When generative AI became part of the learning process, I feel it showed a glaring issue with in the classrooms, from kindergarten all the way through college courses. Many of the conversations I hear about AI, as it pertains to students, is how students will mis-use it to cheat. I read an article from an earlier class, and I wish I could remember what class and the article but I covered the issue of AI and how college professors would use AI detection tools to see if students used AI, and there are some truly horrible stories of students almost getting kicked out of their courses based on a false positive. The article also touched on the reason a student would need or want to cheat in the first place. What I have learned about the learning process has really opened my eyes.

I teach a class that asks students to use creativity, think outside of the box, and try new ideas. I have been in this role for the past four years and I have seen some amazing thinking come from students. I have also seen some awesome learning happening from students who traditionally are given a negative label because they do not learn best in a traditional setting. Another thing I feel helps with this is allowing students to explain what they are thinking in their own words. This helps them to convey what they are thinking, and ultimately what they have learned, to me. I have developed a few projects that involve real world applications, which help students to see how this affects people they know. This helps students to be more engaged and hopefully learn a little bit of empathy.

This is very important for our students to know and understand digital and media literacy. The students I work with, 6th grade middle schoolers in a rural area, struggle in this area. Students need to learn how to navigate the digital world and use critical thinking skills in order to correctly analyze what they are looking at.