Last year around this time, Bill Gates traveled to the ASU+GSV Summit in San Diego and had a great conversation with Jessie Woolley-Wilson, CEO of DreamBox Learning, about his own math journey. While Bill isn’t returning this year, several members of the Gates Foundation’s U.S. Program will be speaking on panels at ASU+GSV, now in its 15th year. Along with our partners, we’ll explore how we can help more young people succeed in early learning, K-12, college, and beyond. Below are some of the sessions the Gates Foundation will be joining at the ASU+GSV Summit. We hope to see you in San Diego!
Monday, April 15
StageX Monday Breakfast
April 15, 9:00 – 10:50 a.m
Aligning the Planets...Students Are From Mars, Universities Are From Venus:
Scott Pulsipher (President, Western Governors University)
Michael Sorrell (President, Paul Quinn College)
Marjorie Hass (President, Council for Independent Colleges)
Patrick Methvin (Director, Postsecondary Success, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation)
Moderator: Bridget Burns (Chief Executive Officer, The University Innovation Alliance)
Panel: P-8 Assessment: Navigating Tech's Cutting Edge
April 15, 11:00 – 11:50 AM
Rapid advancements in artificial intelligence have the potential to transform the US education system, and the field of assessments is no exception. As these technologies continue to evolve, they can be key levers in creating authentic and ecologically valid tools that generate useful data on skills, mastery, and progress for diverse learners who have not been served by traditional assessment. Through unique real-work examples and case studies, this panel will explore the exciting possibilities and the real risks that exist at the intersection of AI and assessment.
Panel: Will AI Exacerbate Higher Ed’s Digital Divide?*
April 15, 1:00 – 1:50 PM
*Sponsored by the Gates Foundation
In higher education, technological changes rarely bring all institutions along equally. Historically less-resourced institutions, which often play an outsized role in educating and supporting students of color, may not have access to the human capital, time, and infrastructure to support rapid acquisition. For these institutions, including HBCUs and MSIs, the rise of AI poses significant risk of widening already problematic gaps. But it also creates a unique opportunity to “leapfrog” – skipping the last decade of ed tech tools and jumping directly to solutions that can often provide better, more cost efficient ways to support students and improve organizational effectiveness. How can institutions and technologists ensure that AI tools are developed that effectively support students across dimensions of difference? What is the role of the philanthropic and public sector in preventing an AI divide? And how can institutions leverage existing resources and best practices to fulfill AI’s promise?
Panel: AI-Powered Skill-Building for Illustrative Math Curriculum
April 15, 2:00 – 2:50 PM
How might generative AI can make the work of teaching more efficient? In this session, participants will interact with a suite of tools developed at Teaching Lab to make the Illustrative Mathematics curriculum more navigable, adaptable, and responsive to students. Dr. Sarah Johnson will demonstrate how these tools support teacher workflows, save time, and preserve curriculum quality, and consider design implications for curriculum design and educator professional learning.
Panel: Building Nationally Scaled Enterprises to Serve Learners with Some College but No Degree
April 15, 3:50 – 4:30 PM
What does it take to build learning organizations at an incredible scale to serve the 40 million+ individuals with some college no degree? As the demand for flexible, accessible education rises, these new enterprises face the dual challenge of scaling their offerings to meet these needs while maintaining equitable success and quality. Learn strategies for providing inclusive, adaptable learning for today's varied learner profiles from the leaders who have walked the talk.
Tuesday, April 16
Panel: Building Equality & Access into the Innovation of AI Education
April 16, 10:10 – 10:50 AM
As we stand at the forefront of a new era in educational technology, the promise of Artificial Intelligence (AI) brings unprecedented opportunities for personalization, efficiency, and scale. Yet, the transformative power of AI in education comes with pressing questions: How do we ensure that these innovations foster equality and access for all learners? This panel will delve into the ethical imperatives and strategic approaches to democratize AI-driven educational tools.
Join us for an invigorating discussion with thought leaders, educators, technologists, and policymakers as we explore the complexities and triumphs in the quest to integrate AI into education equitably. Our panelists will dissect case studies on successful AI implementations that have narrowed the educational divide, share insights into the technology's potential to adapt to diverse learning needs, and forecast the future of inclusive AI educational solutions.
Panel: Partnerships in Progress: Co-Designing Equitable AI Solutions in Education
April 16, 10:00 – 10:50 AM
Intentional, user-centered approaches are critical to developing inclusive and equitable AI solutions. Our conversation will address how districts and solutions providers have engaged with communities to co-create AI technologies that address real challenges in education. Our panelists will address the challenges and opportunities of integrating AI in educational settings, the strategies that drive these collaborations to impactful outcomes, and the importance of including historically excluded voices in the conversation. This discussion will not only highlight the potential of AI in education and the significance of community involvement in shaping equitable AI solutions.
