aiimpact3

By Janay Crew

Artificial intelligence (AI) has become a rapidly developing technology that significantly transforms the way that individuals interact with technology in their everyday lives. Tools like ChatGPT, Grammarly, and various image generators are commonly utilized by students and individuals across a variety of different settings. As AI technologies are becoming more integrated into educational systems around the world, the impact that they have on digital literacy education is beginning to gain widespread discussion. Digital literacy is the understanding and use of digital technologies to find, evaluate, and communicate information effectively. In today’s society, students are expected to use those technologies effectively and critically evaluate the information they find online. Furthermore, AI literacy is also an important component of digital literacy for the same reasons that digital literacy itself is essential to today’s students and society- AI technologies are everywhere and understanding how they work and how they impact society is essential to each student’s education. 

Additionally, as AI becomes more common in education, teachers must also consider the impact that it can have on students’ education in both positive and negative ways. Therefore, it is essential for educators to gain an understanding of both the advantages and disadvantages all of the integration of generative AI into digital literacy education within the classrooms of today’s students. The purpose of this project is to show how generative AI technology has become a major part of digital literacy learning, enhancing its effectiveness in many ways. However, there are also risks associated with this development, such as over-reliance on technology, diminished ability for critical thinking, and academic cheating. Therefore, responsible use of generative AI is paramount.

Understanding Digital Literacy and AI Literacy

Digital literacy is one of the essential skills that students must learn in the modern world. As a generation that grows up with technology every day, students are required to learn to use various technologies in their lives responsibly. Digital literacy encompasses a variety of different skills, such as the ability to find information online to communicate through digital means, to utlize technology for safety in the digital world, and to evaluate the trustworthiness of the digital content that is published online. Beyond digital literacy alone, however, there is another essential skill for students to learn: AI literacy. According to Seker et al. (2025), AI literacy is the understanding of how AI technologies work, their capabilities, and their limitations, as well as how they may have an impact on society and the users of those technologies. Therefore, AI literacy is an essential skill for each student to learn due to the widespread inclusion of artificial intelligence technologies in the digital world.

Furthermore, there is also a relationship between digital literacy and academic success in general. For instance, Laupichler et al. (2022) found that students who are more digitally literate are able to perform better academically than students who do not have such digital literacy skills. Similarly, Sopandi et al. (2023) discovered that students who are digitally literate and who have skills in AI literacy tend to be able to adapt to the modern classroom and technology themselves. Thus, with the increasing common use of AI technologies within classrooms, students of the modern world are required to understand these technologies and how to use them appropriately within their education. AI technologies generate information without the same level of accuracy or trustworthiness as human-created content. Student need to be educated on how to evaluate that information appropriately within their education. AI technologies often generate information without the same level of accuracy or trustworthiness as human-created content. Students need to be educated on how to evaluate that information appropriately in order to avoid misinformation in their knowledge of the world. Digital literacy education must change to incorporate education on AI literacy to ensure that students of the future are able to understand these technologies within the digital world.

Positive Impacts of Generative AI on Digital Literacy Education 

One of the major benefits of the inclusion of generative AI technologies into digital literacy education is the ability of those technologies to provide each student with a personalized learning experience. Each classroom and teacher cannot cater to in the individual needs of each student, and many students have different abilities to learn certain concepts than others. However, generative AI technologies have the potential to generate learning experiences and activities according to the needs of each individual student. For instance, students who struggle with understanding a certain concept can be provided with different explanations by the AI technology than those who understand the topic themselves. Also, students who require different types of learning activities can be provided with these alternative learning experiences by the AI technologies. Generative AI has the potential to increase the accessibility of education to ensure that each student within a population can access the same educational experiences.

In addition to providing each student with individual learning experiences, generative AI can also enhance the creativity of students within the classroom.  For instance, many students may desire to create videos, stories, visual presentations, and other projects for presentation within their classrooms. By utilizing generative AI technologies to create these projects, each student can increase their creativity in their involvement in the classroom and educational projects. Additionally, these same technologies have also been used to support other educational endeavors besides the creation of creative projects, such as the coding of educational games and projects for students to play, learn from, or avoid. However, beyond creativity, AI technologies have also been proven to impact the efficiency with which students can access information. For instance, AI technologies can summarize long articles or projects to provide students with the same information but in a more efficient amount of text. Thus, generative AI can be used to improve the efficiency of digital literacy education for students and teachers alike.

Teachers also benefit from the implementation of generative AI technologies within classrooms. For instance, teachers can utilize generative AI to create their lesson plans, form quizzes to evaluate the knowledge of their students, or even to provide feedback on student projects. These skills can help teachers focus on the students in their classrooms instead of performing their lessons or preparing their materials. Furthermore, according to authors Wu and Zhang (2025), the use of generative AI by students improves their innovation in digital literacy skills when utilized appropriately in the classroom. Thus, not only will students benefit from the implementation of AI technologies, but teachers may, as well.

