Doan Winkel: Building Friction, Autonomy, and Design with AI

Building Friction, Autonomy, and Design with AI | Doan Winkel

What if the best thing AI can do for students is refuse to help them? Matt sits down with entrepreneur and educator Doan Winkel to dig into why "helpful AI" might be the worst thing to happen to learning and what to do instead.

In this episode:

The philosophy behind AI Friction Labs and why deliberately frustrating students might be the most effective teaching tool yetWhy Doan thinks the "easy button" problem isn't really an AI problemThe ungrading experiment that revealed something startling: students aren't cheating at teachers. Teachers never even cross their minds.How one small prompt change turned a skeptical lawyer into an AI evangelist overnightWhy the most resistant person in the room might be exactly who you need on your AI committeeThe inertia problem: education hasn't fundamentally changed in decades. Will AI finally be the thing that breaks it?Doan's take on student autonomy, and the uncomfortable question he ends with that has no clean answer

Chapters:

0:00 Introduction & Guest Welcome1:04 What Is AI Friction Labs?5:01 The Sparring Partner Concept & Mike Kentz5:43 Student Autonomy vs. the Easy Button7:39 The Ungrading Experiment & AI Cheating Reality14:54 Teacher Risk-Taking & Finding the Opening15:56 AI in Rural Schools & Learning from Others' Mistakes25:08 Designing Learning Experiences with AI31:55 Bandwidth, Training & Building Champions41:02 Curiosities: Breaking the Inertia of Education44:33 Outro & Where to Find Doan

Find Doan:

LinkedIn Newsletter: How to Teach AI on Substack (free, weekly, practical)Website: doanwinkel.com

(00:00) - Introduction & Guest Welcome

(01:03) - What Is AI Friction Labs?

(05:01) - The Sparring Partner Concept & Mike Kentz

(05:43) - Student Autonomy vs. Easy Button AI