Artificial Intelligence (AI) is now widely available and widely used in educational settings.
That may be fine - and, certainly there may be positives, but what are the challenges, and how should schools and teachers address them?
A recent piece in the New York Times highlights some of the concerns:
A recent study of 26,000 Chinese secondary-school students found that A.I. adoption led to an 18 percent increase in homework scores, but a 20 percent decline in scores on secure exams. The implication was that rushing through homework with help from chatbots degraded the deeper learning needed to perform well when the technology was not available.
One 2025 study out of M.I.T. found that people who used chatbots as writing assistants struggled to remember what they had written only minutes after finishing their essay. “You basically didn’t engage any of the memory networks that would actually help you remember,” said Nataliya Kos’myna, a M.I.T. researcher who worked on the study.
Other research has shown that people who have greater trust in A.I. and rely on it more are more likely to have lower cognitive engagement.
In addition to pointing out these challenges, the article notes that AI can act as a thought partner and help students uncover new ways of thinking about problems.
But, clearly, there are some limits - and some real downsides. I’m curious about how teachers in K-12 settings can address these concerns.
I don’t know the answer - but it does seem important to teach students problem-solving skills and discernment. How does someone know if the AI answer is the best answer? What if I’m in a situation where there is no access to an AI tool? How to I begin to address a challenge?
There’s something to be said for skill-building before introducing a tool that provides ready answers.
If you’re an educator, what are your thoughts? How are you integrating AI into your classrooms? How do you help students understand its potential and its limits?
