Teaching in the Age of AI: Why Collaborative Learning Protects Our Role as Educators

There is no question: AI is changing education. From tutoring bots to entire schools that promise, teacherless, “AI learning” for a few hours a day, the conversation is filled with both excitement and anxiety. For many faculty, one fear rises above the rest: Will AI make teachers obsolete?

It’s a fair concern—if we imagine learning as nothing more than the transfer of information. In that narrow vision, AI can already do much of what we do, faster and cheaper. But education has never been just transactional. And this is where our opportunity lies.

I Don’t Fear AI—I Teach It

Personally, I don’t fear AI. I teach with it. I teach students how to use AI as a tool: how to streamline material, organize knowledge, and practice efficient learning strategies. AI can offload transactional tasks—summarizing, outlining, quizzing—so students can spend more time engaging deeply with difficult concepts.

When used well, AI doesn’t diminish my role as an educator. It clarifies it. My job is not to compete with AI as a content machine. My job is to teach students how to learn, how to think, and how to be successful in the long run.

What AI Can’t Do

Even the most advanced AI cannot:

• Build trust between learners who must rely on one another.

• Teach students to navigate disagreement, ambiguity, or failed first attempts.

• Model the resilience it takes to return, revise, and persist when material is frustrating.

• Create the sense of community that keeps students showing up—even when the course gets hard.

These are not “extras.” They are the very conditions under which students actually learn difficult material well.

The Power of Team-Based Learning

In my anatomy and physiology courses, I use team-based learning. I watch students experience something AI cannot replicate:

• They test ideas that appear correct but collapse under peer discussion.

• They refine and argue until critical thinking sharpens the answer.

• They show up for each other—not just for the grade, but because community creates responsibility.

The resilience built through these interactions is not algorithmic. It is deeply human.

Protecting Our Roles as Educators

If teaching is reduced to lecturing and grading, then yes, AI could replace us. But if we embrace what only humans can do, our roles remain indispensable.

That means leaning into:

• Designing collaborative environments where students learn with and from each other.

• Facilitating communities of persistence where difficulty is normal and growth is shared.

• Guiding the human aspects of problem-solving—curiosity, creativity, empathy—that AI cannot model.

The future of education is not about resisting AI. It is about integrating its transactional strengths while doubling down on the irreplaceable value of human connection.

I don’t fear AI. I welcome it—because it lets me focus on what matters most: teaching students not just information, but resilience, critical thinking, and the capacity to show up for each other.