Thinking in Progress
Ideas, foresight, and field notes from the practice of
building systems—and futures—with purpose and care.
This is a living archive of inquiry—
where I trace the questions, tensions, and patterns
shaping my work in systems change, responsible innovation, and the future of learning.
Some entries build on frameworks and field-tested tools. Others begin as sparks: a conversation, a shift in perspective, or a signal worth listening to.
I write not to conclude—but to reflect, reframe,
and invite more meaningful futures into view.
Where Ideas Take Shape:
Writing on Medium
I share essays, signal scans, and strategic reflections on Medium,
where my thinking meets the edge of what’s unfolding.
Expect a blend of polished insights and field notes—rooted in live projects and asking better questions about AI, education, and ethical innovation.
If you’re curious about where futures are headed—and how we might shape them with care—this is where the deeper writing lives.
Featured Insights
From field-tested tools to unfolding ideas,
this space captures the work of building futures with care—
from strategy and storytelling to frameworks still becoming.
Signature Works
These pieces reflect the core of my thinking—
written works that investigate emerging tensions,
articulate new frameworks, and contribute to
field-building conversations.
They are designed not just to share insight,
but to shape how we practice, question,
and design for what comes next.
Ethical Witnessing in Relational AI
Navigating Socio-Historical Harms with Structural Humility
Reframes AI ethics through historical accountability and relational repair, introducing “ethical witnessing” as a design practice grounded in structural awareness and emotional integrity.
Inspired by:
From “Little Brown Brother” to Filipino Genocide:
A Critical Discourse Analysis of the Philippine-American War’s
Impact on Modern Filipino Colorism by Bea Rodriguez-Fransen
+ Ongoing work in relational AI
Format: Longform Essay • PDF • 30 pages
Usage: Open for citation; educational reuse; and inclusion in AI ethics, design, and social impact discussions
The Readiness Paradigm
Why Systems Must Change for the Youth Leading Them
Argues that youth readiness is not an individual trait but a relational, systemic condition. Offers a new framework for transforming leadership, inclusion, and support systems.
Inspired by:
Youth perspectives on climate: Preparing for a sustainable future
co-developed by
Capgemini Research Institute + UNICEF’s Generation Unlimited
Format: Research-Backed Essay • PDF • 15 pages
Usage: Ideal for youth leadership initiatives, education policy groups, and systems-change practitioners; open for reuse with attribution
Threading Futures
Weaving Relational Worlds for AI in Education
Explores how AI design shapes our cognitive and emotional futures. Advocates for plural, emotionally resonant approaches to education, foresight, and ethical technology.
Inspired by:
FIS 307: Navigating Futures at Arizona State University
Scenarios construction (intuitive logics approach)
+ Ongoing work in relational AI
Format: Visionary Essay • PDF • 38 pages
Usage: Designed to provoke reflection in learning design, AI foresight, and values-based innovation; available for classroom or workshop use with credit
View all signature works below:
Case Studies
How do you design with complexity?
These case studies reveal the scaffolding behind impact—offering strategy, process, and reflection.
Critical Thinking + AI
in Higher Education
A capstone initiative showing how generative AI can sharpen—not dull—student thinking, reflection, and metacognition.
Enhancing Critical Thinking Using GenAI – Case Study
Download
Wildfire Innovation
Compass + Studio
A dual-tool ecosystem equipping wildfire innovators with funding strategy, stakeholder alignment, and future-ready infrastructure.
Wildfire Innovation Case Study – Compass + Studio
Download
View all case studies below:
Projects That
Prototype the Future
Before they become systems, policies, or frameworks,
ideas take shape through practice.
These projects prototype principles-in-action,
each one rooted in ethics, experimentation, and imagination.
The Relational AI Depth Framework
A tool for mapping the depth of human–AI collaboration
from shallow automation to meaningful co-creation.
Built to support more intentional, values-aligned interactions with AI systems.
Designing Digital Play for Wellbeing
A values-rooted initiative that supports responsible, joyful, and ethical digital experiences for youth. Drawing from frameworks like UNICEF’s RITEC Principles, the UN SDGs, and ASU’s Principled Innovation, the series equips builders, educators, and changemakers with tools for principled action.
Both the Starter Guide and Workshop Companion serve as living invitations to co-create digital spaces rooted in dignity, care, and courage.
