Month: March 2025

The quick advancement and increasing availability of generative AI technology have brought about both advantageous opportunities and significant educational obstacles. The focus of the issue lies in understanding how to grapple with AI productively in fields like education while simultaneously mitigating potential harms. This conversation has risen between educators, researchers, parents, and more. Some believe that AI could benefit personalized learning, pushing creativity, and efficiency in administrative departments, while others have concerns over academic integrity, necessary human interaction, biases within the algorithms, and ethical issues. The overreaching question is: How could AI carefully and ethically mesh with education while still addressing and navigating its inherent limitations?

The sources are used to provide various voices that are essential in addressing the central question. For example, “background” can be found in the articles by the Illinois College of Education’s “AI in Schools: Pros and Cons” and the University of Iowa’s “The Role of AI in Modern Education,” which give context to the emergence of generative AI technologies, prevalence in education, and a brief history of its development. My main “theory” source will be Markkula Center’s article on “Artificial Intelligence, Decision-Making, and Moral Deskilling” which examines this topic through a crucial theoretical lens, giving the discussion more ethical depth. My “exhibit” sources like Harvard Graduate School of Education’s “The Impact of AI on Children’s Development” and Assistant Professor Ying Xu’s research on children’s interactions with AI give more information on the implementation of AI and how it affects students. For “argument,” I looked at the opposing views of Kerry McDonald’s “Artificial Intelligence Can Transform Education For the Better” and Megan Erickson’s analysis in “Rise of the AI Schoolteacher.” Motive is pulled from all sources, as they all have shaped my view on this conversation, but mostly Megan Erickson’s piece as well.

Ai in schools: Pros and cons. College of Education. (n.d.). https://education.illinois.edu/about/news-events/news/article/2024/10/24/ai-in-schools–pros-and-cons  

Erickson, Megan. “Rise of the AI Schoolteacher.” Jacobin, no. 52, Winter 2024, pp.3-4, 117-120. 

(can be found in the AI and Education Folder in starter readings)

The article by Megan Erickson analyzes the trend toward AI implementation in education, which receives strong support from technology moguls like Bill Gates. She states that AI systems fall short of meeting the essential teaching and learning needs of humans, regardless of their promise to boost equality and involvement. Erickson examines the unsuccessful outcomes of previous technology-driven educational reforms, including Gates’ teacher assessment program and the unequal results of pandemic online learning, to demonstrate how prioritizing operational efficiency threatens valuable teaching practices. She underscores that human connection remains essential for developing students’ critical thinking abilities and emotional resilience, according to educational theorists like Piaget.

McDonald, K. (2024, January 9). Artificial Intelligence Can Transform Education for the better. Catalyst. https://catalyst.independent.org/2024/01/09/artificial-intelligence-transform-education/?gad_source=1&gclid=Cj0KCQjwy46_BhDOARIsAIvmcwPz7XQenlfGXDAl5RqqH5EgvFVRJCClTrv1pDphktwqKtTYo4cokIUaAqyREALw_wcB 

The Impact of AI on Children’s Development. Harvard Graduate School of Education. (n.d.). https://www.gse.harvard.edu/ideas/edcast/24/10/impact-ai-childrens-development 

Assistant Professor Ying Xu at the Harvard Graduate School of Education talks about how AI’s prevalence in education and the lives of children is increasing rapidly. She says that it is possible for children to effectively learn concepts from AI, however, AI cannot replicate the deeper engagement and intricate relationships of humans, which are essential to development. Concerns related to AI and children include things like teaching and encouraging politeness, children being observed making demands or insulting AI because it is not real, or the worry that children will become attached to AI personalities like Amazon’s “Alexa,” and more. 

