MIT’s Free Guide to AI in Schools

MIT’s Free Resource for Educators

We’re proud to share MIT’s Guide to AI in Schools: Perspectives for the Perplexed, a free resource created by teachers, for teachers. Designed as both a guide and a curriculum, it’s practical, easy to read, and rooted in real classroom experiences.

 

The guidebook helps educators and students navigate AI thoughtfully by:

  • Highlighting core ethical principles like transparency, justice, and non-maleficence
  • Encouraging students to question AI outputs and develop counterarguments that stretch beyond algorithmic patterns
  • Recognizing the risks AI poses to teacher–student relationships, and offering ways to strengthen empathic connection and collaborative intelligence

More than a technical manual, this guide shares case studies, conversation starters, and insights from educators who are already testing what works, and what doesn’t, in schools today. It offers a strong path forward for teaching and learning with AI while keeping human connection at the center.

Download Guidebook

“Most new technologies, like laptops, are adopted in schools as the result of a deliberate policy choice. But generative AI is different: it is an arrival technology, which means that it arrived without formal adoption – students and teachers simply began using it. This arrival has left schools scrambling to respond to many challenges, including questions about academic integrity and data privacy.

 

This guidebook is designed to support teachers and other school leaders as they determine what AI policies or guidelines to craft.”