I recently read an article by A.J. Juliani titled “AI Should Not Be the Focus. Learning Should Be” (Juliani, 2024), and it deeply resonated with my thinking around how we integrate AI into education. Juliani emphasizes that AI is not the goal—learning is—and that AI should serve as a tool to deepen thinking, foster creativity, and support meaningful learning experiences.
This philosophy aligns closely with our AIDA Framework for AI Integration: Assist, Investigate, Dialogue, Apply. After reflecting on Juliani’s insights, we developed a series of student-centered classroom actions that pair with each phase of the AIDA model. These activities include using AI for revision feedback, fact-checking, comparison with human work, prompt improvement, and more. Each one is grounded in the belief that AI should enhance—not replace—authentic learning.
If you're an educator thinking about how to use AI meaningfully, I highly recommend reading Juliani's piece. It’s a reminder that the real power of AI lies in how we use it to empower students, not in the tool itself.
Here are 7 AIDA-aligned activity examples drawn from A.J. Juliani’s article and restructured as lesson-ready prompts. Each example walks through the Assist, Investigate, Dialogue, and Apply phases and is flexible enough to be used across subjects.
Purpose: Use AI to assist in improving writing fluency, clarity, and structure.
Assist: Ask AI to provide feedback on your writing (e.g., grammar, transitions, tone).
Investigate: Choose 2–3 AI suggestions. Do they make your writing stronger? Why or why not?
Dialogue: What patterns do you notice in the AI's feedback? What would a teacher or peer say differently?
Apply: Revise your piece using a mix of your own edits and selected AI suggestions. Write a brief reflection on how the AI helped (or didn’t).
Purpose: Build source evaluation skills by comparing AI-generated content to verified sources.
Assist: Use AI to answer a research question.
Investigate: Find at least two reputable sources and compare answers.
Dialogue: Where was AI correct or misleading? What kinds of errors might it make and why?
Apply: Create a short checklist or infographic on “How to Fact-Check AI Responses.”
Purpose: Explore writing style, tone, and reasoning.
Assist: Have AI write a short piece (e.g., a poem, opinion paragraph, historical summary).
Investigate: Write your own version of the same task without the AI’s help.
Dialogue: Compare the two. What’s more human about yours? What’s more efficient about AI’s?
Apply: Write a reflection or blog post titled: “What Makes Writing Human?”
Purpose: Teach paraphrasing, summarizing, and elaboration.
Assist: Paste a short article or video transcript into AI and ask it to summarize.
Investigate: Compare the AI summary with your own. Which includes key ideas more clearly?
Dialogue: Ask AI to expand on one of its summary points. Was the elaboration useful or generic?
Apply: Create your own summary with an expanded paragraph and explain why your additions matter.
Purpose: Use AI to support idea generation and audience awareness.
Assist: Ask AI for 10 ideas for a podcast or blog post on a given topic.
Investigate: Choose 2–3 that are most relevant or interesting. Why did you pick them?
Dialogue: Ask AI to tailor one idea for a specific audience (e.g., middle school students vs. scientists). How did the content shift?
Apply: Draft a first segment or paragraph using your chosen idea and audience.
Purpose: Teach prompt engineering and metacognition.
Assist: Use a basic prompt (e.g., “Explain the causes of the Civil War”) and record the AI’s response.
Investigate: Tweak the prompt for clarity, specificity, or tone (e.g., “Explain the causes of the Civil War to a 5th grader using a story format”).
Dialogue: What effect did your changes have on the output? What makes a prompt better?
Apply: Write a guide or mini-lesson titled “How to Write Better AI Prompts.”
Purpose: Reinforce learning through active recall and feedback.
Assist: Ask AI to quiz you on a topic you just learned.
Investigate: Take the quiz and identify which questions you struggled with.
Dialogue: Ask AI to explain those topics in simpler terms or through analogies.
Apply: Teach someone else the material using a metaphor or visual you created from the AI explanation.