Four strategic recommendations for supporting AI literacy across settings¶

Strategy · All strategies
Evidence · 2 claims (1 for, 1 mixed) · 2 studies (1 review, 1 associational), q2 · 0 of 2 report an effect size · 2 claims rest on one study

Description¶

The briefs issue four strategic recommendations for leaders: "Build AI literacy skills and competencies across all disciplines and audiences"; "Collaborate with community members to develop transparent and dynamic AI policies, standards, and implementation guidance"; "Ensure equitable access to quality AI tools, resources, and instructional materials"; and "Develop AI training and learning pathways including opportunities for experimentation and hands-on practice." Together they direct leaders to treat AI literacy as cross-disciplinary, community-developed, equity-focused, and practice-based.

Design Implications¶

Context¶

Requirements¶

• Implementation requires deliberate planning and coordination across classrooms, districts, institutions, and workplaces

Constraints¶

• Cost barriers can limit access to quality AI tools, creating equity gaps the recommendations aim to address

Target Learners¶

• all learners across PK-12, postsecondary, workforce, and informal settings

Target Learning Goals¶

• AI literacy skills and competencies across disciplines
• responsible and equitable AI use

Claims¶

• Institutions have expanded student access to generative AI tools faster than they have developed policies, guidance, and shared learning goals for their use [+W]
• Reviewed GenAI literacy literature concentrates on knowledge and skills while equity and agency receive thin treatment [~W]

Related Strategies¶

• Co-create contextualized AI literacy policies via multi-stakeholder task forces with phased roadmaps
• Establish comprehensive institutional AI governance frameworks including task forces, roadmaps, and transparent policies
• Invest in sustained, role-specific, discipline-specific professional learning and structured student AI literacy pathways across PK16
• Districts should build community-shared visions, evaluation infrastructure, and policies for procuring and using AI edtech
• Concentrate AI-edtech adoption priorities through collaborative networks that share tools, policies, and evaluation practices
• Coordinate cross-sector efforts to address AI literacy gaps, focusing on vulnerable workers lacking foundational digital literacy
• Legislators should pass consumer-protection legislation and create a regulatory agency governing AI education products
• Pursue inclusive digital strategies, educator professional development, and ethical AI governance for AI in adult education
• Embed anticipatory governance in institutional strategy via Chief AI Officers, AI task forces, faculty AI-literacy development, and student co-design mechanisms
• Build institutional AI literacy and transparent risk-communication governance for agentic AI browsers
• Institutional governance should establish practical conditions supporting AI literacy, learner agency, and critical evaluation rather than relying on prohibition and detection
• Address AI Anxiety through multidisciplinary solutions spanning educational, technological, regulatory, and ethical guidelines
• Tripartite institutional response: AI literacy, ethical infrastructure, and competence-based educator training
• Align AI guidelines with broader institutional policies while addressing discipline-specific learning objectives and workforce demands
• Support employee professional learning about AI through onboarding, transparency, direct tool access, and job-embedded training
• Specify directions for strategic investments in research and development to support learning

Examples¶

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Key Sources¶

• Ruiz, P., Liberman, B., Karim, S., Dallas, D., Zachariah, I., Peters Hinton, V., Chillmon, C., & Gonzales, L. (2025). Implementing AI literacy across learning environments: A series of briefs. Digital Promise. https://doi.org/10.51388/20.500.12265/268