As generative AI tools rapidly become integrated across computing, education, and research, faculty and administrators face immediate pressures to adapt their practices while ensuring fidelity in learning. This interactive talk blends the current evidence further driving and complicating this dual challenge: establishing robust best practices today and defining the research necessary to manage (and even mitigate) AI’s long-term impact on the education ecosystem and its learners.

This session will cover recent evidence, concrete guidelines, probing philosophical questions, and ethical considerations for responsibly integrating AI into education research and computing classrooms, focusing on managing ethical use, redesigning assignments, and maintaining validity. We then pivot to address the complex and currently unanswered question of teaching with and about AI: What will it truly take to infuse AI effectively, equitably, and ethically into classrooms? We will also consider key choices when making decisions about if, when, and how AI should be used.

Finally, we will share essential research needed now and in the coming decade to move beyond current promises, rigorously measure the actual impact of AI on teaching, student learning, and equity, and ensure this innovative technology serves all children responsibly.

Attendees will leave with actionable strategies for making decisions about AI integration and a prioritized framework for the critical research needed to navigate AI’s future in computing education.