Guidance on Artificial Intelligence in Schools


Source

Department of Education and Youth & Oide Technology in Education, October 2025

Summary

This national guidance document provides Irish schools with a framework for the safe, ethical, and effective use of artificial intelligence (AI), particularly generative AI (GenAI), in teaching, learning, and school leadership. It aims to support informed decision-making, enhance digital competence, and align AI use with Ireland’s Digital Strategy for Schools to 2027. The guidance recognises AI’s potential to support learning design, assessment, and communication while emphasising human oversight, teacher professionalism, and data protection.

It presents a balanced view of benefits and risks—AI can personalise learning and streamline administration but also raises issues of bias, misinformation, data privacy, and environmental impact. The report introduces a 4P framework—Purpose, Planning, Policies, and Practice—to guide schools in integrating AI responsibly. Teachers are encouraged to use GenAI as a creative aid, not a substitute, and to embed AI literacy in curricula. The document stresses the need for ethical awareness, alignment with GDPR and the EU AI Act (2024), and continuous policy updates as technology evolves.

Key Points

  • AI should support, not replace, human-led teaching and learning.
  • Responsible use requires human oversight, verification, and ethical reflection.
  • AI literacy for teachers, students, and leaders is central to safe adoption.
  • Compliance with GDPR and the EU AI Act ensures privacy and transparency.
  • GenAI tools must be age-appropriate and used within consent frameworks.
  • Bias, misinformation, and “hallucinations” demand critical human review.
  • The 4P Approach (Purpose, Planning, Policies, Practice) structures school-level implementation.
  • Environmental and wellbeing impacts must be considered in AI use.
  • Collaboration between the Department, Oide, and schools underpins future updates.
  • Guidance will be continuously revised to reflect evolving practice and research.

Conclusion

The guidance frames AI as a powerful but high-responsibility tool in education. By centring ethics, human agency, and data protection, schools can harness AI’s potential while safeguarding learners’ wellbeing, trust, and equity. Its iterative, values-led approach ensures Ireland’s education system remains adaptive, inclusive, and future-ready.

Keywords

URL

https://assets.gov.ie/static/documents/dee23cad/Guidance_on_Artificial_Intelligence_in_Schools_25.pdf

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AI and the Future of Universities


Source

Higher Education Policy Institute (HEPI), October 2025

Summary

This collection of essays explores how artificial intelligence—particularly generative AI (GenAI)—is reshaping the university sector across teaching, research, and administration. Contributors, including Dame Wendy Hall, Vinton Cerf, Rose Luckin, and others, argue that AI represents a profound structural shift rather than a passing technological wave. The report emphasises that universities must respond strategically, ethically, and holistically: developing AI literacy among staff and students, redesigning assessment, and embedding responsible innovation into governance and institutional strategy.

AI is portrayed as both a disruptive and creative force. It automates administrative processes, accelerates research, and transforms strategy-making, while simultaneously challenging ideas of authorship, assessment, and academic integrity. Luckin and others call for universities to foster uniquely human capacities—critical thinking, creativity, emotional intelligence, and metacognition—so that AI augments rather than replaces human intellect. Across the essays, there is strong consensus that AI literacy, ethical governance, and institutional agility are vital if universities are to remain credible and relevant in the AI era.

Key Points

  • AI literacy is now essential for all staff and students.
  • GenAI challenges traditional assessment and integrity systems.
  • Universities must act quickly but ethically in AI integration.
  • Professional services can achieve major efficiency gains through AI.
  • AI enables real-time strategy analysis and forecasting.
  • AI literacy must extend to leadership and governance structures.
  • Human intelligence—creativity, criticality, empathy—remains central.
  • Ethical frameworks and transparency are essential for trust.
  • Data maturity and infrastructure underpin successful adoption.
  • Collaboration across disciplines and sectors will shape sustainable change.

Conclusion

The report concludes that AI will redefine the university’s purpose, requiring institutions to shift from reactive adaptation to active leadership in shaping the AI future. The challenge is not simply to use AI but to ensure it strengthens human intelligence, academic integrity, and social purpose in higher education.

Keywords

URL

https://www.hepi.ac.uk/reports/right-here-right-now-new-report-on-how-ai-is-transforming-higher-education/

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The Future Learner: (Digital) Education Reimagined for 2040


Source

European Digital Education Hub (EDEH), European Commission, 2025

Summary

This foresight report explores four plausible futures for digital education in 2040, emphasising how generative and intelligent technologies could redefine learning, teaching, and human connection. Developed by the EDEH “Future Learner” squad, the study uses scenario planning to imagine how trends such as the rise of generative AI (GenAI), virtual assistance, lifelong learning, and responsible technology use might shape the education landscape. The report identifies 16 major drivers of change, highlighting GenAI’s central role in personalising learning, automating administration, and transforming the balance between human and machine intelligence.

In the most optimistic scenario – Empowered Learning – AI-powered personal assistants, immersive technologies, and data-driven systems make education highly adaptive, equitable, and learner-centred. In contrast, the Constrained Education scenario imagines over-regulated, energy-limited systems where AI use is tightly controlled, while The End of Human Knowledge portrays an AI-saturated collapse where truth, trust, and human expertise dissolve. The final Transformative Vision outlines a balanced, ethical future in which AI enhances – not replaces – human intelligence, fostering empathy, sustainability, and lifelong learning. Across all futures, the report calls for human oversight, explainability, and shared responsibility to ensure that AI in education remains ethical, inclusive, and transparent.

