Improving AI Skills in Schools and Communities: Insights from Six AI Projects

Innovation in artificial intelligence (AI) technologies is more likely to come into schools in the UK as the government recently released £1M funding to develop teacher AI tools (UK Gov, 2025). Funded by UKRI, The RAi UK Skills Programme focuses on “Responsible AI skills and not just AI, with the aim of delivering best practices for educators and training providers to ensure all AI is responsibly built, deployed, and used" (RAi UK, 2025). In this symposium, researchers from six projects across the UK, funded through this programme, will share their project outcomes and their perspectives on responsible ways to improve AI skills. We will invite the audience to engage in a critical discussion at the end.

AI in Secondary Schools: Resource Development and Teacher Professional Learning -
Serdar Abaci University of Edinburgh
Judy Robertson University of Edinburgh
Recent advances in AI may catalyse a transformation in education. Current generative AI (GenAI) tools are powerful, yet brittle. They can act as useful learning companions, but they are unreliable, often biased and potentially misleading. There is an urgent need to develop critical AI literacy in learners, and to support teachers in developing the skills and knowledge to incorporate GenAI in their classroom teaching and learning responsibly. This project will develop resources to support critical AI literacy skills to equip young people for living and working in the age of AI, and offer professional learning for teachers.

Generative AI Skills in Schools - Konstantina Martzoukou, Robert Gordon University
Partnering with secondary school students, the team will explore the responsible use of GenAI in their co-creation of open educational resources, articulating student voice and enacting student experience via fictitious characters and cartoons. The project outcomes will also recognise and empower school librarians as key agents in fostering the responsible use of GenAI. A co-produced open educational toolkit with resources on GenAI academic integrity, information literacy and critical thinking skills in schools, will be widely disseminated via open workshops. GenAISiS offers a transformative pedagogical approach, raising public awareness, promoting equity and amplifying the student voice.

Ways of (Machine) Seeing: Towards a New Visual Literacy in AI -
Geoff Cox, London South Bank University
Annie Davey, UCL Institute of Education
How does image-based AI challenge existing approaches to the teaching of visual creativity? New digital tools such as GenAI are easily adopted by young people through everyday media, but there is little or no formal guidance on how to use these technologies safely or responsibly. Our research is designed to generate educational materials about AI, working directly with teachers to offer an enhanced visual learning experience for students. The team aims to produce responsible AI skills resources that offer best practice for teacher training and curriculum development, introducing the necessary skills to address AI literacy in classroom settings.

AI, Law and Legal Training - Francine Ryan, The Open University
This project brings together a multidisciplinary team to co-produce research-informed resources that will enhance knowledge and awareness of, and confidence in the use of GenAI for understanding legal processes and accessing legal information. By explaining GenAI, its application, implications, and ethical use in legal contexts, the project activities will educate and empower the public, organisations that provide legal advice, small and medium-sized law firms, students, and academics. The team will create open access and engaging online courses (including interactive and audio-visual materials, checklists, and case studies) that provide ethical and responsible knowledge of, and skills to use GenAI.


Exploring AI: From Picture Books to Epic Games - Oli Buckley, Loughborough University
The project aims to enhance AI literacy and public awareness of responsible AI by developing two educational resources. The first is an A-to-Z picture book aimed at KS1 and KS2 children, introducing core AI concepts through engaging illustrations and age-appropriate text to foster early engagement. The second resource is a scenario-based megagame for older children and adults, blending tabletop, role playing, and applied games to immerse players in responsible AI scenarios. These tools will foster critical thinking, problem-solving, and a deeper understanding of AI.

References:
* Responsible AI UK. (2025). Skills projects. Retrieved from https://rai.ac.uk/research/skills-project/
* UK Gov (13 Jan 2025). AI teacher tools set to break down barriers to opportunity. https://www.gov.uk/government/news/ai-teacher-tools-set-to-break-down-barriers-to-opportunity