Emergent Technology, Emergent Critique: Students and Teachers Developing Critical AI Literacy through Participatory Design around Generative AI
Santiago Ojeda-Ramirez, Eva Durall Gazulla, Kylie Peppler
TLDR
This paper explores how students and teachers collaboratively developed critical AI literacy through participatory design around generative AI tools.
Key contributions
- A 5-week participatory design program engaged 11th-grade students and teachers on generative AI use.
- Identified three critical AI literacy practices: unsettling assumptions, mutual learning, and cultural critique.
- Offers strategies for fostering critical AI literacy in youth through collaborative design processes.
Why it matters
This paper is crucial for educators and policymakers grappling with generative AI in schools. It demonstrates a powerful model for empowering students and teachers to critically engage with new technologies, fostering agency and informed decision-making.
Original Abstract
Who gets to decide how generative AI tools enter students' classrooms? We report on a five-week participatory design program in which three 11th-grade Latinx students and three high school teachers in California negotiated how generative AI tools would be used and taught about in learning environments. Drawing on video recordings and designed artifacts, we ask: what critical AI literacy practices emerged as students and teachers jointly designed how generative AI tools would be used and taught about? Our analysis reveals three practices: collectively unsettling assumptions about AI, mutual learning through complementary expertise, and grounding AI critique in cultural knowledge and creative practice. Students and teachers developed these practices through the design work itself. This case contributes strategies for designing with youth around an emergent technology like generative AI toward critical AI literacy. It extends work on youth as protagonists by showing how this approach enables students to shape both the adoption and the interrogation of these tools in their learning environments.
📬 Weekly AI Paper Digest
Get the top 10 AI/ML arXiv papers from the week — summarized, scored, and delivered to your inbox every Monday.