Building AI Fluency through Play and Practice

Outline

Welcome and quick overview of GenerationAI, ISTE+ASCD, and Playlab. (15 min)

Foundational level-setting with AI (20 min): Short presentation of the fundamentals of AI, including AI literacy concepts from the OECD AILit Framework. Participants will participate in a few turn and talk activities during this initial presentation.

Panel discussion (25 min): Panelists will include AI experts, Playlab staff, and ISTE+ASCD staff. The panel will center on why AI literacy is important before beginning activities with AI, how the model Playlab has created focuses on educators being able to shape their own AI tools, and practical insights from panelists around AI usage as a tool for transformation instead of just efficiency.
Table group work (50 min): Participants will be provided with a map of the room and the focus and ability level of each table. They will choose a table at their ability level where the topic is relevant to the type of AI app they would like to create. Once they are at their tables, the facilitators (who have all worked with Playlab in the past) will provide access to the tools and an overview of how they work, all while allowing educators hands-on experience building the apps.

Wrap-Up and Evaluation (10 min): Everyone’s attention will be brought back together from their individual table groups as we wrap the session with a few takeaways from the time together as well as an evaluation of the session. Participants will be invited to engage more deeply with the GenerationAI work by learning how to get connected to the newsletter and scholarships.

Outcomes

By the end of this session, participants will be able to:
Define key concepts of AI literacy and explain why foundational understanding is critical before engaging students with AI tools.
Explore the ISTE+ASCD Transformational Learning Principles as a lens for designing safe, equitable, and student-centered AI experiences.
Collaborate with peers and AI experts to examine real-world examples of responsible and creative AI use in education.
Use Playlab’s tinker tools to build and train a simple AI application that demonstrates how AI learns and responds to data.
Identify classroom connections by brainstorming ways to integrate AI creation and exploration into their own teaching practice.

Supporting research

https://www.playlab.ai/blog/building-skills-not-shortcuts/
https://www.playlab.ai/blog/how-playlab-is-creating-guardrails-for-ai-that-reflect-educators-needs-and-values/
https://www.teachai.org/ailiteracy
https://iste.org/generationai/