Published 2026-06-26
Abstract
AI is no longer science fiction, and its world-altering impact is expansive and critical (Frydenberg, Mentzer, and Patterson 2026). Generative artificial intelligence (genAI) has changed the way people understand knowledge and learning (McNeill 2025). With the rise of tools like OpenAI’s ChatGPT and Anthropic’s Claude, figuring out ethical implementations of genAI in education has become crucial for both teachers and students. This project uses structured reflection activities to explore how students implement and select genAI tools in the context of inviting, allowing, or disallowing the use of genAI tools in assessed coursework. Observational and survey data demonstrate that students use genAI as an educational productivity tool, often prioritizing efficiency over ethics and exposing an interplay among shifting values.