Making AI Work for All Learners

For more than three decades, the McGraw Prize in Education has recognized outstanding individuals committed to harnessing innovation to improve the lives of learners worldwide.

That mission was central to “Optimizing Learning for a Volatile World,” a virtual panel held Oct. 6, 2026, featuring 2025 McGraw Prize in Education winners Frederic Bertley, Cathy Davidson, and Rapelang Rabana and Joe Wolf and moderated by 2014 McGraw Prize winner Chris Lehmann.

“At The McGraw Center, we are proud to continue a McGraw tradition wherein we care about the educational potential of every human being on the planet,” said John Silvanus Wilson, Jr., executive director of the McGraw Center for Educational Leadership, in his introduction to the panel.

Rabana and Wolf, co-CEOs of Imagine Worldwide, argued that the promise of AI depends on addressing basic needs that technology companies often overlook: electricity, devices, teacher support and learning materials relevant to local languages and cultures.

“The schools that we work in in sub-Saharan Africa don’t have electricity. It’s difficult to benefit from AI if you don’t even have basic infrastructure,” said Wolf.

By 2050, half of the world’s children under 18 will be in Africa. Yet today, many lack reliable electricity, digital access, and the infrastructure needed to maintain devices.

“If a child is not able to obtain foundational learning skills right from the beginning, they will be unable to participate in the new changes that AI brings,” said Rabana. The challenge, according to Rabana, is to develop tools that work on devices and in languages that reflect children’s actual circumstances.

The panel also examined the challenges facing wealthier institutions, where technology is readily available but questions remain about how—and whether—to use AI in education. Lehmann, the founding principal of the Science Leadership Academy, noted that in the Philadelphia area, “there is massive technology pushback in the wealthiest of districts” and that those parents are wary of the role of AI in education. He emphasized that what works in sub-Saharan Africa might be quite different from what works in suburban Philadelphia.

In a different example, Davidson, distinguished professor, founder of the Futures Initiative at the CUNY Graduate Center, and senior advisor to the chancellor of the City University of New York (CUNY), described “the most exciting policy I’ve found about how to use AI in the classroom.”

At a university where Davidson previously worked, a professor listed “AI Policy” on a class syllabus followed by a blank. She then tasked students with doing research,  collaborating, and developing ideas to form their own AI policy.

The students eventually pitched their proposal to the university, which then adopted it as a model for the campus. Davidson recalled that the students “loved being empowered to come up with policy themselves and to do it collectively so there were real conversations involved.”

Ultimately, the panelists argued, technology alone can’t provide the basics of education. Literacy and numeracy remain essential; without them, children risk being further disadvantaged as learning becomes increasingly technology-driven.

Wolf acknowledged that the next wave of education technology using AI is “wildly promising in terms of localization, customization, and personalization,” but he worried that without significant changes, AI “will just accrue to the affluent as well: the affluent countries, the affluent systems, the affluent households. So we need intentionality.”

The value of AI in education will depend, in part, on the industry’s choices regarding access, safety, language, and the future of learning itself. As the panel made clear, innovation that only reaches the already-connected is not educational progress for all.

The panel was part of a series presented by Catalyst @ Penn GSE, featuring winners of the Harold W. McGraw, Jr. Prize in Education. Learn more about the McGraw Center for Educational Leadership.