A learning-science instrument for faculty

The Friction
Audit Studio

Every assignment hides one piece of thinking that must not be outsourced — the work that, if a machine did it, means nothing was learned. This studio helps you find it, protect it, and hand the rest to AI on purpose.

Cognitive Load Theory · Expertise Reversal · Vygotsky's ZPD · Chi's ICAP

The whole idea

Teaching with AI is the discipline of deciding which struggles to keep. Protect the struggle that is the point. Outsource the struggle that isn't.

Paste your assignment

Drop in the assignment instructions you'd hand a student. You don't need to know the objective — the studio unpacks what your assignment could be teaching first, then you decide what to protect.

The assignment instructions Discipline / context (optional) Where is this learner in their development?

For a novice, the basics are the learning. The boundary sits tight.

First the studio shows what your assignment could teach. You pick what matters. Then it runs the audit.

Your decomposition appears here.

Paste an assignment above and unpack it — you might be surprised by what it could teach.

The five stances

Don't grant AI a permission. Assign it a role.

OracleGives the answer; performs the cognition. The toxic default — never for the load-bearing work.
TutorExplains and scaffolds contingently, but is barred from handing over the assessed answer. Holds the ZPD.
Sparring PartnerArgues back, red-teams, demands evidence. Forces the student to the top of the ICAP ladder.
SimulatorPlays a client, patient, skeptic, or stakeholder no classroom could stage. Judgment against a responsive world.
ApprenticeDoes grunt work under the student's direction; the student must evaluate and correct it. Judgment stays human.

The Friction Audit

Five questions for any assignment.

What is the load-bearing cognition? The mental work that is the learning. Name it as a verb.
What is extraneous? Necessary but not the point — mechanical work around the thinking.
Where is the learner? Novice → basics are germane. Expert → basics are rubble. The line moves.
Draw the boundary. Bar AI from the load-bearing work; invite it to clear the rest.
Make it honest. Design the boundary in the open — never police it with surveillance.

The ICAP ladder

Modes of cognitive engagement, by learning produced.

Interactiveco-construct, dialogue
Constructivegenerate beyond given
Activemanipulate, rearrange
Passivereceive — where naive AI use lands