Skip to Main Content

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

Generative Artificial Intelligence

Glowing brain illustration representing generative AI

Understanding Generative AI (GenAI)

Generative AI (GenAI) is a subfield of artificial intelligence focused on creating new content that often resembles human-generated work. It uses models to generate realistic and coherent outputs across modalities, not limited to a single medium.

What Can GenAI Create?

Examples of GenAI include:

Creating realistic images or artworks

Writing cohesive text

Generating music

Creating realistic voices

Designing 3D models

Describing pictures or videos

In this section on Generative AI Fundamentals, you will discover:
  • What Generative AI is and what it isn’t
  • Scenarios where GenAI tools can help
  • Key limitations of GenAI
  • The basics of how generative AI works
What Generative AI Is
  • A tool to assist and enhance your work
  • A pattern-matching system trained on human-created content
  • A creative collaborator that can help generate ideas and content
  • A productivity aid that can help streamline tasks
  • A learning companion that can explain concepts in different ways
  • A starting point for projects and creative work
What Generative AI Isn’t
  • Magic
  • Perfect or error-free
  • Capable of true understanding or reasoning
  • Always up to date with current events
  • Able to fact-check itself reliably
  • A substitute for human expertise or judgment
  • A source of consistent or reproducible outputs
  • Capable of forming genuine opinions or beliefs

GenAI is most effective as a collaborative tool that enhances your ability. Think of it as a sophisticated assistant or thought partner rather than an autonomous expert.

Generative AI: Your Versatile Partner

At its best, GenAI augments human creativity, communication, productivity, planning, and problem-solving.

Man and robot collaborating illustration
As a Creative Partner

It can help you by:

  • Brainstorming new ideas and concepts
  • Helping overcome creative blocks
  • Visualizing concepts through image generation
  • Experimenting with different creative directions
  • Providing inspiration through variations
As a Learning Partner

It can help you by:

  • Breaking down complex topics
  • Creating practice questions
  • Offering multiple perspectives
  • Helping review and summarize material
  • Helping organize research findings
As a Communication Partner

It can help you by:

  • Helping draft and refine messages
  • Suggesting different tones and styles
  • Adapting content for audiences
  • Improving clarity and conciseness
As a Problem-Solving Partner

It can help you by:

  • Breaking down complex problems
  • Suggesting different approaches
  • Checking logic and reasoning
  • Offering alternative perspectives
  • Helping analyze pros and cons

The list doesn’t end here. Whatever way you use GenAI, remember: you are responsible for the output you co-create.

But…Be Wary and Understand the Limitations

Like any tool, generative AI has limitations you need to understand. Here are the major ones:

Everything It Outputs is “Made Up”

GenAI creates responses by predicting. This means:

  • It can confidently present incorrect information
  • It makes up facts and citations
  • It can’t verify its own accuracy
  • It doesn’t truly understand
  • It generally doesn't learn from conversations
Bias is Built Into the System

GenAI learns from human content, inheriting biases:

  • May favor certain perspectives
  • Can perpetuate stereotypes
  • Might give different treatment to groups
  • Often reflects Western biases
  • Consider environmental impact
Privacy Concerns are Real

When you use GenAI tools, remember:

  • Conversations may be stored/analyzed
  • Inputs might be used for training
  • Sensitive info could be exposed
  • Privacy policies can change
Copyright & Ownership are Complicated

Using GenAI raises IP questions:

  • Trained on potentially copyrighted material
  • Ownership of AI content isn’t always clear
  • Different tools have different terms
  • Commercial use may have restrictions
  • Disclose AI use as appropriate
Output May Not be Reliable or Consistent
  • The same prompt can give different results
  • Quality can vary significantly
  • Results depend heavily on prompt phrasing
  • The AI can go off track or change tone
  • May not maintain consistency

While GenAI is a powerful tool, it’s essential to verify outputs, use critical thinking, and maintain appropriate skepticism. You are responsible for fact-checking, ensuring ethical use, and making final decisions.

The Special Case of Generative AI in Education

Group of students illustration

In education, GenAI presents both opportunities and challenges. It can help tailor educational content, assist in creating authentic assessments, and support student creativity. However, it also introduces academic integrity concerns, new privacy considerations, and can exacerbate inequalities in technology access.

The role of GenAI in education is evolving. It’s marked by its promise to revolutionize learning and the challenges it presents. As educators, students, and innovators, our task is to harness GenAI’s potential while safeguarding fair, effective, and ethical educational principles, always keeping a human-centric approach at the forefront.

Innovation and Ethics

Striving for a balance between innovation and ethical, equitable implementation in education.

Unless otherwise stated, this page and AI Literacy for Students © 2025 by David Williams is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International

This site is maintained by the librarians of Okanagan College Library.
If you wish to comment on an individual page, please contact that page's author.
If you have a question or comment about Okanagan College Library's LibGuides site as a whole, please contact the site administrator.