Students in Kunshan, China Develop "AI Literacy"
The US government defines “AI literacy” as including the following —
(1) Basic technical knolwedge
(2) Durable skills
(3) Future ready attitudes
(4) An ability to engage, create with, manage, and design AI, while critically evaluating its benefits, risks, and implications
During the last week, middle school students in Kunshan, China (outside of Shanghai), debated whether funding for the humanities should be substantially decreased.
Questions they tackled included --
1. Should we divert the $ to STEM to protect economic growth and national prowess?
2. Will STEM or humanities graduates be more employable in the world of AI?
3. Without humanities, how will we protect ourselves in the world of AI?
4. Should STEM majors simply learn many of the soft skills we teach in the humanities?
Elementary school students debated about whether robots should replace humans at work.
1. Why pay humans when robots are cheap, never need breaks, and never need to be fed?
2. What will our parents do for work if robots do everything?
3. Do you really think we should send human firemen into burning buildings instead of robots?
4. "Are you really telling me you can think as fast as AI"?
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Along they way, they developed some “AI literacy.”
(1) I taught them how generative AI bots work at a basic level and demo’d KIMI to support their work. The background knowledge helped them understand KIMI’s “strengths and weaknesses.”
(2) They used KIMI and other AIs to help them prepare.
(3) Through debate, they developed “durable skills.”
(4) They thought critically about the implications of AI for society, including in employment and how humans will relate to it.
Quite simply —
They thought about their topics
They wrote out ideas
They brainstormed
They researched
They consulted AI
They spoke
They debated
They were engaged
No one cheated
No one talked about AI writing detectors
Brains grew, no brains rotted
They had fun
This is so much simpler than everyone is making it out to be.
Integrate some instruction about and with AI into what you’d otherwise teach.
Discuss the implications of AI for your subject and what you are teaching.
Increase the role of peformance in your assessments.
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PS. They did all this in English, their second language.
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