Dent Education
Taking AI out of the headlines and into their hands.
I taught 35–40 students, ages 14 to 21, to use AI with judgment and to explain what they built.
Curriculum & Learning Experience Designer
AI Dent UX Academy
35–40, ages 14–21, mostly beginners
5 days a week, about 6 weeks
Dent EducationCase Study™AI Dent UX Academy2025
AI was a headline, not a tool.
Students came curious and anxious about “AI taking over the world.” Most were beginners, and their schools didn’t teach any of it.
Those already using AI treated it like a brilliant assistant they only asked to spell “potato”: a shortcut, never a thinking partner.
The question: how do you move students from using AI for answers to using it with judgment?
The real gap was communication.
By week one, the biggest blockers weren’t technical. Students struggled with public speaking, collaboration, and compromise. So I changed the plan.
1:1 career discovery.
Each student explored where they were headed and what they cared about.
AI mini-reports.
They researched how AI fits their path, then presented it to the class.
Make it concrete, then make it theirs.
Demystify.
Games like “Is AI Real?” with real videos, images, and apps taught students to judge what they see.
Match tool to task.
We built prompts together and learned what Claude, ChatGPT, Lovable, V0, and Midjourney are each best for.
Start with people.
User research came first, then UI principles, so every build began with a real need.
They built it, and they could explain it.
Students built apps, sites, and AI-generated images around mental health, transportation, and food access in their city. At the expo, they presented to teachers and to donors from Johns Hopkins and other nonprofits.
A shy freshman found his voice.
He began with few friends and left comfortable collaborating and speaking. He went on to student government and joined to see where AI fits his trade school path.
A student built for his family’s business.
He arrived unsure what the class offered and left having built a custom tool for his mom’s hair salon with Claude and Lovable.
Scope on purpose, then bring it down to earth.
Six weeks and no AI foundation in local schools meant hard choices. Students asked about Cursor and GitHub, and I kept those out so beginners finished confident.
My job was to take high-level ideas and apply them directly to students’ lives, so they could see AI around them every day and decide when to trust it.
I turn complex technology into something people understand, question, and build with.
01.Learning experience design 02.Curriculum design 03.UX foundations 04.AI-assisted workflows 05.Facilitation