Dr. Xiaoxue Du came to educational technology with a conviction that technology is only as powerful as the pedagogy behind it. Through her early work in the Center for Technology School Change, she developed a deep belief that the real value of technology lies not in the tools themselves, but in the new possibilities they open. Her work has created opportunities for us to rethink pedagogy, redesign learning environments, and enable students to question and shape the systems around them. Whether in the MIT Media Lab as a postdoctoral fellow, or as the Senior Program Officer at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Du’s work continuously takes a human-centered approach to implementing new technologies.
Dr. Du’s dissertation research took on one of education's most entrenched challenges: how to effectively support students with special needs through assistive technology. The work was structured around three interconnected pillars. First, preparing educators to thoughtfully integrate technology, whether they were more eager to push boundaries or more resistant to change. Second, reimagining what assessment can look like in inclusive settings, where technology can reveal what students are capable of, rather than simply documenting what they cannot do. And third, building educator communities through a design-situate-lead professional development model, equipping teachers to become change agents in their own classrooms. Since completing her doctorate in Instructional Technology & Media, Du's career has taken her across sectors, continuing to help us understand how technology can support learning and innovation.
Since graduating from TC, Du has been particularly focused on AI literacy. Immediately after completing her doctorate, she completed a postdoctoral fellowship at the MIT Media Lab where she worked on human-AI interaction. There, she helped launch a “Day of AI” learning initiative, developing modular curricula to build AI literacy among educators. She then spent more than three years at McKinsey as a consultant, applying an AI literacy lens to organizational digital transformation across corporate, HR, and business process functions. Currently, Dr. Du serves as a Senior Program Officer at the Gates Foundation's U.S. program, where she leads efforts to help colleagues and grantees use and apply AI. She works to build AI advisory panels, develop shared infrastructure, and translate emerging research and tools into insights that inform real business decisions.
Throughout this time, Du also worked alongside Mathematics Education Professor Irina Lyublinskaya, co-authoring Teaching AI Literacy Across the Curriculum (2025). While AI tools and technical curricula were proliferating, resources to help everyday classroom teachers integrate AI literacy into their existing subjects remained scarce. As a result, the book introduces a practical pedagogical framework built around the “Big Five Ideas in AI” and a design-create-reflect model, offering educators a consistent mental model they can apply subject areas. The goal is to help make AI readiness a natural part of the school day, not an add-on.
For students considering a graduate degree in educational technology, Dr. Du’s advice is both grounding and expansive. First, she advises that students follow their passion. A doctoral program demands years of deep commitment to a niche area, and that commitment should be chosen freely and with conviction. She also encourages flexibility, as a doctorate is one means among many to reach your goals, and graduates are not bound to a single path. Industry, philanthropy, academia, and policy all need people with rigorous training in how technology, learning, and human systems intersect. “The degree gives you the thinking, the training, everything you need,” she reflects, “what you do with it is yours to shape.”