For neurodivergent students AI can be a game changer helping with planning and organisation of thoughts that were already there but made harder to sometimes show others.

Study skills tools have been around for a long time… those who have benefited most have not always been those who have needed them the most i.e. students with executive functioning challenges.

Prof. Amanda Kirby on LinkedIn

We must recognize like any other literacy that AI is a skill students must know how to use, while taking a critical lens to the implications of AI on our classroom and the world more broadly. As Dr. Meredith Broussard, data journalist and author of More Than a Glitch: Confronting Race, Gender, and Ability Bias in Tech writes,

Tech is racist and sexist and ableist because the world is so. Computers just reflect the existing reality and suggest that things will stay the same – they predict the status quo. By adopting a more critical view of technology, and by being choosier about the tech we allow into our lives and our society, we can employ technology to stop reproducing the world as it is, and get us closer to a world that is truly more just.

Using AI Without Losing Ourselves: A Critical Media Literacy for the 21st Century | Human Restoration Project | Chris McNutt

Channeling the spirit of Paulo Freire, we must ensure that students are able to understand and wield AI to navigate today’s world, while simultaneously using it to make the world a better place. There is no doubt that young people are already using AI in school (whether it’s banned or not) and nearly all facets of media and enterprise will incorporate AI in some way.

Merely prohibiting the use of tools does not address the crucial need for instructing students on how to responsibly and appropriately utilize these technologies.

Using AI Without Losing Ourselves: A Critical Media Literacy for the 21st Century | Human Restoration Project | Chris McNutt

Technology is often placed on a pedestal as the way to make education more efficient, but efficiency is often at the expense of student learning. We could simply put kids on computers and have them learn from an AI tutor all day, and students may in-turn learn facts much more productively. But they will not have the critical consciousness to navigate the world with this knowledge alone. There is immense value in having a democratic classroom filled with peers and a professional teacher guiding the way. The edu-tech arms race toward making the perfect AI tool cannot make us lose sight of the purpose of education.

AI Handbook | Human Restoration Project | Free Resources

Channeling the spirit of Paulo Freire, we must ensure that students are able to understand and wield AI to navigate today’s world, while simultaneously using it to make the world a better place. There is no doubt that young people are already using AI in school (whether it’s banned or not) and nearly all facets of media and enterprise will incorporate AI in some way.

Merely prohibiting the use of tools does not address the crucial need for instructing students on how to responsibly and appropriately utilize these technologies. Again taking Wikipedia, for instance; it is often the initial online point of reference for most people. However, many lack guidance on when, how, and why to employ Wikipedia as opposed to other sources, especially since it is frequently barred as a valid citation. Because many have not been provided the necessary contextual information for the proper use of it, many people simply presume that academics are disconnected from reality and use Wikipedia unquestioningly. This practice persists, despite the very real risks associated with relying solely on it. The same proactive versus reactive line of thinking could be said for posting personal information on TikTok or critically evaluating the claims of an Instagram post.

Therefore, our goal is to provide a list of ways to get started using AI in the classroom while not losing our humanity in the process. AI is not meant to replace people, but – like Desmos or Wikipedia – is a tool that expands our capabilities. If our students are to understand a future with AI, we need to see through the exaggerated hype and look past the doom-and-gloom to see these tools for what they are. We must be proactive in teaching students how and when to use AI while taking a critical lens to how it works and its potential pitfalls.

AI Handbook | Human Restoration Project | Free Resources

For technologists, the hardest work of all—the task
that they most want to avoid—will be questioning the
assumption that more technology is always better,
and the belief that they can continue with business
as usual and everything will simply work itself out.
No one enjoys thinking about their complicity in the
injustices of the world, but it is imperative that the
people who are building world-shaking technologies
engage in this kind of critical self-examination. It’s their
willingness to look unflinchingly at their own role in
the system that will determine whether A.I. leads to a
better world or a worse one.

Ted Chiang (columnist & author of Arrival)

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