The FIRST Education Center for AI
to Support Effective Teaching and Learning
Professional Learning Workshops
Hands-on sessions to build AI literacy, explore AI tools, and build the capacity of teachers and students to use AI tools to intentionally support learning. Contact Us to learn more!
Consulting and Coaching
Tailored support for schools or districts working to use AI tools in ways that are aligned to their mission and strategic goals. Contact Us to learn more!
Policy Review and Design
Review and provide guidance to develop policies and practices that ensure AI tools are used to support student learning, minimize cheating, and maximize academic integrity. Contact Us to learn more!
Research and Innovation Hub
A space to collaborate with educators and tech leaders to pilot AI solutions, draw conclusions, and share evidence-based best practices. Contact Us to learn more!
Keynotes and Institutes
Thought-provoking presentations by experts, including Center Director Tony Frontier, on the future of AI in education, current research, and practical applications for educators. Contact Us to learn more!
Resource Development
Curated tools, guides, strategies, and frameworks to help educators use AI tools in ways that are aligned to their priorities for teaching and students’ learning. Contact Us to learn more!
Readiness Audits and Needs Assessments
Conduct teacher, student, administrator and community focus groups and/or surveys to identify stakeholder’s perceptions and needs related to ethical and effective use of AI tools. Contact Us to learn more!
Meet Our Director -
Tony Frontier
Tony Frontier, PhD is an award-winning educator with 30 years of experience as a teacher, principal, curriculum director, university professor, and consultant who works with teachers and school leaders across the globe to help them prioritize efforts to improve student learning. Tony facilitates engaging, practical, research-based workshops on a variety of topics, including classroom assessment, student engagement, curriculum development, meaningful feedback, technology integration, and strategic planning. His books include AI with Intention: Principles and Action Steps for School Leaders and Teachers (2025) with a foreword by Jay McTighe; Teaching with Clarity: How to Prioritize and Do Less So Your Students Understand More (2021), and Effective Supervision, Supporting the Art & Science of Teaching (2011) with Bob Marzano.
Our Mission
AI is a disruptive, transformational technology that creates new challenges and opportunities for schools, teachers, and learners. In times of transformational change, how we respond to an innovation is more important than the innovation itself. Our mission is to empower educators and learners to leverage artificial intelligence tools in ways that support, rather than undermine, effective teaching and learning. We help educators and students bridge the gap between what AI tools can do and how those tools should be used.
Our Vision
We envision a future where AI tools are everywhere, and educators are able to use them in ways that:
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Align priorities for teaching with students’ opportunities to learn important content, concepts, and skills.
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Intentionally help students prioritize and align their strategy and effort to learn in ways that are rooted in research on effective teaching and learning.
We envision a future where AI tools are everywhere, and students are able to:
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Act with the agency necessary to pursue challenging learning goals, engage in productive struggle, ask clarifying questions, seek feedback, and advocate for their learning needs, with or without the use of AI tools.
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Demonstrate integrity and transparency when using AI tools or other resources, can explain their evidence of learning with confidence and pride, and are able to monitor and reflect on the processes they’ve used to learn.
By developing AI literacy, supporting students’ efforts to act with integrity, and staying rooted in what is known about practices that support effective teaching and learning, educators and students can take a sensible, intentional approach to how AI tools are used.
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