I had the pleasure of attending the “Building AI for Good + Scaling What Works in EdTech” talk, hosted by EDTECH WEEK and led by Alex Sarlin of Edtech Insiders. It was inspiring to hear Elizabeth Kelly of Anthropic explain how the Model Context Protocol can support public good infrastructure and ensure strong privacy protections for students. Sandra Liu Huang of the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative emphasized the importance of building tools that empower teachers and shared how CZI’s knowledge graph is helping educators connect fragmented learning processes. Laurence Holt of the XQ Institute reminded us that high-quality datasets and strong evaluation systems are the biggest gaps that need to be filled to make AI truly effective. Alan Todd of StartEd described how product market fit and lighthouse customers create the foundation for scaling, supported by StartEd’s mentor network and advisory teams. Finally, Ryan Austin of Cognota shared how he built Cognota out of his own learning experiences and highlighted both the promise and challenge of creating a new category through The LearnOps Community. Congratulations to all of the speakers for such an insightful discussion on the future of AI and EdTech!
Thanks for being there. We can’t wait to continue the conversations at #EDTECHWEEK!
Thank you for sharing this Michael McKenna, Ed.D. 👏
What a valuable conversation. Laurence's point about high-quality datasets and robust evaluation systems being the critical infrastructure gaps really resonates. As we explore AI applications in education, ensuring we have the foundational elements in place to measure effectiveness and protect student data has to come first. These cross-sector conversations between tech developers, funders, and education practitioners are essential for building tools that actually work for teachers and students in real classrooms.