Is It Cheating—Or Is It Adaptation?

April 17-Written By Tara Voigt

At the center of so many conversations about AI in education is a very real concern:

What if our students are not truly learning?

It feels like a threat to something foundational.

Because learning isn’t just important—It is essential to our existence.

And when it starts to look unfamiliar,

We worry it is being lost.

But we forget:

As a species, we have always learned.

It is how we have grown.

It is how we have survived.

For as long as we’ve been here,

We have moved forward not by repeating—

But by evolving.

Our students are doing exactly that.

They are adapting to new tools, new demands,

and a world that changes faster than we can teach it.

They are not rejecting learning.

They are responding to their environment—

just like we always have.

But when the process looks different,

We start to question it.

And the word cheating shows up.

But is it cheating—

Or is it the next version of learning?

Maybe the real question isn’t about them.

It is about us.

Are we adapting too?

Are we willing to see learning in new forms—

to let go of what it used to look like?

Learning hasn’t stopped.

It’s just moving forward.

The only question now is—

will we move with it?