This week I chose to spend some time reflecting on how libraries and educational institutions are incorporating artificial intelligence into their operations and services. I was especially interested in many points included in the EDUCAUSE Horizon Report Teaching Edition, (2026). Namely, the report highlights how generative AI is reshaping how students experience trust in information and more broadly.
A key element of this issue is the fact that using an AI chatbot for information search, which is the number one reason people use AI chatbots (Goyanes, 2026), diminishes the provenance of the source. This obfuscation of where a piece of information comes from presents the need for novel information literacy skills and practices to be addressed in curricula.
Mike Caulfield is an information literacy expert who created the SIFT method, a framework used to evaluate if a source is credible or reliable. Caulfield writes extensively about how AI factors into information literacy instruction, and he argues people today operating in today’s information landscape do not necessarily have a problem with critical thinking, rather, they do not have enough information about what to do to find additional sources about a claim before they think about its reliability, (2026). Interesting argument.
AI chatbot use in the classroom more broadly presents different issues. When students use AI chatbots to do research and complete school assignments, the dynamic between the students and the teacher changes. Students less frequently go to the teacher for assistance and instead prompt AI chatbots, and teachers increasingly assume students are cheating on their work. This creates an environment of distrust, and as one teacher put it, trust is critical to learning, (Toppo, 2025). This dynamic also encourages students to focus more on “proving they did the work instead of taking learning risks,” (Robert et al., 2026).
This raises many questions for me. First, what are librarians and teachers doing to incorporate this new method of information search in their curricula? Do they have an obligation to explain the underlying mechanisms of these new technologies? How can they communicate the various accuracy levels of different generative AI models? Should these learning moments include the social and ethical implications of this technology?
For a previous course I took on AI and data ethics, I identified some public programs libraries are doing to promote learning around AI. Mt. Pleasant Public Library in Texas created a STEAM book club that prompted attendees to read any book on AI and discuss over breakfast. San Francisco Public Library partnered with Scale Up Robotics to provide a four-part beginner-level digital literacy and robotics courses in which participants remotely teleoperated a real robot and learned basic AI principles.
It’s heartening to see public programs to support learning, and it made me eager to learn more about how teachers are addressing the AI issue in the classroom. The EDUCAUSE report said some teachers are shifting assessment design to emphasize process, reasoning, collaboration, oral explanation, and critical evaluation of AI outputs. But I imagine there are many school systems who may not have the resources to overhaul curriculum. What happens to them?
In short, the New Horizons module evoked more questions for me than answers. But isn’t that a key part of the learning process?
References
Caulfield, M. (2026, March 29). A SIFT rebuild (in progress). The End(s) of Argument.
Goyanes, M., Utz, S., Gil de Zúñiga, H. (2026). Trust in AI news, AI literacy, and the mediating role of artificial intelligence attitudes: A longitudinal study across diverse societies. Computers in Human Behavior: Artificial Humans, 7. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chbah.2026.100279
Robert, J., Muscanell, N., McCormack, M., Arnold, K. (2026). EDUCAUSE Horizon Report, Teaching and Learning Edition. https://library.educause.edu/-/media/files/library/2026/5/2026hrteachinglearning.pdf
Toppo, G. (2025, September 22). Another AI side effect: Erosion of student-teacher trust. The 74. https://www.the74million.org/article/another-ai-side-effect-erosion-of-student-teacher-trust/
Hi DJ,
I enjoyed reading your post on New Horizons. I can tell you that for the school district I work for, no official AI guidelines have yet been created. Instead, teachers are being advised to decide if they want their students to use AI or not for school projects. If teachers do not want their students to use AI, they must state that in their class syllabus or project rubric. If it is not stated, it is assumed that students can use AI. Many teachers are also not knowledgeable about how to use AI or have students use or incorporate it in their learning. Some teachers allow students to use it while others do not. Another major challenge is that AI hallucinates or gives incorrect information, and students do not correctly discern when this is happening. Recently, the Teacher Librarian team was informed that we had to start teaching more lessons on Digital Citizenship and Information Literacy. However, no official curriculum or guidelines have been approved yet for our district. We will have to decide very soon, as library professionals, what the best way will be to address these issues. My colleagues and I are hoping for district guidance to help address these concerns with teachers and students in our library lessons. Thank you for your thoughtful post.