AI Literacy. What on earth is it?

There are two sides to the AI debate.

1. AI is here and can revolutionise every sector and change the world (for better or worse it's not entirely clear)

2. AI is a fad. Most of the tools are rubbish and it will all go away.

Both arguments have merit but either way, it will take a while for number 2 to happen if it is going to. In the mean time, there is no getting away from the fact that organisations are looking very closely at how AI could be used to improve business process, improve sales, make things more efficient etc. etc.

Education as a sector (or at least the senior management of education providers and several large lobbying groups) appear to view the potential of AI as akin to the transformative impact of the internet. Back in April, we posted this blog on why we feel that educators are on the back foot when it comes to AI 'revolutionising' education. The core message was that in order to get the most from AI tools you need to know how to use them properly. Nearly three months on, and while we are seeing a definite increase in the number of institutions looking at things like effective prompting, there are very few institutions that have began to think about how to develop and deliver an effective training program for staff or students that helps them:

a) To get the most from AI and explains what AI is good for (and what it really isn't)

b) How AI could help them in their studies, or within their own work environment

c) What to think about when considering whether an AI tool is the right fit.

Taken together, a), b) and c) are what we believe will lead to better AI literacy. To help educators get to grips with AI and begin to understand it's potential and limitations, we have produced the first of a range of AI Literacy e-learning courses: AI Literacy for Educators.

This course is a straight forward introduction to AI in a Teaching & Learning setting. It provides a basic understanding of how AI works, but the greater part of the course is designed to look at how educators can actually use three of the most popular tools (Co-Pilot, Chat-GPT 4o and Google Gemini) to improve the educational experience, make their day to day work flows more efficient and help them improve academic integrity in an age where a simple piece of written work can be generated in seconds and (depending on the prompt) be pretty effective at defeating a plagiarism checker.

You can read more about the course and sign up to take it here. We also offer the course as in house training with case studies that are tailored to the audience. for more information you can get in touch via ccinfogov.co.uk.