Helping Students Find Their Voice (Even When They Use a Bot)
by Kate Clauson, Future Anything (Director: Activate)
In today’s blog, Kate outlines three strategies for integrating AI into assessment, empowering educators to embrace the rise of generative AI as an opportunity—not a challenge.
Why We Should Build AI Into the Assessment Process
A student submits a flawlessly formatted essay. It includes clean citations, high-level vocabulary, and a well-reasoned argument. Technically, it ticks every box. But something feels off. The structure is perfect, but the voice is missing.
Chances are, it has been touched, shaped, or even entirely generated by AI.
But before we jump to thinking this is cheating, it’s worth reflecting that all we are really seeing is a case of changing tools. Generative AI is here, and students are already using it. The question is whether we will respond by locking it out, or by building it in.
So how can we bring AI into the classroom, ethically, purposefully, and transparently? This post outlines three practical strategies for building AI into the assessment process in ways that support ethical use, amplify student voice, and encourage critical thinking.
Strategy 1: Use AI to Expand Ideas and Thinking
AI tools like ChatGPT, Perplexity.ai, and Microsoft Copilot can help students get unstuck. When used intentionally, they can generate ideas, organise structure, or offer multiple viewpoints for consideration.
To support this in your classroom, you might:
- Provide model prompts such as “Act as a climate policy advisor. What are three possible approaches to reducing emissions in a regional economy?”
- Ask students to compare answers generated by different tools, such as ChatGPT and Perplexity
- Encourage exploratory questioning before drafting. For example, “What are five ways a small business might respond to an economic downturn?”
This approach shifts AI from shortcut to springboard. Students use it not to replace their own thinking, but to extend it.
For more tools that support brainstorming, structure, and creative ideation, this AI for Teachers guide (PDF) provides a helpful snapshot of browser extensions and classroom tools.
Strategy 2: Build Critical Literacy by Challenging AI
The ability to generate content is not the same as understanding it. One of the most powerful ways to integrate AI into assessment is to ask students to critique it.
Some practical options:
- Generate an AI response and ask students to annotate strengths, errors, and gaps
- Ask students to rewrite a paragraph in their own voice, then compare tone and clarity
- Provide an AI-generated misconception and ask students to correct it with evidence
These tasks build more than content knowledge. They teach students how to question what they read, how to identify nuance, and how to assert their own perspective. In short, they help students learn how to think alongside the machine.
Helpful tools:
- Floop for collecting teacher and peer feedback on AI and student writing
- NotebookLM for comparing AI content to real-world sources
- MagicSchool AI for generating rubrics, examples, or scaffolds
For educators ready to do this work, the University of Sydney’s AI in Education course offers a helpful foundation, framing AI not as a threat but as a tool to deepen student thinking and learning.
Strategy 3: Make Reflection Part of the Assessment Process
Many students already use AI in their work, but few are asked to reflect on how or why. To promote ethical use and encourage student voice, consider making reflection part of the assessment design.
You might:
- Require a short process statement that explains how AI was used, what it contributed, and where the student made decisions independently
- Invite students to record an oral reflection explaining their approach, especially useful for diverse learners or EAL/D students
- Provide sentence starters like “The most useful part of using ChatGPT was…” or “I chose not to use AI for this part because…”
This strategy builds transparency and trust. It also reinforces the idea that student thinking is still central, even when AI is part of the process.
The AI FOR GOOD Resources Summary (PDF) includes additional reflection prompts and tools. We co-developed these with Australian educators in our recent Live Learning: AI for Good.
Other Helpful tools:
- Otter.ai for recording and transcribing student reflections
- Goblin.tools for scaffolding task management and decision-making
Seesaw for collecting portfolios that include drafts, media, and reflective audio or text.
Final Thoughts: Keep Student Voice Central, Even in an AI World
The goal is not to eliminate AI from assessment. It is to shape how students use it, so that the learning remains theirs.
By building AI into the assessment process, we acknowledge the tools that students already use. More importantly, we teach them how to use those tools responsibly, reflectively, and creatively.
When students understand how to question a bot, refine its output, and add their own voice, we are not just preparing them for better assessments – we are preparing them for a future where thinking with AI is the norm, and where what they bring to that conversation still matters most.
Want more inspiration for creating meaningful assessment? Check out these articles from the Future Anything team.
- A Case for Authentic Learning in the Classroom
Explores the importance of real-world relevance and student agency in learning design. - What Makes Great Assessment?
Outlines the key elements of meaningful and effective assessment practices. - Reframing Assessment
A call to rethink traditional approaches to assessment and create space for creativity and curiosity.
About the author: Kate Clauson
As the Program Director of Activate at Future Anything, Kate Clauson supports schools to deliver engaging, future-focused learning through the Activate program.
Kate is an experienced educator and learning designer with a background in commerce, psychology, history, and education. She has worked as a teacher, middle leader, and curriculum coach in Queensland schools.
With expertise in Project-Based Learning, design thinking, and the Australian Curriculum, Kate has also contributed to curriculum development as a QCAA writer.
Activate is Future Anything’s award-winning in-curriculum program. As a convergence of entrepreneurial pedagogy and Project-Based Learning, Activate allows educators to unleash passion, potential and agency in every classroom.
Find out more about Activate here