Panel: The Role of AI in Creating Equitable Learning Experiences*
April 16, 1:00 – 1:50 PM
*Sponsored by the Gates Foundation
AI can be utilized to personalize learning experiences in a way that caters to diverse learning needs and backgrounds. This needs to be led with the students and the goals in mind. AI has a role in adaptive learning technologies, supporting students of diverse backgrounds, and providing equitable access to quality education for students from various socio-economic backgrounds.
Panel: Meeting Kids Where They Are Through Play-Based Assessment
April 16, 2:10 – 2:50 PM
There’s a growing market for personalized learning for young kids that includes assessment, both in terms of the number of children who need this and the opportunity for revenue in this area. The ECE (PK-2) assessment market is underserved compared to K-12, extremely burdensome on already taxed, under-resourced providers, lacking cultural and linguistic context for underserved populations, and focused on assessing deficits, instead of child strengths. At the same time, there are more opportunities for informal learning of critical skills and play- or game-based assessments available for kids both in and outside of school. This panel will focus on early childhood assessments -- the challenges facing this market and the opportunities for improvement and global scaling through new technologies and innovative partnerships.
Panel: Solving for Why: The Transformation Underway in Math Classrooms
April 16, 3:00 – 3:40 PM
The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation has publicly decided to focus its energy and resources over the next decade on making sure that Mathematics becomes a gateway rather than a barrier to success for all students. Promising innovations are emerging to make math learning more accessible, engaging, and empowering for all. This panel will explore the forefront of this transformation, highlighting innovative and inclusive approaches to math education that promise to make learning more accessible, engaging, and empowering.
Join moderator, Bob Hughes, Director of K-12 Education at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, for an insightful discussion with leading experts in the field. This panel will not only delve into the challenges of current math education practices but also offer attendees a glimpse into the future of math learning.
Panel: The AI Classroom: Transforming Teaching for Tomorrow
April 16, 3:00 – 3:40 PM
Give me a lesson plan for tomorrow. Help me build my next IEP. Show me what really happened during my last lesson. How are mission-driven EdTech founders using AI to help teachers superpower their work? The products are different, but the teams behind them are driven by shared beliefs: there’s almost nothing more powerful than a great teacher in the classroom, every student deserves great teaching, and every teacher deserves the support to be the teacher that they want to be. And, AI is creating new possibilities for teachers and students in every classroom.
Panel: Innovation “by and for…”: How Equity-Centered Technology is Transforming the College Experience
April 16, 3:00 - 3:40 PM
Technological innovations are rapidly changing how students access and experience higher education. How can we ensure college students benefit equitably from these advances? As digital solutions transform postsecondary learning and support systems, it matters for whom and how those innovations are driven. This discussion will focus on the impact and opportunities of new technologies at Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) on college access and success. Speakers will share diverse insights from the frontlines of educational innovation, highlighting promising developments while addressing persistent barriers around inclusion and equity. By spotlighting the potential benefits and opportunities for emerging technologies developed by and for the communities they are intended to support, the discussion aims to inform more inclusive innovation trajectories in higher education.
Panel: Developing EdTech Solutions for Historically Marginalized Students
April 16, 3:00 – 4:30 PM
This panel brings together a group of visionary educators and product developers focused on working with historically marginalized populations in the development of high-quality curricular products. The panel will delve into the multifaceted process that leverages the unique experiences of priority students to create products that promote engagement, persistence, and academic success. Panelists will share insights, experiences and practices that focus on understanding marginalized student needs, co-developing and testing solutions, and measuring their impact on outcomes.
Wednesday, April 17
Panel: It's about time we get OUR version of USB
April 17, 10:00 – 10:50 AM
At this summit, hundreds, maybe thousands of tools, technologies and platforms are represented. Great, all that innovation. But where will it lead to when, after decades of standards work, the interoperability between tools and the interchange of student data is still a big mess. We all know that we have to create one common standard and data model and unify around it - so why doesn't that happen? This discussion may bring us one step closer to a solution that will benefit all students, especially the underserved.
Panel: Unlock Achievement to Create Opportunity: How Digital, Verifiable Credentials Transform Learning
April 17, 11:00 – 11:40 AM
Discover how digital credentials—think college degrees, certifications, micro-credentials, courses-- amplify the value of achievement data, unlock marketplace opportunities through open infrastructure, and center the agency and privacy of the individual in this dynamic panel. Join executives from Arizona State University, JFF Labs and Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to explore the learning, achievement and economic landscapes being shaped by digital credentials right now.
Panel: Beyond the Blackboard: Leveraging Technology and AI to Support Early Childhood Educators
April 17, 11:00 – 11:50 AM
Instructional coaching can help teachers build the combination of expertise in development, pedagogy, and empathy needed to support the daily growth of young children. But the costs of providing coaches with information needed to identify and track components of high-quality instruction limits the scale of implementation. This discussion with leaders in early childhood teaching, classroom observation, and AI-systems on innovations in instructional coaching will explore how advances in AI might help support teacher coaching while addressing concerns regarding privacy, equity, and bias.