Keeping Gen Alpha Human: A Framework for AI in Schools and Homes

Outline

1. Welcome (5 minutes)
~Introduction and my son's story—his frustration and breakdown with an AI-powered learning app as a 6-year-old.
~Engagement: Audience poll and icebreaker question.

2. Setting the Context: Gen Alpha & AI (5 minutes)
~Content: EdTech, AI adoption trends, and Gen Alpha's developmental and well-being needs.
~Engagement: Present statistics and visuals.

3. Play 1: Build Capacity | Are Schools and Homes Really Ready for AI? (15 minutes)
~Content: Current industry challenges and readiness check for schools and homes.
~Engagement: Live polling, peer-to-peer reflection, and debrief.

4. Play 2: Practice Stewardship | Human-Centered Leadership and Decision-Making (10 minutes)
~Content: Explore practical considerations for understanding, selecting, implementing, and evaluating AI tools, including EdTech vendor expectations and defining meaningful measures of success.
~Engagement: Live polling, peer-to-peer reflection, and debrief.

5. Play 3: Preserve Humanity | Developmental and Well-Being Risks & Opportunities: Surface Patterns vs. Deeper Needs (15 minutes)
~Content: Explore identity, resilience, and social-emotional development in the context of AI and introduce a human-first practical framework.
~Engagement: Live polling and/or scenario-based discussions focused on AI's technical nature, types of impact, and parents' and educators' potential blind spots.

6. Putting It All Together (7 minutes)
~Content: Guidance for collaborating with AI technologists, designers, psychologists, district and school leaders, educators, technology partners, and parents to support AI design and implementation that meets Gen Alpha's developmental and well-being needs in homes and schools.
~Engagement: Guided reflection and Q&A.

7. Closing & Resources (3 minutes)
~Content: Recap learning outcomes, share resources, and invite continued dialogue.
~Engagement: Closing poll and session evaluation.

Outcomes

1. Identify key developmental considerations, risks, and opportunities facing Generation Alpha as they grow up alongside AI.
2. Reflect on AI adoption readiness in schools and homes.
3. Recognize practical considerations and implications for vendor partnerships and AI decision-making through a human-centered lens.
4. Examine surface-level patterns in children's AI use to explore deeper learning, developmental, and well-being needs.
5. Reflect on opportunities to support thoughtful, human-centered AI adoption in participants' own classrooms, families, schools, or organizations.

Supporting research

1. World Economic Forum: The future of learning: How AI is revolutionizing education 4.0 https://www.weforum.org/stories/2024/04/future-learning-ai-revolutionizing-education-4-0/
2. Nature: AI Tutoring Outperforms In-Class Active Learning https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-025-97652-6
3. The Australia Government's eSafety Commissioner on AI Companions https://www.esafety.gov.au/newsroom/blogs/ai-chatbots-and-companions-risks-to-children-and-young-people#:~:text=Excessive%20use%20of%20AI%20companions,seem%20too%20difficult%20and%20unsatisfying.
4. Gallup Report: Teaching for Tomorrow: How Supporting Teachers Today Shapes Classrooms Tomorrow https://www.gallup.com/analytics/659819/k-12-teacher-research.aspx
5. The Alan Turing Institute: Understanding the Impacts of Generative AI Use on Children chrome-extension://efaidnbmnnnibpcajpcglclefindmkaj/https://www.turing.ac.uk/sites/default/files/2025-06/understanding_the_impacts_of_generative_ai_use_on_children_-_wp1_report.pdf?utm_source=futuretools.io&utm_medium=newspage
6. UNICEF (2021). Policy Guidance on AI for Children.
Practical global framework for safeguarding children while adopting AI in schools and homes.
7. Erikson, E. H. (1959/1993). Identity and the Life Cycle.
8. World Economic Forum (2023). Schools of the Future: Defining New Models of Education for the Fourth Industrial Revolution.
9. Kotter, J. P. (1996). Leading Change.
10. Russell, S. & Norvig, P. (2021). Artificial Intelligence: A Modern Approach (4th Edition).
11. Hiatt, J. (2006). ADKAR: A Model for Change in Business, Government, and Our Community.
12. Radesky, J. & Christakis, D. (2016). Children and Media: Digital Media and Cognitive Development. Pediatrics, 138(5).
13. Carter, C. (2023). The New Childhood: Raising Kids to Thrive in a Connected World.