Fluency with AI isn’t just about knowing how to get results, but also recognizing when those results are inaccurate, biased, or incomplete, and helping students develop the same discernment. By experimenting with small, hands-on activities, you can build your own AI fluency and better incorporate AI into your lessons, teaching strategies, and syllabus policies. This, in turn, will equip students to use AI more thoughtfully, effectively, and ethically.
Each task below invites you to test an AI tool in a practical way. Think of it as building conversational fluency: not just using the tool but understanding how to talk about it with students. Log into the university's Microsoft Copilot tool and try one of these activities using the example language (or your own) today:
1. Try a Few Everyday Questions
Start simple. Ask an AI tool to explain something familiar or summarize current headlines, then tweak your language to see what changes. This can help you practice how to refine your input and see the range of explanations AI can provide. It also mirrors the way students may experiment with AI and shows you where misinterpretations or over-simplifications might occur.
Explain how a microwave works in simple terms, as if you're teaching a class of first-year college students.
Now explain how a microwave works using more technical language suitable for an engineering major.
2. Build a Lesson Plan
Provide a topic and a few teaching goals. See how AI might outline a class session, suggest learning objectives, or offer discussion questions. This can help give you fresh ideas for structuring lessons and framing discussion. It also demonstrates how students might use AI to scaffold their own presentations or projects, revealing where guidance can help deepen learning.
Create a 60-minute lesson plan on climate change for first-year students, including three learning objectives, one interactive activity, and two open-ended discussion questions that promote critical thinking.
3. Create Study Materials
Ask for flashcards, review questions, or a knowledge-check quiz. This can save you time generating low-stakes practice materials while also sparking ideas for formative assessment. It also lets you experience how students may use AI as a study partner and where its feedback may be incomplete or misleading.
Create a short quiz (5 multiple-choice questions) to test understanding of the water cycle, with an answer key and brief explanations for each correct answer.
4. Accelerate Research Tasks
Paste an abstract and ask for a plain-language summary. Or prompt the tool to compare two theories. As an instructor, this helps you evaluate how AI can speed up information processing for your own work. It also shows you how students might rely on AI for simplification, giving you insight into where to intervene with critical thinking skills.
Compare Maslow’s hierarchy of needs with Herzberg’s two-factor theory, noting key similarities, differences, and common critiques of each framework in workplace motivation research.
5. Explore Writing Support
Give a thesis idea or a draft paragraph. Ask the AI for suggestions or alternatives, observing how the tool responds. This can help you generate alternative framings or ways of narrowing an argument in your own research and teaching. For students, it shows how AI can be a brainstorming partner and can also highlight the importance of ownership and voice.
Here’s a thesis idea: 'Social media is reshaping interpersonal communication.' Suggest three ways to strengthen it by narrowing the scope, adding specificity, or clarifying the argument.
6. Simulate Feedback
Feed the AI a sample student response and ask for revision advice. For you, this can act as another lens on formative feedback and may offer new ways to phrase revision suggestions. For students, it shows both the potential and the limits of AI feedback, helping you guide them to critically evaluate and refine what AI suggests.
Suggest improvements to this paragraph while preserving the student’s voice and tone. Focus on clarity, flow, and coherence: [insert paragraph].
7. Design a Scenario or Activity
Request a role-play, dilemma, or classroom scenario involving AI. This gives you ready-made starting points for ethical discussions or active learning. It also models for students how AI can create useful drafts that benefit from critique, helping them learn to refine rather than accept outputs at face value.
Write a classroom dilemma involving AI-generated art and copyright issues. Include a brief scenario, two opposing viewpoints, and a discussion question that encourages ethical reflection.
These quick exercises help you build the skills and confidence to better engage with students’ curiosity, set clear expectations, and model ethical, effective use. If you want to see what students are being told about AI right now, check out Elon University’s and AAC&U’s Student Guide to AI. While it’s aimed at learners, it’s also a valuable window into the kind of skills we can help them strengthen.
Ready to expand on what you've tried? Reach out to DOE. We’re here to help you tailor approaches, co-create activities, and build on what’s working for you.