If you have ever watched kids shop at a Scholastic book fair, you KNOW that a journal full of blank pages is often the thing they want the most. Kids want to fill in those blank pages themselves. They want to color, draw, and write on those blank pages. They want to create.

A blank page is a very special thing. And not just for kids. I can totally relate, and I think it’s also safe to say that many other adults feel the same way. Think about how many journals you have probably given or received as gifts over the years. Think about how many blank journals fill the stationary aisle in office supply stores and how many are sold online.

The blank sketchbook that my then five-year-old son used and then turned into his MACJEMI series of coloring and picture books.

Earlier this month, many of us (millions of people in over 190 countries) participated in International Dot Day — a celebration of creativity inspired by the book The Dot by Peter H. Reynolds. The book and the celebration are all about making your own mark on the world, making your own mark on a blank page.

The book inspires young readers to have confidence in themselves as creators and confidence in their abilities from the very beginning of the process. The book is a reminder that even the simplest dot, or a line, or anything we make ourselves should be something we are proud of (willing to sign our name to) and can later be turned into something even more amazing.

I’ve taught a lot of student writers over the years, from preschool age through high school. I’ve worked with student writers in college and adult writers as well. At any age, generating ideas is an important and fundamental part of the writing process. It’s so, whether we start with a piece of paper or a cursor flashing on an empty screen. Generating our own ideas is a skill. It’s something we can learn, we can practice, we can improve, and we can refine.

I’m curious why some fellow educators believe that young writers should use AI to generate ideas. I read this article, Student Engagement with GenAI Brainstorming, from Elon University’s Center for Engaged Learning about a generative AI tool that was used to try and help students with the processes of brainstorming and ideation “without replacing thinking, voice, or agency.” However, even when using this specially designed AI tool — designed not to allow free prompting or text generation — feedback from the students who used it showed:

• “Many struggled to determine which AI-generated ideas were most relevant, describing the feedback as expansive but difficult to “drill down.” Nudgy was seen as effective for expansion but less helpful for concentration or synthesis—especially when integrating multiple sources into an argument.”
• “Students also expressed mistrust of GenAI, particularly around correctness, academic integrity, and what they called “Aigiarism.” Even when they valued AI for brainstorming, many worried that overuse could weaken creativity or dilute personal voice.”
• “Crucially, students recognized—and often accepted—that GenAI cannot provide personal judgment or lived experience. These, they argued, had to remain human responsibilities.”

While these older students did state that some benefits of the tool were that they could use it late at night or on their own schedule when an instructor wasn’t available for help and that it gave them examples that applied to different disciplinary perspectives, are those reasons really enough to justify it? Could there be any real value at all in encouraging younger students to use generative AI tools (which may or may not even have these specific limitations set on free prompting or text generation in place) rather than gathering ideas and brainstorming themselves?

In another article I read, Good ideas: When to use GenAI for brainstorming, Dr. Leon Furze reminds us that, “Being able to make novel, human connections between disparate pieces of information is something we’re profoundly good at, and while AI can certainly create lists of ideas at scale, it doesn’t achieve the same outcome as simply sitting down with a pen, paper, and the contents of your own head.” The author does list few situations when AI generated ideas might be used, however I can’t help but see than in each instance AI is being used as a shortcut and ultimately undermining the cognitive abilities of the writers using them.

I also can’t help but notice how the use of AI, in all of the examples above, eliminates human connection — which, in my experience, is also an important part of the writing process. If the main argument for using generative AI to brainstorm is that it will give students exposure to ideas and perspectives other than their own, why aren’t we promoting more collaborative opportunities and more sharing of ideas with other humans throughout the brainstorming and ideation processes?

I’m not yet convinced that there is any educational value in having students (of any age) use generative AI to intentionally offload the skill of gathering ideas (whether it be for informational, technical, analytical, or research writing — and especially not for creative, opinion, persuasive, or narrative writing) rather than learning to develop this important and fundamental part of the writing process for themselves.

I’m eager to hear from more educators. Why take away the gift of a blank page? Why take away the opportunity for students to make their own mark?

What am I missing?

Please leave your thoughts in the comments below.

Melissa Morris Inoa is the founder of INOAVATION. She is an educator with over twenty years of experience and has two young children of her own. Since the beginning of her career, she has sought out, researched, and embraced educational technology resources in order to support teaching and learning and has trained with Google, Apple, and many other edtech companies and, in turn, she shares her knowledge and experiences in order to help train other educators. Melissa has experience in public and private educational settings and has worked alongside many dedicated educators over the years, including one Director of Technology who would regularly reflect on the implementation of new technology resources with the phrase: “Just because we can doesn’t mean we should.” That purposeful pause has since become an important and powerful part of her own mindful, intentional, and sustainable daily practices and, in particular, is called to mind now when considering the use of generative AI.