Stakeholder Guide
Designing_Digital_Play_for_Wellbeing_Starter_Guide
Download
Workshop Companion Guide
Designing_Digital_Play_for_Wellbeing_Workshop_Companion_Guide
Download
Coming Soon…
The Work of You
A reflective career design tool for emerging leaders—
currently in development.
Vireo: Story Hook AI Companion
A speculative AI that helps you co-create emotionally resonant story openers—sparking reflection, connection, and human-centered futures.
Op-Eds & Perspective Pieces
Public reflections that ask:
Who gets to shape the future—and how do we build with care?
Helping Students Think for Themselves—Even When AI Does the Thinking
Why we need more than AI literacy,
and how AI Wisdom Education helps students reclaim their voice in the age of automation.
Helping Students Think for Themselves – Even When AI Does the Thinking
Download
The Future Doesn’t Wait: Why Youth Leadership Can’t Be Measured by Resumes
A call for youth leadership rooted not in credentials, but in courage, ethics, and systems thinking.
The Future Doesn’t Wait – Why Youth Leadership Can’t Be Measured by Resumes
Download
Becoming a Changemaker with AI
How students are stepping into agency, reflection, and co-creation in an AI-shaped world
This two-part series explores how generative AI is reshaping what it means to lead, learn, and create change—especially for emerging changemakers without credentials or capital. Blending personal reflection with ethical insight, it invites students, educators, and innovators to consider not just what AI can do, but what kind of changemaking becomes possible with it.
These aren’t just stories about tools—they’re blueprints for agency, values, and the futures we’re co-creating.
Part 1:
What It Means to Be a Changemaker in the Age of AI
A reflective piece on identity, integrity, and how co-creating with AI invites students to lead not with perfection, but with care, agency, and purpose.
Part 2:
Co-Creating Change— What Students Can Do With AI That They Couldn’t Do Before
A deeper dive into the capabilities—and the limits—of AI in changemaking, offering practical insights, ethical questions, and frameworks for responsible co-creation.
What I’m Exploring Now
Active inquiries. Unpolished ideas.
Tensions worth holding, and futures worth unfolding.
These aren’t polished products yet—they’re seeds of thought, field conversations, and questions I keep coming back to.
Some may grow into frameworks. Others may remain provocations.
All of them are shaping the way I work.
Designing for Integrity
(Individual & Collective)
Holding fidelity to purpose across evolving tools, timelines, and teams.
How do we stay grounded while navigating growth?
This thread examines how values-driven design can scale—
without losing coherence, care, or accountability.
Flagship Piece:
Designing for Collective Integrity: From Creative Confidence to Systems of Shared Stewardship
Companion Articles:
1. “Design Thinking Taught Us to Empathize. It Didn’t Teach Us to Be Accountable.”
2. “We Teach Students to Pitch—But Not to Pause”
3. “What If Designers Didn’t Lead With Fixing—But With Witnessing?”
AI in the Hands of Those Who Cared
What if some of history’s most profound thinkers and stewards—those who shaped how we relate to knowledge and the world—had access to AI?
We often ask what AI can do for us.
But what if we asked: how would some of humanity’s most thoughtful stewards—philosophers, Indigenous communities, poets, monks—have used it?
This piece explores what we can learn from imagining how AI
would have been used not to dominate, but to deepen their practices.
This is not nostalgic speculation,
but an inquiry into how we might still use AI differently, today.
Filipino-American Changemakers
in Innovation
Exploring visibility, legacy, and belonging
at the intersection of culture and creativity.
This inquiry asks how Filipino-American stories—and diasporic leadership more broadly—can reframe who gets to lead, innovate, and shape the future.
Feature Article:
“Where We’ve Always Been Innovating:
Filipino-American Innovation and the Futures We’ve Always Carried”
Exploratory Report
(In Progress)
Responsible Innovation Trilogy Book Series
Three Short Books for Reclaiming Power, Presence, and Practice in a Changing World
This trilogy offers a bold reimagining of innovation
grounded in ethics, interdependence, and relational care.
Across three short books:
1. Co-Creation, Not Control
2. Relational Intelligence
3. The Architecture of Witnessing
Readers are invited to rethink how we design, lead,
and show up in systems shaped by uncertainty and power.
Let’s Keep the Conversation Going!
Whether you’re curious about a collaboration, exploring similar questions,
or simply want to connect, I’d love to hear from you.
Because Ideas grow stronger in dialogue.
Feel free to reach out here or connect via LinkedIn
to keep the exchange going.
Matthew Agustin 