Learning Objectives
- Sort: Identify your core values and discover questions that help you live by them (especially when using AI)
- Connect: Link your top values to ethical questions that help you practice them
- Compare: Notice which questions you ask in everyday life versus when using AI
- Reflect: As a group, consider patterns in the questions you ask — or want to start asking — when using AI
Context
We all have values that guide our decisions like creativity, justice, or independence. But when we face tough choices, it’s not always clear how to honor them. What if we had a set of questions that could help us stay true to what matters most to us? Values Bridge is a practice that helps us identify our core values and connect them to ethical perspectives that can inform our choices. It also helps us consider our ethical priorities when using AI. By making these differences visible and identifying patterns in the questions we orient to, we can better navigate AI use in ways that align with who we want to be.
Values shift over time and across different contexts: what matters most in this class might differ from what matters in other parts of life. By naming what matters most right now (whether for an assignment, class, or life in general), students clarify their values in a specific context. By connecting those values to ethical touchstone questions, they see that they already use ethical perspectives to navigate their choices. By layering in AI, they may also notice that they ask different questions when using AI.
When to Use This Practice
This practice can be used anytime. It works especially well early in the year as a foundation for values-based conversations and decision-making. It can also be repeated throughout the year with increasingly narrow focus — moving from “What matters most this semester?” to “What matters most for this assignment?” This repetition may help students see how values shift over time and context, and how different situations activate different ethical questions.
Instructions
- Sort your values. Using a printed values deck or digital app, students sort values into three columns: Most Important Right Now (limit to three), Important Right Now, and Less Important Right Now. Students can skip values that don’t resonate or add their own. This helps students clarify what matters most in their current context.
- Connect values to ethical questions. Introduce seven questions that represent different ethical perspectives people use to guide decisions. Using the top three “Most Important Right Now Values,” students draw lines from each value to questions that help them live that value. Download a printable handout for this activity here.
- Compare everyday vs. AI contexts. In pairs, students share which questions they connected to most. Then, they discuss: “Do you ask similar or different questions when you use AI?”4. Reflect on what changes with AI. As a class, notice patterns: “Where do our everyday questions and AI questions align and diverge? Do we want to ask different questions going forward? What does this reveal about how technology shapes our choices?”
Variations
- Dot Vote Extension: Post the seven ethical questions as large posters around the room. Give each student dot stickers in two colors, five of each (orange and blue are colorblind-friendly). Students place one color on questions that help them live their values in their personal life. Then, they place the other color on questions they most often consider when using AI. Students can distribute their dots however they choose, including placing all five on a single question. After voting, step back as a group and notice the distributions. “Where do the dots cluster? Where does one color dominate? Where are there few or no stickers?”
- Zoom Out Extension: Close by shifting perspective from personal to societal. Pair students up and ask: “When you zoom out from ‘my AI use’ to ‘AI’s impact on everyone in society,’ do the questions change?” Ask pairs to identify one question they’d pose about society that they might not ask when considering personal AI use. Then, bring the full group together and ask: “What gaps did you notice between your personal and societal questions? What does this tell us?” Listen for insights about broader impacts, shared consequences, or community effects that don’t surface when thinking individually. This helps students recognize that ethical decisions happen at different scales and contexts.
Tips
In this activity, there are no “right” values or “correct” questions. The seven questions are lenses that help us notice the trade-offs inherent in most choices. Acknowledge that values are shaped by identities, cultures, and contexts. If students struggle to connect values to questions, prompt with: “Think about a time when this value mattered to you—what question helped you honor it?“
Access the original assignment here. This resource was created by the Center for Digital Thriving at the Harvard Graduate School of Education. It was made possible through the support of Grant 63220 from the John Templeton Foundation. The seven ethical questions are adapted from the Moral Spectrum Exploration Exercise created for PLATO: Philosophy Learning and Teaching Organization by David Shapiro, from his book Choosing the Right Thing to Do: In Life, At Work, in Relationships, and For the Planet.
