Classroom Technology

Students Want to Learn More About AI. Schools Aren’t Keeping Up

By Lauraine Langreo — November 10, 2023 1 min read
Illustration of an AI chatbot assist on the face of a cellphone tutoring a kid student doing homework with subject matter icons floating all around him.
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There’s a wide gap between what students say they want to learn about how to use artificial intelligence responsibly and what schools are teaching them right now, concludes a recent report from the Center for Democracy & Technology, a nonprofit that promotes digital rights.

Seventy-two percent of students said they would find it helpful to learn how to use generative AI responsibly, according to the organization’s nationally representative survey of 1,029 high school students conducted between June and August. Meanwhile, less than half of students (44 percent) said they’ve received AI guidance from their schools, the report found.

Today’s students are often called digital natives and seen as experts in navigating the digital space. But the report found other gaps in the digital-technology guidance that students said would be helpful to get from their schools and what schools have provided so far.

As schools become more reliant on technology for teaching and learning, collecting student data, and monitoring students’ behavior online, it’s important to teach students how to be responsible digital citizens.

In the Center for Democracy & Technology survey conducted over the summer, students were asked what kind of tech guidance and support from schools they would find helpful. Here’s what they said:

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