We ask where and whether AI belongs in classrooms — not just how to put it there.
TRAIL Lab is an interdisciplinary research group at the University of Wisconsin-Madison studying the responsible use of AI in real-world classrooms. We work with teachers, students, researchers, engineers, and the complex contexts in which learning happens.
- PI
- Shamya Karumbaiah
- Established
- 2023 · Madison, WI
§ 01 · Disciplines
Four disciplines we focus on
Learning Sciences
Understanding how people learn across cognition, culture, and context to support their learning.
AI Ethics
Addressing bias, privacy, and equity concerns to ensure responsible AI use in education.
Learning Analytics
Mining patterns in process data to surface key moments in teaching and learning.
Human-Centered Design
Co-designing with educators and learners from the get-go with iterative improvements from classroom implementations.
A defining stance
“Should AI be in education at all? That is the question we are willing to answer no to. The work begins there — with consent, evidence, and the people who live with the consequences.”
§ 03 · News
Recent news.
Talks, papers, panels, awards. The work in motion.
Shamya Karumbaiah presented 4 paper with the titles: (1) SLAI: AI Support for Multilingual Small Group Discussions in Science Classrooms, (2) Pedagogical Values Mediate Teacher Perceptions on Using AI to Support Students’ Learning of Scientific Explanations, (3) How Students Interpret Representational Cues in AI-Generated Educational Illustrations (Best Paper Nominee), (4) What Constitutes AI Harms and/or Unfairness? An Empirical Analysis of Teacher Deliberation with a Fairness Elicitation Scaffold, at the 27th International Conference on AI in Education in Seoul, South Korea.
Pragati Maheshwary presented on CLUE-AI: A Collaborative Game-Based Learning Approach to Promote Critical Literacy for Uncovering Errors in AI at the 27th International Conference on AI in Education in Seoul, South Korea.
Kaycie Barron presented on What Do LIWC Features Capture in Multilingual Classroom Talk? A Systemic Functional Linguistic Analysis at the Educational Data Mining Conference in Seoul, South Korea.
Shamya Karumbaiah presented on A Double-Edged Sword: Navigating Hope and Concern in Teachers’ Adoption of AI Image Generation Tools at the International Conference of the Learning Sciences (ICLS) in Irvine, California.
Pragati Maheshwary presented on Extending CSCL Affordances for Multilingual Classrooms: Teacher Perspectives on AI Supported Collaborations at the Conference of Computer-Supported Collaborative Learning (CSCL) in Irvine, California.
Kaycie Barron presented on Translanguaging, Systemic Functional Linguistics, and Artificial Intelligence in K-12 Science Classrooms: A Multiple Case Study at the American Education Research Association conference in Los Angeles, California.
33 entries total
§ 04 · An invitation
Join the inquiry.
We work with educators, students, scholars, and engineers — anyone willing to sit with hard questions about AI in learning and answer them with evidence. Whether you are a prospective PhD student, a teacher curious about co-designing tools, or a researcher looking to collaborate, we want to hear from you.