The new year is the perfect time for a little low-stress self-assessment as an educator. Whether you give your education work in 2025 an A or an F, there are always ways we can improve and new goals to pursue.
As a writer who covers edtech and an adjunct instructor, I’m always adjusting how I use technology in the classroom. In the coming year, I’m looking to engage with it in new ways that re-establish boundaries with AI while simultaneously using it more in specific instances.
Here’s a closer look at my technology and teaching resolutions for 2026.
1. Spend Less Time Worrying About AI cheating
I’ve talked about doing this before, but in 2026, I’m going to devote less mental energy to worrying about whether students are using AI to cheat in my class. I can and will continue to keep an eye out for it, but I will accept that I won’t be able to catch every instance and won’t spend my time agonizing over that fact.
True, I’ve vowed to update my AI mindset before and have failed, but—fingers crossed—this is the year. (And, yes, I, a real human writer, used the em dash; deal with it.)
2. Do More to Advocate for Human Writing
This seems counterintuitive given the above, but rather than spend my time trying to play whack-a-mole with AI-generated papers, I want to connect with other instructors and try and help form a more cohesive instructional and professional response to AI.
We need to figure out how to protect human writing in and out of the classroom, and those of us in the humanities need to do a better job getting the message out about why that’s so important. We also need to pioneer better solutions to prevent AI cheating.
3. Spend More Time Investigating the Potential of AI Tutoring and How Students Could Harness it Effectively
On a more optimistic note, I’ve been personally impressed by how effective AI tutoring models can be, and I’ve written about ChatGPT’s Study Mode and Gemini’s Guided Learning.
This year, I’d like to explore more opportunities for ways I can help students use these and similar AI tutors safely and effectively. This is trickier than it sounds. Initial research into the efficacy of AI tutoring has been mixed. One study found that high school math students who studied with a version of ChatGPT did worse on a test given later than students who had studied in traditional ways. But AI models have evolved, and some have been specifically designed for teaching since then.
So this year, I’m hoping to find more research-backed tests of the efficacy of the latest teaching models, and will look for ways these can potentially be integrated with my students.
4. Explore More Educational Technology That Has Nothing To Do With AI
Given the first three items on this list, the following might come as a surprise: I’m tired of talking about both the pros and cons of AI. Yes, it’s a disruptive technology in both good and bad ways, but it’s also at this point getting boring and, if I’m being honest, many AI discussions are starting to feel a little 2023.
That’s why in 2026, I’m going to make it a point to explore new educational technology that has nothing, at least on the front end, to do with AI. What some of these other tech elements might be, I’m honestly not sure, but I’ll know it when I see it.
Or (sigh) I’ll ask ChatGPT to suggest some new non-AI edtech.
5. Do more to Advocate Online and In Person For Adjunct Instructors and Pay
This entry is a little less tech-centric and more me-centric, but here goes anyhow: In 2026 I want to do more to use my voice on social media and in the digital publications I write for to advocate for adjunct instructors and highlight some of the unique issues and challenges they face as educators.
I’m a longtime adjunct instructor, and though I’ve forged a successful career pairing that work with writing, I know many who have not been as lucky in the field. This year, I’m planning on doing more to call out institutional policies that unfairly hurt adjuncts, as well as share more of the ways I’ve managed to successfully navigate this sometimes difficult corner of the teaching world.
