Month: January 2026

After lots of reflection and experimentation this week, I still have mixed feelings about generative artificial intelligence and its role in education.

It’s that easy! GenAI applications for teacher productivity

I think that a huge piece of GenAI’s allure for teachers is its convenience. In our AI workbook activity, I used MagicSchool to create a pretty thorough inquiry-based science unit in minutes. MINUTES! Burnout is a major issue, especially for early-career educators. GenAI could ease the burden on teachers by automating time-consuming tasks. This kind of support could free us up to spend more time and energy supporting students socially and emotionally – something that AI can’t do!

UDL and personalized learning

I’m also excited about GenAI’s potential to assist with Universal Design for Learning (UDL) and personalized learning. I love the idea of using AI to tailor lessons to students of different abilities, learning styles, and interests. One of the greatest challenges of teaching is meeting all students where they are and providing the right level of challenge for each learner. In that sense, AI feels aligned with concepts like Vygotsky’s Zone of Proximal Development. GenAI could help teachers scaffold. I tried this out with Magic School by getting it to simplify a text about biomes to a lower reading level. I think this is a great application of GenAI – using it to simplify text helps to remove an unnecessary barrier for students who have trouble reading.

Critical thinking?

One of my biggest worries is the potential decline in critical thinking and creativity. I often catch myself leaning on AI to complete tasks that I am fully capable of doing on my own. If I, as an adult, am susceptible to this habit, I worry even more about how it might affect students. Since GenAI is so convenient and pervasive, both students and educators could become dependent on it… what might that dependency mean for the development of writing skills, creativity, and critical thinking?

A study out of MIT suggests that using ChatGPT for writing tasks may reduce brain activity, mental engagement, and critical thinking! Paritcipants who relied on ChatGPT also produced less original work compared to those who used a search engine or wrote without assistance. And it appears that these results were not very reversible – people who’d relied on Chat in the past but were no longer using it STILL showed poorer critical thinking skills. There is still ongoing research into this, but it raises concerns about overreliance on AI, especially for students who are still developing as thinkers and readers.

FAKE NEWS?!

I’m also concerned about misinformation. AI has become alarmingly good at generating text, images, and even videos that look just like the real thing (see: creepy Sora videos like the one below). Without strong media literacy skills, students may be particularly vulnerable to believing or spreading false information. This makes explicit instruction around misinformation and AI literacy absolutely essential.

Fake video of a dog spewing water at a nice older gentleman created using Sora (it wasn’t me – I promise!)

What about the environment?

I’m also conflicted about the environmental impact of AI. Large-scale AI systems require a lot of resources (water and energy). I said this already in my AI Workbook assignment, but at times, using AI to create teaching materials feels hypocritical to me. I want to teach my students about the climate crisis and help them build a sense of connection to the land, so I feel uncomfortable knowing that my use of AI is contributing to the problem. This tension is something I haven’t fully reconciled – and I honestly don’t know if I can! For example, I’m feeling guilty about how much water I probably wasted creating a cutesy AI-generated photo of me in Sweden for my Inquiry blog 🙁

Back to pencil and paper?

I work as an EA on call, so I’ve gotten to see a wide range of approaches to AI use in classrooms. Some teachers have responded by going fully analog for certain subjects. For example, an English 8 teacher I worked with restructured her course so that the summative assessment, an essay on The Outsiders, is now handwritten in class rather than taken home. I understand the intention behind this shift – it’s getting hard for teachers to see if students are cheating/plagiarizing with AI. However, I’m not convinced that outright banning GenAI (or designing assignments to make AI use impossible) is the best solution.

AI Literacy

AI is obviously not going away. I want students to learn how to use GenAI properly, safely, and ethically so that they are prepared for the world they are entering. This means teaching responsible use rather than avoidance. Students need to understand what AI is and how it works. We need to be clear that even though interacting with AI may feel like talking to another person, it is not a substitute for human connection. Students should be encouraged to reach out to real people when they need help or support.

My mum is a teacher at Ridgeview Elementary School in West Vancouver and a former colleague of Cari Wilson, who has created excellent AI literacy resources for K–12 students. My mum recently shared one of Cari’s AI lessons with her Grade 4 class, and I’m hoping to get a copy of it from her. I’m also excited to attend Cari Wilson’s professional development session, Student AI Literacy Lessons, through Focused Education Resources in February.

