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AI Literacy for Students

A student guide to AI literacy that will help you gain foundational knowledge of AI concepts, apply generative AI knowledge appropriately in an educational setting, and enable you to think critically about generative AI systems and tools

Artificial Intelligence

human in center of block diagram, surrounded by tech icons

Artificial intelligence (AI) refers to computer systems capable of performing tasks that normally required human intelligence, such as interpreting language, recognizing patterns from large amounts of data, and making decisions. Some of the names given to AI, based on the way in which it is designed and what it can do, include neural networks, natural language processing, computer vision, speech recognition, machine learning, and deep learning.

While we tend to think of it as a product of the 21st century, it has been around since the middle of the 20th century. Chances are good that you interact with AI every day. Examples of AI include:

  • Phone using face recognition to unlock
    Asking your Smartphone to unlock your phone by recognizing your face;
  • Navigation app with a route on a phone
    Navigating to your destination using apps like Google Map or Waze to find the quickest route;
  • Social media like button on a smartphone
    Getting more posts in your social media feeds that match those with which you previously interacted (that you liked or commented on);
  • Mobile banking alert about unusual activity
    Getting a notification from your bank that there has been unusual activity in your account;
  • Shopping app product recommendations
    Obtaining a recommendation from an online store (or music or video streaming platform) based on your previous purchases;
  • Customer service chatbot interface
    Interacting with a customer service chatbot;
  • Grammar and writing suggestions overlay on text
    Feeding your text through a grammar software that suggests better ways to write your text;
  • English speaker using translation app to talk to Spanish speaker
    Using a translate tool to translate text from one language into another;
  • Voice-to-text app recording on a smartphone
    Using a voice-to-text app on a smartphone;
  • Woman speaking to Alexa personal assistant on a speaker
    Using a personal assistant like Siri, Alex, or Cortana.

AI has been around in education for decades, usually embedded as part of the student management system or the learning management system. These sorts of AI monitored student engagements with their platforms and analyzed large amounts of data to predict which student was likely to succeed or withdraw from a course (and therefore which ones might benefit from additional support), and how to optimize and personalize learning.

Source of the above content: FLO Micro – Future Facing Assessment Course by Eliana Elkhoury and Annie Prud’homme-Généreux  (CC-BY)

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