Embracing Zen and Integrity in the Age of AI

 

In the photo: Rekku the dog, my Zen master.

As we step into the new academic year, many of us instructors, researchers, administrators may feel fairly burdened and overstretched before we have even started. We carry the weight of demands and change that may feel relentless. Yet beneath that fatigue lies a spark: a deep longing for meaningful work and for a peaceful, restful mindset in it all. There’s no better moment than now to rejuvenate our purpose, find our Zen, and remind ourselves why our work matters.

Voices from the field: OER25 in London

This past June, the 16th Annual Open Education Conference (OER25) unfolded in London, under the stirring theme “Speaking Truth to Power: Open Education and AI in the Age of Populism”. The gathering invited the participants to examine the intersections of open pedagogy, technology, and social justice, recognising that open education isn’t just about access or resources, but about agency, equity, and integrity in turbulent times (OEGlobal).

We are entitled to resist passive acceptance of AI as inevitability. Instead, we crave for conversation, accountability, and transformation. It’s a powerful reminder that we, as a community, still wield voice and vision.

Critical voices on LLMs: A necessary wake‑up call

Large language models (LLMs), from ChatGPT to other big names and agentic systems, are impossible to ignore in today’s higher‑ed landscape. While they promise efficiency and new forms of support, growing evidence urges caution.

• Ethical concerns and learning harms: A recent taxonomy spotlighted multiple risks of LLMs in education, including biased or toxic output, hallucinations, privacy breaches, academic dishonesty, undermined student learning and social development, teacher workload increases, loss of autonomy, and deepening systemic inequalities (Harvey et al. 2025).
• Eroding trust in student–lecturer relationships: New research shows LLM use by students can strain trust, especially when transparency is lacking. Trust emerges not from perfection but from clarity and honesty (Kloker et al. 2025).
• Academic upheaval and ideological challenge: Some scholars ask whether LLMs threaten the very future of higher education, or whether education systems can adapt thoughtfully (Milano et al. 2023). Other critiques argue LLMs often serve market interests over pedagogical ones, and may inadvertently harm cognitive development, especially for vulnerable learners (Rangarajan 2024).

Each voice matters. Let’s push toward ethical, critical, human‑centred application of LLMs and other AI-powered tools.

Hope and Zen (and how to revive them)

So why, amid exhaustion and debate, should we still believe in teaching within higher education? How could we again find the inner place of peace, the approach of letting go and just be, in the midst of this all?

1. Human qualities remain irreplaceable
   A study on AI in higher education found that creativity, emotion, critical thinking, and the relational dimension of teaching remain fundamentally human. They are irreplaceable by AI. Students also value these qualities (Chan & Tsi 2023).
2. Synergy over substitution
   In science education, LLM‑generated feedback scored comparably to human and expert feedback, except in pinpointing contextual errors. The most promising approach? Combine AI’s speed with human nuance (Sessler et al. 2025).
3. Reframing LLMs as cultural technologies
   Any LLM is to be used as any writing tool in, not as a replacement for the writing process. This shift invites educators to rethink pedagogies, rather than defend obsolete assessment models (The Guardian).
4. Purpose as resistance
   Open education, embodied at OER25, is about purpose, transparency, equity, and voice. By focusing on these values, we anchor teaching in something larger than expedience or novelty.

Ideas to fuel renewal this academic year

a) Build AI literacy with integrity in mind
Host sessions or workshops where colleagues and students explore what LLMs can and cannot do, focusing not just on output quality, but on ethical dimensions, trust, and equity.

b) Rethink assessment as process, not product
Prioritise writing as a mode of planning, ideation, and thinking, not just as a final output to get a grade. Embrace drafts, reflections, portfolios, peer dialogue, oral defenses, and any approach that can’t be outsourced to an algorithm (The Guardian).

c) Design assignments that value transparent collaboration
Encourage students to use AI but require them to annotate how they used it, or reflect on how the tool shaped their thinking. Transparency fosters trust (Kloker et al. 2025).

d) Leverage open education to reclaim autonomy
Use open educational resources and collaborative designs to co‑create knowledge, not just deliver content. Celebrate learner agency, community voices, and the teaching craft itself. These were among the central themes from OER25.

e) Practice self‑compassion as colleagues
Acknowledge the fatigue. Offer low‑threshold support: peer check‑ins, micro‑wellness breaks, and small rituals to restore purpose. Remember that resilience often thrives in a community setting.

A few take‑home affirmations

• You are irreplaceable. Creativity, empathy, mentorship, contextual understanding, ethical nuance: These cannot be algorithmically replicated.
• AI can be an ally, not the enemy. Used critically, LLMs can amplify, not diminish, what teaching practitioners do best. LLMs may help us a great deal in our day-to-day work. Watch this space, more details to follow in my postings!
• Integrity matters more than efficiency. In a time of hype and uncertainty, pedagogical clarity grounded in trust and equity is a radical act.
• Community sustains us. OER25 reminded us that speaking truth – to power, to trends, to complacency – thrives in collective action. More than that: Our communities also sustain us and restore us. We can find our Zen, or peaceful frame of mind, within our communities.

As the new academic year begins, I would like to carry forward the lessons of the OER2025 Open Education community and the voices urging us to ask: How can we work as teachers more ethically, more humanely? Let that question rekindle your energy, set your mind at peace, and turn this into a concrete practice at work. Today.