Co-Creating with Children, Rethinking AI Models, and Learning through Play - José Antonio Gordillo Martorell

What if we’ve been thinking about learning, children, and AI all wrong? That’s exactly what this latest Wide Walls episode explores.

I had the pleasure of speaking with José Antonio Gordillo Martorell. José is a design strategist and education innovator, Founder and CEO of Cultural Inquiry, and author of the recent book Children’s Boards in Museums.

He has spent years working alongside researchers, museums, and global design communities to explore what happens when we truly take children seriously as creators, and what it means to build AI with and for children, not just adults.

Here are a few key takeaways from our conversation:

🤝 From users to co-creators — What changes when children actively shape the systems, products, and environments designed for them

🎮 Play is serious work — Why play isn’t just for kids, but the foundation of learning, creativity, and even professional environments

🤖 AI isn’t built for children (yet) — How today’s AI systems are designed by and for adults, and what it would take to create AI that truly supports children’s development

📉 The risk of standardized thinking — How AI could reduce creativity and diversity of thought if we’re not intentional

🔮 Reimagining learning & AI — What a child-centered future could look like: more agency, more creativity, and systems designed with children, not just for them

One of my favorite lines from the episode:“Children don’t need to be protected from the world. They need to be trusted to help shape it.”

This conversation reinforced something I’ve been thinking a lot about lately:If we don’t intentionally design learning and AI for children, we’re implicitly designing it against them.

Find more about José and his work:

- LinkedIn -> https://www.linkedin.com/in/jose-antonio-gordillo-martorell-28ab0727/

- Cultural Inquiry -> https://www.cultural-inquiry.com/

- (Book) Children's Boards in Museums -> https://www.routledge.com/Childrens-Boards-in-Museums-New-Approaches-to-Working-with-Children-in-Museums/GordilloMartorell/p/book/9781032937229

- (Book) Why it's so great to be a child (as an adult) -> https://www.united-pc-publishing.com/books/guidebooks-non-fiction/other-miscellaneous/why-its-so-great-to-be-a-child-as-an-adult.html

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