Education Futures

Svenia Busson & Laurent Jolie
  • 5.0 (2)
  • Education

A podcast about the future of education in the age of AI. We bring together interdisciplinary voices to explore how we can shape more desirable futures for learning.

  1. 20h ago

    Africa's 800+ languages and the AI data gap

    Dr. John Mugo is the Chief Executive Officer of Mizizi Elimu Afrika, the African-led education organization based in Nairobi, Kenya, formerly known as Zizi Afrique Foundation. He holds a Doctorate and a Master's degree in Special Needs Education from the University of Hanover, Germany, and a Bachelor of Education (Music) from Kenyatta University, where he went on to chair the Department of Special Needs Education. Before founding the organization in 2018, he headed Uwezo, one of East Africa's largest citizen-led learning assessment initiatives, measuring what children actually know rather than what systems claim to teach. He leads ALiVE (Action for Life Skills and Values in East Africa), a regional framework and assessment system that has now assessed life skills and values in over 45,000 adolescents across Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania, and works directly with the Kenya Institute of Curriculum Development on values-based education and teacher training reform. In March 2026, Zizi Afrique rebranded as Mizizi Elimu Afrika — "mizizi" is Kiswahili for "many roots" — and launched Vision 2040: Strong Foundations for Lasting Change, a 15-year strategy to reach more than 10 million children across 10+ African countries with stronger foundational learning. His organization currently works across Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, Rwanda, Malawi and Cameroon, and is piloting AI-supported teaching with Fab AI and Gemini in 15 Kenyan schools. In this episode, John talks with Svenia Busson about: Why fewer than 20% of children in much of Sub-Saharan Africa are learning at grade level — and why he calls that an "80 to 90% leakage" no amount of university investment can fixVision 2040 and the two-lever theory behind it: strengthening government systems instead of building parallel NGO programmes, and forcing a competitive civil society sector to collaborateWhy Africa's real AI problem isn't models but data — 800+ languages, oral cultures, and knowledge trapped in unpublished grey literatureThe case for voice data and mother-tongue AI as the fastest route to reading — drawn from his own experience learning to read in Kikuyu, not EnglishWhat the Fab AI and Gemini pilot in 15 schools is showing about real-time assessment — and the widening gap between connected private schools and public schools without electricityThe whole-school approach to values built with Kenya's curriculum institute and piloted in 79 schools — because responsibility and integrity can't be taught in a lesson slotWhy place value in Grade 1 explains Kenya's KCSE maths results, and the 10-year roadmap to move Grade 3 numeracy proficiency from 30% to 75%His blunt advice to ministries drafting AI policy: stop banning it, start investing in your own data, and put young people in the driver's seatWhy Africa's median age of 19 is an asset rather than a fiscal crisis — and what has to be true for that to hold Links: Mizizi Elimu Afrika · ALiVE · Uwezo · Fab AI · AI for Education · KICD · John Mugo on LinkedIn Mentioned in this episode: For those who wish to know more about the Education Futures fellowship: https://educationfutures.ai/fellowship

    Africa's 800+ languages and the AI data gap

  2. 3d ago

    Redesigning school for the AI age

    Dan Effland is the Chief of Staff & Strategy at Summit Public Schools, where he leads the continued evolution of Summit's school model. He holds a Master's in Special Education from Dominican University and a Master's in Public School Building Administration from Columbia University's Teachers College. Before entering education, Effland spent over a decade as a professional musician in Chicago. He changed careers in his mid-thirties, teaching guitar to middle schoolers before joining Teach For America — where his cohort, mostly in their twenties, nicknamed him "Stepdad." He became a special education teacher in Chicago and then Seattle, joined Summit Public Schools in 2017, and went on to serve as Dean of Culture & Instruction at Summit Sierra and Executive Director of Summit Atlas High School in West Seattle. He now leads Summit's innovation work: designing "Summit 3.0", an evolved school model that builds on what Summit has promised families for over two decades and responds to the demands of the AI powered era. Summit operates seven charter schools across California and Washington serving roughly 3,000 students, following its earlier "Summit 2.0" personalization model, which scaled the Summit Learning Platform to nearly 400 schools and 100,000 students nationwide. He also sits on the board of the Washington State Charter Schools Association. In this episode, Dan talks with Svenia Busson about: Stripping school down to three elements — kids, outcomes, and resources — to redesign without inherited assumptionsWhy AI doesn't replace a school model, it reveals whether you actually have oneRebuilding Summit's model for the third time: from "college for all" to personalized learning to an AI-native designTreating AI as infrastructure — a data layer and knowledge graph — to dynamically match resources to students, not just as a set of toolsWhy "beliefs come first, model comes next, tools come last," and Summit's push to "create the market" for AI-native school infrastructureRethinking "cheating": protecting the learning while empowering the learner in an AI-saturated classroomRedesigning Expeditions — two-week, ungraded, off-campus career immersions — and why "learning without walls" might be where school is headedWhich durable skills matter more, not less, when a chatbot can write a competent essay in seconds A former teacher now redesigning what school itself should be in the age of AI. Mentioned in this episode: Summit Public Schools · Marshall Street Initiatives · Robin Lake / Center on Reinventing Public Education, who recommended Dan as a guest · Futre, Diane Tavenner's career-exploration platform, used by Summit juniors and seniors · Justin Reich's MIT Teaching Systems Lab, referenced from an earlier Education Futures episode Mentioned in this episode: Education Futures Fellowship A six-week programme starting on September 22nd, where seven world-leading experts in developmental psychology, neuroscience, and AI child safety will share everything they know with you: educationfutures.ai/fellowship.

