Free Lesson
The Ups and Downs of Building a Literacy App with AI
60 min
Sep 7, 2026 12:00 PM
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What you'll learn
How to stand up a real literacy prototype with AI
Choosing a model, managing code when you're not a coder, synthesized voiceover, and curriculum planning
How to direct AI like a product team
Ideas for writing specs, curriculum docs, review stages, and prompt adherence
How to catch what AI gets wrong before a child does
Working with the limitations of generative AI models, understanding what's critical when it comes to children's learning
Why this topic matters
In 2007, a Sesame team of about 15 people spent two and a half years shipping an adaptive literacy intervention on the iPod Touch. This weekend I stood up a similar working watch-and-play prototype in the browser in three days. The economics of creating apps for kids is changing, for better and worse. I'll share lessons learned, what's possible, where it gets weird, and how to aim the speed of AI at something good.
