Using AI with Students

AI is here to stay. Our students are naturally curious about how to use it—and how to use it well. By co-creating AI norms, we can guide students toward meaningful and ethical use. Our classroom culture can transform from uncertainty or secrecy to one of curiosity and collaboration. In this blog, we’ll unpack how to build AI literacy through shared norms that inspire responsible AI exploration. Let’s dive in!

What are AI Norms?

AI norms are co-constructed classroom expectations for working with AI. These norms help set the tone for how AI will be used responsibly and effectively in your classroom. Establishing clear guidelines together ensures that students feel confident navigating its use.

When designing AI norms, consider creating both general classroom norms and project-specific guidelines. This approach allows you to set broad expectations for AI use while also tailoring norms to fit the unique requirements of individual assignments.

Classroom AI Norms

As an educator, you play a key role in guiding your students’ understanding and responsible use of AI. When co-constructing classroom AI norms, you set the tone for your class and share your position on AI use. This serves as the baseline expectation for the mindset and ways of working when using AI in the classroom.

For students thirteen years and older, using AI tools like ChatGPT to complete assignments is an increasingly common reality. While it might feel intimidating to get started, AI will be an essential tool in the workforce of today and tomorrow. The question becomes, how can we empower students to work with AI and create a culture of trust, accountability, and curiosity in our classrooms?

Using AI for Projects

After establishing general AI norms with your class, you can also create more specific, assignment-based norms. These norms define when, why, and how students may use AI for a particular assignment.

Instead of making a blanket statement about AI use in the classroom, creating norms for specific assignments sparks essential discussions about when AI is beneficial and when it’s worth doing the work ourselves. This skill—knowing when to use AI and when to rely on our own abilities—will be crucial for future success.

One helpful approach is to identify tasks where students have already demonstrated mastery. By having clarity on which new knowledge, understandings, and skills are being assessed versus what has already been mastered, you can determine when AI can be used as a supportive tool without compromising the learning process.

It’s one thing to tell students ‘no, you can’t use AI,’ but it’s far more impactful to share your reasoning or, better yet, collaborate with them on when it’s most beneficial to use. It’s like the difference between a parent saying ‘because I said so’ and taking the time to explain their thinking.

Project Norms Example:

Developing AI Literacy

Now that you have your how, when, and why sorted out, you can turn your attention toward developing AI literacy. In this section, we will dive into academic integrity and developing AI skills.

AI & Academic integrity

There are many concerns and misconceptions surrounding academic integrity and AI. It’s crucial to establish clear guidelines for citation expectations at the start of the year and to revisit and reinforce these skills as needed. These expectations should be explicitly outlined in your class norms.

As we navigate this new territory, it’s important to assume the best of our students. Many of them are learning and may feel uncertain or afraid. By being clear about proper citation and approaching mistakes with curiosity rather than a punitive mindset, we create an environment where students can grow and improve over time.

For instance, if you’ve noticed a recurring trend of students paraphrasing content without proper citation, you could provide a case study that shows how subtle shifts in language can still require attribution. By walking students through examples of paraphrasing versus plagiarism, they’ll gain a clearer understanding of when and how to properly credit sources.

💡Quick Tip: Encourage learners to submit links to their AI chat logs and give feedback on their interactions. This transparency helps you better understand how they are using AI and identify areas where they might need more guidance on appropriate use.

Developing Students’AI Skills

We also want to build students’ competence and confidence in using AI tools. While tools like ChatGPT may come naturally to some, AI literacy is an essential, learnable skill that should be taught and assessed in the classroom. Even if your school has specific objectives around AI literacy.

You could focus on developing students’ skills in prompt engineering—teaching them how to craft precise prompts to guide AI in generating accurate and relevant responses. Throughout a unit, students could refine their prompting language in various contexts. In a geometry unit, for instance, students might experiment with prompts to have AI generate step-by-step explanations for solving problems, create visual representations of geometric concepts, or explore real-world applications like architectural design. This process not only strengthens their understanding of geometry but also enhances their ability to communicate effectively with AI.

Here are some questions to help you start planning for the development of your learners’ AI capabilities:

💡Quick Tip: The best thing we can do as teachers is to create a safe space where students can share their questions, failures, and successes. One great strategy is to have a weekly AI-tool show and tell where learners can show prompts, tools, or other strategies that have helped them in the past week.

Final thoughts

It’s an exciting time to be an educator. While integrating AI into your classroom might feel daunting, it’s a fantastic opportunity to tap into your learners’ curiosity, help them develop a lifelong skill, and learn new things alongside them! Creating a safe, inquisitive environment is the first step toward growing your AI practice, and establishing AI norms is the perfect way to kick off the conversation.

Toddle

Toddle is the world’s first AI-powered teaching and learning platform built for teachers by teachers and tailor-made for progressive schools. Going beyond a typical LMS, Toddle streamlines all aspects of teaching & learning — from curriculum planning and assessments to progress reports and communication. More than 2,000 schools across the world trust Toddle to help teachers reclaim valuable time so they can focus on what matters most — teaching.

Cindy Blackburn

Cindy has a Masters of Education in Teacher Leadership and has worked as an PYP educator and coordinator internationally for the past ten years. She currently works as the Director of learning and engagement at Toddle and specializes in developing resources to support teachers and leaders in honing their practice and understandings, to make the PYP simple, actionable, and above all else, joyous.

Disclaimer : The ideas and resources presented in this blog have been developed independently from and are not endorsed by the International Baccalaureate (IB)