Nearly 8 in 10 educators report high school students in their district are receiving lessons on what AI is and how to use it responsibly, according to a survey by the EdWeek Research Center and described in an Education Week article. Seventy-three percent report students in 6th through 8th grades receiving literacy lessons.
AI literacy enables learners to engage, create with, manage, and design AI, while critically evaluating its benefits, risks, and implications, according to the U.S. Department of Education’s proposal to include AI in its grant-funding priorities.
Schools deliver AI literacy lessons in various ways: Some districts implement them through existing technology or media literacy classes; others design stand-alone AI literacy classes.
Younger students are less likely to receive literacy lessons, according to the EdWeek Research Center survey. Nearly 4 in 10 educators report 4th and 5th grade students were being taught AI literacy, while 8% of educators report the same for students in pre-K through 3rd grade.
The challenge for schools is finding the time to train teachers to integrate AI literacy into their curricula, given pressing priorities such as reading and math achievement, according to educators. Vetting AI tools and ensuring student and staff safety and privacy is another challenge.
The gap between secondary students and primary students receiving AI literacy lessons points to “the need to develop… AI literacy learning pathways,” says Kelly Mills, the senior director of powerful learning research at the nonprofit Digital Promise. AI literacy needs to be cumulative, competency-based, and consistent across classrooms and throughout a student’s K-12 experience, she says.
Other ed-tech experts agree that a quality AI literacy program starts in early grades, with age-appropriate lessons, and is integrated into existing curricula.
AI literacy doesn’t just mean teaching students how to use AI tools, says Karim Meghji, the CEO and president of Code.org. It’s also about critically evaluating its outputs and the fundamentals of data, bias, misinformation, and ethics surrounding AI use, he says.
“AI literacy is about ensuring students become thoughtful, critical users of powerful tools that are already shaping how they learn, work, and participate in society,” he says.
Skeptics of AI’s education benefits are concerned that schools’ AI literacy lessons don’t focus enough on the technology’s harms. AI literacy efforts often just give a perfunctory nod to the downsides of AI and fall into a “pro-hype” slant, says Benjamin Riley, the founder and CEO of Cognitive Resonance, a think tank that helps people understand how generative AI works.
Education Week
