The Art of AI Literacy: Navigating Creativity, Conflict, and Change

Generative AI is rapidly reshaping how students create, question and define originality, but the challenge isn't simply an AI problem. It's an AI literacy problem. This round table discussion brings together a higher education art and design educator and a K-12 creative educator to explore how students respond to AI across learning environments. Drawing on pre- and post-course data from a college-level Art of AI course, examine how graduating creatives often approach AI with anger, anxiety, polarization and information shaped by social media, while K-12 students often show curiosity, openness and a willingness to explore the grey areas. Discuss how educators can move students from reaction to reflection through critical thinking, digital literacy, growth mindset, ethical decision-making and process-based learning. You will leave with practical strategies such as reflection surveys, AI perception journaling, process documentation, authorship debates, bias audits, disclosure statements and critique-based discussion that you can adapt into existing projects.