AI, CS, & Digital Literacy

Thanks to one of the latest ChatEDU episodes, I recently came across a post by Carla Engelbrecht Fisher that felt really relevant as we look at infusing AI into existing engineering lessons for this year's for Oregon STEM Week:

14 Ways to Remind Yourself (and Your Kids) AI is a Machine, Not Your Friend

This article is full of simple, relatable ways to help students (and us!) understand what AI is (and isn’t).

At its core, the post reinforces a few key ideas that are essential for students: AI doesn’t think - it predicts. AI doesn’t understand - it patterns. And sometimes, it gets things wrong in ways that feel surprisingly human.

What I appreciate most is how actionable her approach is. Here are five of the 14 ways she suggests we can start talking about AI with kids:

1. AI is an it.

Remove he/she/they from your discussion with regard to AI. Model that AI is just a tool, not a sentient being with human pronouns.

2. Watch your verbs Help students understand that AI is making guesses based on patterns, not "knowing." It may "generate", "process" or "output", but it doesn't "think."

3. Call out when AI uses human words.

AI is known to use human phrasing (again, pattern matching!) like "I believe" and "in my experience." Point this out to your students to reinforce the connection that AI doesn't "believe" or "have experience" beyond the data it's trained on.

4. Name the sycophancy. AIs ability to applaud inaccuracy is well documented but that affirmation can feel good to a struggling student. It's important to share this is all part of the training and AI is not relational.

5. Keep the conversation on going. AI literacy isn’t a one-and-done lesson. It’s something we build over time through small, consistent conversations. See the full article for all 14

One Small Pushback

There’s one piece I’d gently challenge: the suggestion to skip “please” and “thank you” when interacting with AI. I understand the reasoning - AI doesn’t have feelings. But I’m not convinced that means those words don’t matter.

Writers like Shehara Fernando make the case that how we interact with AI shapes our habits. And research in Developmental Psychology suggests that repeated language patterns carry over into human interactions.

AI may not care, but students are still practicing how they communicate.

A Simple Takeaway for Oregon STEM Week

This year's Oregon STEM Week will look at how we can take some of our favorite engineering lessons and incorporate not only age appropriate AI extensions, but also AI Literacy.

We'll be looking at how we can keep AI use grounded and human-centered as we incorporate it.

Here are some discussion prompts you'll be able to use with any lesson: What is the AI actually doing here? Where might this go wrong? How do we want to show up - even when the “other side” isn’t human?

Final Thought

We don’t need to overhaul everything to bring AI literacy into our classrooms. Sometimes it starts with a simple example, a thoughtful question, or a small moment of curiosity. From there, we build students who don’t just use AI - but understand it, question it, and navigate it with intention.