Grounding Classroom AI Policy in Ethics: A Student-Centered Dialogic Approach

The disruptive presence of AI in higher education has given rise to disconnects between students and instructors on perceptions of appropriate AI use. While challenging, these disconnects present an opportunity to engage in meaningful dialogic conversation with students about ethics and technology. To help facilitate and structure these conversations, this paper presents a student-centered workshop where students collaboratively draw a flowchart that clarifies shared understandings of ethical priorities regarding AI and then applies these to determine appropriate AI use (if any) for a particular learning goal. This workshop encourages students to apply their understandings of the meaning of critical thinking and information literacy in a dialogic setting. It connects student and instructor perceptions of AI use (or non-use) to support specific learning goals, in light of shared ethical priorities. In doing so, it presents a pedagogical innovation that both supports effective AI policy development and students’ intellectual growth.