As AI reshapes learning, educators face a new design challenge: how to preserve the effort and engagement that make learning meaningful while reducing barriers that limit participation and growth. 

This recorded webinar introduces Friction by Design, a framework for using AI intentionally in teaching and learning. While some educators may view AI as a shortcut, Friction by Design invites them to reconsider how effort, challenge, and curiosity drive deeper understanding. The framework distinguishes between the kinds of friction that fuel learning and those that obstruct it, offering a lens for designing accessible, engaging experiences in an age of intelligent tools.  

Explore how thoughtful integration of AI can amplify students’ agency, collaboration, and sense-making without diminishing the essential struggle that makes learning stick. 

Discussion Topics

  • AI integration in education 
  • Learning design and cognitive engagement 
  • Student agency and ownership 
  • Digital fluency 

Resources Mentioned During the Session

Featured Speakers

Becah Busselle

B. Busselle, PhD
Busselle is the Associate Director of WestEd’s Digital Fluency Project, where she works at the intersection of learning science, design, and technology integration. Her work focuses on ensuring that technology enhances, rather than replaces, high-quality teaching. A former classroom teacher, she brings extensive expertise in instructional design and professional learning. She is the lead author of Friction by Design, a framework for intentional AI integration that supports equitable and sustainable innovation in education. 

Patrick Moyle

Patrick Moyle
Moyle is an expert in professional learning, with a focus on using technologies such as artificial intelligence to strengthen teaching and learning in ways that align with well-established principles of pedagogy and andragogy. As Project Director of the Digital Fluency Project, Moyle helps schools, districts, and regional education agencies design professional learning that expands educator practice while ensuring that technology supports, rather than undercuts, effective instruction for both students and adults.