Connecting UDL Guidelines to SEE Mindsets
Supporting Intentional GenAI Use Through UDL and the SEE Framework Mindsets
CAST’s universal design for learning (UDL) guidelines give educators instructional design considerations for reducing barriers to learning and building learner agency.
AI for Education’s SEE Framework provides five mindsets that help protect these design commitments when GenAI enters the classroom.
Together, they ensure that GenAI enriches rather than diminishes the experience of every learner.
UDL Guidelines + SEE Mindsets
Strategy Development Be Intentional
Create goal-setting and self-reflection cycles for GenAI use. Learners use GenAI strategically, based on goals and needs, not by default.
Build "To use GenAI or not?" decision points into assignments. Learners make purposeful decisions about when and why to use GenAI.
Require students to set a meaningful goal before using a tool.
Add student reflection checkpoints where learners explain why GenAI was used (or not) and how they created space for independent thinking.
Building Knowledge Stay Critical
Shift students from passive consumption to active critique of GenAI outputs.
Treat GenAI outputs as drafts and require students to fact-check GenAI, iterate, and revise.
Explore and correct common misconceptions. Demonstrate how to question a GenAI response.
Make "Is GenAI supporting or undermining my learning?" a routine question.
Emotional Capacity Be Transparent
Build classroom trust and support safety by modeling transparency and ethical reflection.
Co-create and post norms and classroom expectations for disclosing GenAI use.
Model your own GenAI use and uncertainties out loud to create a reflective, transparent culture.
Regularly consider the implications of GenAI use for self, community, and world.
Welcoming Interests & Identities Act Responsibly
Actively mitigate the biases and risks that come with AI tools. Help learners understand the broader social and ethical impacts of GenAI use.
Vet tools for accessibility, privacy, and bias before use.
Surface tool limitations (hallucinations, sycophancy, bias, etc.) and strategies for mitigation.
Explore GenAI’s impact on personal voice and autonomy.
Sustaining Effort & Persistence Keep Learning
Embrace iterative, persistent, and collaborative learning.
Embrace productive struggle and active and persistent engagement with GenAI.
Create space for students to share their discoveries and experiences. Normalize experimentation, mistakes, and iteration.
Emphasize that AI literacy is a durable skill built over time, not a mastery of a single platform.
