How can we tell when AI is helping students learn and when it is simply doing the thinking for them?

TLC Lab Director Dr. Adam Dubé recently joined Kris Perry, Executive Director of Children and Screens, on the Screen Deep podcast to discuss what research tells us about AI, educational technology, and learning.

The conversation explores how children understand artificial intelligence, including research from our team examining how young children think about the minds behind technologies such as smart speakers. Younger children often describe these systems using human characteristics, while older children increasingly explain them as technologies or machines. Understanding these beliefs is important as AI becomes a more common part of children's learning environments.

The episode also tackles a central question facing schools: does using generative AI support learning, or can it allow students to offload the thinking they need to develop important skills? Adam discusses how AI can help students complete tasks in the moment while potentially reducing opportunities to practise skills such as generating ideas, reading closely, summarizing information, and explaining concepts. The key question is not simply whether students use AI, but what thinking the technology is doing for them.

Drawing on our research on educational apps and technology use, Adam also discusses what teachers and parents should look for when selecting digital learning tools. Popularity, ratings, and the presence of AI do not necessarily tell us whether a technology supports learning. Instead, educational technologies need to be evaluated based on their design, pedagogical value, and evidence of efficacy.

The discussion ultimately points toward a more evidence based approach to AI in education. Rather than deploying new technologies first and evaluating them later, Adam argues that educators need to be involved in their development and that technologies should be tested both before and after they enter classrooms.

As AI becomes increasingly embedded in educational tools, our work at the TLC Lab continues to ask a deceptively simple question: Does the technology actually help students learn?

Listen to the full Screen Deep episode, “Does AI Help Students Learn? | Adam Dubé, PhD,” from Children and Screens.

Listen here or below.