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Bowen, Jose Antonio; Watson, C. Edward. Teaching with AI: A Practical Guide to a New Era of Human Learning (Second Edition). : Johns Hopkins University Press, 2026. viii + 384 pp.Lembo, Gloria. The Complete Guide to AI in Education: Harness Artificial Intelligence to Enhance Student Engagement, Build AI Literacy, Face Ethical Challenges, and Achieve Greater Classroom Efficiency. : Wheelwright Publishing, 2025. 169 pp. $24.95 (paper), ISBN 9781421453392.
Reviewed by
Dean P. Vesperman (University of Wisconsin-La Crosse)
Published on
H-Sci-Med-Tech (August, 2026)
Commissioned by
Penelope K. Hardy (University of Wisconsin-La Crosse)
Printable Version: https://www.h-net.org/reviews/showpdf.php?id=62713
There is no denying that there has been a rapid expansion of the use of artificial intelligence (AI) in K-16 education. A plethora of new research and literature has appeared on using AI to improve student learning.[1] Additionally, we know that teachers are already using the tool, especially social studies teachers. As Daniel G. Krutka and Marie K. Heath have noted, this requires due consideration of how AI “can both help and hurt our communities.”[2] Two recent books addressing this question argue that AI can help education within limits. While José Antonio Bowen and C. Edward Watson focus most of their analysis on higher education in Teaching with AI: A Practical Guide to a New Era of Human Learning, and Gloria Lembo emphasizes the role of generative AI in K-12 education in The Complete Guide to AI in Education: Harness Artificial Intelligence to Enhance Student Engagement, Build AI Literacy, Face Ethical Challenges, and Achieve Greater Classroom Efficiency, both books approach the topic of AI and education through a technophile lens.
The authors consistently argue that generative AI will be a revolutionary tool to improve teaching at all levels. For example, Lembo consistently focuses on the use of various AI applications that will improve the administrative efficiency of teachers and engage students. “While headlines focus on AI’s economic impact," she points out, "its real power lies in its ability to make learning more engaging, accessible, and effective” (p. 1). Lembo argues that this increasing efficiency of teaching and learning will improve educational settings in multiple ways. This view is mirrored by Bowen and Watson, who argue, “AI can already do many things faster than humans can, and it is especially good at the skilled and detailed but repetitive jobs that are part of much educated expert work” (p. 36). Thus, both books suggest AI is a tool to transform and improve education. Bowen and Watson focus primarily on how AI will revolutionize teaching and learning since it challenges higher education to rethink content delivery, assessment, and information mastery. They note that generative AI supports brainstorming, writing, tutoring, increased personalized learning, and interactive feedback on student work. This allows educators to focus on teaching students higher-order thinking processes, including reasoning, reflection, collaborative knowledge construction, and active, hands-on application of knowledge, which AI cannot replicate. Similarly, Lembo encourages educators to redesign learning experiences to emphasize critical thinking, creativity, reflection, and authentic assessment. She shares practical K-12 strategies for how to effectively integrate AI into the classroom. Using multiple case studies (such as Miami-Dade School District and Piedmont City Schools), the book illustrates how K-12 schools have successfully implemented AI across diverse educational settings. To achieve this transformation, the authors challenge education institutions to increase training and the creation of professional learning communities on the effective use of AI.
The ethical issues related to the use of generative AI in education are also addressed thoroughly in each book. The authors, in general, argue that the ethics of AI use must and should be addressed in education. However, the two texts differ in their approach to addressing ethical concerns. Bowen and Watson frame the ethical questions as something that should be addressed in higher education course policy and by teaching students to use AI responsibly. They argue that the potential for unethical uses opens the door for educators to demand higher quality work: “How much of the fear around AI cheating is really a fear that we can no longer identify human work anymore? ... We’re going to need to be more careful and specific in how we articulate quality as a dimension of our learning outcomes” (p. 148). Ethical concerns about students’ use of AI are thus an invitation to improve our teaching and learning, not a reason to ban AI. They also argue that AI provides students with the opportunity to approach AI-generated materials through a critical lens, which they argue needs to be taught. Similarly, Lembo raises concerns over issues of academic integrity, the privacy of data shared with AI, the biases built into AI’s algorithms, the inequity of access to AI, and a growing overreliance on using AI for work in the K-12 classroom. She suggests, “Each student’s learning path must be guided by principles that put ethics at the forefront—where technology supports education without compromising core values” (p. 89). Thus, students must be taught the ethics of AI use by “creating a culture of ethical AI use in schools” (p. 89). It is the responsibility of K-12 schools to limit harm, not corporations creating generative AI platforms. Additionally, the authors of both books argue that it is essential for educators to teach students AI literacy. They subtly argue that once students understand how to use AI appropriately and ethically, most educators’ concerns will be addressed. For example, Lembo argues that educators need to embrace AI and, in doing so, teach students the requisite AI literacy. Lembo proposes creating student awareness programs and implementing lessons on the critical thinking skills necessary to effectively use AI. Both texts clearly place the responsibility of ethical oversight in the hands of both educators and students. This leads us to consider if K-16 students can be responsible for their own oversight of AI use.
Both texts provide plentiful examples of how generative AI has already transformed and can transform education; however, neither consistently fully addresses the harm it has or could cause. Lembo argues that generative AI cannot “replace the human touch that makes teaching so powerful.... Instead, AI should serve as a partner amplifying your ability to connect with students, support diverse learning needs, and create dynamic, inclusive classrooms” (p. 159). Bowen and Watson argue that generative AI opens the door for a new era of teaching and learning. All of this may be true. However, to place the burden of ethical use of AI on already taxed educational professionals and institutions reveals a technophile vision of AI, which readers must be aware of before reading either book.
Notes
[1]. See, for example, Dan Faggella, “Examples of Artificial Intelligence in Education,” Emerj, March 8, 2017, https://emerj.com/examples-of-artificial-intelligence-in-education/; Alyssa Johnson, “5 Ways AI Is Changing The Education Industry,” updated October 23, 2025, https://elearningindustry.com/ai-is-changing-the-education-industry-5-ways; and Fati Tahiru, “AI in Education: A Systematic Literature Review,” Journal of Cases on Information Technology (JCIT) 23, no. 1 (2021): 1–20, DOI: 10.4018/JCIT.2021010101.
[2]. Daniel G. Krutka and Marie K. Heath, “A Technoskeptical Approach to Generative AI in Social Studies Education,” in AI in Social Studies Education: Tools for Thoughtful Practice with Generative Artificial Intelligence, ed. Christopher H. Clark and Cathryn van Kessel (Teachers College Press, 2025), 12-28.
Citation:
Dean P. Vesperman.
Review of
Bowen, Jose Antonio; Watson, C. Edward.
Teaching with AI: A Practical Guide to a New Era of Human Learning (Second Edition).
Lembo, Gloria.
The Complete Guide to AI in Education: Harness Artificial Intelligence to Enhance Student Engagement, Build AI Literacy, Face Ethical Challenges, and Achieve Greater Classroom Efficiency.
H-Sci-Med-Tech, H-Net Reviews.
August, 2026.
URL:
https://www.h-net.org/reviews/showrev.php?id=62713
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.
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