ConcreteAug 5, 2026Field notes · Serious Play Conference · Duke University · August 2026

Pedagogy first

Four panelists seated in a row at the front of a conference room, all laughing mid-discussion, conference lanyards on.

Founder and CEO Lindsey Tropf joined a panel at the Serious Play Conference on how education teams are actually using AI — where their boundaries and guardrails sit, and the “one guideline” each panelist would want others to adopt.

The session was moderated by Becky Keene, who also wrote the questions, alongside panelists Stephen Reid and Deb Fuller. It was a genuinely enjoyable hour, and the questions pushed past the usual talking points.

Tropf’s guideline was pedagogy first.

Photographs by Tammie Schrader.

Lindsey Tropf mid-sentence during the panel, both hands raised in a gesture, laughing.

Lindsey Tropf seated during the panel, listening with a wry expression, Serious Play lanyard visible.

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