Fantastic Futures 2024 - Day 2 - Session 18

This transcript was generated by NFSA Bowerbird and may contain errors.

Thank you everyone. My name is Kara Kennedy and I'm going to be talking today about AI literacy and some of the communities that I've worked with in New Zealand. Marissa has enrolled as a nursing student in South Auckland, New Zealand. She comes from a close-knit Pacifica community with lots of friends and family who help support her as a single mom. She wants to become a nurse so she can provide a better life for her family. She's never been to a library and isn't a reader. Her idea of information and the internet is what's on social media on her old smartphone, when she can afford a data pack. Marissa represents the face of an increasingly ethnically diverse New Zealand, one that struggles to close the digital divide and now is facing the threat of an AI divide. Many New Zealanders can't upload documents, navigate cloud storage, or understand online safety. And that was before generative AI, which already has gaps in uptake based on factors like gender, education level, and household income level. So Marissa's experience entering the education system can go one of a few ways. She can be told AI is banned and unreliable and shouldn't be used, just like what happened before with Wikipedia. She can be told it's okay to use in some circumstances, but receive no help figuring out how to use it. Or she can receive scaffolded support to learn how it works and how to use it responsibly in her studies. The first two paths squander the opportunity for her to become AI literate. But in the third option, who will provide that support and guidance? Even instructors who want students to use AI responsibly have limited time and knowledge. They already rely on librarians for information literacy, knowledge of quality sources, and referencing support for students. It's a golden opportunity for librarians and their professional colleagues, like learning advisors, to support AI literacy. But how can they do so when they don't have budget for technology subscriptions or professional development, and when their students are some of the most marginalized populations with already low levels of digital skills and awareness? So here are three strategies to address these challenges. Firstly, engage an AI champion, or maybe we might say an ambassador. Find that person who's interested in new technology and encourage them to present their learnings to the larger team. Since they know your context, they can better tailor the information about AI to your people and find ways it might be useful. So I've delivered AI sessions to librarians and learning advisors in New Zealand about generative AI in an educational context and looked at ways that AI tools could be used by students and staff for common tasks. And the National Digital Forum, or NDF, of New Zealand invited me to present AI webinars for cultural heritage professionals, which enabled both large and small organizations to benefit from learning about how the tools work and how to craft effective prompts. Second, leverage existing content. There are many free or low-cost webinars and virtual conferences that offer professional development opportunities to the library community around the world. They showcase studies and data that can be adapted to your local context or give you inspiration for doing your own studies. I think it's also a good idea to look beyond your own discipline. LinkedIn is a rich source of information. With a few minutes of daily scrolling, you can access insight from leading experts in AI and engage in discussion. You can also watch LinkedIn live sessions or join Facebook groups on AI. LinkedIn Learning offers lots of short courses on generative AI for upskilling through bite-sized on-demand learning. Third, reach your community where they're at. Create resources that will be accessible and inclusive. I've been creating simple, visual, and colorful resources for staff and students that promote responsible generative AI engagement. They're all Creative Commons licensed. My goal is that each resource is easy for English as a second language learners or low literacy students to understand, it's eye-catching, and it's really clear about what to do with AI. When a student like Marissa enters the educational environment, we can't assume to know her background or her digital skill level. But we do know the world she's entering or she's already in is going to be filled with AI if it's not already. As librarians and learning advisors, we can play a significant role in helping her develop robust AI literacy skills. We can help prepare her for not just her classroom learning, but her life and her work. I think we need to leverage our role as trusted advisors and add AI literacy to the umbrella of literacies that we're already providing. Let's lead AI literacy initiatives and empower our communities on this journey. I don't want to leave anyone behind.