With recent widespread access to AI-based tools, educators nationwide are only beginning to understand the scope and impact AI will have on future learning and their students’ lives. The excitement is understandable, and the potential to shape education — and society — is immeasurable. Today, it’s even more pressing that we equip our teachers and students with the knowledge they need to navigate this new frontier.
This is a subject I am especially passionate about. I have been working with AI in some shape or form since 2000, beginning with algorithms to generate math items. In 2023, I had the honor of joining the inaugural cohort of the EDSAFE AI Alliance’s Women in AI Fellowship, which provided a venue to explore AI in educational technology further. It was perfect timing; ChatGPT was released to the public two months earlier, and I became immersed in the importance of policy and the necessity of a framework for creating a safe environment to explore and leverage AI.
We know that today’s students will be using AI-based tools as the workforce of the future, just like many of us are already. And we can expect AI to continue to become more sophisticated. Just as teaching media literacy and responsible use of social media have become critical, the next generation will also need AI literacy. The bottom line is this: Educators need more support to understand AI, and students need to be equipped with knowledge to assess the promise and limitations of this technology and how they can use it responsibly.
Thankfully, educators don’t need to be AI experts to teach AI literacy. Common themes have emerged in the conversations surrounding AI-focused curricula for elementary and secondary students — in addition to curricula supporting educators in learning about AI themselves! One of these resources is the International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE), which has published helpful guides for educators of all kinds.
With that in mind, here are four strategies to help build AI literacy in the classroom. But first, check your school’s policy on AI usage and see if your state has published guidelines.
Understanding AI and AI literacy
You and your students can establish a foundational understanding of AI using materials like the Artificial Intelligence (AI) for K-12 initiative (AI4K12). It offers guidance with its “Five Big Ideas in Artificial Intelligence” framework, which provides a baseline for building knowledge about AI. Core elements include perception, representation and reasoning, learning, natural interaction and societal impact. Code.org also offers a video lesson series called “How AI Works.”
From there, you can gauge students’ familiarity with specific AI tools and discuss AI’s potential and how it might impact their lives. Emphasize AI’s potential in amplifying human capabilities and broadening our horizons. It can allow any student to explore coding or deepen their creativity by interacting with image and video design. Using AI, students might learn new skills and ultimately change the course of their education, careers and lives.
Be open about the risks and limitations
Students need to understand the risks and consequences involved with AI, including responses that may present incorrect information or infringe on copyrights. Large Language Models have many ethical concerns and considerations, including answer bias and privacy concerns.
Additionally, it is essential to ensure students understand the concept of hallucinations — how inaccurate data can be generated by popular AI tools and how that information might undermine their learning.
Create safe environment to experiment with AI
Once students understand the potential and risks, and you know your school’s AI usage policy and data privacy measures, encourage students to interact with AI in a low-stakes environment.
Some wonderful activities designed for elementary and secondary students provide them with hands-on experience and real-time insights into AI applications. For example, code.org offers interactive lessons with fun activities for grades 3–5 and grades 6–12—there is even a Dance Party Edition! Students can see the effects of applying human decisions to an AI bot.
Sharpen critical thinking skills to question AI
We can all agree that critical thinking skills are vital in a world of AI-generated information. Human involvement in questioning, refining and fact-checking AI-generated content is also vital.
Educators can offer several activities that will help build students’ ability to recognize inconsistencies and errors and where to turn to find factual information. One example is generating a series of AI responses to the same prompt. Then, ask students to compare and contrast the responses to identify similarities and discrepancies and facilitate a discussion about what could influence the different answers. Another exercise could ask students to identify and discuss bias in AI-generated content about controversial topics.
The quality of AI-created content should also be explored. AI responses often use specific phrasing and, by their very nature, do not include personal examples or anecdotes. A lesson might consist of two written passages, one created by a human and one AI-generated. Can the students tell the difference? Or if a student revises AI-generated content, can another student read it and recognize that AI is still involved? How does this impact our society if the same generic content is shared everywhere?
AI holds incredible promise for the future by streamlining processes, opening up new opportunities and enhancing our way of working. With these steps, educators can help prepare the next generation to leverage AI tools to their best advantage while deepening students’ critical thinking abilities.
Opinions expressed by SmartBrief contributors are their own.
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