The Human-First AI Workbook: 21 Pages to Get Your School Ready for AI

Every school leader I’ve talked to this summer has asked me some version of the same question. What do we do about AI before September? And underneath that one there’s usually a second question they don’t ask directly, which is whether they’re about to get this wrong the same way we all got social media wrong. That fear is well earned. I’ve spent the summer answering it one pillar at a time, free, in this newsletter, and today I’m handing you the whole thing as something you can actually sit down and work through with your team. It’s called The Human-First AI Framework Workbook. Twenty-one pages, five pillars, and for each one the argument, the research behind it, the districts that got it right and wrong, and a worksheet your leadership team fills in together.

I built it as a workbook and not another essay because essays don’t produce decisions. This one is meant to leave you with three things in your students. The first is students who engage with AI thoughtfully and on purpose, instead of reflexively or not at all. The second is students who can read an AI policy, see who it protects and who it forgets, and argue for something better, because the rules governing this technology are being written right now by people who won’t live with them as long as your students will. The third is students who know how to push back on AI and understand that it is not an absolute source of truth. If your team works all the way through the book, you’ll walk out with a published statement of belief, a real audit of what your students are already doing, a lesson plan that shows AI both working and failing, a judgment protocol students use in class, and students seated on the committee that writes your policy. That’s your fall, in order.