Overall, I’d say that I’m both excited and terrified of the applications of generative AI, in the classroom and beyond.

Touring the Pacific School of Inquiry & Innovation (PSII) was an enlightening experience. So, I want to centre my first reflection around inquiry-based learning – specifically, the (pretty radical) model that Jeff Hopkins and his colleagues have developed at PSII.

Pacific School of Inquiry & Innovation

Do we need to reimagine education?

We need to reimagine education. The current model has kids slipping through the cracks. Not everyone’s support needs are met, and gifted students are often not challenged. Once you’ve learned something, it’s done, and we don’t leave a lot of room for deeper exploration, creativity, or extension.

On top of that, the world is changing rapidly, so of course the ways we prepare young people to interact with and make sense of the world must change as well. We are living in a time shaped by rapidly evolving technologies (case and point – AI!), accompanied by a renewed importance of communication and face-to-face skills. Our learners are inheriting unprecedented global challenges, e.g., the climate crisis, political instability, and the lasting impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic.

PSII felt a lot like a real-world workspace. Walking through the school had the same vibe as touring this AI startup that some of my peers from high school created… it was cool to see small groups of students chatting and plotting ideas on a whiteboard, others hunched over computers developing code, and still others poring over books in the library. Encouraging project-based learning is obviously a great way to prepare kids for how work gets done in many fields (especially corporate jobs) – I can’t think of anyone who reads a textbook and gets tested on their retention for a career! With the unprecedented access we have to information today via search engines and generative artificial intelligence chatbots, this kind of learning is redundant – you can just look it up if you forget! Instead, we need to give opportunities for students to discover and practice skills that help them tackle projects and problems.

Obstacles to shaking it up

One major obstacle teachers face when trying to reimagine education is interacting with existing systems. What is the use of teaching differently if students are just going to pass into typical lecture- and test-based learning in high school and university?

We need to recognize the greater forces at play – unfortunately, students still need to do well on tests to get into universities, and need high GPAs for grad school, internships, and jobs. We are operating within a competitive, capitalist, individualistic society, where grades still have consequences. I think all the time about how I got offered a scholarship to UVic essentially just based on my high school average (arguably the least interesting part of my high school experience). Of course, I want my students to find success in the world we’re in.

A challenge of shaking up education is that other systems are slow to shake alongside you. Other teachers at your school, or schools in your district, might be hesitant to adopt changes, and then your students could end up at a disadvantage.

That being said, things are definitely moving in right direction. For example, universities like UBC are including a personal profile in their application – this would be a great place for students to showcase their discoveries and growth through the inquiry projects they engaged in throughout their time at school.

I think we need systemic change at all levels of the education system – unfortunately, the ability of a single teacher to shake up how we educate the next generation is limited. But, if we work together, we can get there – Jeff’s work at PSII and with teachers around the world is a success story!

Concerns and excitement

One concern I have about an inquiry-based approach is whether students might miss key foundational skills. How does inquiry-based learning work when helping young students develop literacy skills? What about math?

I also wonder if, when learning is so self-directed, students might only study what they are already interested in (or in other words, comfortable with) and not push themselves to try things they might actually end up enjoying or being good at. I would like to learn more about how teachers in inquiry schools balance student vs autonomy and making sure all students are challenged (think Vygotsky’s zone of proximal development).

At the same time, I am really excited about the freedom, and choice this model offers. The student buy-in at PSII was amazing. Students seemed more accountable for their learning when they got to direct it. It also felt much more like the real world. Learning was active, collaborative, and meaningful, rather than passive and performative. I have a little bit of experience with inquiry as a student… my Grade 5, 6, and 7 teachers were huge proponents of inquiry-based learning and I LOVED it – especially because it gave young me a chance to explore my specific interests. I found a couple of my old inquiry projects and you can peruse them if you’re curious to see what inquiry in a 2010s classroom looked like 🙂

• https://prezi.com/npnisjno_jga/an-inquiry-into-the-daily-life-of-the-vikings-grade-7-socials
• https://prezi.com/-6-r6ocdibup/grade-6-inquiry-project-how-might-global-warming-and-rising-sea-levels-affect-quality-of-life-worldwide/
• https://prezi.com/llvaf9g8jo5u/grade-7-passion-project-the-impact-of-vegetarianism/

I’m excited to learn more about inquiry and bring it into my own classroom soon! That’s it for now!