Ethical and Pedagogical Decisions in the Age of AI

Combined Session (Overview)
In this session, you will learn how to shift the conversation from talking about ways to detect students’ use of AI to talking with students about the ethics of AI. You will also learn from an educator who redesigned a composition course by intentionally creating community and encouraging personal writing to reduce the reliance on AI.

Session 1: Dialogue Before Detection: Honest Conversations with Students about AI
Instead of losing planning time to revision histories and detection tools, what if we invested that time into reshaping the conversation about AI with our students before they even turn something in? This session invites educators to explore the ethics of AI alongside their students and encourage students to take the lead. By shifting the focus from “catching” students to conversing with them, students will not only have more voice and agency in their education but also become more ethical users of AI. In this session, three educators will share how they started that shift in their own classrooms and school community by dialoguing with their students, organizing student-led discussions that were later shared with faculty, and dedicating class time to exploring the ethics of AI. During this session, participants will learn about this shift at their school with student-led discussion videos, professional development designs to engage faculty as well as providing resources, lessons, and activity ideas. The future of AI in schools will be determined, not by the tools we restrict, but by the conversations we share with our students.

Session 2: From Product to Process: Rethinking Composition I in the Age of AI
Over the last year, I have realized that most of my essay assignments in Composition I were ones that were perfect to feed into ChatGPT. At first, I was resentful. However, then I began to see it as an opportunity to create new assignments that students would care about writing, and I would find interesting to read. After growing tired of policing students, especially in my online courses, I redesigned my Composition I course to focus less on the final product and more on the writing process, student voice, and community, while still fully meeting IAI requirements.

One of the biggest shifts I made was redesigning essay assignments to center on personal writing, students’ experiences, observations, and reflections, while still teaching academic skills like thesis development, organization, evidence, and revision. I also built in intentional community-building activities during the first few weeks of the semester. Creating that classroom community early on helped students to feel more comfortable about sharing their writing later in the semester.

Throughout the semester, I added more opportunities for student self-reflection, asking students to reflect on their drafting process, peer feedback, and revisions. To support this shift, I moved to a standards-based grading system, which made grading more transparent and equitable.
Finally, I replaced a traditional final essay or exam with a multimodal project that allows students to combine visual, audio, and written elements while reflecting on their development as writers over the semester.

This session will share practical strategies, assignment ideas, and grading approaches that instructors can adapt for both high school and college composition classrooms.