We are at a uniquely pivotal moment shaped by the intersecting influences of a global pandemic; the rapid emergence, access, and usage of generative artificial intelligence (AI); and unprecedented challenges within the education system. The disruption of the pandemic was furthered by the introduction of generative AI in our schools, homes, and communities, which is changing the way we learn, live, and work. Within these disruptions lies an opportunity—an opportunity to design a different future of education for our students, our educators, and our communities.
As we look ahead, it is essential we center our AI conversations on the future we hope for—a vision for transformational learning experiences (ISTE+ASCD, 2024).
Avoiding Distractions
The emergence of generative AI means new learning for many of us. What is generative AI? How might it be used to enhance teaching and learning? What are the opportunities and risks? How do we determine what it means to teach with and about AI (see TeachAI.org)? How might teachers use these tools to support their work? When and how do we bring these tools into our classrooms for student use? We are figuring out what this looks like together.
And, as with the edtech that has come before it, it is tempting to center our conversation on the next AI tool for schools and the next one after that. However, that approach can distract us from aligning the emergence and capabilities of AI with our vision for teaching and learning. As ISTE+ASCD engages with educators working through AI in education, we find there’s a sense that if schools are not quickly introducing new AI tools into classrooms, they’re somehow failing to prepare students for the future. While there is a need for urgency in addressing AI in education, how we approach this change needs to go beyond granting access to AI tools and beyond a focus on increasing efficiencies.
Let’s use AI as a catalyst for deeper conversations about what’s possible in education.
There is value in conversations about the ways AI tools can support teachers in their work and make routine tasks more efficient. While there are efficiencies to be gained, we need to be certain that those efficiencies don’t come at the cost of meaningful, safe, evidence-based, and inclusive learning experiences.
Recentering on Learning Transformation
As instructional leaders, we need to lead a fundamental recentering of the conversation to focus on how we might use AI to help us create transformational learning experiences for our students—and this is beginning to happen. In working with school and district leaders, we are seeing educators who are centering the AI conversation on a few key areas to move beyond tools and efficiencies to the bigger picture of creating more engaging and effective learning experiences for all students. These key areas include the following:
Durable Skills
Critical thinking, creativity, communication, collaboration, and other “Cs” frequently appear in districts’ Portraits of a Graduate; these skills are essential not only for citizens and the workforce, but also for using AI effectively. Educators in Ogden, Utah, have brought these skills from their Portrait of a Graduate into their Artificial Intelligence Framework (Ogden SD, 2024) as they aim to ensure AI tools are supporting students in developing the articulated competencies.
We can focus our AI conversations on the skills students, teachers, and leaders need to thrive in a connected world. As we create AI frameworks and guidelines and update existing resources, centering the conversation on durable skills will ensure we are prioritizing those skills that are uniquely human and those that AI can augment.
Competency-Based Learning
The introduction of AI into education can help us create more flexible and adaptable learning environments, including better understanding the knowledge, skills, and dispositions our students have mastered. With a deeper understanding of our students, educators can create new pathways for student engagement, building on their talents and addressing specific needs. Drawing on research from the University of California, Irvine (AUHSD Communications, 2024), Anaheim Union High School is using AI tools to help educators understand students’ strengths in order to create more personalized, asset-based learning experiences shaped by educator and student input.
We can focus our AI conversations around building asset-based and inclusive learning experiences in which student advancement is based on mastery of learning objectives, rather than time spent on tasks.
Teaching with AI and Teaching About AI
AI in education is complex. We are navigating the ways AI can support teachers in developing content, communicating with families, and differentiating instruction. We are exploring how it might strengthen operational efficiencies. We are also introducing AI directly into the classroom as teachers teach with AI and teach about AI. Launched several years ago, Gwinnett County Public Schools’ AI Ready Initiative (GCPS, n.d.) provides opportunities for students to learn both with and about AI across disciplines. Students are exposed to AI through discrete and embedded learning experiences.
We can shift our AI conversations from a narrow focus on tools to teaching with and about AI. Just as all teachers need to know how students learn how to read in order to support them, all educators and students need a foundation in how AI works, regardless of the tool used.
Equity
Equity in education is defined as “a commitment to serving all students, regardless of background or need, and a willingness to implement differentiated measures to address students’ academic and social needs” (Blankstein, Noguera, & Kelly, 2016). By approaching AI through an equity lens, we can be sure we do not exacerbate the inequities already prevalent within our schools. This includes making certain we do not widen disparities as some educators, schools, and districts leverage AI to enhance teaching and learning, while others may lack the resources, training, and infrastructure to do so.
The Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education is working to address this challenge, relying on DESE’s Racial Equity Decision-Making Tool to ensure that recommendations for navigating AI in education are focused on “breaking down barriers and providing targeted support to students, families, and communities who have been historically marginalized.” The following questions have guided their AI work:
- Who are the most affected stakeholders and how can we involve them in the development of this initiative?
- What are the strategies we can utilize to advance racial equity and eliminate unintended consequences?
- What are the potential racial equity impacts of this particular recommendation?
We can focus our AI conversations on equity, including access to the devices, internet, and tools students need, as well as equity of application. This means providing students with opportunities to design and create using AI tools, evaluating outputs for harmful bias, using AI to solve problems that reduce inequities within our system, and more.
A Catalyst for Deeper Conversation
As education leaders, we have a unique opportunity to shape how AI impacts teaching and learning in our schools. If we get distracted by AI’s efficiencies or an overzealous urgency to scale implementation immediately, we are in danger of using these tools to perpetuate the inequities and ineffective practices we have seen within our schools for decades. But if we pause, reflect, and recenter, we can use these same tools as part of our work to reimagine education. We can address long-standing issues in new, creative ways. Imagine how thoughtful application of AI might help us address chronic absenteeism, declining enrollment, decreased student engagement, teacher shortages, and achievement scores that have remained relatively flat despite decades of reform efforts.
Let’s use AI as a catalyst for deeper conversations about what’s possible in education.
AI in Schools
The innovation-focused February 2025 issue showcases examples of the ways (large and small) that schools and educators are using AI to enhance instruction and transform the nature of their work—and student learning—for the better.
