Date/Time: November 7, 2026 | 10:15 – 11:45 am

Room: TAHOMA 2

Abstract: What does it mean to be “future-ready” in 2026? As artificial intelligence handles more of the routine and data-heavy tasks of the modern world, student success will increasingly depend on uniquely human strengths: connecting with others, making value-driven judgments, and imagining what’s next.

This session is a collaborative forum led by expert practitioners who have been mapping these human capabilities to the physical school environment. Using the MIT Sloan EPOCH framework as a guide, we will explore five “human-intensive” aptitudes—Empathy, Presence, Opinion, Creativity, and Hope—that are becoming the essential currency of the new knowledge economy.

Join us for a dynamic, four-part workshop where we move beyond tech-talk to focus on the heart of design:

• Initial Engagement: Participants enter a space designed for discovery, with interactive prompts that allow them to explore the evolving role of AI in the future of education while connecting with colleagues facing similar challenges in their own districts.
  
• Expert Insights: Facilitators provide a curated look at a range of projects and research, illustrating how specific spatial environments—from restorative zones to collaborative hubs—can be intentionally crafted to support the development of EPOCH aptitudes.
  
• The Collaborative Forge: In small peer groups, participants collaborate on design challenges, using the EPOCH framework to solve real-world problems. This phase is designed for attendees to model the same social-emotional skills they are designing for students.
  
• Facilitated Synthesis: The session concludes with an expert-led review of the collective insights generated during the workshop, providing attendees with a resilient, human-centered toolkit to apply to their future-ready projects.

This is a chance for architects, planners, and district leaders to move from reacting to technological shifts to proactively designing for the human brilliance that follows.

Learning Objectives:

1. Define the Human-Machine Complementarity: Identify the five pillars of the EPOCH framework—Empathy, Presence, Opinion, Creativity, and Hope—and understand why these “human-intensive” skills are the most valuable assets for students entering an AI-augmented professional landscape.
2. Translate Research into Spatial Strategy: Evaluate how specific design elements—such as restorative boundaries, agile collaborative hubs, and sensory-aware zones—can be intentionally used to foster the social-emotional aptitudes required by the new knowledge economy.
3. Model Collaborative Problem-Solving: Engage in a facilitated, peer-to-peer design forum to practice the “hard-to-learn” skills of empathy and collective judgment while tackling real-world educational planning challenges.
4. Develop a Resilient Design Toolkit: Leave with a set of versatile spatial strategies that prioritize human augmentation over machine substitution, providing a resilient roadmap for future-ready school design regardless of specific technological shifts.