Are we teaching AI literacy, or are we just teaching students how to outsource thinking more politely?
Too often, AI education starts with the tool. Here is how to prompt. Here is how to generate. Here is how to save time. But if students meet the AI before they meet their own thinking, what exactly are they learning? For me, the real challenge is not whether students use AI. They are and they will. The challenge is whether they can think before prompting, judge before accepting, adapt before submitting and explain before claiming ownershipAI literacy cannot be only about access, efficiency, or productivity. It has to be about agency. A student who can use AI is not automatically AI literate. A student who can question AI, reject weak outputs, improve ideas, protect their voice, and explain their decisions is much closer. So perhaps the question for AI educators is this. Are we designing AI use that strengthens human intelligence, or are we quietly designing around it?
13 replies
Why have you decided that SchoolAI is compulsory for all learners? Curious. Should they also not have the agency to opt out?
Prompt the human first!
We are not allowed to put students onto any LLM in school or suggest that they use anything that requires them to create an account. SchoolAI is allowed by the local authority so that is what I am allowed to use. Having said that I am not sure how many teachers aside from myself actually use it
I suppose my question, though, is whether students can opt out of using SchoolAI or if it is a compulsory platform in your class?
Nope, never compulsory. It is provided as an additional support if they want to use it but there is no obligation to use it.
cool, yeah, something missing from many AI frameworks is the intentional non-use of AI.
Part of my courses is to encourage students to think about why they should not use AI. They usually give me more reasons not to use it than to use it :-)
So do mine
:-)
Well, it can replace actual human thought; the key is to teach our students so it does not and for them, as you are doing, to reflect on the consequences of that.