Foundations of AI in Education

This unit introduces teachers to core concepts of artificial intelligence and their pedagogical implications, including fundamentals of machine learning and generative AI, classroom opportunities and challenges, and sustainable integration strategies. Learners will connect AI concepts to learning theories and workforce readiness to prepare instruction that fosters AI literacy, creativity, and lifelong learning.

Learning Objectives

• Analyze opportunities, challenges, ethical considerations, and equity implications of integrating AI tools in K-12 classrooms to inform instructional decision-making.
• Apply foundational concepts of artificial intelligence and machine learning, including generative AI capabilities, to design age-appropriate classroom activities and example prompts aligned to learning objectives.
• Demonstrate effective, sustainable AI-integration strategies — including prompt-writing best practices, scaffolding, and classroom management techniques — by creating a sample lesson plan and formative assessment rubric.
• Evaluate approaches to develop students’ AI literacy, computational thinking, growth mindset, creativity, and workforce readiness using constructivist, behaviorist, and sociocultural learning theories to justify instructional choices.