{"slug": "what-concerns-should-we-be-discussing-about-using-ai-in-education", "title": "What concerns SHOULD we be discussing about using AI in Education?", "summary": "Educators, professional development providers, and educational leaders are urged to act as critical consumers of AI products and services, resisting quick adoption until ethical dimensions, risks, and problems are fully investigated. The STEM Teaching Tool emphasizes the need for deliberative and ethical approaches to AI in education, highlighting concerns such as environmental harms, profit-driven motives, and homogenization of culture. Students should have the right to question, explore, resist, or responsibly use AI to support individual, social, and ecological flourishing.", "body_md": "**STEM Teaching Tool #109**-- Topics:\n\n[Instruction](http://stemteachingtools.org/tgs/Instruction)\n\n[Equity](http://stemteachingtools.org/tgs/Equity)\n\n[TeachClimate](http://stemteachingtools.org/tgs/TeachClimate)\n\n### What concerns SHOULD we be discussing about using AI in Education?\n\n**Educators** should act as[critical consumers and users of AI products and services](http://stemteachingtools.org/link/10908b)in[this moment of hype and promotion](http://stemteachingtools.org/link/10909b). As cultural stewards, they should help all students learn how to critically and ethically deliberate on the use of AI.**Professional Development Providers** should support teachers in the informed and responsible adoption of AI systems.**Educational Leaders** should[resist quick adoption of AI systems](http://stemteachingtools.org/link/10910b)until[ethical dimensions](http://stemteachingtools.org/link/10911b), risks, and problems have been investigated and resources are in place to support refusal or slow, responsible use.\n\n### What Is The Issue?\n\nWith the expanding use of different kinds of [artificial intelligence (AI) systems](http://stemteachingtools.org/link/10902b) in society and [in education](http://stemteachingtools.org/link/10903b), it is vital that educators and administrators stop and make time to [explore the range of social and ethical concerns posed by these technologies](http://stemteachingtools.org/link/10904b). AI in Education is a quickly evolving landscape with [various promising potential benefits](http://stemteachingtools.org/link/10905b), and yet [the educational and social implications are too high to not act in a deliberative and ethical manner](http://stemteachingtools.org/link/10906b). [Many believe the risks of generative AI outweigh the benefits](http://stemteachingtools.org/link/10946b). Students have the right to question, explore, resist, refuse, or learn how to responsibly and ethically use AI in their lives to support individual, social, and [ecological flourishing](http://stemteachingtools.org/link/10907b).\n\n#### Authors:\n\nPhilip Bell | JUNE 2026\n\n### Reflection Questions\n\n- Are you intentional and\n[cautious](http://stemteachingtools.org/link/10951b)in how you explore, resist, or use AI? What[ethical ideas](http://stemteachingtools.org/link/10952b)and[frameworks](http://stemteachingtools.org/link/10953b)guide your use? - Do the tools do the disciplinary thinking\n*for*students, or are they designed to make them think*more*? How do you help[students to](http://stemteachingtools.org/link/10954b)? Do you*always*evaluate online info*only*use tech when it advances teaching and learning? - With the\n[opportunities](http://stemteachingtools.org/link/10955b)&[risks](http://stemteachingtools.org/link/10956b)of AI, when*should*we use it?[AI bots ignore evidence. Should we trust them with science?](http://stemteachingtools.org/link/10957b)\n\n### Things To Consider\n\nThere are a range of social and ethical concerns about AI to deliberate on:\n\n**Overarching Concerns about the AI Political Economy and Social Power**\n\n1. [Significant environmental harms](http://stemteachingtools.org/link/10912b) include [massive water use](http://stemteachingtools.org/link/10913b), [supercharging carbon emissions](http://stemteachingtools.org/link/10914b), [ecological disruptions](http://stemteachingtools.org/link/10915b), [increased air pollution](http://stemteachingtools.org/link/10916b), and [negative impacts](http://stemteachingtools.org/link/10917b) of [quickly expanding data centers](http://stemteachingtools.org/link/10918b)\n\n2. [Profit seeking](http://stemteachingtools.org/link/10919b) and [market capture motives](http://stemteachingtools.org/link/10920b) of “AI in education” companies can reduce education to a for-profit commercial product\n\n3. [Homogenization of culture, thought](http://stemteachingtools.org/link/10921b), and [knowledge](http://stemteachingtools.org/link/10922b) through [linguistic privileging](http://stemteachingtools.org/link/10923b), [cultural bias](http://stemteachingtools.org/link/10924b); [Global North data bias](http://stemteachingtools.org/link/10925b); [narrowing and flattening of curriculum, assessment](http://stemteachingtools.org/link/10926b), and educational goals\n\n4. “Move Fast & Break Things” approach can jeopardize education’s social contract with the public, violate the [protective purpose of schooling](http://stemteachingtools.org/link/10927b), disrupt improvement efforts & [impair social relationships](http://stemteachingtools.org/link/10928b)\n\n**Harms that Occur During AI Model Development and Training**\n\n5. [Intellectual property has been stolen for the training of AI models](http://stemteachingtools.org/link/10929b)\n\n6. [Unfair