Assigning group work is easy. Making sure every student actually participates, learns, and builds real-world skills? That’s where things get tricky.

If you've ever watched a group project devolve into one student doing all the work while others drift away, you aren't alone. Collaboration is a critical skill for students, but it requires intentional design—and the right digital tools—to succeed.

Join us for a free, practical webinar: Teamwork by Design: Classroom Collaboration in Action. We’ll break down proven strategies to structure group work effectively and leverage technology for better student outcomes.

Stop wrestling with messy group projects and start designing teamwork that works.

📚 New AI resources this week

1️⃣ Schools Caught Flat-Footed After Google Makes Gemini Chatbot Available to All Students (via Education Week) — Google’s expansion of Gemini access to K–12 students caught some schools unprepared, even though administrators can turn it off.

2️⃣ Schools Spend Billions on AI, But Struggle to Figure Out What’s Worth Buying (via Education Week / Stateline) — Districts are facing a rapidly expanding AI marketplace without equally mature systems for determining which products are safe, effective, or worth the money.

3️⃣ U.S. Department of Education: Ed Tech Must Prove Its Value (via Government Technology) — New federal guidance urges districts to judge technology by instructional value, evidence of effectiveness, student outcomes, educator judgment, and transparency rather than simply adding more tools.

Last week’s poll: When a teacher asks you "how do I make this assignment AI-proof?" — what's the most useful thing to say back?

When a teacher asks you "how do I make this assignment AI-proof?" — what's the most useful thing to say back?

🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 Nothing's AI-proof. Let's design so we can SEE the thinking instead. (32)
⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️ Let's look at why students would want to skip this one. (2)
⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️ Some of it should be AI-proof — some of it shouldn't. (1)
⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️ Honestly? I don't have a good answer yet either. (1)
⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️ Other ... (1)

Nothing’s AI-proof: Getting students to demonstrate thinking behind their work, or choices they made in their work, can be a real “revealer”! For example, “This is an interesting word choice - can you explain why you chose it.” Or “Talk through the steps you took to solve this”. One of my fav fav fav tools is Snorkle, for having students show their thinking. I use it from primary to college. — C. Kannekens

Nothing’s AI-proof: Questions like these bring to the forefront one of the greatest impacts AI can have on education: the opportunity to redesign education for thinking, growth, and performance rather than for accuracy on a question or rubric. It's hard work, but now is a great time to start! — K. Fergason

Nothing’s AI-proof: We embraced hybrid vehicles, color television, refrigerators, microwaves, the internet, social media, and more. Why are we so afraid of AI? It is simply a new technology. I believe we just need to teach others to use it responsibly and ethically, while learning to think critically about the results AI provides once we learn to prompt it successfully. — M. Earnest

Nothing’s AI-proof: Nothing is AI-proof in the same way that nothing is cheat-proof. Kids used to copy/paste from websites and (as my tech director loves to point out) copy from the encyclopedia, so this is just the next sophisticated step above that. The next step IS designing so we can see thinking, and the question teachers need answered is "How?". — Sam S.

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🗳 Poll: How do YOU seek teacher buy-in?

Instructions:

⚖️ How to navigate teacher buy-in about AI

Artificial intelligence is already having a significant impact on teachers and students — whether we design for it or not.

Here’s a quick overview (limited to my own experiences) …

Teachers are already dabbling in generative AI / AI assistant tools like ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude and Copilot. They’re using them to help with tasks in real life — and they’re slowly (or in some cases, quickly) learning how to cross those prompting skills over to help them in the classroom.

EdTech companies are developing AI-powered tools at a breakneck pace. Some of the most-adopted platforms — in my experience, MagicSchool, Brisk Teaching, SchoolAI, Snorkl, Diffit and others — are already supporting teachers in their work whether a district-wide contract has been purchased or not.

School leaders are finding immense productivity and brainstorming potential with generative AI tools — if they’re willing to give them a shot. While using them, those school leaders are, by default, learning about what they like and don’t like about using AI to do certain tasks — providing them with experience they can use to help make school-wide and district-wide decisions.

Students have been dabbling with those same AI tools for a while. When they haven’t had any guidance from school, they might use them to avoid thinking and do classwork for them. Some students are using them to support their learning — even though they haven’t learned how from school. When they HAVE guidance from school, students start to see how AI can support them (but still might use it to avoid thinking and classwork).

