There’s no denying AI is here to stay—and as a parent, I’m especially consumed with how it will impact young people and their ability to learn how to think critically. I recently attended my 25th high school reunion, and a current junior gave me a tour of the campus. As we were walking, I asked him if he and his friends used AI to do their work and he said that yes, they all do. He went on to tell me that his teachers have actually created lessons on how to use AI effectively as a tool, rather than as a method of cheating—which admittedly is how I think kids most often use it. I was heartened to hear that steps were being taken to teach students how to use AI responsibly (though I imagine some still do use it to cheat).
This conversation, as well as the readings from the New Horizons modules, has me thinking deeper about AI in the classroom and ways teachers and information professionals can incorporate it rather than fight it. My gut reaction thus far has been against AI in the classroom, but the 2025 Educause Report makes a lot of great points, supporting the idea that the better approach is to proactively educate students about AI and how to use it the right way. The report also includes how AI could help democratize learning, and I am all for any tools or technology that makes education more inclusive and accessible.
A few of the ideas from the report include:
Create policies to guide students’ use of AI tools. Be transparent with students about what you expect from them, including the reasoning behind your policies rather than only presenting them with rules.
Provide students with opportunities to experiment with AI tools. Foster an environment of exploration for students to think critically about AI tools. Students need to be able to investigate AI tools to authentically learn about their potential benefits and risks.
Talk to your students. Ask students whether and how they want to use generative AI for their learning. They might be able to find some interesting and helpful AI tools (a skill in itself), or they might even tell you they’re not interested in using generative AI at all.
This module also made me think back to a conversation I had with a former coworker, whose husband is a high school history teacher in New York City. He said students have been using AI to write complete essays, and that they all sound pretty much the same. As a writer and editor by profession, I am most discouraged by this use of AI—that it takes what is supposed to be a creative endeavor, something so tied to the individual, and makes it sound like, well, a robot wrote it.
Asking AI to write content from scratch is a use of AI that experts also warn against. I appreciated the article by Allison Papini, Assistant Director/ Manager of Research and Instruction Services at Bryant University, which looks at ChatGPT “through the lens of information literacy.” With regards to writing, she says, “ChatGPT is a great way to get started brainstorming, or if you want to write a general overview of a topic, but it is often vague and even inaccurate, and is not a substitute for human writing.”
I also found myself nodding my head as I read the interview with Tom Moriarty, where he says, “Writing is generative and creative. Artificial intelligence applications like ChatGPT are imitative and mimetic (which is a fancy word for imitative). Writing makes you smarter. Writing makes you unique. ChatGPT makes you sound like everybody else. Which, I guess, makes you forgettable.”
References
EDUCAUSE. (2025, May). 2025 Horizon Report: Teaching & Learning edition [PDF]. https://library.educause.edu/-/media/files/library/2025/5/2025hrteachinglearning.pdf
Halprin Jackson, J. (2023, February 14). Chatting with ChatGPT: Deep Dive in Five with Tom Moriarty. San José State University NewsCenter. https://blogs.sjsu.edu/newsroom/2023/chatting-with-chat-gpt-deep-dive-in-five-with-tom-moriarty/
Papini, A. (2023, January 27). ChatGPT: A library perspective. Krupp Library, Bryant University. https://library.bryant.edu/chatgpt-library-perspective
Hi Brooke,
You brought up so many great points! As a teacher myself, AI is something I’ve been thinking a lot about and I will admit it’s slightly terrifying to think of all the ways it’s changing the world of education and the way students learn (and keeping educators on their toes adapting to it all). I teach math and science so my classes aren’t quite as writing-heavy, but my students love to go straight to Chat GPT or a Google AI summary when they conduct scientific research, and I have had to emphasize that this works as a starting point but it’s not the be-all-end-all, and they need to be reading the actual sources that AI pulled the information from.
As far as essay-writing goes, I heard that students can even ask AI to mimic their own writing style, which is crazy to me. I agree with you that students should have opportunities to explore different AI tools and hold discussions about their usage and any risks and benefits. Hopefully this kind of open discourse can help students use AI more responsibly and ethically.
I enjoyed your post! Nice work.