K-12

The K-12 team covers the school years, from a 5-year-old learning to read to a 17-year-old working out who they are. Most guidance on AI in schools is written as though those were the same student. We take one capacity and one age at a time, set out what is being built at that point, and ask where AI helps and where it may take over.

The work is written for teachers, school leaders, and the people designing what happens in classrooms. It draws on three lines of HGSE research: Ying Xu’s Child-Centered AI Lab on how children learn in conversation with AI, Karen Brennan’s Creative Computing Lab on creating with technology rather than only consuming it, and Making Caring Common on what responsible use really means.

Emerging Interests

What we’re working on now.

How does regular AI use change who children turn to for help over time — does it replace conversations with teachers, parents, and friends, or feed into them?
To what extent do AI systems adjust their responses to the situation around a question (the stakes, the time pressure, and the rules) rather than to the question alone?
How do students’ beliefs about responsible AI use compare with their decisions? And which situations or contexts might be responsible for the difference?

K-12 Team