Class of 2030: Designing AI's Place in Learning
Hosted by AI in Education Club at Harvard Graduate School of Education
Friday, October 23, 2026
3:00 PM–4:00 PM ET
About
AI arrived in classrooms before anyone decided how it should be used. Teachers are experimenting, learners are improvising, and institutions are writing policy for tools that change every few months.
This panel brings together researchers from the Harvard Graduate School of Education and Project Zero to take stock of where AI actually shows up in K–12 and higher education today. They'll discuss what we know, and don't yet know, about its effects on how students think and learn, and how educators might design curriculum and systems where AI deepens thinking rather than replacing it. We'll close with a harder question: if we were designing learning for an AI-native generation from scratch, what would we change, and what should we protect?
Speakers
- 1. Fernando M. Reimers is the Ford Foundation Professor of the Practice in International Education at the Harvard Graduate School of Education and Director of the Global Education Innovation Initiative at Harvard University. His work examines how education systems can better prepare children and youth for civic and economic participation, and how curriculum, leadership, teacher professional development, and policy can support large-scale improvement aligned with the UN Sustainable Development Goals. In his recent book, Artificial Intelligence and Education in the Global South. A Systems Perspective, he discusses the role of artificial intelligence in transforming education systems, particularly in lower-resource contexts. Reimers is an elected member of the United States National Academy of Education and the International Academy of Education, of which he was elected President in 2026. He is also a member of the Council on Foreign Relations. He served on UNESCO’s Commission on the Futures of Education, which produced Reimagining Our Futures Together: A New Social Contract for Education.
- 2. Tina Grotzer is a Principal Research Scientist and Member of the Faculty of Education at the Harvard Graduate School of Education. She is an expert in the learning sciences and cognitive sciences and a senior researcher at Project Zero. She has been working in grounded, informal and formal contexts for applying cognitive science findings for three decades. She teaches courses in cognition and learning, and its applications to learner behaviors, pedagogy, instructional design, and school design. This work considers what it means to be an expert learner and how to leverage research towards supporting students in developing adaptive expertise to help them learn how to learn about and navigate challenges of the future. Her awards include a Career Award from the National Science Foundation (NSF) and a Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers (PECASE) from the US Government for her research on learning to handle complexity. She has written many research articles, articles for the general public, books, and curricula for the classroom. With colleague, Dr. Christopher Dede, she developed the EcoLEARN curriculum that leverages new technologies to teach complex ecosystems science concepts. She has worked with PBS, Disney/ABC, and Microsoft and schools nationally and internationally. Prior to coming to Harvard, she was a district-wide administrator and teacher for over a decade.
Host
AI in Education Club at Harvard Graduate School of Education