    Redesigning school for the AI age

  3. Aug 13

    Designing ethical AI characters for kids

    Dr. Sonia Tiwari is a children's media researcher based in the San Francisco Bay Area and Director of Research at Oki Pie Lab. She holds a PhD in Learning, Design, and Technology from Penn State University, along with an MFA in Animation and a BS in Film, credentials she first put to work as a character designer in the video game industry before turning to research on how children bond with characters and, more recently, AI. At Oki Pie Lab, she runs weekly art workshops for children ages five to ten — more than 100 to date — using what she observes each week to test where AI helps kids create and where it gets in the way. Her research includes Tiwari, S. (2025). Designing Expressive Arts Workshops for Families Using AI Tools. International Journal of Designs for Learning, 16(2), 194–204, and Tiwari, S. Designing ethical AI characters for children's early learning experiences. AI Brain Child 1, 11 (2025) — built from analyzing 60 social media videos of 20 AI characters marketed to children as young as three. She consults with edtech founders — including Jules Stories, a UK-based screen-free storytelling companion — on whether their AI characters genuinely serve children's development, and in 2025 she was selected for the Falling Walls Foundation's Female Science Talents Intensive Track. In this episode, Sonia talks with Svenia Busson about: Why visual design — not just language or policy — shapes how children bond with AI charactersThe psychology of "cute" character design, from Japan's Kawaii culture to Germany's Kindchenschema, and how it's used to mask age-inappropriate AIThe "sticky chat patterns" she's studying with Dr. Jennifer Shen (Keene University) — and their cost to kids' ability to explore beyond one interestHer AI Character Assessment framework in AI Brain Child, built from analyzing characters marketed to ages three to eightWhy safety needs three layers — design, family, and law — and why design alone can't fix a systemic problemThe patchwork of AI regulation worldwide, from loophole-prone California state laws to stricter approaches across EuropeRating efforts underway, from Common Sense Media and Digital Promise to the kidSAFE Seal ProgramWhat Blake, Carter and Velloso's CHI 2026 research reveals about why teens build their own Character.AI companions Sonia's recommendation for a future guest: Diana Joseph, CEO of the Corporate Accelerator Forum and an innovation and entrepreneurship strategist working at the intersection of AI and organizational innovation. Mentioned in this episode: Education Futures Fellowship A six-week programme starting on September 22nd, where seven world-leading experts in developmental psychology, neuroscience, and AI child safety will share everything they know with you: educationfutures.ai/fellowship.

    Designing ethical AI characters for kids

  4. Aug 10

    Inside a student-led movement for AI Literacy

    Ian Cho graduated from St. Mark's School in Southborough, Massachusetts, and heads to Yale University this fall to study cognitive science. Frustrated that AI had quietly become a "taboo subject" wrapped in cheating anxiety, he founded what is now called Sailing (Student AI Literacy Interscholastic Navigator Group), a peer-led initiative that gives students across schools a space to talk openly about how they use AI and the policies governing it. Outside of Sailing, Ian builds his own AI-powered tools, including productivity apps that pause a Pomodoro timer whenever he looks away from his desk. Ingrid Namala is entering her fourth and final year at St. Mark's School, where she plans to study neuroscience. She joined Sailing shortly after Ian launched it and now co-leads the group, having presented her own research on the history of generative AI and prompting technique at Sailing's first interscholastic symposium alongside a student from another school. Much of her advocacy centers on protecting academic integrity and destigmatizing honest conversations between students and teachers about when and how AI should be used. Inspired by AI Co-Lab, the teacher network launched by their teacher Maureen Russo Rodríguez, they grew Sailing into a virtual community spanning more than fifteen schools, running hybrid symposiums, "four corners" debates, and informal salons between students and faculty. In this episode, Ian and Ingrid talk with Svenia Busson about: Sailing (sailingedu.org) — how a "taboo" subject became a peer-led dialogue across 15+ schoolsThe Chinese Room thought experiment — and what it reveals about outsourcing understanding to AIThe hidden toll of unequal AI use — academic integrity, trust, and the students left behindReimagining assessment — in-class writing, oral exams, and whether it's "the death of the essay"Why the brain needs friction — reframing struggle as a skill worth protecting, not a bug to eliminateThe craft of prompting — from lazy fragments to elaborate, metacognitive prompts, and staying polite with AIThe case against banning AI for under-21s — literacy over prohibitionAI, authenticity, and the future of work — why staying human might be the real advantage Mentioned in this episode: Education Futures Fellowship A six-week programme starting on September 22nd, where seven world-leading experts in developmental psychology, neuroscience, and AI child safety will share everything they know with you: educationfutures.ai/fellowship.

