# Dr. Jorge Valenzuela

Dr. Jorge Valenzuela works with schools and districts on project-based learning, instructional design, and AI literacy, including through professional learning. Valenzuela's posts emphasize designing learning and assessment so students can explain their reasoning and apply what they know.

- Profile: https://b2binfluencer.marketing/creators/jorge-valenzuela/
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jorgedoespbl
- LinkedIn followers: 6,260
- YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCpFCeG0NRHLcReqg9cdZEjg
- Topics: artificial-intelligence
- Based on 10 dated posts, latest 2026-10-08

## Summary

Dr. Jorge Valenzuela helps schools design project-based learning and AI literacy so student reasoning is visible.

- Best for: K-12 districts strengthening project-based learning and AI literacy through professional learning.
- Not for: AI detection vendors seeking mass reach or sponsored endorsement campaigns.
- Check first: Confirm format, session length, pricing, booking terms, and audience analytics before contacting.

### Takeaways

- Instructional design, not tool purchases, should drive AI in schools.
- Project-based learning needs rigorous design, not activity for its own sake.
- Assessment should make student reasoning visible, such as through a single-point rubric.

## Main ideas

- **Instructional design, not tool purchases, should drive AI in schools**: Dr. Jorge Valenzuela contrasts schools that “integrate AI” by buying tools with those that integrate it through instructional design. Strong projects and assessment routines give teachers evidence of how students used AI, not just whether they used it. In this view, AI does not replace good teaching; it makes the quality of instructional design more visible.
- **Project-based learning needs rigorous design, not activity for its own sake**: Dr. Jorge Valenzuela presents project-based learning as a way to strengthen core instruction while connecting academic work to essential life skills. Projects become rigorous when they are research-informed and deliberately designed, rather than added on as activities. They describe developing PBL+, a framework for this work, and say it is implemented with districts and schools through sustainable professional learning.
- **Assessment should make student reasoning visible**: A recurring method is to ask students to justify decisions, explain reasoning, apply knowledge in authentic contexts, and reflect on process. That evidence lets educators evaluate intellectual ownership and AI use. Dr. Jorge Valenzuela connects the approach to research on visible thinking, clarity, and feedback, while keeping the classroom tool practical.
- **Technology should follow learning goals, and innovation depends on trust**: Dr. Jorge Valenzuela argues that instructional innovation is not the same as using more technology. Tools should add meaningful value; sometimes students need discussion, collaboration, reading, writing, and hands-on experiences. In a podcast preview, guest Ashley Reed, director of technology and innovation at Temple Beth Am, argues that trust and psychological safety are essential to a healthier innovation culture. Dr. Jorge Valenzuela connects that view to the leadership side of instructional innovation.
- **Professional learning should be a sustained partnership**: Dr. Jorge Valenzuela frames PBL+ implementation as partnership work with districts and schools across the country, delivered through sustained professional learning. The emphasis is on changing instructional practice over time rather than delivering a single event. The posts also invite schools and districts to discuss AI literacy support.

## Work to read

- [AI Integration Through Instructional Design](https://www.linkedin.com/posts/jorgedoespbl_many-schools-will-integrate-ai-by-purchasing-activity-7420123029281878016-FAeU)
- [Making Student Thinking Visible in an AI Era](https://www.linkedin.com/posts/jorgedoespbl_instructionalleadership-ailiteracy-pblplus-activity-7462810507729694720-c0zS)
- [PBL+ as a Research-Informed Framework for Schools](https://www.linkedin.com/posts/jorgedoespbl_project-based-learning-only-works-when-it-activity-7415706173691379712-QT-b)
- [Instructional Innovation Is Not More Technology](https://www.linkedin.com/posts/jorgedoespbl_instructionalinnovation-educationleadership-activity-7513955163833839616-zk4W)

## Partnerships

Partnerships are framed as professional learning with schools and districts rather than media or sponsorship placements. Valenzuela says they partner with districts and schools across the country to implement PBL+ through sustained professional learning, and invites school and district leaders to start a conversation about AI literacy. The emphasis is on instructional design and assessment—making student thinking visible through structured project-based learning and single-point rubrics—with technology used only where it adds value. Ask about sponsorship packages, rate cards, audience demographics, booking terms, a published partnership page, commercial terms, and availability before planning a campaign.

## Alternatives

- Shannon Terry, Ed.D: Shannon Terry is the better choice when the district's real problem is the evaluation and retention system around teaching, not the design of project tasks. The posts argue that buying a product does not guarantee transformation, that evaluation systems measure performance without validating the documentation behind a rating, and that two principals can rate the same lesson differently, shifting compensation, Texas Teacher Incentive Allotment (TIA) designations, and trust. A district heading into summatives, or working inside a TIA-aligned model where a small margin decides a designation, may need that documentation layer more than another instructional-design session. Terry also writes from the implementation side of vendor work, pressing vendors to help districts operate inside real constraints, and names a role on the RefynED Advisory Board, whose stated focus is evaluation-system friction, retaining teachers, and working alongside technology districts already own. If the district's question is how to defend classroom AI use inside an evaluation system, this is the closer match.
- Matthew Karabinos, MAT: Matthew Karabinos is the stronger alternative when the district's blocker is policy and shared language. One post works through the report that the Pentagon is reconsidering parts of its relationship with Anthropic after the company declined to provide unrestricted access to its AI systems, and asks who gets access, under what conditions, and with what oversight as AI becomes foundational infrastructure. The other is a conversation with Mark DiMauro about classroom AI, covering an Augmented Classroom Framework that gives teachers and professors consistent language for AI use on any assignment, why the governance problem is circular, four competing definitions of the word agent, and curiosity as the skill to build in students. Karabinos also offers AI guidance, policy support, and professional development in the IU8 region of central Pennsylvania, so a district in that area gets a provider with local context. If the district needs guardrails and vocabulary written before it redesigns instruction, this is closer than a project-based learning session.
- Alton Delane: Alton Delane is the better alternative for a private or independent school whose priority is enrollment and family-facing differentiation. The posts target private schools that must raise academic outcomes and give families a clear reason to choose them. One promotes SMALLab, a mixed-reality learning environment where students learn by moving and collaborating, and cites Arizona State University research on embodied learning, including an 86 percent increase in learning, 6.7 times higher engagement, and 33 percent better teacher performance. The other explains what families notice on a school tour: whether students are engaged, whether the classroom is energetic or passive, whether students collaborate, and whether learning feels alive, with innovation framed as a differentiator. If the campaign goal is a visible classroom experience that supports enrollment marketing, this is a more direct route than a project-based learning and AI-literacy workshop.

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AI-assisted summary of public posts. Audience demographics are not available. Engagement appears only where we checked recent posts. Method: https://b2binfluencer.marketing/methodology/