Research & Innovation
Six faculty. Three labs. Research that spans early childhood to workforce development.
Research Labs
Labs & Centers
The labs and centers where the work happens.
Research Lab
Center for Digital Thriving
Created Graidients — a framework and tool for making ethically unclear areas of generative AI visible to educators in the classroom. Focused on developing AI ethics practices for K-12 settings.
Research Lab
Next Level Lab
Exploring how to build AI-shaped learning ecosystems that expand agency, trust, and mobility. Researching what it means to be an "expert learner" when AI is in the picture. Focus on the future of work in a VUCA world.
Research Lab
Child-Centered AI Lab
Conversational AI as learning companions for children, partnering with PBS KIDS. AI reading partners that match human reading partner effectiveness. Generative AI for collaborative math storytelling. Bilingual chatbot research.
Our Team
Faculty Researchers
The researchers behind the work.
Chris Dede
Timothy E. Wirth Professor in Learning Technologies
Leading voice on AI in education with decades of experience in learning technologies. Co-lead on HGSE's AI Literacy Tutorial. Featured on Harvard EdCast discussing how educators can prepare for an AI-augmented world. Research spans immersive learning, digital teaching platforms, and AI's role in transforming education.
David Dockterman
Faculty Member
Background in learning design at scale. Key contact for the LEAP Initiative helping faculty integrate AI into teaching. Developed a custom AI tool for analyzing linguistic characteristics of math word problems to improve accessibility for English Learners. Co-lead on the HGSE AI Literacy Tutorial.
Elizabeth Bonawitz
Professor of Education
Co-lead on HGSE's mandatory AI Literacy Tutorial alongside Chris Dede and David Dockterman. Research focuses on how children learn through exploration and explanation, with emerging work on how AI tools intersect with children's natural learning processes.
Fernando Reimers
Ford Foundation Professor of the Practice of International Education
Global education policy expert focused on how education systems worldwide can prepare students for an AI-transformed future. Research examines AI's impact on education in developing markets, including work with education systems across Latin America, Asia, and Africa.
Tina Grotzer
Principal Research Scientist & Faculty Member
Expert in learning sciences and cognitive sciences. Director of the Next Level Lab, exploring what it means to be an "expert learner" when AI is in the picture. Building AI-shaped learning ecosystems for workforce development. Senior researcher at Project Zero. NSF Career Award and Presidential Early Career Award recipient.
Ying Xu
Assistant Professor of Education
Designs and evaluates AI technologies for children and families at the intersection of education, psychology, and human-computer interaction. PBS KIDS collaborator building conversational AI reading partners, STEM storytelling agents, and bilingual chatbots. Her key question: can AI make the time children already spend on media more enriching?
