In April 2023, we launched our first Experience AI resources, developed in partnership with Google DeepMind to support educators to engage their students in learning about the topic of AI. Since then, the Experience AI programme has grown rapidly, reaching thousands of educators all over the world. Read on to find out more about the impact of our resources, and what we are learning.
The Experience AI resources
The Experience AI resources are designed to help educators introduce AI and AI safety to 11- to 14-year-olds. They consist of:
- Foundations of AI: a comprehensive unit of six lessons including lesson plans, slide decks, activities, videos, and more to support educators to introduce AI and machine learning to young people
- Two standalone lessons:
- Large language models (LLMs): a lesson designed to help young people discover how large language models work, their benefits, and why their outputs are not always reliable
- Ecosystems and AI — Biology: a lesson providing an opportunity for young people to explore how AI applications are supporting animal conservation
- AI safety: a set of resources with a flexible design to support educators in a range of settings to equip young people with the knowledge and skills to responsibly and safely navigate the challenges associated with AI
We also offer a free online course, Understanding AI for educators, to help educators prepare to teach about AI.
International expansion
The launch of Experience AI came at an important time: AI technologies are playing an ever-growing role in our everyday lives, so it is crucial for young people to gain the understanding and skills they need to critically engage with these technologies. While the resources were initially designed for use by educators in the UK, they immediately attracted interest from educators across the world, as well as individuals wanting to learn about AI. The resources have now been downloaded over 325,000 times by people from over 160 countries. This includes downloads from over 7000 educators worldwide, who will collectively reach an estimated 1.2 million young people.
Thanks to funding from Google DeepMind and Google.org, we have also been working with partners from across the globe to localise and translate the resources for learners and educators in their countries, and provide training to support local educators to deliver the lessons. The educational resources are now available in up to 15 languages, and to date, we have trained over 100 representatives from 20 international partner organisations, who will go on to train local educators. Five of these organisations have begun onward training already, collectively training over 1500 local educators so far.
The impact of Experience AI
The Experience AI resources have been well received by students and educators. Based on responses to our follow-up surveys, in countries where we have partners:
- 95% of educators agreed that the Experience AI sessions have increased their students’ knowledge of AI concepts
- 90% of young people (including young people in formal and non-formal education settings and learning independently) indicated that they better understand what AI and machine learning are
This is backed up by qualitative feedback from surveys and interviews.
“Students’ perception and understanding of AI has improved and corrected. They realised they can contribute and be a part of the [development], instead of only users.” – Noorlaila, educator, SMK Cyberjaya, Malaysia
“[Students] found it interesting in the sense that it’s relevant information and they didn’t know what information was used for training models.” – Teacher, Liceul Tehnologic “Crisan” Criscior, Romania
“Based on my knowledge and learning about AI, I now appreciate the definition of AI as well as its implementation.” – Student, Changamwe JSS, Kenya
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The training and resources also support educators to feel more confident to teach about AI:
- 93% of international partner representatives who participated in our training agreed that the training increased their knowledge of AI concepts
- 88% of educators receiving onward training by our international partners agreed that the training increased their confidence to teach AI concepts
- 87% of educator respondents from our ‘Understanding AI for educators’ online course agreed that the course was useful for supporting young people
“It was a wonderful experience for me to join this workshop. Truly I was able to learn a lot about AI and I feel more confident now to teach the kids back at school about this new knowledge.” – Nur, educator, SMK Bandar Tasek Mutiara, trained by our partner Penang Science Cluster, Malaysia
“This was one of the best information sessions I’ve been to! So, so helpful!” – Meagan, educator, University of Alberta, trained by our partner Digital Moment, Canada
“The layout of the course in terms of content structuring is amazing. I love the discussion forum and the insightful yet empathetic responses by the course moderators on the discussion board. Honestly, I am really glad I started my AI in education journey with you.” – Priyanka, head teacher (primary level), United Arab Emirates, online course participant
What are we learning?
We are committed to continually improving our resources based on feedback from users. A recent review of feedback from educators highlighted key aspects of the resources that educators value most, as well as some challenges educators are facing and possible areas for improvement. For example, educators particularly like the interactive aspects, the clear structure and explanations, and the videos featuring professionals from the AI industry. We are continuing to look for ways we can better support educators to adapt the content and language to better support students in their context, fit Experience AI into their school timetables, and overcome technical barriers.
We value feedback on our resources and will continue to highlight the importance of AI education in schools and work with partners across the globe to adapt our resources for different contexts.
Get involved
If you would like to try out our Experience AI resources, head to experience-ai.org, where you can find our free resources and online course, as well as information about local partners in your area.
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