The Crisis Isn’t Artificial Intelligence. The Crisis Is Artificial Connection in the Classroom
- Louise Sommer
- Sep 28, 2025
- 3 min read
Updated: 1 hour ago
What I see is this: We are not losing students to artificial intelligence. We are losing them to artificial connection, and most educators do not fully understand what this means.
Students scroll, click, respond, and ‘connect,’ yet they feel increasingly alone (loneliness is a huge problem amongst young people today), and they unseen, and disconnected from what makes learning meaningful. But lets make this clear: AI is not replacing their potential, but it is slowly disconnecting students engagement in learning. And this prevents a cultivation of their potential.
This is not really a technological crisis. It is a human and educational crisis; a crisis of attention, curiosity, and human-centred education, that begins in the classroom and in the interaction with their lecturers.
For years, students have been trained to prioritise speed over reflection, efficiency over effort, and performance over curiosity. They have become habituated to reacting instead of thinking deeply. Their nervous systems are overstimulated, yet under-nourished. In that state, it becomes easier to interact through screens than to wrestle with challenging ideas or sustain cognitive effort.
Artificial connection feels quick, easy, and safe, but it does not feed deep learning. It fragments focus, erodes resilience, and undermines students’ ability to sustain attention and engage with complex ideas. Essays can be generated in seconds. Summaries replace reading. Arguments are outsourced. Thinking can be simulated without being developed. The more effortless the access to information, the more fragile the habit of working hard becomes.
Deep learning is not a passive act of information intake. It is an active, embodied, relational process. It requires focus, effort, reflection, emotional regulation, repeated practice, and meaningful human interaction. Without these, students can know the answers without ever understanding them, and complete assignments without ever truly thinking.
AI can generate content. It can simulate reasoning. It can even offer structured feedback. But it cannot cultivate the persistence, curiosity, or disciplined thinking that learning demands. These qualities only emerge in environments where students are challenged, supported, and guided by educators who model rigorous thinking, intellectual curiosity, and relational care.
When artificial connection takes the place of real engagement, students are present in body but absent in mind and body. They may attend lectures, submit work, or engage online, but their thinking remains superficial, their cognitive muscles underdeveloped, and their capacity for sustained effort diminished.
The classroom becomes a stage of performative engagement rather than deep intellectual growth.
This is not a call to reject AI. The answer is not to ban tools or idealize the past. The answer is to re-humanise all learning environments. We need classrooms where students can focus without distraction, think without shortcuts, and work with guidance rather than automation. Higher learning spaces where they experience attention, challenge, feedback, and reflection, so knowledge become relevant. When it is experienced as relevant, questions arise, the nervous system is engaged and emotional maturity cultivated.
Educators hold the key. University lecturers, tutors, and mentors create environments where students can develop cognitive endurance, curiosity, and independence. Through structured dialogue, feedback, and relational guidance, students learn to sustain attention, wrestle with ideas, and develop reasoning skills that AI cannot replicate.
The crisis is not that AI is becoming more intelligent or is too powerful. The crisis is that students are becoming less able to think deeply, persevere through challenge, and engage fully in their own learning. Rebuilding engagement and cognitive resilience in higher education requires us to restore real presence in the classroom, and to teach the habits of mind that form strong, reflective learners.
Before we ask, “How do we manage AI in learning?” we must first ask, “How do we reconnect students with the effort, attention, and human guidance that make deep learning possible?”
Because the crisis was never artificial intelligence. It has always been the slow erosion of students’ capacity to show up, think deeply, and engage fully. Only lecturers have the power to change that.
What I see is this. We need to talk about how we can give our university lecturers the time, energy and support, so they can show up, and offer just that: Real connection and human-centred learning.
I would love to hear your reflections on this topic. Join the conversation on LinkedIn.
Was this article inspiring and helpful?
Share it on social media
Pin it!
Send it to a creative friend who needs to read this
