Learning With GenAI - How Much is Too Much?

At the end of this section, you should be able to adopt and apply strategies to use GenAI tools in ways that develop metacognition and encourage memory, focus, and independent thinking.

Generative AI is shifting the learning landscape, in essence, changing how students learn. In the past, many of us relied on passive methods such as listening to lectures, highlighting text, or memorizing facts. These approaches work to a point but don’t always encourage deep reflection or metacognitive awareness.

Now, GenAI can handle most surface-level tasks for you. It can generate outlines, simplify ideas, organize information, and show different viewpoints. While this is very convenient, doing the task isn't the same as learning it.

If you allow GenAI to do the work for you, without reflecting, questioning, or verifying, you miss the mental effort that produces deep learning. GenAI can't determine if you’ve truly understood a concept, how deeply you’ve learned it or if you've used it ethically and responsibly. Deep learning requires active engagement, connecting ideas, challenging assumptions, and thinking critically about AI-generated content; and it can happen if you use GenAI intentionally and ethically, as a tool to support your learning, rather than a substitute for it.

What “Intentional Learning” Looks Like in the Age of AI

Ethan Mollick, in his article Against "Brain Damage", suggests that if we rely on AI passively, accepting its outputs without critical thought, we risk losing our ability to reason, write, and think deeply. Intentional learning means being strategic about what and how much you offload. You need to consciously decide what parts of the learning process AI can support (like brainstorming ideas, organizing information or creating an outline) and what parts you must do by yourself (like analysis, application, and critical thinking). Since AI can augment most everything we do, the goal is no longer just to get things done; it’s to engage deeply in the learning process.

Metacognition remains essential

Reflecting Deeply - Practicing Double Loop Learning

Setting yourself apart from AI requires the kind of deep reflection that supports metacognition. One powerful way to do this is through a reflective process called double-loop learning¹. This means reflecting not only on what you’re doing, but also on why you’re doing it that way. Instead of merely correcting a mistake (single-loop) or relying on AI to fix it for you (zero-loop), double-loop learning pushes you to question the assumptions and habits behind your approach.

Click each heading to explore the levels of reflection:

Reflecting deeply doesn't just improve what you learn, it improves how you learn. It makes your learning more intentional, helps you adapt to new challenges, and prepares you to handle complex situations where AI cannot do the thinking for you.

In short, GenAI is forcing us to exercise our agency and think more critically about what it means to learn. Used strategically, it can be used to personalize your learning journey, but to benefit fully, you must engage intentionally, reflect deeply, and treat AI as a tool that supports your growth, not as a shortcut around it.

In today's learning landscape, GenAI doesn't remove the need to learn, it raises the bar. To use GenAI effectively, students need to be more self-aware, strategic, and reflective than ever before.

The progression below highlights different approaches to learning, each with its own purpose and value. These approaches often overlap, and effective learners draw on all three depending on the context and task.

• Passive learning (sometimes called incidental learning) is the process of absorbing information with minimal effort or thought. You might remember facts, but without much depth or critical analysis. For example, scrolling through social media or watching short videos without questioning the source or accuracy of what you see.
• Active learning requires participation, practice, and critical engagement with ideas. Here, you’re not just receiving information; you’re actively engaging with it. For example, fact-checking an AI-generated answer, testing your understanding by teaching it to a friend, or revising a response after comparing multiple viewpoints.
• Intentional Learning goes a step further. In the age of GenAI, it means making conscious decisions about your learning process, including when to use tools like AI and when to rely on your own reasoning. Intentional learners maintain ownership of their learning, whether they use GenAI to extend their thinking or deliberately choose not to use it at all.

In this new landscape, GenAI doesn’t make learning easier; it makes it more demanding. But that challenge is also an opportunity to take greater control of your learning, reflect more deeply, and build the independence and adaptability that will serve you well beyond the classroom.

Learning Approaches from Passive to Intentional

Components of Intentional Learning

Intentional learning is about choice, awareness, and responsibility. It means making deliberate decisions about how you learn, and reflecting on how those choices shape your understanding.

Students who use GenAI intentionally do so strategically and ethically. They don’t rely on it to complete tasks; they use it to elevate their learning, making conscious choices about when and how it adds value. (Recall the superstars from the opening video).

Students who use GenAI strategically and intentionally:

• Offload routine or organizational tasks (such as categorizing or formatting information) to free up mental space for deeper thinking
• Focus cognitive effort on critical thinking, problem-solving, and idea generation rather than surface-level completion
• Engage actively with AI outputs by analyzing, questioning, verifying, and adapting them to ensure accuracy and originality
• Maintain ownership of their learning goals, understanding, and outcomes, using GenAI to support—not replace—their own reasoning
• Use GenAI ethically and transparently, acknowledging its role and limitations, and following academic integrity expectations

Are You Learning with Intention?

Take a moment to apply this idea to your own learning. Whether you’ve already used GenAI or plan to in the future, consider how you can approach it with greater intention and self-awareness.

When you next use GenAI for a school-related task, pause to plan how you’ll use it purposefully.

1. What kind of task will you offload to GenAI (for example, organizing, formatting, or generating practice questions)?

2. What will you make sure to do yourself to stay engaged and support your own learning (for example, reviewing and fact-checking the content, linking it to course materials, or adding your own examples and explanations)?

3. Which cognitive skills will you apply on your own, (for example, planning, analyzing, verifying, or evaluating the AI’s output?