Now that so many have a taste of what’s possible with AI, school leaders are starting to look for something …

Whenever I meet with leaders at schools and districts, they'll ask me questions about AI implementation. I've done professional development all over the United States and beyond, in-person and virtually, for the last 3 and 1/2 years related to AI.

They asked me all sorts of questions, but it's pretty common to hear this one …

How do I get the staff to buy in?

I understand why they ask it. They can see the potential of using a certain AI tool in a certain way. They can see the impact it could have if used at scale across the entire teaching core — or among their students. (Or both.)

And they want to bring that vision into reality! And I applaud them for it.

But before we go headlong into convincing their teachers that this vision of AI use is what's best, I think it's important that we establish a couple things.

Most leaders that I talk to aren't trying to coerce or cajole their teachers into something they don't want to do.

But sometimes, “buy-in” masquerades quietly as “do this thing that I think is important without questioning it.”

In its best version, buy-in is really about helping others to see the value of what you envision — and helping them to see that the cost benefit ratio comes out in their favor.

That means taking the perspective of the teachers into consideration. And students. And parents, too.

Which leads to another important side of this …

Before making a big decision about the role AI should play in a school or district, I'm hopeful that leaders have asked around. There are all sorts of stakeholders with an opinion. Even if their opinion isn't very well formed or based in fact or evidence, they're the ones that will be carrying out your vision. You need to know what they think and what their vision of problems and solutions is.

I know. Gathering feedback and input from others is time consuming. Sometimes it stirs up people's emotions. But in the end, better decisions are made when you seek out others.

Consider asking for input from …

I've alluded to this earlier, but I can't emphasize it enough. Don't avoid the skeptics! Many times, they just want to be heard and want to know that their concerns are being considered by leadership. Plus, even if you don't agree with everything they say, they often have something to contribute to your perspective.

Many times, when I speak at schools, the AI skeptics seek me out. I appreciate it! And it's very rare when a conversation becomes contentious and we don't have a good resolution. That's because allison intently and share my own concerns. Many times, that helps us to find common ground. And I always learn something from them.

If you’re ready to seek out buy in, the approach that you take is really important.

In fact, there's a guiding principle you can use that's been around for decades.

Theodore Levitt, a Harvard Business School marketing professor, wrote this in a 1960 SA called marketing myopia.

People don't want a quarter inch drill. They want a quarter inch hole.

In short? Nobody buys the tool for its own sake. They buy the outcome that the tool produces.

Teachers don't need another technology initiative. They aren't going to see that a new AI tool is going to help them … unless they understand how it helps them solve their problems.

How do you do that? I have relied on a couple of approaches …

Practicality. Some people talking about the features that a tool has without making a connection to how it impacts those people's lives. Sometimes we assume that they can make the connection. But after roughly 15 years of doing professional development that they don't. We need to connect the dots for them. Some concrete examples, followed by ways that it applies to a variety of different roles, is huge.

Impact. I just did a keynote speech in front of teachers and school leaders and support staff, everyone. I ended it with an impassioned plea for them to consider using AI because of the impact it could have on their lives. Not just about making them more efficient or creating more resources. I asked them to think about what they could do if they had more time and more capacity in their lives. Did it hit the mark? My Hope is But without that why Factor, all of the technical details go unnoticed.

When you ask people to provide their input and opinions, you aren't just gathering information.

You're creating an expectation. Not necessarily an expectation that their input will be used unconditionally. An expectation that it will be considered.

If the folks you talk to find out that the vast majority had similar feelings, and yet you didn't take it into consideration, it's going to make things worse than if you didn't ask for input at all.

In that case, your hopes for buy-in are going to evaporate in front of your eyes. And you'll have a big mess to clean up instead.

That's my little piece of tough love for you.

By in is all about agreement. It's helping everyone to agree that a destination is worth the journey.

This kind of buy-in might take longer and present complications. But in the end, if you want your best chance at everyone rowing the boat in the same direction, it's absolutely vital.

What do you think about buy-in? How do you reach a position where you have your best chance at agreement and unity? Share your thoughts in the poll above!