labor practices have been documented in “digital sweatshops”](http://stemteachingtools.org/link/10930b) as well as [significant psychological harm](http://stemteachingtools.org/link/10931b) to [AI content moderators](http://stemteachingtools.org/link/10932b)\n\n7. [“Baked-in” biased responses in AI models](http://stemteachingtools.org/link/10933b) can [produce regressive and marginalizing responses](http://stemteachingtools.org/link/10934b) (e.g., that are racist, sexist, xenophobic)\n\n**During Use by Students, Teachers, and Educational Leaders **\n\n8. [Falsehoods are promoted as true](http://stemteachingtools.org/link/10935b) (i.e., [hallucinations](http://stemteachingtools.org/link/10970b)) and [misinformation and disinformation are shared through AI systems](http://stemteachingtools.org/link/10936b)\n\n9. [Adverse health impacts on young people](http://stemteachingtools.org/link/10937b) (e.g., impacts on mental health and youth suicide) must be considered and countered\n\n10. [Disruption of social learning processes](http://stemteachingtools.org/link/10938b), [cognition, and social development](http://stemteachingtools.org/link/10971b) (e.g., offloading learning tasks onto AI systems, [diminished metacognitive engagement](http://stemteachingtools.org/link/10939b), and [diminished creativity](http://stemteachingtools.org/link/10940b))\n\n11. [Data privacy & student safety](http://stemteachingtools.org/link/10941b) can be compromised; [put up a defense](http://stemteachingtools.org/link/10942b)\n\n**During Use by Teachers and Educational Leaders**\n\n12. [Deprofessionalization of teaching and ed leadership](http://stemteachingtools.org/link/10943b) by offloading tasks to AI systems and diminishing the need for human expertise\n\n13. [Encourages automation which is not a suitable replacement for human labor and jobs](http://stemteachingtools.org/link/10944b); education is a fundamentally human endeavor\n\n### Attending to Equity\n\n[Groups are exploring if AI can support educational equity](http://stemteachingtools.org/link/10945b). However,[the risks of using generative AI in education currently outweigh its benefits](http://stemteachingtools.org/link/10946b). We all need to[make room for ethical deliberation and informed decision-making](http://stemteachingtools.org/link/10947b)about AI in education since[it is a “double-edged sword.”](http://stemteachingtools.org/link/10948b)- The\n[negative impacts of AI use in society disproportionately impact](http://stemteachingtools.org/link/10949b)and\n\nnon-dominant communities[efforts are needed to promote equity](http://stemteachingtools.org/link/10950b).\n\n### Recommended Actions You Can Take\n\n**Teach Based on a Social & Ethical Analysis**\n\n- Teams of educators should engage with the 13 social and ethical concerns, reflect on them, and let it guide their teaching.\n- Learn\n[how to teach against AI](http://stemteachingtools.org/link/10958b)and[how to shape a more just sociotechnical future](http://stemteachingtools.org/link/10972b). [AI initiatives and products are outpacing discussion of responsible uses](http://stemteachingtools.org/link/10959b).[Use expertise on how people learn](http://stemteachingtools.org/link/10960b)and a[“go slow and build” approach](http://stemteachingtools.org/link/10961b)to reduce harm.\n\n**Design AI Uses with Students & Teachers**\n\n[Engage students with social and ethical concerns to collaboratively make sense of responsible engagement with AI](http://stemteachingtools.org/link/10963b).- Teach:\n[“Science and technology may raise ethical issues for which science, by itself, does not provide answers and solutions.”](http://stemteachingtools.org/link/10962b) - Educators should\n[teach about the environmental and social impacts of AI systems](http://stemteachingtools.org/link/10912b)using[ethical decision-making](http://stemteachingtools.org/link/10947b).\n\n#### ALSO SEE STEM TEACHING TOOLS\n\n[STEM Teaching Tools](https://stemteachingtools.org)content copyright 2014-22 UW\n\n[Institute for Science + Math Education](http://sciencemathpartnerships.org/). All rights reserved.\n\nThis site is primarily funded by the\n\n[National Science Foundation (NSF)](http://www.nsf.gov/)through Award #1920249 (previously through Awards #1238253 and #1854059). Opinions expressed are not those of any funding agency.\n\nWork is licensed under a\n\n[Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 Unported License](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/). Others may adapt with attribution. Funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF). Opinions expressed are not those of any funding agency.", "url": "https://wpnews.pro/news/what-concerns-should-we-be-discussing-about-using-ai-in-education", "canonical_source": "https://stemteachingtools.org/brief/109", "published_at": "2026-06-13 14:02:26+00:00", "updated_at": "2026-06-13 14:17:38.752467+00:00", "lang": "en", "topics": ["ai-ethics", "ai-policy", "artificial-intelligence", "ai-safety", "generative-ai"], "entities": ["Philip Bell"], "alternates": {"html": "https://wpnews.pro/news/what-concerns-should-we-be-discussing-about-using-ai-in-education", "markdown": "https://wpnews.pro/news/what-concerns-should-we-be-discussing-about-using-ai-in-education.md", "text": "https://wpnews.pro/news/what-concerns-should-we-be-discussing-about-using-ai-in-education.txt", "jsonld": "https://wpnews.pro/news/what-concerns-should-we-be-discussing-about-using-ai-in-education.jsonld"}}