A student turned in an assignment, but teacher Ethan Hodge thought it may be fully AI-generated. In Hodge’s classroom, AI usage is encouraged so long as it is done with intentionality and purpose. Its job is to assist, but not to take over.

Hodge felt like, in this case, the student let AI be the lead project manager. However, instead of accusing the student, he spoke with him.

“What was your purpose in this step of the project?” Hodge asked. He did the same for other steps in the project. When the student couldn’t answer, it became clear that AI did the work.

To Hodge, this presented a teachable moment, one that allowed him to guide the student towards more ethical AI usage in the future.

He and fellow educator David Thornton both work to teach proper AI usage in their classroom instruction. They both recognized that teaching students to use AI means teaching them to think about the ethics of its usage.

The Educators

When you walk into Ethan Hodge’s classroom at Russellville High School in Arkansas, you’ll likely find students huddled around laptops, coding away while engaging in lively discussions on whether an AI-generated solution is “good enough” or if they can make it better.

I want my students to understand the ethics behind the code.

Hodge, who teaches everything from introductory computer science to programming and cybersecurity, made these conversations part of his daily routine. For him, AI isn’t just a tool — it’s a teachable moment.

“I want my students to understand the ethics behind the code,” he said, as he guided them through scenarios where AI can help but also harm if misused.

A few states away in Spartanburg, South Carolina, David Thornton is taking a similar approach, but with a twist.

In his lab at the Daniel Morgan Technology Center, students aren’t just coding; they’re designing video games and exploring cybersecurity challenges, all while learning how AI fits into the bigger picture. Thornton is helping pilot the first course in an AI-focused career pathway, a project developed by SREB and the University of Florida.

“It’s exciting because we’re not just teaching skills, we’re preparing students for jobs that don’t even exist yet,” he explains, as his students experiment with AI-driven game mechanics.

It’s exciting because we’re not just teaching skills, we’re preparing students for jobs that don’t even exist yet.

Both Hodge and Thornton serve on SREB’s Commission on AI in Education, where they’ve helped shape guidance for K-12 instruction.

But their real impact happens in the classroom where ethics, creativity, and innovation collide, and where students learn that AI isn’t magic. It’s a responsibility.

How Have You Used AI in Your Classroom?

Both educators emphasized that AI should be used with intentionality. In his computer science classes, Hodge works to help students understand when to use AI and when it becomes a crutch or detrimental to their learning.

“If our purpose today is to show your knowledge of something, then having AI do it for you is not a valid use,” Hodge said. “However, if the intention is to get started on a research project and you are using AI to help get you started on it or give you some guidance on where to go, then that is a valid use of AI.”

By helping build students’ self-awareness of when to use it and what the why is behind lessons and assignments, Hodge said, students will know when it is not helpful to use it.

“If you are using AI in place of learning something new, then you are not benefiting yourself,” he told his students.

He shared the example from the start of this post about a student who attempted to submit an AI-generated program and how he used this as a teachable moment with the student.

He asked the student to walk him through the purpose of each step in the program. When the student wasn’t able to, Hodge realized it was AI-generated. He reiterated the purpose of the assignment was to learn and practice certain programming skills, not just to get something done or turn in an assignment. The student hasn’t tried to use AI to do his work for him since.

Thornton also emphasized that students need to learn how to use AI as a tool and not as a way to circumvent the learning process. 

“Students first learn programming or design in the trenches,” Thornton said of his classes. 

Once they have mastered the skill and understand what is involved in the process, he shows them how to use AI to enhance and “professionalize” their work.

In the AI career pathway course he teaches, students learn various aspects of AI through project-based learning units, where they take on different career roles and work to solve AI-related problems.

In the first project this year, students take on the role of a consultant for a media company. They need to develop a proposal for the company on how the use of AI can enhance their entertainment industry’s workflow.

Thornton further shared that each project also has an ethical component, allowing students to examine different ethical aspects of AI use across various applications and industries. 

What Has Been the Impact of AI on Your Teaching and Learning?

Both educators reported that AI has saved them a lot of time in creating classroom resources and developing lesson plans. Hodges described using it to help create a Google Classroom banner that incorporates pop art style-symbols for the different aspects of his course.

Thornton has been using AI to help him create syllabi for his classes, along with pacing guides and assessments. Both stressed that to get the most out of AI, you need to learn how to provide the right details in your prompting and know that you will need to iterate with the AI to get the output you need. 

As students start to use AI as part of the learning process, Thornton is seeing students use AI as a tutor outside the classroom. He shared an example of a student who struggled to understand a math problem.

Using generative AI, the student had an at-the-ready tutor to ask questions and get the help they needed to understand and correct their mistakes.

Hodge reported seeing AI assist other teachers in his building as they strive to better align assignments and assessments with state standards. Upfront planning and work can be a heavy burden for teachers in terms of time and energy.

He said it has been helpful in team planning meetings to have AI as another thought partner that can quickly bring in knowledge and ideas from across the internet to help create new assignments.

What Tips or Tricks Can You Give Educators Who Want to Start Using AI?

“We need to rethink the assignments and assessments in our courses and make sure they are valuable,” Hodge said.

In a modern world where people can readily access and look up factual information, the need to memorize facts is becoming obsolete. He still sees a lot of student tasks and assessments focus on rote memorization to successfully complete them.

We need to rethink the assignments and assessments in our courses and make sure they are valuable.

“We need to help students think with the information and problem-solve,” he said. “If your teaching is irrelevant because it relies on memorization, it is time to change.”

Thornton emphasized that educators must be mindful of the policies and laws in place to safeguard students’ data and privacy and how this intersects with their use of AI. He recommends that schools and districts revisit their policies on technology and AI use, so everyone has a clear starting point for using AI ethically and responsibly.

Teaching Students to Use AI Ethically and Intentionally

To be ready for an ever-evolving workforce, students will need to not only know how to use AI, but also how to use it ethically and with intention.

Pillar 4, develop students as ethical and proficient AI users, emphasizes the importance of teaching students how to utilize AI in a variety of contexts, thus enabling them to develop an internal ethic regarding its use.

They will need to distinguish between AI-generated work, AI-enhanced work and human-created work.

Computer science pathway courses are a natural starting point for students to explore AI and what it can do within a variety of careers. However, both teachers agree that AI can be a powerful tool in any classroom as long as teachers are clear with their intentions and how AI is meant to be used.