    Inside a student-led movement for AI Literacy

  5. Aug 6

    When AI meets grassroots education in India

    Dr. Rukmini Banerji is one of the world's most influential figures in grassroots education. Trained as an economist — a Rhodes Scholar at Oxford and a PhD from the University of Chicago — she chose classroom-level work over academia, returning to India in 1996 to join Pratham, one of the world's largest education NGOs, where she served for over a decade as CEO before recently stepping into the role of Senior Advisor. In 2005 she launched the Annual Status of Education Report (ASER), the citizen-led household survey that has demonstrated, year after year, a hard truth: going to school is not the same as learning. She also pioneered Pratham's Teaching at the Right Level (TaRL) approach — grouping children by what they can actually do rather than their age — now used across India and adapted in parts of Africa and Asia. For this body of work she was awarded the 2021 Yidan Prize for Education Development, the world's highest education accolade. Today she is bringing that same rigor to AI. Pratham has partnered with Anthropic to deploy a Claude-powered "Anytime Testing Machine" (ATM) — an assessment tool that grades handwritten student work and generates curriculum-aligned questions, with teachers reviewing AI feedback before it reaches learners. First adapted for over 5,000 women in Pratham's Second Chance program, it is now piloting across 20 schools with plans to reach 100 by the end of 2026. In this episode, Rukmini talks with Svenia Busson about: Why she left economics for the classroom — and how "big ambition and not much money" shaped Pratham's community-driven modelThe origin of Teaching at the Right Level — teach the child where they are, not where the curriculum says they should beWhat ASER has revealed every year since 2005 — that enrollment and learning are two very different thingsPratham's partnership with Anthropic and the Claude-powered "Anytime Testing Machine" — and why human oversight is non-negotiableThe gap between what edtech companies want to sell and what the ground actually needs — "technology rains on you, then you're expected to use it"Assessing learning in the age of AI — why the process (the questions a student asks) matters more than the final essayWhy middle school (ages 10–14) is education's next great frontier — and why the 15-year-old of 2031 must look different from the one of 2026 Mentioned in this episode: Education Futures Fellowship A six-week programme starting on September 22nd, where seven world-leading experts in developmental psychology, neuroscience, and AI child safety will share everything they know with you: educationfutures.ai/fellowship.

    When AI meets grassroots education in India

  6. Aug 3

    A maker's guide to creativity and AI

    Christine Braun is the Chief Creative Officer of Cresconova, the education charity behind Cresconova Labs, a hands-on studio for ages 8–16 in Chelsea, London. She holds a BFA from the University of the Arts and a Master of Artisanry from the University of Massachusetts, a grounding in material-making that runs through everything she's built since. Her path began with founding Robots for Kids Too, a hands-on robotics company she and her husband ran in Vermont after homeschooling her own gifted son, before she went on to manage the Innovation Lab at The Nueva School in Silicon Valley, one of the country's leading schools for gifted learners. She later directed Harvard's REEF Makerspace at the School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, working to break down the silos between academic disciplines, and served as an Adjunct Professor of Engineering at the University of San Francisco. She won the 2020 Lemelson-MIT Excite Award for invention education and mentored on Disney+'s Shop Class. Today, as CCO of Cresconova, she shapes the creative vision behind both Cresconova Global (online, ages 6–11) and Cresconova Labs, the organization's new in-person studio. In this episode, Christine talks with Svenia Busson about: Her path from sculpture and furniture design to founding a robotics company for her own gifted sonWhat "design thinking" really means inside The Nueva School's Innovation LabBuilding Harvard's REEF Makerspace to break down the walls between academic disciplinesThe difference between "gifted" and "inspired" students — and why Cresconova doesn't test for talentCresconova's Inquiry, Systems Thinking, Design Thinking framework — and how it scales from age 5 to 18The "human-to-AI interaction" protocol: question, frame, unpack, own, iterateWhy she believes AI expands creativity rather than threatening the maker traditionWhy students turn to AI instead of trusted adults — and the role shame plays in that shift (Christine also recommended Stephanie Couch, Executive Director of the Lemelson-MIT Program, as a future guest.) Mentioned in this episode: Education Futures Fellowship A six-week programme starting on September 22nd, where seven world-leading experts in developmental psychology, neuroscience, and AI child safety will share everything they know with you: educationfutures.ai/fellowship.

