Where Technology Meets Learning: Inside Cornell’s Future of Learning Lab
Where Technology Meets Learning: Inside Cornell’s Future of Learning Lab
Publish Date: 2026-02-22 17:04:00
Source Domain: www.cornellsun.com
Most educational technology is designed to reduce friction. Prof. Rene Kizilcec, information science, thinks that is precisely the problem.
“Learning is not about feeling good,” Kizilcec said, who is the founder of the Future of Learning Lab at Cornell. “The emotion of learning is frustration. That’s the emotion that’s most predictive of learning.”
It is a deceptively simple observation with remarkable implications — for how universities utilize AI tools, how teachers design their courses and how an industry came to confuse convenience with learning — and it is the driving principle behind the work of the Future of Learning Lab.
‘The Emotion of Learning is Frustration’
Founded by Kizilcec roughly seven and a half years ago, the Future of Learning Lab studies the intersection of technology, education and learning science across all age groups, from primary through post-secondary. The lab’s projects span a variety of application areas, from a national database of tutoring interactions to artificial intelligence powered clinical training tools deployed at medical schools across the country to a language-learning platform used in Cornell’s own classrooms.
The motivator of these projects is a single question: what does good teaching actually look like, and how can we effectively incorporate technology? The answer, Kizilcec argues, begins with an uncomfortable truth about learning itself: “the emotion of learning is frustration.”
That statement goes against the principle of many industries that prioritize seamlessness. Platforms such as Microsoft Copilot are engineered for “low friction” — designed to give consumers what they want, quickly — and are misapplied when universities treat them as educational infrastructure, Kizilcec argued.
“Co-pilot happily gives you the answers to all the assignments. It does…
