Dan Wabno · Digital Learning Coach

Be a human first, and the rest will come.

I design training that helps people adopt powerful tools. Today that tool is AI.

  • Instructional design
  • AI enablement
  • Training & facilitation

The tool changes every decade, from a mixing console to a Mac to AI, and the person learning it is the point.

Try a 2-minute lesson I designed See the work Read my résumé →

Swipe the timeline to see 2010 → now.

  • Apple-Certified Technician & Trainer
  • M.S. Education, Music PreK-12
  • B.Mus, Audio & Music Production
  • Google for Education NYC presenter
Hiring for:

Twelve years teaching people to use powerful tools: in studios, at Apple, in classrooms, and now with AI across Norwalk's 13 elementary schools.

12 yrs teaching and training, from Apple retail to K-12 classrooms
13 elementary schools coached across Norwalk Public Schools
~20 coaching sessions a month, all year
NYC presented our district AI site at a Google for Education conference
Try it · 2 minutes

You be the evaluator.

Five rewrites of principals' notes, each built to mimic a mistake AI makes. Your job is to decide which ones stayed faithful. It's a real micro-lesson built on the evaluation work below.

Selected work

What the chapters produced

Case studies, each with the constraints I wrote, how I checked the result, and what shipped.

The Use Register page from the AI at NPS site redesign, with its headline 'Most districts publish what they bought. This publishes what they do.'
Public siteAI governanceEN / ES

AI @ NPS: District AI Site & Guidebook

Norwalk's public AI transparency site and K-12 guidebook. Presented at a Google for Education conference in NYC; other districts now reach out for guidance.

  • AI Use Register: 7 decisions AI may never make
  • 0–4 Classroom AI Use Scale
  • 14-chapter guidebook aligned to FERPA, COPPA, CIPA
Read case study →
Objective 2 has no quiz item. Learners are told why 2FA matters but never asked. I would add one.
Instructional designADDIEJob aidLive module

Designing a Training, End to End

The full design document for a training I built: needs analysis, objectives, storyboard, assessment and evaluation.

  • A module you can launch, plus a one-page job aid
  • Five objectives mapped to sections and quiz items
  • An honest finding: one objective has no quiz item
Read the design document →
Referral system admin portal before the rebuild
Before
Referral system admin portal after the rebuild, with sample data
After
Live · school-wide41 commitsAgent-directed

Student Referral System

A 16-phase rebuild I directed through AI agents using a written handoff doc as their rules. Includes the "PASS on zero samples" catch.

  • Required form fields cut from 11 to 6
  • Payload down from 335 KB to 217 KB
  • Checked at 375px across 7 views
Read case study →
Held-out setCaughtFalse alarms
v1 validator0 / 83 / 8
v2 prototype5 / 80 / 8
Model evaluationRubric design52 graded cases

Grading the Grader

I wrote a faithfulness rubric and graded test cases to find what an AI-rewrite checker misses, then prototyped a fix and confirmed it on a held-out set.

Read case study →
Never include student names; say "a student". Reject any rewrite that adds a number, invents a name, or flips who did what.
On-device LLMSwiftUIPilot build

PrinciPAL

An iPhone app that turns a principal's dictated notes into structured follow-ups, with a validator that rejects unfaithful AI rewrites.

Read case study →
The Vibe-Coded Classroom Showcase, opening slide with teacher notes
Teacher PDPrompt library11 live demos

Vibe-Coded Classroom Showcase

A 23-slide interactive PD with 11 live demos and 29 copy-ready prompts that teach teachers to build privacy-safe classroom tools.

Read case study →
Pass 1: which of 10 service areas apply? NONE is allowed. Pass 2: draft the narrative. Invalid output gets one corrective retry.
Two-pass LLMIn use50 tests

SSW Helper

Turns a school social worker's shorthand into state special-education service logs, with guards against known model failure modes.

Read case study →
A Tinkercad 'Be a Star' coin from the Kindness Coin tutorial
A Tinkercad texture tile design
Curriculum designK-53D design & print

K-5 Maker Program

Scaffolded Tinkercad lessons, rubrics and video tutorials across several schools, plus a Grade 5 "Design for Good" unit that launches this fall.

Read case study →
Never invent card names, prices, comps, values, percentages, or market data. Do not do trade math.
Hallucination guardSwiftUI30 tests

TradeUp Companion

A personal project: the LLM only narrates; all math is tested code. Any invented price or card name is rejected.

Read case study →
All tracks

See all 30+ projects

Filter by AI, training, tools, learning apps and making.

Browse the full list →
How I train

ADDIE, the way I learned it at Apple.

Analyze the gap, design for it, develop the materials, deliver, then evaluate whether anyone actually learned. I still run every coaching request that way, starting with the person, not the process.

