Issue# 5: AI & Research at School
AI-generated cartoon of Jay McGrane sitting at a desk showing a laptop screen that says “AI and kids” while gesturing to a person off screen.
Written by Jay McGrane with an assist from Paula
Where is AI in today’s K-8 classroom?
Paula is taking a break this week so I thought you might like a peek behind the K-12 curtain. I sub in elementary classrooms twice a week, and let me tell you, AI hasn’t changed very much at all.
Even though headlines are panicking about students using AI to write entire essays. In my experience, most of my students haven’t even tried AI…on purpose.
AI is just… there.
Uninvited.
Unannounced.
Unremarked.
Sitting right at the top of Google.
Let me show you how AI has changed research for some of our youngest learners.
It’s Not the Kids. It’s the Interface.
I call it the “Google and Paste.”
Most kids type their question into Google and copy whatever it says. They don’t click any links. The source cited is “GOOGLE.” If they bother to cite at all…
At this point, most op-eds tell you that kids are lazy.
(Sidenote: I might have been able to jump on this “lazy kids” bandwagon if my own beautiful daughter hadn’t come home doing exactly the same thing. And I can’t think of anyone less lazy.)
No, kids aren’t “lazy.” UX designers are AMAZING at keeping people on the first page of Google.
We’ve seen search evolve from links to snippets to popular questions to AI overviews. Google wants users to get their queries answered on the first page. So it isn’t surprising to me that’s how kids do research these days. (I’ll let you decide if looking up a quick question on Google even constitutes research…anyways that’s a question for another day.)
So…does AI actually change how kids research?
In my experience? It changes everything.
Marshall McLuhan was right:
The medium is the message.
AI overviews present information with authority, even if the sources aren’t credible or don’t exist at all. Many summaries rely on subpar content like corporate blogs or Reddit threads. They also only include a generic icon to further obscure the credibility of a source.
And, if kids don’t click the links, they miss the chance to assess bias or credibility. Most just see the link and think, “Cool, there’s a link. Must be right.”
AI blurs the line between authoritative and non-authorative sources in a way never before seen. Encyclopedias were always vetted by experts. Now, all that matters is if it sounds plausible.
Truthfully, kids are trying.
I’ve had kids tell me that they “sleep” on the AI overviews. They read them one day and then write their presentation the next. Of course, they’re describing a great study skill without recognizing that it’s plagiarizing…and it’s not a research skill.
So if copying from Google isn’t research, what is?
Meta-skills are the new basics
To date, research skills in K-12 have focused on finding information. However, AI already finds information far faster than any human.
The problem today has become accuracy and hallucinations. Our skill sets need to change to work more effectively with AI systems.
Research skills today need to focus on:
Asking better questions
Judging credible sources
Summarizing for a purpose
Synthesizing to create something new