AI Literacy: Understanding and Critiquing AI Tools

Big Idea

Developing AI literacy means critically engaging with how AI reflects and shapes our goals.

Essential Question

How do we build the literacy skills to evaluate and shape AI’s educational impact?

Opening Activity: Spot the AI

Can you tell which content was made by AI?

  • Examine 4–5 samples
  • Human or AI?
  • Be ready to explain your reasoning

Discuss

  • What tipped you off?
  • Were you surprised?
  • What does this reveal about AI evaluation?

Learning Goals for Today

✅ Define AI literacy
✅ Use frameworks to evaluate AI tools
✅ Practice designing effective prompts
✅ Critique AI-generated content

Agenda

  1. Spot the AI
  2. Frameworks & Evaluation
  3. Prompt Design
  4. Workshop
  5. Output Critique
  6. Reflection

AI Literacy Frameworks

Jigsaw:

  • Share what you learned from your assigned framework
  • What’s similar across frameworks?
  • What’s different?

Critical Evaluation of AI

Questions to ask:

  • What can this AI tool really do?
  • What are its blind spots?
  • Who benefits from this design?

Prompt Engineering

How do we “speak AI”?

  • Role prompting
  • Chain-of-thought
  • Clear tasks + desired format

Activity: Prompt Workshop

🎯 Design → Test → Refine

You’ll create prompts for:

  • Lesson ideas
  • Student feedback
  • Assessments

Cheating with AI?

Design a “cheating” prompt.

  • What worked?
  • What didn’t?
  • How could this assignment be redesigned?

Group Work: Create Guidelines

Together, draft:

  • Tips for strong prompting
  • Signs of weak outputs
  • Redesign ideas for AI-era assignments

Output Critique

Review an AI-generated artifact.

  • What’s one strength?
  • One instance of bias?
  • One prompt improvement?

Reflection

  • What shifted in your understanding today?
  • What AI uses excite you most?
  • What still worries you?

Looking Ahead

Next week:
Equity and Ethics in AI

Assignment:
Create a mini prompt library (5–7 prompts) for your educational context