Teaching About AI
Find free educator tools for teaching about artificial intelligence and the critical-thinking skills students need to thoughtfully navigate the uses and implications of this technology.
As generative artificial intelligence permeates our lives, it has never been more important to understand this technology — its implications for society and civic life, its potential and its limitations. We support educators in ensuring students have the skills and knowledge to understand and know how to use this evolving technology. Whether you need quick and easy discussion prompts or a complete lesson, you’ll find adaptable tools that make it easy to incorporate AI in your curriculum.
Try this first
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Start with our “6 Things to Know About AI” infographic, offering six news literacy takeaways to keep in mind as AI tools evolve.
Explore “AI or not?” This lesson plan includes activity slides and extension activity ideas.
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More resources
Activities from The Sift®
Use these slides, think sheets and quizzes for quick exercises or more in-depth lessons. These have been featured in The Sift, our newsletter covering teachable moments in the news that is packed with classroom activities and resources.
Don’t miss out on future editions of The Sift.
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RumorGuard® posts and slides
Each edition of The Sift® includes posts from RumorGuard, our timely series that explains viral rumors and is designed to help educators teach students to recognize misinformation. The following is a selection of AI-related RumorGuard posts that have corresponding slides (shared weekly in The Sift), from the 2025-26 school year. Use the RumorGuard Guide: 2025-26 school year to find the slides (Use CTL+ F and search for “AI” to highlight all listings that relate to AI.)
A deep dive with Checkology
Use the “Introduction to Algorithms” lesson from our Checkology virtual classroom to give students a comprehensive and eye-opening look at how algorithms and AI shape social media feeds. Completely revamped in 2024, the lesson features two humorous characters: Algo, who personifies algorithms, and Gen, who represents generative AI.
“Introduction to Algorithms” is easy to assign.
Just make sure you’ve created a free Checkology educator account. Create a class, add students and assign “Checkology 101” (choose the middle or high school version). Within “Checkology 101,” you can skip straight to “Introduction to Algorithms” or teach the entire sequence of lessons to explore even more news literacy topics.
Videos from social media
Prompt classroom discussion with these NLP-produced videos about breaking news, AI trends and more.
View more videos on TikTok
Check out our Tiktok playlist collection of AI literacy videos.
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Two Truths and AI
This video series is designed to help students sharpen their critical thinking skills around artificial intelligence. Each episode makes AI literacy engaging, interactive and perfect for classroom discussion.
Want more Two Truths and AI?
Watch NLP’s Dan Evon give a live presentation at the Knight Media Forum 2026 and see if you can score better than the audience.
Professional development
On-demand events
Learn from NLP experts about best practices for teaching about this complex subject.
Want even more resources?
Visit our Checkology resources preview to find lesson plans, classroom activities, posters, infographics, quizzes and more to help you teach news literacy in your classroom.
Family infographic
For families: This infographic for parents and caregivers shares six safety tips to guide teens as they use AI tools and social media platforms.
Scroll Smarter
Subscribe to Scroll Smarter, the News Literacy Project’s monthly newsletter for families. It shares resources and ideas for how to help children think critically about news and information.
For the media
For the press: Are AI literacy experts available for media interviews?
Yes. The News Literacy Project has expert spokespeople for media interviews on AI literacy and AI in education. Our staff can discuss topics like:
- How schools can help students use AI responsibly
- Ways AI is used to create and spread misinformation
- Tips for how to tell if an image is AI-generated
Reach out to Christina Veiga, senior director of media relations, at media@newslit.org.
Christina Veiga
Senior Director Media Relations
media@newslit.org
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