In the spirit of the Gaborone Statement from the Eleventh Pan-Commonwealth Forum on Open Education (PCF11), the Commonwealth of Learning (COL) reaffirms its commitment to promoting open learning as a digital public good. A central action identified by the Statement calls for the ethical leverage of the digital dividend. This principle underscores three interlinked imperatives: advancing open standards and open learning ecosystems, building robust digital public infrastructure for education, and embedding ethical, inclusive artificial intelligence (AI) and data protection safeguards in teaching and learning systems.

A recent article by COL Chair Professor Michalinos Zembylas, co-authored with Eleni Christodoulou, provides timely insights into why this agenda is urgent. Their study, Ambivalence and emotion in the age of AI: how students navigate ChatGPT in higher education, shifts the debate away from simplistic narratives of AI as either a threat or a panacea. Instead, the article reveals the nuanced ways in which students experience generative AI tools such as ChatGPT with feelings of excitement, curiosity, mistrust, and ethical uncertainty.

This research highlights that digital adoption cannot be reduced to questions of access or efficiency. Students are not merely passive recipients of AI-enabled tools. They grapple with profound questions of trust, authorship, and fairness. For some, generative AI enhances learning by clarifying complex concepts or scaffolding academic work; for others, it undermines critical thinking or raises fears of dependency. These emotional and ethical tensions reflect broader societal concerns about bias, privacy, and equity in the era of AI.

Such insights are invaluable for guiding policy and practice in the Commonwealth and beyond. They demonstrate that the “digital dividend” will only be realised when educational technologies are underpinned by ethical guardrails and inclusive design. Implementation in the Commonwealth requires:

• Treating open learning as a digital public good: Contextualised knowledge resources, platforms, and tools must be openly accessible, interoperable, and responsive to diverse learners’ needs.
• Investing in digital public infrastructure: Reliable connectivity and secure, equitable platforms are prerequisites for meaningful participation in the digital knowledge society.
• Ensuring ethical and inclusive AI adoption: From protecting data privacy to addressing bias, educational AI must be designed and deployed in ways that uphold human dignity, foster equity, and empower learners rather than displace them.

At COL, we view these priorities as inseparable from sustainable development. Just as the Gaborone Statement calls for reimagining education for ecological and social justice, so too must the governance of digital learning embody openness, inclusivity, and ethics. COL will continue to convene partners, support open learning innovations, and strengthen ethical frameworks and policies to ensure that digital transformation in education advances not only efficiency but also social justice and inclusion. In this context, COL’s Developing Policy Guidelines for Artificial Intelligence in Post-secondary Institutions publication provides a good starting point for institutions.

Ultimately, the digital dividend should not be measured by how quickly partner countries and institutions adopt new technologies, but by how equitably and responsibly these technologies serve learners across the Commonwealth. As this new research reminds us, education in the age of AI is as much about values and relationships as it is about sustainable, safe and ethical technologies.