Analyze

Coaching, ~20 sessions a month

13 elementary schools

One-on-one and small-group coaching on whatever the teacher actually needs, from Chromebooks to prompts. I built the booking system teachers use to request time.

Design & develop

Materials that stand alone

Guides, modules, newsletters

A self-paced 2FA module with a scored check, a one-page job aid, an operator guide for the referral system, and the Tech Radar staff newsletter. I used to build iBooks and LMS courses; same skill.

Deliver

Live PD, with demos

Teachers, principals, conferences

The 23-slide Vibe-Coded Classroom Showcase, AI literacy sessions for staff, and the AI @ NPS presentation at a Google for Education conference in New York City.

Evaluate

Did it stick?

Adoption, not attendance

Whole school staffs now use the tools I've built for them. When something isn't used, I change the tool or the training, not the teacher.

See a full design document, end to end →

Impact

Did it work? How I measure training.

I use Kirkpatrick's four levels. Here is what I can point to at each one, and where I still need data.

Level 1

Reaction

Teachers keep booking sessions: about 20 coaching sessions a month, requested through the booking system I built.

Level 2

Learning

My self-paced modules end with a scored knowledge check, like the six-item check in the 2FA staff module. Scores aren't recorded yet; storing them is the next fix.

Level 3

Behavior

Tools get adopted by whole school staffs, not single teachers. The referral system is live school-wide.

Referral system case study →
Level 4

Results

Other districts now ask Norwalk for AI guidance, based on the public AI @ NPS site.

AI @ NPS case study →
How I work with AI

Clear rules going in. Verification coming out.

The same habits show up in every build, from an iPhone app for principals to a district AI policy. They're also the habits that make a good model trainer or evaluator.

01

Write the rules down

System prompts, agent handoff docs and skill files that turn requirements such as privacy law, compliance formats and "never invent a price" into constraints a model can follow and I can check.

02

Treat output as unverified

Validators that reject AI rewrites which add numbers, invent names or flip who did what, and fall back safely instead of shipping a confident mistake.

03

Verify before trusting

Tests, before/after checks and honest status reports. I once caught an automated check that reported "PASS" on zero samples and reclassified it as inconclusive.

04

Teach it forward

Guides, PD sessions and prompt libraries that let teachers and staff use AI safely, including the public AI site other districts now come to us about.

Plan

Codex

Breaks the problem into phases, drafts specs and sets the constraints.

Build

Claude Code

Implements from a written handoff doc that acts as its persistent context and rules.

Verify

Me

Review, test, correct either agent, and decide what ships to real teachers.

My teaching philosophy

“Be a human first, and the rest will come.”

Skills, tools and curriculum all land better once a person feels seen. Four chapters taught me that.

Four chapters, one job.

Every project on this site traces back to one of these.

2010 – 2019 · AUDIO

Sound

B.Mus in Audio and Music Production at Western Connecticut State. Then mixing engineer and sound designer for the Naugatuck Marching Band on a live digital console, and recording engineer for school concerts at Enfield High.

What I carry forwardListening, really listening. You can't help a mix, a student or an AI answer until you can say exactly what's going on with it.
Details →
2015 – 2018 · APPLE

Training

Creative and in-store guest trainer at Apple, and an Apple-Certified Technician and Trainer. I used the ADDIE model to find training gaps, built multiweek eLearning and iBooks for the company's LMS, and ran train-the-trainer sessions for new hires and veterans.

What I carry forwardStart from the learner, not the product's feature list. Find their gap, then check whether it stuck.
Details →
2014 – 2022 · CLASSROOM

Teaching

M.S.Ed. with Music PreK-12 certification. I taught K-5 general music and chorus, directed 6th-grade band, built Digital Audio and Music Technology courses for 75 high-schoolers a semester, upgraded the Music Tech lab, moved classes online during COVID, and led a FIRST LEGO League team.

What I carry forwardDifferentiation, clear rubrics, and planning for the learner who is not yet where the curriculum assumes.
Details →
2022 – NOW · NORWALK PS

Coaching & AI

Digital Learning Coach across 13 elementary schools. I coach teachers, build tools that whole school staffs adopt, and co-authored the district's public AI guidance. I direct AI coding agents with written rules, and I check everything they produce.

What I carry forwardAll of it, held together. Technical enough to build it, teacher enough to make it usable.
Details →
Credentials

Trained in both worlds.

M.S. EducationMusic PreK-12 certification · University of Bridgeport, 2018
B.MusAudio and Music Production · Western Connecticut State, 2015
Apple-CertifiedTechnician and Trainer · Apple, 2015–2018
Conference presenterGoogle for Education, New York City

Full résumé →

Contact

Be a human first. Then let's talk.

Training, coaching, curriculum, evaluation, conference sessions: if it's about helping adults or kids learn a powerful tool safely, I'd like to hear about it.

Email me Résumé