Author: GenAI:N3

Social media is teaching children how to use AI. How can teachers keep up?

GenAI:N3
A split image contrasting two scenes. On the left, three young children are engrossed in tablets and smartphones, surrounded by vibrant social media interfaces featuring AI-related content and hashtags like "#AIforkids." On the right, a teacher stands in a traditional classroom looking somewhat perplexed at a whiteboard with "AI?" written on it, while students sit at desks, symbolizing the challenge for educators to keep pace with children's informal AI learning. Image (and typos) generated by Nano Banana.
While children are rapidly learning about AI through pervasive social media platforms, educators face the challenge of integrating this knowledge into formal learning environments. This image highlights the growing disconnect between how children are acquiring AI literacy informally and the efforts teachers must make to bridge this gap and keep classroom instruction relevant and engaging. Image (and typos) generated by Nano Banana.

Source

The Conversation

Summary

Students are learning to use AI mainly through TikTok, Discord, and peer networks, while teachers rely on informal exchanges and LinkedIn. This creates quick but uneven knowledge transfer that often skips deeper issues such as bias, equity, and ethics. A Canadian pilot project showed that structured teacher education transforms enthusiasm into critical AI literacy, giving educators both vocabulary and judgment to integrate AI responsibly. The article stresses that without institutional clarity and professional development, AI adoption risks reinforcing inequity and mistrust.

Key Points

  • Informal learning (TikTok, Discord, staff rooms) drives AI uptake but lacks critical depth.
  • Teacher candidates benefit from structured AI education, gaining language and tools to discuss ethics and bias.
  • Institutional AI policies are fragmented, leaving instructors without support and creating confusion.
  • Equity and bias are central concerns; multilingual learners may be disadvantaged by uncritical AI use.
  • Embedding AI literacy in teacher education and learning communities is critical to move from casual adoption to critical engagement.

Keywords

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URL

https://theconversation.com/social-media-is-teaching-children-how-to-use-ai-how-can-teachers-keep-up-264727

Summary generated by ChatGPT 5

GenAI News

AI is redefining university research: here’s how

GenAI:N3
A group of five diverse researchers in a futuristic lab are gathered around a glowing, circular interactive table. Bright neon lines of blue, green, and orange emanate from the table, connecting to large wall-mounted screens displaying complex data, molecular structures, and charts related to various scientific fields. A large window overlooks a modern city skyline, symbolizing advanced research in an urban university setting. Generated by Nano Banana.
AI is fundamentally reshaping the landscape of university research, offering unprecedented capabilities for data analysis, simulation, and discovery. This image envisions a collaborative, high-tech research environment where AI tools empower scholars to explore complex problems across disciplines, accelerating breakthroughs and pushing the boundaries of knowledge. Image generated by Nano Banana.

Source

Tech Radar

Summary

AI is accelerating many parts of academic research: mining large datasets, speeding hypothesis generation, automating literature reviews, and helping with data visualization. While these tools alleviate time‑heavy, repetitive tasks, there are rising concerns about over‑reliance: loss of critical thinking, ethical issues (authorship, bias), accuracy, and what AI means for researcher agency. Academia must adopt clear policies, build researcher familiarity with AI, and ensure integrity and oversight so that AI complements rather than replaces human scholarship.

Key Points

  • AI tools automate tedious research tasks (data mining, lit reviews, visualization).
  • Hypothesis generation at scale enables new discoveries.
  • Risks: loss of critical thinking, plagiarism, errors, ethical/authorship issues.
  • Helps non-native speakers, assists with referencing and peer review, but needs oversight.
  • Responsible use requires frameworks, training, and ethical guidelines.

Keywords

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URL

https://www.techradar.com/ai-platforms-assistants/ai-is-redefining-university-research-heres-how

Summary generated by ChatGPT 5

GenAI News

Opposing the inevitability of AI at universities is possible and necessary

GenAI:N3
In a grand, traditional university library setting, a group of professionals and academics stand around a conference table, actively pushing back with their hands raised towards a large, glowing holographic brain that represents AI. The brain is split with blue (calm) and red (active/threatening) elements, and a "STOP AI" sign is visible on a blackboard in the background. Image (and typos) generated by Nano Banana.
While the integration of AI into universities often feels unstoppable, this image visualizes the argument that actively opposing its unchecked inevitability is not only possible but crucial. It suggests that a proactive stance is necessary to guide the future of AI in academia rather than passively accepting its full integration. Image (and typos) generated by Nano Banana.

