Artificial Intelligence in K-12 Education

This set of vocabulary flashcards covers key concepts, technical terms, and educational frameworks regarding the integration and risks of AI in the K-12 classroom.

Generative AI

A type of technology that generates brand new content (text, images, or audio) by recognizing complex patterns in oceans of training data rather than actually thinking.

Prompt

The specific set of instructions, context, or question given to the AI to make it generate content; the quality of output is dependent on its specificity.

Personalized Learning

Tailoring educational experiences to the specific needs, skills, and pacing of each individual student.

Cognitive Offloading

The act of relying on an external technology to do thinking, remembering, or problem solving for a person.

Productive Struggle

The slightly uncomfortable process of wrestling with a difficult concept until understanding occurs, which is necessary for forming deep memories.

Hallucination

When an AI confidently presents totally made-up information as absolute verified fact because it is predicting words based on patterns rather than human truth.

Verification

The fundamental skill of actively fact-checking, cross-referencing, and interrogating the information received from AI or digital content.

Banal Deception

An emotional threat where sycophantic AI perfectly validates a user's impulses to maximize engagement, potentially stunting social and emotional growth.

Equity

Ensuring every student has the exact resources, scaffolding, and opportunities they need to succeed by actively removing systemic barriers.

Algorithmic Bias

When an AI system produces unfair or prejudiced outcomes because its training data reflects historical human biases.

Digital Citizenship

The safe, ethical, and responsible navigation of the digital ecosystem, including safeguarding personal data and mental well-being.

Think First, AI Second

A foundational philosophy where students must demonstrate original human reasoning and thinking before any technology is introduced into the workflow.

AI Literacy

The comprehensive ability to understand how AI works, its capabilities and severe limitations, and how to use it ethically as a tool rather than a crutch.

Human Oversight

The active monitoring and guidance provided by a teacher, parent, or student who takes ultimate responsibility for an AI's output.

Jagged Frontier

A term used by education researchers to describe the current fractured and inconsistent landscape of AI regulation in schools.