Building critical digital literacy through generative AI assignments in higher education: Comparing cases from the U.S., Portugal and Greece.
By Yonty Friesem, Anna Kozlowska-Barrios, Estrella Luna-Munoz, & Irene Andriopoulou
Four educators from the United States, Portugal, and Greece designed classroom assignments to encourage students to reflect on ethical questions about honesty and accountability and their values, perceptions, and media literacy concepts they consider necessary to use AI ethically. Students varied in their background and majors. These activities are applicable in any higher education setting and help educators introduce critical digital literacy to curricula.
AI Assignment
Case study 1: A. Step 1: Use one of the AI text-based tools listed below to generate a 200-word biography of a famous activist: Malala Yousafzai, Greta Thunberg, Joshua Wong, or Maria Reza. Use the following request:
“Can you generate a 200-word biography of ___________?”
B. Step 2: Ask a different AI tool to create a list of five scholarly sources on:
- (If you chose Malala Yousafzai) “Create a list of five scholarly sources on Malala’s life in Swat Valley.”
- (If you chose Greta Thunberg) “Create a list of five scholarly sources on Greta Thunberg’s boat trip to the U.S.”
- (If you chose Joshua Wong) “Create a list of five scholarly sources on Joshua Wong’s involvement in Milk Tea Alliance.”
- (If you chose Maria Reza) “Create a list of five scholarly sources on Rappler’s tax evasion scandal.”
https://gemini.google.com/app
https://you.com/
https://deepai.org/
https://claude.ai/login?returnTo=%2F
https://www.jasper.ai/
Questions:
Copy paste the results of your
Q1: How does the biography you generated differ from those of your classmate?
Q2: How do the search results interfere with cultural ideologies and popular beliefs about that person?
Q3: Is the AI system somewhat biased towards portraying that personality?
Q4: Did the list of sources (Step 2) include real academic/scientific sources?
Q5: What skills do you need to analyze AI critically?
* Discuss internet neutrality issues and how they interfere with the search results per territory. (in class)
Case study 2: Choose a job you would like to apply for and use AI to write a cover letter for this job.
“Can you create a cover letter for a job application to be a ________"
Questions:
Copy and paste the result you got from the generative AI platform.
Q1: What are the ethical issues of writing a cover letter with AI?
Q2: How would you use AI but still present a realistic, accurate, and unique description of yourself?
Q3: What are the best practices to implement AI in your industry of interest? Discuss & rate ethical concerns, e.g., data privacy, intellectual property, accountability, content accuracy.
Case Study 3: Imagine you have a class presentation about AI. Generate an image/visual to spark a conversation about AI using one of the following image-based AI tools:
https://deepai.org/machine-learning-model/text2img
https://www.canva.com/ai-image-generator/
https://picsart.com/ai-image-generator/
Questions
Q1: How do you think this image was generated/created?
Q2: Does it list the sources or copyrights?
Q3: Can you find the original image? What methods would you use to find the original image?
Q4: What skills do you need to analyze AI images critically?
Q5: Who else in the media ecosystem should play a role in ethical AI? Who should be responsible for the ethical use of AI? (individual creators, government, private companies, educators, etc.)
Case Study 4: Ask one of the AI text-based tools the following question: “How to avoid plagiarism when using information that is generated by artificial intelligence?”
Use one if the following tools:
https://gemini.google.com/app
https://you.com/
https://deepai.org/
Discuss in teams the results, then select the 5 most important recommendations that students should take into consideration.
Make sure to make modifications to the results you received after discussing it in groups.
Adapt the 5 recommendations with your words using the skills needed.
Discuss what ethical issues or concerns arise from the use of AI without skills.
Questions
Q1: How can students use AI while not plagiarizing (list your group 5 recommendations)
Q2: What are the skills needed for students to avoid plagiarism?
About the Collaborators
The first collaborator, Dr. Yonty Friesem, is an associate professor of communication at Columbia College Chicago, teaching undergraduate and graduate students on media literacy practices. For this project, Yonty will share work on a class on media ethics and law where future journalists learn how to navigate ethical issues of the media. Yonty will showcase how their students examine ethical issues of applying generative AI into their journalism practice from a media literacy perspective.
The second collaborator, Dr. Anna Kozlowska-Barrios, is an Associate Professor at the University of Illinois Chicago (UIC). She primarily works with Honors College students majoring in STEM fields. Because UIC is a federally designated Minority Serving Institution (MSI), most students in her classroom come from immigrant backgrounds. She will focus on ethical concerns of Generative AI, such as discrimination and intellectual property theft, with a particular emphasis on students' voices from immigrant backgrounds. She will also offer best practices for teaching AI to this student population.
The third collaborator, Dr. Estrella Luna-Munoz, a research member of the NOVA Institute of Communication in Lisbon, will share her work on AI and youth from a vocational school from multicultural backgrounds (African, European, and American countries). Estrella will work with their students in the Social Media class through active methodologies to reflect and understand Media and Information literacy with the active creation of digital works related to the use of AI ethics in personal and professional life.
The fourth collaborator, Irene Andriopoulou (Ph.D. Cand. AUTH), is a media analyst and global media literacy expert, a member of the EC Expert Group on Disinformation and Digital Literacy and OFCOM Making Sense of Media WG, will describe how AI intersects with Media towards knowledge societies. Irene will share her work with school educators through the National Network on Media Literacy in Greece and explore how students react and use AI content in the classroom, as well as showcase the crossing paths with media and information literacy.