Creating possibilities for education's future
What becomes possible when education leaders move beyond reacting to change, and start shaping what comes next? That's the question driving the work of the AI Possibility Lab at Arizona State University's Mary Lou Fulton College for Teaching and Learning Innovation.
The AI Possibility Lab helps educators, leaders, and community partners surface assumptions and broaden perspectives through possibility thinking and human-directed, AI-supported possibilities planning. They develop portfolios of actionable possibilities grounded in their local contexts and responsive to evolving system needs.
In this Q&A, MLFC Professor Ronald A. Beghetto, founder of the AI Possibility Lab, shares how leaders can complement conventional strategic planning by developing actionable pathways they can draw on as conditions change. Join Beghetto at the Possibilities Summit: Reimagining Strategic Planning with AI (Oct. 28-29 in Tempe, AZ), hosted by the American Association of School Administrators in partnership with MLFC. Register here.
Q: How can the AI Possibility Lab help education leaders and the systems they lead?
Beghetto: Strategic planning gives districts and educational teams direction. Yet the future rarely cooperates with our plans. Conditions change, and too often we find ourselves locked into a single plan or scrambling for another way forward. This can happen when facing unexpected staffing challenges or changing student needs. It can also happen when a promising initiative stalls midyear and there is no ready alternative.
The AI Possibility Lab offers leaders a different way to plan under uncertainty: a human-directed process that uses AI tools to develop a portfolio of actionable possibilities. This helps leadership teams anticipate changing conditions and prepare alternative pathways they can use when needed.
Q. Why is it important for leaders to work more effectively with uncertainty?
Beghetto: Addressing challenges and pursuing opportunities under uncertainty often requires leaders to develop new ways forward. Maintaining a portfolio of possibilities allows teams to adjust without having to start over.
Possibilities planning helps leaders pressure-test those possibilities as conditions unfold. It also gives teams a simple way to decide when to persist with a direction, when to pivot, and when to scale what’s working.
Q. How does the AI Possibility Lab lead to personalized approaches?
Beghetto: Every school system, university, or community faces its own challenges and brings distinct strengths. Each also works toward its own goals. The process therefore begins by clarifying the local context: the challenge or opportunity, who is affected, and the constraints shaping the work. Teams also identify the values and commitments that should guide their work.
The AI tools work from that context, helping teams extend their thinking and decision making, rather than replace it. For example, two districts may both face teacher staffing challenges, yet the most promising pathways forward may look very different for a rural district and a large urban system. The goal is to develop custom possibilities that are locally meaningful, actionable, and adaptable as conditions change.
Q: Who can benefit from working with the AI Possibility Lab?
Beghetto: The AI Possibility Lab is designed to be accessible to educators, leaders and others who may have limited experience with AI. The lab offers two pathways. Participants can use MLFC’s custom AI tools and process to engage in possibilities planning while retaining human judgment and decision making. They can also train as possibility coaches who can bring these approaches into schools, organizations, and communities.
Q: What makes the AI Possibility Lab different from other AI initiatives?
Beghetto: Many AI initiatives focus primarily on speed and efficiency. The AI Possibility Lab uses AI as a context-sensitive thinking partner. It helps people surface assumptions and broaden perspectives. It also helps teams pressure-test possibilities for risks and unintended consequences. This approach brings together three areas of expertise: MLFC and ASU work on AI in teaching, learning, and organizational innovation; research on possibility thinking and possibilities planning; and Principled Innovation® as a framework for responsible action. The process remains human-led. AI supports the work, while people retain judgment and responsibility for the decisions they make.
Q. How does Principled Innovation® contribute to the Lab’s approach?
Beghetto: Possibility thinking helps us envision what could be. Principled Innovation® helps us determine what should be pursued and how to pursue it responsibly. It helps people evaluate possibilities through the lens of ethics, values and human flourishing. It asks teams to consider who may be affected, which perspectives may be missing, and what consequences could follow. It encourages us to ask not only "Can we do this?" but also "Should we?"
As participants develop and pressure-test possibilities, Principled Innovation® helps them establish practical and ethical guardrails before taking action. This is especially important when working with technologies like AI. AI can expand the range of possibilities we consider. Principled Innovation® keeps community values and human flourishing at the center of the futures we shape.
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Learn more: The AASA, in collaboration with MLFC, is hosting the Possibilities Summit: Reimagining Strategic Planning for School Districts, Oct. 28-28 in Tempe Arizona.The summit gives district leaders a hands-on opportunity to apply this process directly to their own plans and priorities. Register for the Summit.