Discussions held with roughly a thousand Estonian high school students revealed one important conclusion: the need for clearer agreements on the use of artificial intelligence in learning. Uncertainty is students' biggest concern, writes Mihkel Mariusz Jezierski.
From March to May, 950 high school students in 18 Estonian schools took part in world‑café discussions about the role of artificial intelligence in school and its impact on learning, relationships, creativity, social‑media use and their sense of the future. In Estonia, discussions often focus on how AI affects learning, but much less on how it affects education as a whole: relationships, creativity, the information environment and perceptions of the future. School is not only a place where knowledge is acquired, but an environment where a person develops. Therefore, the role of AI must be assessed much more broadly than through learning outcomes alone.
Although students are the first to experience AI's impact every day, they are rarely included in discussions about what role AI should have in school. The ** world‑café sessions **aimed to fill that gap.
Uncertainty creates unfairness
Students say that schools and teachers differ greatly in how they handle AI use. Some teachers ban AI entirely, while others actively encourage it. Students feel a sense of unfairness — and reduced trust in teacher‑created materials — when a teacher uses AI to create learning materials but forbids students from using the same tool.
Uncertainty also creates unfairness in assessment, students say. They described situations where independently completed work received a lower grade than work done with AI, because the teacher found it difficult to distinguish the student's contribution from AI's. When a grade no longer reflects a student's actual knowledge or effort, assessment loses part of its meaning in students' eyes.
A similar uncertainty concerns creative work. Only 21 percent of students believe that a result created with AI is fully their own. Creativity is often tied to self‑determination and a sense of ownership. Many high school students want clear guidance on how to use AI in ways that support idea development without replacing the creative process or becoming the source of ideas itself. They also need instructions on how to describe and cite AI's contribution in their work.
For this reason, students expect to work with teachers to write down agreements that define when, how and to what extent AI may be used in learning. One of the goals of the AI‑Leap student program for the next school year is to help shape such shared agreements in every Estonian school. The AI‑Leap initiative does not aim to restrict AI use, but to help find solutions that support learning and keep school primarily a human‑created environment rather than one shaped around technology.
Exclusion may encourage misuse of AI
AI provides quick, non‑judgmental answers. For many students, it is easier to turn to AI than to a teacher, parent or peer — especially when they fear making mistakes. It turned out that about one‑third of high school students seek help from AI first when a problem arises, although one‑fifth do so rarely or have never turned to AI.
Students say misuse of chatbots occurs more often among peers who have mental‑health concerns or difficulties with communication. The weaker the emotional support and sense of belonging, the more likely a young person is to replace normal interaction with AI.
At the same time, high school students emphasize that AI should not and cannot replace a human as a communication partner. They see the solution in strengthening the school's social role: because AI makes learning increasingly individual, schools should support communication and community feeling more than before and ensure mental‑health support.
I believe that AI's impact on education should not be assessed only through learning outcomes. School is where relationships, belonging and young people themselves take shape. The more individual AI makes learning, the more important it is to keep school a human‑designed environment.
Personalized learning must not make school more lonely
AI enables more personalized learning than before, but we must ask how this affects students' relationships, cooperation and sense of belonging when each learner moves increasingly along their own individual learning path together with AI.
Educational technology should not personalize only learning — it should also help maintain the relationships and shared experiences through which a school becomes a community. This does not have to hinder innovation. But these are principles that must be considered in developing any AI solution for education, including further development of AI‑Leap's Socratic learning application ITI.
The world‑café discussions also highlighted concerns about social‑media algorithms, which students say increasingly shape their worldview and information consumption. Young people also feel uncertainty about the future, because AI is changing the labor market and required skills. They want schools to teach more media literacy, the principles behind algorithms, and skills for adapting to a rapidly changing world.
High school students' message to their schools is that above all they expect the opportunity to formulate clear agreements on AI use together with teachers. They also consider important a school culture that values making mistakes and learning from them, accessible mental‑health support, individual feedback, and transparent labeling of AI use.
-- Editor: Kaupo Meiel, Argo Ideon