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AI in Education
2025-2026
Artificial intelligence (AI) tools are reshaping classrooms and classroom learning, influencing how students learn, how teachers teach, and how educational goals are understood. While AI offers new opportunities to support learning, such as personalized feedback, accessible learning materials, and administrative support, it also raises serious questions about privacy, equity, critical thinking, and the long-term development of students’ skills.
This Think Tank project explores how AI can be used responsibly, ethically, and equitably in Ontario’s public education system. Taking a community-engaged approach, the project team is working closely with community partners, including the Thames Valley District School Board (TVDSB) and the Law Commission of Ontario, to bring together educators, researchers, and policy experts to better understand how teachers and students currently use AI tools, and what challenges and opportunities they encounter in practice.
The goal of this project is to examine the risks AI introduces into educational environments and ask whether its widespread use can support or strengthen core educational goals, including critical thinking, creativity, independent learning, and intellectual curiosity. Ultimately, this project aims to ensure that AI strengthens education rather than undermining it, while supporting equitable, transparent, and accountable decision-making in schools.
Faculty Members:
- Co-PI: Jacqueline Burkell, Associate Professor, Faculty of Information & Media Studies
- Co-PI: Carolyn McLeod, Distinguished Professor, Department of Philosophy, Faculty of Arts & Humanities
- Joanna Redden, Associate Professor, Faculty of Information & Media Studies
- Jasmine Gunkel, Department of Philosophy, Faculty of Arts & Humanities
Postdoctoral Fellows:
- Andrew Richmond, Department of Philosophy, Faculty of Arts & Humanities
- Dominique Kelly, Research Associate, Faculty of Information & Media Studies
Trainees:
- Clair Baleshta, PhD Student, Department of Philosophy, Faculty of Arts & Humanities
- Silas Buowe, PhD Student, Faculty of Law
- Kawthar Fedjki, PhD Student, Department of Philosophy, Faculty of Arts & Humanities
Outputs
- Submitted for review: Dominique Kelly and Jacquelyn Burkell, A new kind of cognitive tool: Generative AI and the future of critical and creative thinking in education. https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.14721/38901
Partners:
- Thames Valley District School Board (TVDSB)
- Law Commission of Ontario (LCO)
Upcoming Activity:
- On the scheduled TVDSB PA Day on Friday, May 29th, 2026, our team will host a workshop for secondary school teachers on AI and education. The goal of this event is to foster dialogue among teachers, administrators, and researchers about how AI is impacting teaching and learning. More specifically, we are looking to identify challenges that AI poses for teachers and opportunities that AI might offer them as educators.