Welcoming generation alpha through the lens of connectivism: Featuring AI's rhetorical agency

As students pack for college do they leave space in their carry on for agency—self-empowerment through the strategic use of artificial intelligence? And in what ways do educators address the need to define and shape their learning experience? Preparing to welcome the first wave of Generation Alpha (Gen Alpha) by endowing them with agency, this theoretical framework draws upon the eight principles of connectivism. Gen Alpha, digital natives by necessity, demands a new learning archetype incorporating artificial intelligence (AI). However, the contested capabilities of generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) reveal a disparate, disconnected approach to responding to the ubiquity of GenAI as a learning tool. While some fear that AI will deplete agency, our approach argues that, positioned strategically, AI can enhance agency. By drawing on the coordinate approach offered by connectivism, the researchers hope to inspire an innovative way to engage not usurp AI’s role in learning.