Where do we draw the line? Where does AI help and hinder learning?

This interactive session invites teachers to experience AI from the learner’s perspective while exploring one of the most important questions facing education today: Where should WE draw the line on using AI in the classroom?
Participants will complete a condensed inquiry-based research project using AI to select a topic, generate research questions, identify and evaluate sources, synthesize information, and create a brief presentation. This will take about 20-30 minutes. As they move through each stage of the process, they will pause to reflect on how AI supported their thinking, where it limited deeper learning, and which tasks still required human judgement and expertise.
After participants have shared their presentations and discussed the issues they encountered, we will debrief as a group. I will share my experience planning an end of high school research project and how we tried to intentionally incorporate AI use into the project to enhance, rather than replace, learning.
Rather than prescribing a single “right” way to use AI, I want participants to discuss how it might vary based on instructional goals, academic integrity, and disciplinary differences. Teachers will compare where they—and their students—draw the line on AI use and examine how those boundaries may vary depending on the learning objectives.

I plan to end the session with four reflection questions for the group:
1. Where did we draw the lines on AI use during the process for ourselves?
2. Where do you think your students would draw the lines?
3. Why do we draw the line in different places?
4. How do we get to the same place?

This session is ideal for K–12 educators who want to move beyond AI policies and toward instructional practices that help students develop the skills they will need in an AI-enabled world. Although the demonstration draws on a history research example, the framework is intentionally designed to transfer across disciplines. Whether participants teach English language arts, science, mathematics, world languages, the arts, career and technical education, or other content areas, they will leave with practical strategies for designing AI-supported learning experiences that promote curiosity, critical thinking, and authentic student engagement.