Penn GSE seminar promotes AI literacy

Penn’s Graduate School of Education is making a specific case about AI in schools: children should learn how to question, test and explain these systems, not just use them. Penn Today reported on June 2 that an interdisciplinary seminar at Penn GSE explored how students can “design, critique, and teach AI and machine learning in K-12 education.” (penntoday.upenn.edu) That framing matters because it shifts AI literacy away from prompt tricks or coding drills. (penntoday.upenn.edu) Penn’s description points instead to classroom habits that are closer to basic inquiry: asking what a tool is doing, noticing when it fails, and understanding that people designed it. (gse.upenn.edu) For schools, the practical takeaway is not that every child needs to become an engineer. It is that AI can be taught as a subject of critique and explanation, in the same way students learn to question sources, models and rules in other parts of the curriculum. That emphasis is consistent with Penn GSE’s broader AI work, which has focused on ethical awareness, informed decision-making and responsible use in K-12 settings. (penntoday.upenn.edu) ### What is Penn GSE actually proposing? Penn GSE described the seminar as an interdisciplinary effort on “AI for Children and Youth Learning and Creating in K-12 Education.” The school said the seminar explored how students can design, critique and teach AI and machine learning, rather than encounter them only as finished products. (penntoday.upenn.edu) That wording suggests a classroom model centered on participation. Inference from Penn’s descriptions: the goal is to make AI legible to students early enough that they can recognize rules, limits and human choices inside the systems they use. (gse.upenn.edu) ### What does “AI literacy” look like for younger students? Penn’s published description does not present AI literacy as advanced programming. Instead, it frames the work around age-appropriate engagement with machine learning ideas in K-12 classrooms. In practice, that points to simple exercises that surface how systems classify information and where errors come from. (gse.upenn.edu) The classroom examples referenced in Penn’s coverage use sorting and rule-based activities so students can see how categories are built and how mistakes become visible for discussion. (penntoday.upenn.edu) ### Why does the “design, critique and teach” language matter? Penn GSE has used similar language before. A 2025 Penn Today article on “babyGPTs” said Yasmin Kafai’s work involved getting young people to become “active creators of AI technologies not just consumers of them.” (penntoday.upenn.edu) Yasmin Kafai, identified by Penn as the Lori and Michael Milken President’s Distinguished Professor at Penn GSE, has also been tied to related events on AI literacy and youth possibility development. Penn GSE’s December 2025 speaker series defined AI literacy as the competencies users need to interact with and critically evaluate AI. (penntoday.upenn.edu) Together, those descriptions show a consistent line in Penn’s work: AI education for children is being framed less as vocational training and more as a form of critical understanding. That is an inference from Penn’s event and article descriptions. (penntoday.upenn.edu) ### How does this fit into Penn’s wider AI-in-education push? April 2026 was “AI Month” at Penn, and Penn GSE held an AI & Education Symposium on April 24-25 at 3700 Walnut St. in Philadelphia. Penn said the event would bring together faculty, invited guests and industry leaders to examine teaching, learning and education policy in the AI era. (penntoday.upenn.edu) Penn GSE has also expanded school-facing AI work beyond seminars. In January, Penn Today reported that the school partnered on a $26 million AI grants program for K-12 education, and Penn later said its PASS program received $1 million from Google to expand AI education support for school systems. (gse.upenn.edu) The next public marker in that effort is the continuing rollout of Penn GSE’s AI programs and symposium work, which Penn has tied to K-12 teaching, learning and policy discussions in Philadelphia and partner school districts. (gse.upenn.edu) (penntoday.upenn.edu 1) (penntoday.upenn.edu 2)