Civic Education
in the AI Age
Introduction
Key Terms
Media Literacy
“the ability to access, analyze, evaluate, create, and act using all forms of communication” (NAMLE, n.d.).
AI Literacy
competencies necessary to understand how AI models operate, impact social systems, and are leveraged with human intelligence (Klein, 2023).
Misinformation
“false information that is spread, regardless of whether there is intent to mislead” (UW Bothell, 2024).
Disinformation
“deliberately misleading or biased information; manipulated narrative or facts; propaganda” (UW Bothell, 2024).
Fake News
"purposefully crafted, sensational, emotionally charged, misleading or totally fabricated information that mimics the form of mainstream news" (UW Bothell, 2024)
Civic Education
“all the processes that affect people’s beliefs, commitments, capabilities, and actions as members or prospective members of communities” (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, 2018).
Artificial Intelligence
“the capability of computer systems or algorithms to imitate intelligent human behavior” (Merriam-Webster, 2024).
The AI Age
a period marked by high deployment, fast evolution, and significant growth of AI technologies on societal, organizational, and individual levels.
Generative AI
(genAI)
“artificial intelligence that is capable of generating new content (such as images or text) in response to a submitted prompt (such as a query) by learning from a large reference database of examples” (Merriam-Webster, 2024).
Artificial General Intelligence
(AGI)
“artificial intelligence that matches (or outmatches) human [intelligence] on a range of tasks” (Heaven, 2023).
AI Hallucination
"where an [AI model] perceives patterns or objects that are nonexistent or imperceptible to human observers, creating outputs that are nonsensical or altogether inaccurate” (IBM, 2023).
Deepfakes
“an image or recording that has been convincingly altered and manipulated to misrepresent someone as doing or saying something that was not actually done or said” (Merriam-Webster, 2024).
Scope
Because civics is such a integral component of our country’s democracy, identity, and values, its influence extends beyond the K-12 classroom. This report will focus on secondary education, but it is important to recognize how spheres outside of the classroom reinforce and contribute to civic education. Select a sphere to learn more.
Digital
The news, media, and online world play a significant role in civil livelihood. Today, information sources exist in a pool of millions of online users who can share their perspectives, react to world events, and upload multimedia content. Students are responsible for analyzing and verifying the validity of the content they consume online, a key skill in modern-day civic education.
Federal
Responsible for national regulation, understanding the federal government is a core competency in civics. Traditional civics education and political sciences curriculum will cover the basic functions of government to help students recognize how these operations uplift civic liberty and democracy. Students will also recognize how politicians at the federal level contribute to these functions while uplifting their personal ideologies, agenda, and political party.
Private
The edtech market has significant contribution to civic education, as this report will uncover. From digital tools to e-learning curriculum, these products enhance the learning experience by solving learning obstructions, engaging students, or increasing learning outcomes. Private organizations are motivated by profit, and by extension, appealing to their consumer base. These organizations must cater to and work alongside educators and learners, their customers, to meet their needs and design high-quality learning solutions.
State
Each state has unique regulatory governance their state’s values. State governments are responsible for curriculum writing, school funding, voting regulation, and other policy domains. Because of this, its important to note that civic education varies across state lines according to their ideological leanings; curriculum standards in Georgia won’t look identical to Nevada’s, for example, despite belonging to the same union. This primes students to adopt their state identity along with their national one.
Local
Community is integral to civics, serving local civilians through outreach and city governance. An active community is a sign of a healthy democracy; from community organizing and town halls to educational programming, local governance plays a role in engaging students to practice civil livelihood. Students in a civics classroom should have opportunities to be active in their local communities through volunteering, activism, or participating in programming.
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