Challenges and Risks of Generative AI in Education

Despite the significant benefits of generative AI technologies to digital literacy education, there are also some challenges to their use in classrooms. One challenge to the use of AI technologies and education is that students may become too reliant upon those technologies to perform educational projects themselves. Without utilizing certain skills, students may begin to become dependent upon utilizing the AI technology to complete certain projects or activities. Furthermore, the use of AI may also lead to a decline in students’ critical thinking skills.  Critical thinking skills are taught in classrooms to encourage students to evaluate the information that is published online or in digital projects themselves. However, the information that is published by generative AI technology is not always accurate or reliable. According to authors Wang et al. (2024), the lack of critical thinking skills of students may be the result of their over-reliance on information from AI technologies rather than utilizing their own knowledge. Finally, another challenge to the use of AI and digital education is related to academic integrity. Many educational institutions face challenges related to plagiarism and the use of AI to create projects and assignments that are submitted as those of the student alone.

On the other hand, AI technologies may contain risks related to misinformation or bias online. For example, the knowledge that the AI uses to create the projects or content may contain misinformation or bias. Thus, students may not be able to recognize the misinformation that may be created by the AI software. Furthermore, related to the dissemination of information from the AI technologies is the use of student privacy. As many AI technologies require the input of personal and digital information from students and educators alike, the privacy of that information may be an issue in some instances.’

Implications for Educators and the Future of Learning

AI technologies are likely to continue to be integrated into education in the future. As AI becomes more prevalent in the lives of individuals, educational institutions have a role to play in ensuring that students are aware of the technologies and their functions. For instance, authors Sentence et al. (2022) state that AI and data science should be incorporated into the education programs of the classroom of the future. Students should be educated about the uses of AI in the world and in their everyday lives, as well as learn how to utilize their skills in a way that is resistant to automation by AI. Furthermore, teachers will also need to be trained in how to use these technologies in their classrooms and to incorporate these topics into their courses. Thus, the education system and schools will have to find ways to train teachers appropriately and to create policies regarding the appropriate use of AI and education. If managed appropriately, generative AI technologies have the potential to revolutionize education. However, if educational institutions do not act to mitigate the risk of generative AI technology in education, the students may experience challenges related to their critical thinking, academic integrity, and ability to use information appropriately in their education.

Conclusion
Generative AI is significantly transforming digital literacy education in classrooms around the world. The benefits of incorporating artificial intelligence and generative AI technology into education can be seen in the accessibility of education for all students, the improvement of creativity among students, and the potential increase in efficiency in education. Additionally, AI technologies may benefit the teachers as well as the students. However, there are some major challenges related to AI and education such as the potential for students to become too dependent upon these technologies, their decline in critical thinking skills, or the potential for academic dishonesty with those technologies. Consequently, teachers need to continue to incorporate such technologies into their classrooms in a responsible manner in order to continue to maximize their benefits and to minimize the potential negative impact on education.

References

Laupichler, M. C., Aster, A., Schirch, J., & Raupach, T. (2022). Artificial intelligence literacy in higher and adult education: A scoping literature review. Computers and Education: Artificial Intelligence, 3, 100101. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2666920X2200056X

Ng, D. T. K., Luo, W., Chan, H. M. Y., & Chu, S. K. W. (2022). Using digital story writing as a pedagogy to develop AI literacy among primary students. Computers and Education: Artificial Intelligence, 3, 100054. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2666920X22000091

Seker, O., Kwon, K., & Kocak, O. (2025). Exploring researchers’ artificial intelligence (AI) literacy: The mediating role of digital literacy and data literacy between 21st century skills and AI literacy. Information Development, 02666669251336368. https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/02666669251336368

Sentance, S., & Waite, J. (2022). Perspectives on AI and data science education. AI, data science, and young people. Understanding Computing Education, 3, 2-9. https://www.raspberrypi.org/app/uploads/2022/12/Perspectives-on-AI-and-data-science-education-_Sentance-Waite_2022.pdf

Sopandi, E., Anwar, S., Habibah, N., Manurung, S., Alia, N., & Hendrawati, S. (2023). The role of digital literacy and its relation with performance of Madrasah Aliyah students. Eurasian Journal of Educational Research (EJER), (104). https://openurl.ebsco.com/EPDB%3Agcd%3A2%3A11806258/detailv2?sid=ebsco%3Aplink%3Ascholar&id=ebsco%3Agcd%3A173081537&crl=c&link_origin=scholar.google.com

Wang, N., Wang, X., & Su, Y. S. (2024). Critical analysis of the technological affordances, challenges and future directions of Generative AI in education: A systematic review. Asia Pacific Journal of Education, 44(1), 139-155. https://doi.org/10.1080/02188791.2024.2305156

Wu, D., & Zhang, J. (2025). Generative artificial intelligence in secondary education: Applications and effects on students’ innovation skills and digital literacy. PLoS One, 20(5), e0323349. https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0323349