Digital literacy expert Beverly Clarke designed a curriculum to ensure students develop safe, responsible, and respectful AI engagement skills. She states the program guides educators in teaching learners to analyze reasoning, distinguish AI processes from human judgment, and evaluate AI-generated content for accuracy and bias. Clarke emphasizes that passive reliance on AI output risks critical thinking deficits, urging deeper, more reflective interactions with technology.
Learners need to think about what they see: what is AI, what isn’t AI, where the errors are in AI output and where bias might exist. Clarke emphasizes that generating output is relatively easy, but critically assessing it is the real learning.
Teacher confidence is vital in introducing digital literacy topics to the classroom. To support teachers, a series of ‘Explorations’ has been introduced, providing tools, resources, and tangible lesson ideas to help learners investigate and explore the digital literacy course in a safe and practical way.
Each Exploration contains ‘hands on’ activities for learners, which help them engage with the learning objectives of using digital tools successfully. Teachers can easily adapt the activities to fit local context, as well as the length and challenge.
For example, a primary Exploration looking at digital play focuses on six different activities that allow learners to discuss and share their experiences of using digital technology outside school for recreation. These activities include comparing online and physical puzzles, human vs computer, games design, and streaming music and videos.
Another Exploration looks at the topic of artificial intelligence and human intelligence. In a series of activities, learners are asked to come up with words they associate with AI, what they think humans are good at, and what machines are good at. This Exploration helps learners think critically about the differences between AI and human intelligence.
