UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — Penn State Teaching and Learning with Technology (TLT) Dreamery Speaker Series will host guest speaker Jordan Mroziak, assistant professor at Colorado State University and lead designer of AI Learning at CodeJoy, on April 13 and 14. He will lead three sessions focused on building durable teaching practices through human-centered artificial-intelligence literacy. Mroziak’s Dreamery Speaker Series sessions will be part of TLT AI Fest April 13–17.
Mroziak will present “Designing Courses Around Human Skills That Matter More in an AI World” from 2:15 to 3 p.m. on Monday, April 13, at the Dreamery, ground floor Shields Building, on Penn State’s University Park campus. As AI automates routine production, human capacities such as empathy, collaboration, ethical reasoning, creativity and judgment become increasingly important. This session will explore how course and curriculum design can intentionally cultivate these skills.
Attendees are invited to participate in a networking hour and explore the AI Arcade afterward. There also will be kid-friendly activities to support Bring Your Children to Work Day.
From 1:30 to 2:30 p.m. on Tuesday, Apr. 14, Mroziak will present “Designing Learning That AI Can’t Do for Students.” Attendees will examine strategies for designing learning experiences that require human interpretation, collaboration and meaning making, ensuring students engage in work that cannot simply be delegated to AI tools.
To end his visit, Mroziak will present “From Tool Use to Tool Critique: Teaching Students to Question AI Systems” from 2:45 to 3:45 p.m. April 14. In this session, attendees will explore how to help students move beyond tool use toward examining how AI systems are built, whose interests they serve and what consequences follow from their use.
Mroziak’s work sits at the confluence of artificial intelligence, learning design and social imagination. He advances equitable and imaginative approaches to AI education across formal and informal learning environments. With a deep-rooted commitment to equity and community, Mroziak has architected forward-thinking educational interventions in AI literacy, ethics and aesthetic education.
As former director of the EDSAFE AI Alliance, Mroziak catalyzed national and international dialogues on safe, ethical and inclusive AI in education. He led the design of governance frameworks and professional fellowships that equipped educators, policymakers and technologists to navigate the complexities of AI implementation, always with an emphasis on justice, human dignity and collective wisdom. His leadership in launching the inaugural National AI Literacy Day is evidence of his ability to transform abstract policy into tangible public engagement.
A boundary-spanning learning designer, Mroziak aims to bring a poetic sensibility to the structure of learning environments, embedding curiosity, empathy and joy into systems too often constrained by compliance.
Whether designing globally distributed STEAM maker kits for children, authoring culturally responsive computer science curricula for IB schools throughout Asia and Europe, or guiding faculty in reimagining their pedagogy through emergent technologies, his work foregrounds not only what we learn but how and why. He treats design as an act of care, where technological fluency and aesthetic pedagogy intertwine to cultivate learners who can not only decode the algorithms around them but also reimagine their purpose.
In all this, Mroziak moves with both strategic acuity and artistic intent, creating bridges between sectors, silos and disciplines. His practice is not simply about integrating AI into classrooms, but about inviting communities to shape the ethical and imaginative contours of the technologies that shape them.
In-person attendance at the Dreamery on the ground floor of the Shields Building is encouraged. Alternatively, a virtual option will be available for Penn State attendees across all campuses and those working or studying remotely.
Visit the Dreamery Speaker Series webpage to learn more and register for the sessions.