aiEDU

Education doesn't have a move-fast-and-break-things mentality, and Jennifer L. Husbands thinks that's the right call: "We're working with children. We don't want to break children." After two decades inside the system — High Tech High, Chicago Public Schools, the Gates Foundation — her position on AI in schools is clear: between moving too fast and too slow, choose too slow. You don't experiment on kids. #aiEDUStudios #AIinschools #edleadership

SXSW EDU 2027 voting is open, and aiEDU is part of three PanelPicker proposals this year. Each one is with a partner we're proud to build AI readiness with: 🗳️ ‘Teaching AI Readiness in Middle School’ with DREAM Charter Schools 🗳️ ‘AI Ready Organizations: Preparing Staff to Support Schools’ with Transcend and Leading Educators 🗳️ ’Good Vibes! AI, UDL & Designing for Learner Variability’ with CAST (Center for Applied Special Technology) Community votes help decide what gets programmed in Austin next March. Voting takes two minutes! Deadline is Sunday, August 23.

AI is making it possible to build learning tools faster than ever. Educators, learners, and even families can now describe what they want and see it take shape, no coding background required. 🗯️ Speed doesn't guarantee inclusion. A tool built quickly can still leave learners out if accessibility isn't part of the process from the start. We recently partnered with CAST (Center for Applied Special Technology) to explore this question directly: what does it look like to combine AI-assisted "vibe coding" with Universal Design for Learning? Over 150 educators, designers, and innovators worked through that question together. We've pulled together what came out of the session in a field resource, including a UDL-informed process for approaching vibe coding, key considerations for accessibility and safety, and a sample of the prototypes participants built. 🔗https://lnkd.in/gherWECB

Everyone around Cassie Owens Moore, a school librarian in Seneca, South Carolina, had opinions about AI in education — and she realized she could only parrot what she'd heard. That wasn't good enough for her. aiEDU’s Trailblazer Fellowship gave her a place to say "I know nothing about this" without embarrassment, and to build real understanding alongside other educators. She's since presented the curriculum at her state librarian conference and become the person in her community who can explain AI. #TrailblazerFellowship #AIReadiness #educators

📣 Applications are open for the Fall 2026 Trailblazers Fellowship! If you're a K–12 educator who's been figuring out in real time what AI Readiness asks of you and your students — this one's for you. Trailblazers is a paid, 12-week virtual fellowship: five live sessions, a closing showcase, and 2–3 AI Readiness activities you pilot in your own classroom alongside educators from across the country. Fellows earn an $875 stipend, a certificate, a digital badge, and access to aiEDU's national educator network. This fall we're welcoming five cohorts: 🔹 Elementary: Grades 3–5 🔹 Math & Science: Grades 3–12 🔹 Computer Science: Grades 6–12 🔹 Humanities & Literacy: Grades 6–12 🔹 Texas Educators: Grades 3–12 Since launch, Trailblazers has grown to 300+ alumni educators across 40+ states, reaching 11,000+ students. And this fall's cohorts will be led by Connor Mulvaney — a Trailblazer alum himself, now aiEDU's Lead, National Programs. 🗓 Applications close August 24. Learn more and apply at the link in the comments — and if you know a teacher who'd be a great fit, tag them below! Christian Pinedo Lindsay Berger Emma Doggett Neergaard Khushali Narechania Connor Mulvaney Kristen Kayser Jessica Jackson Ashley Renick LeNard P. Na'taja M.R Flood, M.A Sociology and Ed Shelby Christensen Drew St. Lawrence

Wim Sweldens remembers the deal teachers offered: you can bring a calculator to the exam — but you'll get a more difficult exam. He argues AI works the same way. The tool is allowed; the bar moves; our skills shift to new territory. #aiEDUStudios #AIinschools #assessment

Thirty-six years into teaching on Kauai, Leah Aiwohi watched the adults on her campus split into camps over AI: half embracing it, half refusing to discuss it. Her students didn't split. They were cautious and critical about AI, but far more open to actually discussing it than the adults around them. As she puts it, "I don't think I gave them enough credit." #AIReadiness #studentvoice #education

The Rithm Project asked young people to chart when they felt most and least connected across a day. The long flat lows — the least connected stretches — were class time. Michelle Culver points out the irony: it's the one part of the day young people spend in person with peers they want to be in relationship with, while adults obsess over what they're doing alone on screens at home. Her challenge: redesign school as a place of belonging and human connection. #aiEDUStudios #humanconnection #schooldesign

💡 What happens when teachers (not a vendor, not an outside rubric) decide which AI tools belong in the classroom? That's the question behind aiEDU's first professional learning community on AI tool evaluation, piloted this spring with University Prep Schools (Detroit) in Detroit. Seven educators spent four sessions building a shared evaluation process, testing real tools in their own classrooms, and deciding which ones earned a place in front of students. Along the way they surfaced things no outside rubric would have; like ranking privacy higher than most evaluations do, and adding a criterion aiEDU hadn't emphasized, like the environmental and ethical footprint of the companies behind the tools. Read what they learned here: https://lnkd.in/gnATuxr4

"I don't want AI in my classroom" is the pushback Cassie Owens Moore, a school librarian in Seneca, South Carolina, hears most from colleagues. Her answer surprises people: in aiEDU's AI Snapshots, students aren't on devices at all. They're thinking, talking, and working out what they believe around AI — building AI Readiness through discussion rather than screen time. #AIReadiness #AIliteracy #TrailblazerFellowship