AI in education: a conversation with an 11-year-old

What if we asked children how to design the future of education?

In this special episode of Education Futures, Svenia Busson is joined by Selena Marwaha, an 11-year-old builder, coder, and speaker who has already presented at global events such as COP28, COP29, and WISE Summit Qatar.

She is joined by François Taddei, co-founder of the Learning Planet Institute, whose work focuses on collective intelligence, learning ecosystems, and the future of education.

Together, they explore what education could look like if it were co-designed with the next generation.

In this episode, we explore:

• Why children should be actively involved in shaping the future of education

• Selena’s vision for a school that prioritizes creativity, mentorship, and problem-solving

• Why AI should be used as a co-creator, not a shortcut

• The importance of art, curiosity, and human expression in a tech-driven world

• How to balance AI acceleration with human development

• Why schools should help students navigate emotions, relationships, and purpose

Selena also shares her project Planetary Stories — a platform where children from around the world can share their dreams, challenges, and visions for the future, creating a collective dataset of youth perspectives to inform decision-making.

Go further with these ressources:

• Selena's initiative "Planetary Stories" will be launched on April 22nd (Earth Day), we will share these here in the show notes.
• Mara Mintzer TED Talk "How kids can help design cities" https://www.ted.com/talks/mara_mintzer_how_kids_can_help_design_cities
• Alison Gopnik's work: research on child creativity and learning https://alisongopnik.com/
• Kiran Bir Sethi's work: creator of the Design for Change framework (“Feel, Imagine, Do, Share”) - https://dfcworld.org/SITE