AI Literacy Part II "What We Talk About When We Talk About AI Literacy"

Teachers are aware that AI is present in schools and learning environments, whether we like it or not. And many feel pressure, internally and externally, to learn and teach some form of "AI literacy". Justin has cautioned that it's too early for us to really understand what AI literacy is, and that just guessing at what might constitute AI literacy might do harm.

Teachers and schooleaders appreciate that warning, but many feel that we can't do nothing. It's essential for teachers to start getting some knowledge about how AI works, to start experimenting with AI powered practices, and think about implementing them into our instruction.

In our research, the most eloquent proponent that teachers should gain, and perhaps teach, some kind of AI literacy is Maureen Russo Rodriguez. Maureen is a Spanish and English teacher at St. Mark’s School in Massachussets. She is a cofounder (with Nate Green) of a network of educators called CoLab, which started in 2024 and now includes over nine hundred educators from over three hundred schools. We talk with her about her path to leading a process by which teachers design their own AI literacy professional development process, and Justin and Maureen try to pin down where they are in agreement, and disagreement.

This episode was produced by Jesse Dukes. You can learn more about Co-lab at https://www.educolab.org/.

We got support for our interview with Maureen from RAISE at MIT: Responsible AI for Social Empowerment and Education. Thanks to Eric Klopfer and Cynthia Brezeal. RAISE also sponsors a series of professional development opportunities around AI for teachers, in a similar spirit to Co-Lab called Day of AI. We had editorial help this week from Steven Jackson, Alexandra Salomon, Adam Brock, Sara Falls, and Steve Oulette.

Teach Lab is a production of the Teaching Systems lab at MIT Justin Reich Director