    A maker's guide to creativity and AI

  7. Jul 30

    Can AI leapfrog India's learning crisis?

    Gouri Gupta is Senior Project Director for EdTech at Central Square Foundation (CSF), one of India's leading education nonprofits, based in New Delhi, where she has led the EdTech portfolio for nearly a decade. A Chartered Accountant (rank holder) and IIM Bangalore MBA, she began her career at the Boston Consulting Group before helping build the National Skill Development Corporation, a Government of India public-private partnership tackling skilling at national scale. At CSF, Gouri has turned EdTech from scattered pilots into system-level infrastructure for children in low-income India. She co-built EdTech Tulna, a quality-standards index developed with IIT Bombay that has shaped roughly $173M in government procurement across 21,000+ schools; leads the LiftEd accelerator supporting eight solutions reaching over 3 million children; and launched AI Samarth, India's first AI-literacy curriculum framework, built with IIT Madras and Google.org, targeting 5 million students, teachers, and parents. Her team also runs TicTacLearn (200M+ video plays) and the Bharat Survey for EdTech, a first-of-its-kind household study of technology use in low-income India. In this episode, Gouri talks with Svenia Busson about: The two ways AI actually moves the needle — powering proven EdTech (Chimple, RocketLearn, ThinkZone) and creating experiences like teacher coaching, tutoring, and assessment that weren't possible beforeWhy CSF acts as an ecosystem enabler rather than a product builder — supply shaping, evidence generation, and government adoptionHard evidence from the ground — Chimple's 0.3 SD gain in an RCT, ConveGenius, and an AI teacher-coaching pilot in Uttar PradeshThe Indic-language gap — why AI being two-to-five years behind on India's 22 official languages could widen inequity, and what AI4Bharat and Bodhi AI are doing about itWhat AI in a government classroom really looks like — labs, smart TVs, shared home phones, and the rise of two-phone householdsDefining AI literacy through AI Samarth — empowered, ethical, safe use, not "AI as Google search"Resilience and collaboration — the human skills at risk of "cognitive stunting," a term she borrows from BrookingsWhy pilots break at scale — product, program, governance, and the unsolved question of how governments budget for AI A clear-eyed look at what it takes to make AI serve 250 million children — not just the ones who already have the most. Links mentioned in this episodeCentral Square Foundation — https://www.centralsquarefoundation.org/EdTech Tulna (quality standards index) — https://edtechtulna.org/AI Samarth (AI literacy curriculum) — https://www.aisamarth.centralsquarefoundation.org/TicTacLearn — https://www.centralsquarefoundation.org/edtechBharat Survey for EdTech (BaSE) — https://www.centralsquarefoundation.org/reports-and-publicationsAI4Bharat (Indic-language models, IIT Madras) — https://ai4bharat.iitm.ac.in/Development Innovation Lab, University of Chicago (Prof. Michael Kremer) — https://bfi.uchicago.edu/development-innovation-lab/Khan Academy / Khanmigo — https://www.khanacademy.org/Madhi Foundation (Tamil Nadu, guest recommendation) — https://www.madhifoundation.org/ Mentioned in this episode: Education Futures Fellowship A six-week programme starting on September 22nd, where seven world-leading experts in developmental psychology, neuroscience, and AI child safety will share everything they know with you: educationfutures.ai/fellowship.

    Can AI leapfrog India's learning crisis?

  8. Jul 28

    Designing safe & pedagogically sound AI

    On building safe, pedagogically sound AI for young people and the fellowship we built to do it. This fellowship is for builders of AI x education products or anyone thinking to do so in the future. https://educationfutures.ai/fellowship https://educationfutures.substack.com/

    Designing safe & pedagogically sound AI
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About

A podcast about the future of education in the age of AI. We bring together interdisciplinary voices to explore how we can shape more desirable futures for learning.

Information

  • Creator
    Svenia Busson & Laurent Jolie
  • Years Active
    2025 - 2026
  • Episodes
    72
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © Copyright 2026 Svenia Busson & Laurent Jolie
  • Show Website
    Education Futures

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