How to evaluate edtech against the IB's AI Design Principles
New white paper · Free to download
AI is already built into the software schools rely on. Now the key question is how to tell which tools you can trust.
In this free white paper, AI governance leader Clara Hawking frames the IB’s AI Design Principles as a set of practical standards for evaluating edtech tools.
Who's doing the thinking?
The concern is no longer only that students might cut corners, but what happens to learning when the thinking can be outsourced.
At the same time, the market is crowded with tools built to impress. “AI inside” tells you nothing about whether a subject expert reviewed the output, whether errors and bias were caught, or whether a human stays accountable for what reaches a student. What schools need is a way to look past the sparkle.
A practical framework for evaluating edtech
The IB’s AI Design Principles are grounded in the Learner Profile. This white paper turns those five principles into questions you can ask of any tool, and shows you what good answers look like.
The framework rests on five questions, one drawn from each AI Design Principle:
- Caring and balanced: does it serve the learner, or only efficiency?
- Inquiry-driven: is the student actively engaged?
- Educator agency: does the teacher stay in charge?
- Safe and transparent: can you see how it works, and where it fails?
- Continuously adapting: does it improve, and tell you when it changes?
The paper closes with a one-page checklist to use in your next conversation with an edtech provider.
Download the white paper
About the author
Clara Hawking is a globally recognized leader in AI governance and education, and one of a small group of advisors the IB invited to help shape its first AI Design Principles. She is Co-Founder and Executive Director of Kompass Education, was previously Head of AI for a network of more than 70 schools across four continents, and won the Tech Women 2024 Global Achievement Award for her advocacy for women and girls in technology. She is a sought-after speaker and a trilingual parent of two.
Why we commissioned this paper
Kognity is the IB’s only digital-first publishing partner. We commissioned this white paper because we believe all edtech – including our own – should be carefully evaluated. We hope the framework and checklist help schools to ask sharper questions of every tool they use, and to make the best possible decisions for their students’ learning and safety.