Key Points

  • Generative AI and intelligent systems are central to all future learning scenarios.
  • AI personal assistants, XR, and data analytics drive personalised, lifelong education.
  • Responsible use and ethical frameworks are essential to maintain human agency.
  • Overreliance on AI risks misinformation, cognitive overload, and social fragmentation.
  • Sustainability and carbon-neutral AI systems are core to educational innovation.
  • Data privacy and explainability remain critical for trust in AI-driven learning.
  • Equity and inclusion depend on access to AI-enhanced tools and digital literacy.
  • The line between human and artificial authorship will blur without strong governance.
  • Teachers evolve into mentors and facilitators supported by AI co-workers.
  • The most resilient future balances technology with human values and social purpose.

Conclusion

The Future Learner envisions 2040 as a pivotal point for digital education, where the success or failure of AI integration depends on ethical design, equitable access, and sustained human oversight. Generative AI can create unprecedented opportunities for personalisation and engagement, but only if education systems preserve their human essence – empathy, creativity, and community – amid the accelerating digital transformation.

Keywords

URL

https://ec.europa.eu/newsroom/eacea_oep/items/903368/en

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2025 Horizon Action Plan: Building Skills and Literacy for Teaching with GenAI


Source

Jenay Robert, EDUCAUSE (2025)

Summary

This collection of essays explores how artificial intelligence—particularly generative AI (GenAI)—is reshaping the university sector across teaching, research, and administration. Contributors, including Dame Wendy Hall, Vinton Cerf, Rose Luckin, and others, argue that AI represents a profound structural shift rather than a passing technological wave. The report emphasises that universities must respond strategically, ethically, and holistically: developing AI literacy among staff and students, redesigning assessment, and embedding responsible innovation into governance and institutional strategy.

AI is portrayed as both a disruptive and creative force. It automates administrative processes, accelerates research, and transforms strategy-making, while simultaneously challenging ideas of authorship, assessment, and academic integrity. Luckin and others call for universities to foster uniquely human capacities—critical thinking, creativity, emotional intelligence, and metacognition—so that AI augments rather than replaces human intellect. Across the essays, there is strong consensus that AI literacy, ethical governance, and institutional agility are vital if universities are to remain credible and relevant in the AI era.

Key Points

  • GenAI is reshaping all aspects of higher education teaching and learning.
  • AI literacy must be built into curricula, staff training, and institutional culture.
  • Faculty should use GenAI to enhance creativity and connection, not replace teaching.
  • Clear, flexible policies are needed for responsible and ethical AI use.
  • Institutions must prioritise equity, inclusion, and closing digital divides.
  • Ongoing professional development in AI is essential for staff and administrators.
  • Collaboration across institutions and with industry accelerates responsible adoption.
  • Assessment and pedagogy must evolve to reflect AI’s role in learning.
  • GenAI governance should balance innovation with accountability and transparency.
  • Shared toolkits and global practice networks can scale learning and implementation.

Conclusion

The Action Plan positions GenAI as both a challenge and a catalyst for renewal in higher education. Institutions that foster literacy, ethics, and innovation will not only adapt but thrive. Teaching with AI is framed as a collective, values-led enterprise—one that keeps human connection, creativity, and critical thinking at the centre of the learning experience.

Keywords

URL

https://library.educause.edu/resources/2025/9/2025-educause-horizon-action-plan-building-skills-and-literacy-for-teaching-with-genai

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Enacting Assessment Reform in a Time of Artificial Intelligence


Source

Tertiary Education Quality and Standards Agency (TEQSA), Australian Government

Summary

This resource addresses how Australian higher education can reform assessment in response to the rise of generative AI. Building on earlier work (Assessment Reform for the Age of Artificial Intelligence), it sets out strategies that align with the Higher Education Standards Framework while acknowledging that gen AI is now ubiquitous in student learning and professional practice. The central message is that detection alone is insufficient; instead, assessment must be redesigned to assure learning authentically, ethically, and sustainably.

The report outlines three main pathways: (1) program-wide assessment reform, which integrates assessment as a coherent system across degrees; (2) unit/subject-level assurance of learning, where each subject includes at least one secure assessment task; and (3) a hybrid approach combining both. Each pathway carries distinct advantages and challenges, from institutional resourcing and staff coordination to maintaining program coherence and addressing integrity risks. Critical across all approaches is the need to balance immediate integrity concerns with long-term goals of preparing students for an AI-integrated future.

Key Points

  • Generative AI necessitates structural assessment reform, not reliance on detection.
  • Assessments must equip students to participate ethically and critically in an AI-enabled society.
  • Assurance of learning requires multiple, inclusive, and contextualised approaches.
  • Program-level reform provides coherence and alignment but demands significant institutional commitment.
  • Unit-level assurance offers quick implementation but risks fragmentation.
  • Hybrid approaches balance flexibility with systemic assurance.
  • Over-reliance on traditional supervised exams risks reducing authenticity and equity.
  • Critical questions must guide reform: alignment across units, disciplinary variation, and student experience.
  • Assessment must reflect authentic professional practices where gen AI is legitimately used.
  • Ongoing collaboration and evidence-sharing across the sector are vital for sustainable reform.

Conclusion

The report concludes that assessment reform in the age of AI is not optional but essential. Institutions must move beyond short-term fixes and design assessment systems that assure learning, uphold integrity, and prepare students for future professional contexts. This requires thoughtful strategy, collaboration, and a willingness to reimagine assessment as a developmental, systemic, and values-driven practice.

Keywords

URL

https://www.teqsa.gov.au/guides-resources/resources/corporate-publications/enacting-assessment-reform-time-artificial-intelligence

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