The University of Iowa. (2024, August 27). The role of AI in modern education. University of Iowa. https://onlineprograms.education.uiowa.edu/blog/role-of-ai-in-modern-education 

Tamayo, J., Doumi, L., Goel, S., Kovács-Ondrejkovic, O., & Sadun, R. (2023, September 1). Reskilling in the age of ai. Harvard Business Review. https://hbr.org/2023/09/reskilling-in-the-age-of-ai  

University, S. C. (n.d.). Artificial Intelligence, decision-making, and moral deskilling. Markkula  Center for Applied Ethics. https://www.scu.edu/ethics/focus-areas/technology-ethics/resources/artificial-intelligence-decision-making-and-moral-deskilling/ 

Brian Patrick Green, the director of Technology Ethics at the Markkula Center for Applied Ethics, talks about the loss of ability to make moral decisions due to real-world inexperience, or moral deskilling, as we become more reliant on AI technology to complete tasks and communicate. He argues that morality and decision making shouldn’t be put on “autopilot” as a real pilot would not use autopilot to land a plane. He says that while AI can be helpful, using it for more and more tasks can cause us to lose essential complex understanding and moral decision-making skills.  He emphasizes the trend throughout history of advancements meant to make our lives easier tend to cause people to lose basic skills needed in case of a systematic breakdown. 

Wong, Lawrence P. W. “Artificial Intelligence and Job Automation: Challenges for Secondary 

Students’ Career Development and Life Planning.” Merits, vol. 4, 2024, pp. 370–399, https://www.mdpi.com/2673-8104/4/4/27 

Lawrence Wong explores the impact of AI on job transformation and its implications for high school students deciding their career paths. Artificial Intelligence systems are increasingly performing repetitive tasks in professions such as accounting and legal work, yet creative professions like teaching and the arts remain less vulnerable. The author draws from reports by major institutions such as the World Economic Forum to demonstrate that technologically advanced countries like the U.S. and Europe face more significant job losses from AI than developing regions

I know I am not alone in drowning in stress and schoolwork during this particular time of the year. To add to that, my lovely friends decided to book a trip on the first weekend of spring break instead of the second, adding some more pressure to get things done to be able to enjoy my trip. I know that in the end, I will somehow get it all done and have everything submitted because I always do, but as of now, I shudder in fear at the sight of my canvas page, not even knowing where to start. I need spring break as a hard reset, academically, socially, and personally, and I cannot wait.  This is where the turnaround happens every year, where I clutch up and have my academic comeback, and I am ancy with anticipation and excitement. This is the point in the year where it starts to fly by, and I can see the light at the end of the tunnel (summer).  It sounds dumb to just kind of assume I will do better after break, but with the cold weather on top of material that needs to get done before that deadline, I know I will feel so refreshed to have a break and come out of it ready to complete another school year. 

Erickson, Megan. “Rise of the AI Schoolteacher.” Jacobin, no. 52, Winter 2024, pp.3-4, 117-120. (can be found in AI and Education Folder in starter readings)

The article by Megan Erickson analyzes the trend toward AI implementation in education which receives strong support from technology moguls like Bill Gates. She states that AI systems fall short of meeting the essential teaching and learning needs of humans regardless of their promise to boost equality and involvement. Erickson examines the unsuccessful outcomes of previous technology-driven educational reforms including Gates’ teacher assessment program and the unequal results of pandemic online learning to demonstrate how prioritizing operational efficiency threatens valuable teaching practices. She underscores that human connection remains essential for developing students’ critical thinking abilities and emotional resilience according to educational theorists like Piaget.

Wong, Lawrence P. W. “Artificial Intelligence and Job Automation: Challenges for Secondary Students’ Career Development and Life Planning.” Merits, vol. 4, 2024, pp. 370–399, https://www.mdpi.com/2673-8104/4/4/27 

Lawrence Wong explores the impact of AI on job transformation and its implications for high school students deciding their career paths. Artificial Intelligence systems are increasingly performing repetitive tasks in professions such as accounting and legal work yet creative professions like teaching and arts remain less vulnerable. The author draws from reports by major institutions such as the World Economic Forum to demonstrate that technologically advanced countries like the U.S. and Europe face greater job losses from AI than developing regions.

Chiu, Thomas K. F., et al. “Systematic Literature Review on Opportunities, Challenges, and Future Research Recommendations of Artificial Intelligence in Education.” Computers and Education: Artificial Intelligence, vol. 4, 2023, Article 100118. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2666920X2200073X. 

Bearman, Margaret, et al. “Discourses of Artificial Intelligence in Higher Education: A Critical Literature Review.” Higher Education, vol.86, 2023, pp. 369-385, https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10734-022-00937-2