We know our students are using Artificial Intelligence (AI) in their daily lives and in their academics— not just for assignments, but for planning, studying, and staying organized. One of the great things happening right now at Georgian is that our Advising team is leaning into this reality and giving students practical, ethical guidance on how to use AI in ways that truly support their learning and well-being.

The Georgian College Advising team has embraced the growing library of AI tools and expanded its toolbox to share with students. 

There are many fantastic digital and AI tools that can help students to learn, study, and also help to organize their lives by creating calendars and to-do lists. They have a few favourites, such as Notebook LM, Goblin Tools and ChatGPT, but the list continues to grow as they hear about and review new AI tools regularly from students, faculty and each other. 

Recognizing the importance and benefit of these digital tools, the Advising team spent the summer semester developing and creating a workshop for students called "Hack your life: using digital and AI tools for personal and academic success!" 

This workshop focuses on the use of AI and digital tools to support students with school and personal tasks. It introduces students to a range of digital and AI tools designed to support academic success, organization, studying, and personal well-being. It offers an accessible overview of artificial intelligence, including its benefits, limitations, and appropriate academic use. Students will learn how AI tools can help them brainstorm ideas, break down complex tasks, manage deadlines, and build effective study habits. The session emphasizes the importance of maintaining academic integrity and understanding that AI tools are meant to support—not replace—the learning process. The workshop also highlights the broader impacts of AI and technology use, particularly their environmental footprint and the need for responsible digital habits. 

This workshop can be found on the “Workshops” tab of the Student Advising page on MyGCLife, along with other asynchronous workshops developed by the Advising team. 

Faculty, please feel free to share this (and other) workshops available on this page, with your students!

How to support AI use and digital tools in your teaching practice

What is really innovative about this initiative is that it supports something we’re all wrestling with right now: AI literacy. We cannot expect students to be experts with every tool but we can show them how to evaluate and use different tools responsibly—knowing that AI can make mistakes, recognizing when output sounds confident but is actually wrong, understanding issues like bias and data privacy, and being clear about when and how AI use needs to be acknowledged in academic work.

When students build this kind of literacy, they are better equipped to make thoughtful choices. Instead of asking “Will AI do my work?”, they start asking better questions like “How could AI support my thinking here?” or “Where do I need to rely on my own voice, analysis, or experience?” That shift is incredibly powerful for learning and for academic integrity.

For faculty, this creates some really useful teaching moments. You might point students to this Advising workshop when introducing a big project, or reference it when talking about research, studying, or time management. You might invite students to reflect on how they used AI (or chose not to) as part of an assignment or build in a short activity where they compare their own thinking with what an AI tool produces.  The Georgian College Library also has resources you could add to your Blackboard shell or your syllabus to support these conversations like GenAI Literacy Tutorial - Generative AI Literacy - Library and Learning Services at Georgian College. 

The Advising team is laying a strong foundation here, and it’s something we can all build on in our courses. When students get consistent messages about ethical, transparent, and purposeful AI use — from Advising and faculty — we move toward a culture where AI becomes a learning partner rather than a shortcut. 
 

Disclaimer: This article was developed through a collaboration between Centre for Academic Quality, Excellence and Innovation and the Student Advising team. Generative AI tools were used during the drafting process to support idea generation, editing, and language refinement. All interpretations, conclusions, and final wording were reviewed, curated, and approved by human authors, who remain fully responsible for the content, accuracy, and academic integrity of this publication.

References

Craig, M. (February 12, 2025) Earning our AI Literacy License. Faculty Focus. https://www.facultyfocus.com/articles/teaching-with-technology-articles/earning-our-ai-literacy-license/

Hackl, V., Mueller, A., & Sailer, M. (2025). The AI Literacy Heptagon: A Structured Approach to AI Literacy in Higher Education. https://doi.org/10.48550/arxiv.2509.18900

Sperling, K., Stenberg, C., McGrath, C., Åkerfeldt, A., Heintz, F., Stenliden,L.( 2024) In search of artificial intelligence (AI) literacy in teacher education: A scoping review. Computers and Education Open (6). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.caeo.2024.100169.

Tadimalla, S. Y., & Maher, M. L. (2025). AI literacy as a core component of AI education. The AI Magazine, 46(2). https://doi.org/10.1002/aaai.70007

Tlili, A., Bond, M., Bozkurt, A., Arar, K., Chiu, T. K. F., & Rospigliosi, P. ‘asher.’ (2025). Academic integrity in the generative AI (GenAI) era: a collective editorial response. Interactive Learning Environments, 33(3), 1819–1822. https://doi.org/10.1080/10494820.2025.2471198

Zhou, X., & Schofield, L. (2024). Developing a conceptual framework for Artificial Intelligence (AI) literacy in higher education. Journal of Learning Development in Higher Education, 31. https://doi.org/10.47408/jldhe.vi31.1354 

Ready to explore AI in your teaching practice?

The Centre for Teaching and Learning offers workshops, resources, and 1:1 consultations to help you confidently integrate AI into your classroom.

📧 Contact us at ctl@georgiancollege.ca to get started.
🖥️ Visit our Artificial Intelligence in Teaching page for guides, sample activities, and more.

Online Self-paced course: Generative AI Foundations for Faculty **New Winter 2025**