Conversations with LCS Students About Learning with Artificial Intelligence

AI presents us with a striking paradox. Though often criticized for threatening authentic human interaction, it became our pathway to more genuine conversations with students about learning, creativity, and technology.

At LCS, knowing our students through honest conversations remains core to who we are. Rather than undermining this foundation, AI has reaffirmed its importance by creating efficiencies that allow more time for face-to-face connection.

To understand how students think about AI, we abandoned surveys for something deeper: recorded 15-minute interviews with over 30 students. These conversations allowed natural follow-up questions that surveys can't accommodate. AI then helped us identify patterns across transcripts while preserving individual voices.

The result captured the reasoning behind student choices. Rather than reducing attitudes to data points, we discovered the thoughtfulness shaping how students actually interact with AI. What emerged was far more nuanced than media headlines about teenage AI use suggest, and revealed the complexities surrounding how students are actually engaging with AI.

Students described using AI strategically as learning support. They use it to summarize complex texts before deeper reading, structure early ideas, brainstorm, refine grammar, and work through confusion. Yes, some still use it to shortcut thinking, but we're impressed overall by the maturity in their thought processes.

The pattern that emerged across interviews was that students aren't handing intellectual authority to machines. They often use AI to overcome obstacles and proceed with confidence in their own voice.

We were also surprised to find students' inherent skepticism toward AI-generated content. They readily identify artificial-sounding outputs, notice fabricated information, and distinguish helpful guidance from overwhelming noise. They expressed frustration with AI tools that provide too many vague suggestions without clear implementation paths.

This is where they seek our guidance: helping them discern quality AI outputs and transform information overload into actionable insight. We want students using AI to strengthen thinking and deepen understanding, and we see this emerging when students make mature decisions about these tools.

Students aren't asking for blanket rules or permissions. They want substantive guidance on effective AI use and balanced approaches acknowledging both benefits and limitations. Their concerns extend beyond academic dishonesty to potential dependency, effects on critical thinking, implications for creative fields, and broader societal impacts.

Their requests reflect maturity as they push us to acknowledge the technological landscape they inhabit and provide navigation tools for this terrain.

The insights from these conversations will directly inform next year’s AI literacy curriculum. We’re tailoring AI instruction to meet their concerns, their challenges and their real experiences. Students have made it clear that learning to use AI wisely, without losing essential thinking skills, depends on an approach like ours that carefully blends AI collaboration (Lane 2) with protecting the essential learning moments (Lane 1).