🗑 How to create AI literate students

🚨 50% off Teacher AI Literacy Level 1

The AI Fluency Lab has released its first online course, and it’s starting with a bang! 💥

We’re offering a 50 percent discount to Ditch That Textbook readers who enroll in the course before July 7!

This early bird rate gets you the full course — instructional videos, learning activities, pre-written prompts, discussion boards, and tons of valuable resources.

It’s taught by The AI Fluency Lab faculty — Matt Miller, Holly Clark, and Ken Shelton — so you know you’ll get experienced, practical training.

Take advantage of this opportunity before it disappears!

Interested in enrolling multiple people? Email [email protected] for pricing on bulk orders!

🎯 QUICK TEACHING STRATEGY 🎯

🦾 How to start a robotics club

There’s great stuff that promotes academic success all over a robotics club …

• Critical thinking

• Teamwork

• Perseverance

• STEM principles

• 21st century skills

Teacher Hunter McConnell didn’t expect to be a passionate robotics club advocate … but when he judged a student showcase, it opened his eyes.

Now, he’s led the robotics competition team at Tyler ISD (Texas) for four years and he isn’t looking back.

In today’s post, Hunter shares tips for a successful robotics team, ideas for incorporating STEM in the classroom, solutions to challenges, and more.

💡 THE BIG IDEA 💡

🤖 5 ways to start instilling AI literacy in students now

Think about a 10-year-old student right now.

(If you have a fifth-grader in your life — or can imagine a fifth-grader — picture them.)

• They’ll graduate high school in 2033.

• They’ll graduate college in 2037 and enter the workforce.

• They’ll hit their professional peak (maybe?) in the 2060’s.

• They’ll retire in 2080.

Can you even imagine what the world will look like in 2080 when they retire?

(I’m just having a hard time picturing what the world will look like when they graduate high school in 2033.)

We know that AI is coming on fast. There are seemingly new breakthroughs with AI technology every week — and sometimes it feels like every day.

It’s going to impact our students’ lives and their work …

• 85 million jobs will be displaced by automation and AI globally — but 97 million new roles will emerge.

• 40% of the global workforce will need to reskill in the next three years due to AI and automation.

• 71% of leaders say they’d rather hire a less experienced candidate with AI skills than a more experienced candidate without them.

The AI impact isn’t coming.

It’s here.

So … how do we help students prepare for this AI wave?

Thankfully, you don’t need a computer science degree to help.

Below, you’ll find a project I’m working on related to this topic — and also 5 things you can do right now to support your students’ AI literacy.

Introducing Teacher AI Literacy Level 1 Certification

I’m creating an online certification for teachers through the AI Fluency Lab alongside fellow authors/speakers Ken Shelton and Holly Clark.

Title: Teacher AI Literacy Level 1.

In it, you’ll get the basic skills and understandings to have a fluency, a literacy, around artificial intelligence …

• skills that’ll help you navigate this ever-changing AI world

• skills that’ll help equip your students for the future

• skills that’ll help you get more done, saving time for what matters most

📢 Good news: The pre-sale discount is 50% until July 7.

FYI: Interested in getting your whole school / district certified? Email [email protected] for details and a quote.

5 ways to boost AI literacy right now

Whether you get our Teacher AI Literacy Level 1 Certification or not, here are some steps you can take right now to boost your own AI literacy so you can support your students.

1. Use “by the way” lessons.

I did this in my own high school classroom. I would be teaching a normal lesson when I would see an opening for a quick conversation about AI.

I would say, “Oh, by the way, did you know …” and jump into a quick nugget of wisdom about how AI works or something important they needed to know.

Example: “Here’s an image I generated with AI. Oh, by the way, did you know that it can be hard to identify AI-generated images — but if you look closely, sometimes you can find little oddities that help you know what’s real and what’s not?”

I would call these “by the way” lessons.

I didn’t write them into my lesson plans. They would take 30 seconds, a minute, maybe two minutes.

But they’re powerful. If you’re aware of AI basics and can spot a place to insert a quick conversations, those conversations add up.

And over time, they give your students a pretty practical education on how real people are using AI in real ways.

2. Educate yourself on AI basics.

Artificial intelligence can feel like science fiction — like unexplainable magic that’s only endowed to the few.

Here’s the secret …

The more that you understand it, the less it feels like unexplainable magic.

Learning just a little bit at a time eventually adds up.

Here are some resources to get you started from Code.org …

• How Chatbots and Large Language Models Work by Code.org

• Demystifying AI for Educators by Code.org

• Really, this whole AI 101 for Teachers series by Code.org is good

3. Simply use (or at least try) AI tools yourself.

If you’re like me and you know that students will have great advantages by understanding AI in the future, here’s one of the easiest and most powerful things you can do.

Use AI tools. Or at least try them.

I’m not saying depend on them. You don’t even have to like them.

But if you try them out — see how they work — then you’re better positioned to help students.

You can tell them what you liked (and didn’t) from the experience …

… because you actually have some experience.

4. Explore educational AI tools to see if they fit.

AI is a booming business in the education / edtech world right now.

It doesn’t mean that every AI tools is helpful or useful for students and teachers.

But some of them are pretty good — when used in a place that makes sense in a lesson.

And some of them are actually helpful for teachers — saving us time for what matters most.

Here’s our list of 40 AI tools for the classroom. If you haven’t already, check some of them out.

5. Talk about the balance between AI and human.

You don’t have to fully understand AI to talk about getting the balance right.

Honestly, the human/AI balancing act will be one that your students will struggle with their entire lives.

A good place to start is simply to ask them …

When should you use AI in your work? When shouldn’t you?

(… or if you don’t want to get into AI yet … When should/shouldn’t you use technology in your work?)

I created this infographic about the different ways AI could support writing an essay as a starting point for conversations about AI overreach — and how to get the balance right.

You can get a downloadable PDF of it here.

Want to dive deeper into AI literacy?

Check out the Teacher AI Literacy Level 1 certification course by The AI Fluency Lab.

It’s packed full of …

• practical topics to better grasp AI and its implications in education

• video instruction by The AI Fluency Lab faculty (including me)

• discussion boards for collaboration with other participants

• downloadable resources to dive deeper

It’s an asynchronous course, where you can access videos and resources whenever you want — and you can start whenever you want.

When it comes to AI literacy courses and certifications, you won’t find one led by a team with more classroom experience — and with a better track record of professional development excellence — than us at The AI Fluency Lab.

Check out the course — and claim your 50% discount before July 7!

👋 How we can help

There are even more ways I can support you in the important work you do in education:

1. Read one of my six books about meaningful teaching with tech.

2. Take one of our online courses about practical and popular topics in education.

3. Bring me to your school, district or event to speak. I love working with educators!