Teaching About AI

Find free educator tools for teaching about AI 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. The News Literacy Project supports educators in ensuring students have the skills and knowledge to navigate 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.

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INFOGRAPHIC

Start with our “6 Things to Know About AI” infographic, offering six news literacy takeaways to keep in mind as AI tools evolve.

Ideal for grades 5-12.

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More Resources

Activities from The Sift

Use these slides, think sheets and quiz for quick activities 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.

Daily Do Now slides

(see “AI or not” slides in Week 1)

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.

TikToks About AI

Prompt classroom discussion with these NLP-produced videos about breaking news, AI trends and more.

@newslitproject The New York Times customized chatbots by feeding them millions of real posts from Reddit and Parler. The responses showed how easily these AI tools could be used to spread misinformation by masquerading as real users. Here's what the chatbots had to say about the upcoming election. #2024Election #Trump #Biden #AI #OpenAI #Chatbots #MediaLiteracy ♬ original sound - News Literacy Project

Professional Development

On-Demand Events

Learn from NLP experts about best practices for teaching about this complex subject.

Want even more resources?

Visit our resource library to find lesson plans, classroom activities, posters, infographics, quizzes and more to help you teach news literacy in your classroom.