While educators are working hard to learn about AI and integrate AI into their curricula, students are also forming their own perspectives on this technology. This article explores the reflections of teachers and students who have engaged with AI in the classroom and shared their Lesson Plans with AI goes to School (featured in Lessons), sharing their experiences and perceptions.
Teachers’ Perspectives
Teachers are guiding students through the complexities of AI, ensuring they use it effectively and responsibly by helping students build knowledge about its ethical implications.
Teacher Librarian Ana Rita Amorim, facilitated AI sessions for all 9th grade and secondary students at Secondary School Fernando Namora in Portugal. Reflecting on her experience, she emphasized the need of AI Literacy training for both students and teachers:
“For me, it was very important to conduct these sessions with the 22 classes at my school. It is both a duty and an obligation for all educators to understand and prepare for what AI offers/allows us to do (and will increasingly allow us to do at an astonishing rate). This technology affects our relationship with knowledge and will especially affect the pedagogical relationship with students. Artificial Intelligence (AI) is about to radically transform education, changing both the way we teach and the way we learn. I was a bit surprised during the sessions as I realized that students are not yet very aware of understanding the technology, even though they are already using it. Therefore, it is urgent to carry out activities with AI in the classroom so that they understand how to use it ethically and responsibly. During the school year, two internal training sessions for teachers were also held, titled “Conversation among Teachers about ChatGPT,” as it is imperative and urgent that all educators prepare for this crucial and decisive transformation in education, which is already a present condition in the school!”
In addition to student sessions at the library, teacher Ana Rita also held training sessions titled “Conversation among Teachers about ChatGPT,” underscoring the importance of teachers preparedness for this ongoing transformation.
Meanwhile, Teacher Artur Coelho explored AI’s creative potential through the project AI Prompts to Write and Illustrate Stories. His focus was on integrating AI seamlessly into the curriculum:
“The goal was not to create an activity to demonstrate that AI can be used, but rather to integrate AI as just another tool by adapting it to teaching processes and objectives.”
However, he also identified challenges in implementation, such as managing accounts due to age restrictions and maintaining student focus while navigating different platforms. Despite these hurdles, students developed digital literacy skills that will be crucial in their future AI interactions.
“This was an exploratory activity. I take away as points of interest the possibility of using AI tools integrated into the curriculum and workflow of a subject (ICT – Information and Communication Technology), interdisciplinary possibilities, and an outline of an approach to Generative AI in education that leverages the creative potential of these tools not just for mere generation, but for creation with intentionality.
In the interdisciplinary component, the choice was to adapt to the needs of the Portuguese teachers, giving them freedom over the form of participation. Some opted for a single text for the class, others for a class theme, and others for completely free texts. In one of the classes, text production was handwritten. This choice was deliberate, to not overwhelm the teachers, and to show them that the goal was not to create an activity to demonstrate that AI can be used, but rather to integrate AI as just another tool, by adapting it to the teaching processes and objectives.
Some operational difficulties were highlighted. The tool chosen, because it integrates with the school’s services, limited its use to specific age groups (as it does with other resources and services available, in compliance with European and American legislation). To circumvent this restriction, which was explained to the students, the decision was made to use secondary accounts for the activity. This meant that during the various phases, students had to switch between accounts: the institutional account for all document production phases, and the secondary account for using Gemini. Most students understood how to do this and developed habits for managing accounts and online profiles, but for everyone, it represented an additional barrier that broke the focus on the essentials, which was the use of AI as a collaborator in projects.”
Students’ Perspectives
Students, too, are forming their own views on AI’s role in their education and future careers. In Teacher Bárbara Cleto’s Multimedia degree class, one student highlighted AI’s ability to enhance productivity and innovation. A student aged 18-23 remarked:
“Artificial Intelligence will accelerate my research process and will unblock the creative processes.”
A sentence said by a student in Teacher Bárbara Cleto’s Multimedia degree class, after having taken part in a project where the teacher invited the students to write and illustrate a story for children, exploring the use of ChatGPT to co-create text and illustrations. Find out more about this project and the lesson plans here.
This perspective underscores AI’s potential as a collaborative partner in creative work, rather than just a tool for automation.
Even younger students, who participated in Teacher Cláudia Meirinhos’ elementary school project Exploring AI, displayed an insightful awareness of AI’s limitations and ethical considerations. A student aged 8-11 remarked:
“Robots think? It’s us who program them, and they don’t have their own brains to think.”
This statement reflects an understanding of AI as a human-created tool rather than an independent entity. Another student emphasized the importance of responsible AI development:
“The humans who program AI must be good people and must be careful not to put bad things in it, like racist comments or things like that.”
These reflections reveal that even young learners are engaging with AI not only as users but also as critical thinkers who recognize its broader societal implications.
