AI-powered tools have the potential to have a positive impact on students’ learning. At the same time, their ability to make mistakes, produce false and misleading information, and produce artificial content that is indistinguishable from reality has made the problem of finding reliable and trustworthy information online even more difficult.

In this session, our focus will be on learning empirically-based digital media literacy strategies that can be used to effectively evaluate information online, with a focus on content created by AI. Participants will use AI tools to experience how they can produce false, misleading, and biased content, and practice using lateral reading skills to determine whether text, photos, and videos were created by people or by AI.

The resources presented are part of CTRL-F: Digital Media Literacy classroom resources from CIVIX. All resources are free for educators, and available in both English and French.

This hands-on workshop introduces Canadian educators to machine learning education using micro:bit and CreateAI platform. Participants will experience practical ML implementation through movement-based activities, data collection, and coding exercises designed for 7-12 classrooms. The session covers training ML models, using micro:bit for AI concepts, and developing engaging classroom activities that make abstract machine learning principles tangible and accessible. Educators will explore Computational Thinking 1.0 vs 2.0 frameworks, learn core ML principles and applications, and gain practical experience designing age-appropriate AI activities. By session end, participants will have hands-on experience with CreateAI tools and ready-to-implement strategies for bringing machine learning education to Canadian students using affordable, classroom-ready technology.

This session shares results from a recent study on how individuals on social media describe emotional and social relationships with ChatGPT and how these interactions shape perceptions of care, authenticity, and presence. The findings illustrate how social media users, many of whom are youth, are redefining what is important to them in social relationships and the perceived benefits of using AI. There is a distinct lack of resources that address this issue of using AI as a social support. Therefore, this session introduces the R U REAL framework (Reflexivity and Understanding in Relational Engagement for AI Literacy), which provides a way to critically address emotion, trust, and reflection in teaching and learning about technology. The framework encourages educators to engage with the social and ethical dimensions of students’ experiences with digital systems and to create opportunities for relational reflection.

In this session, we’ll explore how educators can move beyond AI awareness to AI intentionality; teaching students not just how to use AI, but how to use it well.

Drawing from recent research with over 390 Ontario faculty and students, we’ll examine five key themes: motivation, readiness, comfort, confidence, and use. I explore how they reveal a growing gap between student AI usage and their understanding of it.

Participants will leave with a clear framework for integrating AI into their classrooms ethically and effectively. We’ll discuss how AI mirrors human behavior, why it must be “raised” like a child, and how educators can shape its learning through intentional design. You’ll gain access to classroom-ready strategies that increase engagement, reduce failure rates, and foster critical thinking.

Whether you’re new to AI or already experimenting with tools, this session will help you empower students to use AI with purpose, creativity, and care.

AI is shaping the future of work and learning, and classrooms are no exception. This interactive workshop invites educators to explore how AI can become a supportive teaching partner. Together, we’ll unpack what AI is (and isn’t), experiment with tools that save time and spark creativity, and discuss how to use AI ethically and equitably in schools.

Unauthorized Generative Artificial Intelligence (GenAI) use first entered my classroom in April 2023, mere months after the launch of ChatGPT. Since then I have been thinking deeply about how my literacy pedagogy needs to shift in response to the biggest revolution in communications technology since the Internet, and how to prepare my students for a GenAI-saturated future. This session will describe how I’ve begun tinkering with my critical media literacy lessons to incorporate foundational GenAI skills and foster critical thinking about this technology, how I've begun honouring my students’ request to be taught how to use GenAI as an organization/learning/reading/research/writing assistant, and how I've shifted my A&E practises to I free myself from the whack-a-mole approach to policing unauthorized GenAI use that is burning teachers out.