AI in Education: From Research to Practice
Artificial intelligence has quickly become embedded in education, with approximately 60% of U.S. K-12 teachers now using AI tools-a sharp rise from previous years. Educators across K-12 and higher education rely on AI for lesson planning, assessments, personalized instruction, and administrative tasks. As AI shifts from an experimental add-on to essential infrastructure, its rapid adoption highlights the need for research-based guidance to ensure it supports learning, equity, and institutional effectiveness. This panel will offer direction to help educational institutions use AI responsibly and in ways that advance accessibility, innovation, and student success.
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Speakers
Yasmin Kafai
A leading learning designer and researcher, Kafai develops online tools, projects, and communities that foster coding, critical thinking, and creativity. With colleagues at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Kafai helped develop and research Scratch, the widely popular programming language and community now used by over 150 million young people worldwide who have posted over 1 billion projects.
Bodong Chen
Bodong Chen is a learning scientist and educational technologist who strives to make learning a meaningful part of social participation for people of all backgrounds and circumstances. His scholarly inquiry integrates knowledge media design, software engineering, and data science methods to continually improve infrastructures for learning. Guided by design-based research and participatory design approaches, he aims to generate justice-oriented pedagogical designs, technological innovations, and empirical understandings of learning in authentic settings.
Seiji Isotani
Dr. Seiji Isotani is an internationally recognized learning scientist and engineer. His work bridges computer science and public policy, with a focus on bringing AI to resource-constrained environments through his "AIED Unplugged" methodology. Currently the President of the International Artificial Intelligence in Education Society, Dr. Isotani previously helped shape Brazil’s national K–12 computer science curriculum, impacting over 40 million students.
Shiyan Jiang
Shiyan Jiang is a learning scientist and interdisciplinary researcher whose work lies at the intersection of artificial intelligence (AI), education, and identity. Her research focuses on two interconnected strands: supporting teachers from diverse disciplinary backgrounds to integrate AI across subjects and designing AI tools that meaningfully enhance teaching and learning. Across both strands, she explores how learners negotiate their sense of self in relation to disciplinary knowledge, digital tools-especially AI-and future possibilities.
Michael Golden
L. Michael Golden is a proven education leader committed to education reform. He brings expertise in envisioning and implementing the convergence of business, technology, and education in established, emergent, and public sector environments. Dr. Golden launched and leads Catalyst @ Penn GSE. Catalyst is an endeavor to design innovative practices and to create and scale actionable solutions to advance opportunity for all learners.