachers feel supported?
- How do we reach families who haven’t traditionally been connected to the school community?
That’s a good reminder that communication is really just the starting point. When schools can communicate consistently, in families’ preferred languages, and without adding extra work for staff, it opens the door to so much more: stronger relationships, increased trust, better attendance, and ultimately better outcomes for students.
Why Dr. Rachel Edoho-Eket’s session stuck with us
One conversation captured this perfectly. Dr. Rachel Edoho-Eket, principal in Howard County Public Schools, delivered a keynote and joined the panel “Building Trust with Families in a Skeptical Age,” focused on how her team builds trust with families in a diverse community. Her words stuck with our team long after the session ended:
“We’ve focused on two-way [communication] because we want to hear from our parents.“
She was direct about why: email doesn’t work. During the panel, she specifically pointed to TalkingPoints as part of the answer. Two-way, accessible communication isn’t a nice-to-have. It’s the foundation everything else is built on.
Watch Dr. Edoho-Eket explain why two-way communication has been “a gamechanger” for her school community.
Why this matters for TalkingPoints
None of this is new to us. It’s why family engagement has always been at the center of what we do. But hearing it echoed by educators from every corner of the country, and from other countries too, was a powerful reminder that we’re solving the right problem.
We left the conference energized about where TalkingPoints is headed. We’re continuing to build tools that help schools tackle these bigger goals, from attendance to trust to academic improvement, while keeping family engagement to improve student outcomes at the center of it all. Not because we have all the answers, but because we’re listening closely to the educators who are asking the right questions.
It wasn’t one big product announcement or a single session with all the answers that made this conference meaningful. It was hearing the same message over and over, from educators who care deeply about their families and are looking for practical ways to strengthen those relationships. If technology can help make that easier while giving teachers more time back, we’re doing something right.
We’re already looking forward to next year.
Ready to build stronger, two-way family partnerships at your school or district? Get in touch with our team to see how TalkingPoints can help.
