“AI & Learning Differences: Designing a Future with No Boundaries” - Stanford

AI & Learning Differences: Designing a Future with No Boundaries is a Stanford University report that examines how AI can impact education for students with learning differences. The report stresses the importance of inclusive, student-centered design and argues that current educational systems often fail to accommodate neurodiverse learners. The authors see AI as an opportunity to design more personalized, fairer, and empowering learning environments.

The report calls for collaboration across sectors, bringing together edtech developers, educators, policymakers, and neurodivergent students, to ensure that AI reduces barriers to neurodiverse learning. It concludes with a vision of AI as a lever for redesigning learning spaces where difference is not a deficit but a strength.

The report includes a selection of AI-powered tools that adapt content delivery and help scaffold complex tasks. It also explains how generative AI can help learners express themselves in new modalities (e.g., text-to-speech, image generation) and support metacognitive strategies.

Tom’s Take: AI & Learning Differences: Designing a Future with No Boundaries does well to address a topic often overlooked in edtech and AI design. It offers a sensitive and forward-thinking vision of how AI can benefit diverse learners who might be overlooked. Yet, schools often lack the infrastructure and means needed to leverage adaptive AI tools effectively and equitably. Furthermore, few edtech companies desing their products with neurodivergent students in mind. Like with many school-wide reforms, system-wide change remains complex and uncertain.