Source

Radboud University

Summary

Researchers from Radboud University argue that AI’s spread in academia is being framed as inevitable, but pushback is both possible and essential. They warn that uncritical adoption—especially when backed or funded by industry—threatens academic freedom, distorts research priorities, risks deskilling students, and contributes to misinformation and environmental harm. The paper urges universities to reassert their values: have transparent debates, maintain independence from industry influence, preserve consent, and retain human judgement as central to education and research.

Key Points

  • AI adoption in universities is often assumed to be inevitable, but this is a narrative device not a necessity.
  • Industry funding of AI research risks conflicts of interest and distorting knowledge.
  • Uncritical AI use risks deskilling students (critical thinking, writing).
  • Universities adopting AI redefine what counts as knowledge and who defines it.
  • Call for transparency, debate, consent, independence, and retaining human judgment.

Keywords

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URL

https://www.ru.nl/en/research/research-news/opposing-the-inevitability-of-ai-at-universities-is-possible-and-necessary

Summary generated by ChatGPT 5

GenAI News

‘It’s a monster’: How generative AI is forcing university professors to rethink learning

GenAI:N3
In a dimly lit, traditional university lecture hall, a monstrous, multi-limbed, glowing blue digital creature with glowing red eyes looms large behind a professor at a podium. Around tables in the foreground, other professors in academic robes express concern and confusion, some pointing at the creature, while a blackboard in the background reads "RETHINK CURRICULUM" and "HUMAN PROMPT." Image (and typos) generated by Nano Banana.
Described by some as a “monster,” generative AI is fundamentally challenging established educational paradigms. This image dramatically illustrates the immense, even intimidating, presence of AI in academia, compelling university professors to urgently rethink and innovate their approaches to learning and curriculum design. Image (and typos) generated by Nano Banana.

Source

The Irish Times

Summary

Professors in Ireland are rethinking what learning and assessment mean as generative AI becomes widespread. With students using tools like ChatGPT for brainstorming, summarisation, and essay writing, faculty are concerned not just about plagiarism but about diminished reflection, reading, and originality. Responses include replacing take‑home essays with in‑class/open‑book work, designing reflective and relational assignments, and rebuilding community in learning. Faculty warn education is becoming transactional, focused on grades over growth, and AI use may hollow out critical thinking unless institutions redesign pedagogy and policies.

Key Points

  • Widespread AI use by students undermines traditional essays and originality.
  • Professors replace take‑home essays with in‑class/open‑book assessments.
  • Assignments now stress reflection, relational thinking, vulnerability — areas AI struggles with.
  • Students under pressure turn to AI instrumentally, prioritising grades over growth.
  • Institutions face resource challenges in redesigning assessments and policies.

Keywords

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URL

https://www.irishtimes.com/ireland/education/2025/09/09/its-a-monster-how-generative-ai-is-forcing-university-professors-to-rethink-learning/

Summary generated by ChatGPT 5

GenAI News

AI Defeats the Purpose of a Humanities Education

GenAI:N3
In a grand, traditional university library, a massive, monolithic black AI construct with glowing blue circuit patterns and red text displaying "HUMANITIES INTEGRITY: 0%" is violently crashing into a long wooden conference table, scattering books and ancient busts. A group of somber-faced academics in robes stands around, observing the destruction with concern. Image (and typos) generated by Nano Banana.
This image powerfully visualises the concern that AI’s capabilities might fundamentally undermine the core purpose of a humanities education. The crashing digital monolith symbolises AI’s disruptive force, threatening to erode the value of human critical thought, interpretation, and creativity that humanities disciplines aim to cultivate. Image (and typos) generated by Nano Banana.

Source

The Harvard Crimson

Summary

The authors argue that generative AI tools fundamentally conflict with what a humanities education aims to do: teach students how to think, read, write, and argue as humans do, rather than delegating those tasks to machines. They claim AI can polish writing but misses the point of learning through struggle, critique, and revision. The piece calls for banning generative AI in humanities courses, saying that even mild uses still sidestep essential intellectual growth. Imperfect, difficult writing is better for learning than polished AI‑assisted work.

Key Points

  • AI polishing undermines the learning process of struggle and critique.
  • Imperfect essays without AI are more educational.
  • Inconsistent policies across faculty cause confusion.
  • Humanities should preserve authentic human expression and critical thinking.
  • Banning AI helps preserve rigor and humanistic values.

Keywords

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URL

https://www.thecrimson.com/article/2025/9/9/chiocco-farrell-harvard-ai/

Summary generated by ChatGPT 5

GenAI News