Our AI Literacy Day recap: putting educators in the lead

In celebration of National AI Literacy Day, last week, school leaders, educators, and students from New York City Public Schools spent the day at Google exploring how to use Google's AI tools to solve real challenges in schools, classrooms and beyond.

Here are just a few examples: A social studies teacher from the South Bronx shared his idea to use Gemini to create virtual worlds, allowing students to experience historical periods firsthand. Another teacher used NotebookLM to help her class conceptualize abstract themes like perseverance and strength by generating specific content and images so that her students could better write about the "hidden voices" of the Black community.

After an instructional technology coach shared how he used Gemini to create a "choose your own adventure"-style game to teach financial literacy, teachers were eager to build similar tools for their respective subjects. And in what many called a "wow moment," an ELA teacher taught others how to use Gemini in Google Forms to create quizzes based on lesson plans and curriculum, saving hours of planning and grading time. These are just a few examples of how, when given the right tools and training, educators will lead the way as AI becomes more prevalent in the classroom.

Because AI literacy matters every day of the year, we continue to be committed to offering high-quality, accessible AI literacy resources. Google.org’s funding for AI literacy has reached more than $150 million to date, and we’re excited to launch a new initiative, The Google AI Educator Series, which has been developed in partnership with ISTE+ASCD to make AI literacy professional learning available to all 6 million K-12 teachers and higher ed faculty in the U.S. We will be launching content on our website in mid-May, and hosting events throughout the summer as part of this effort.

We’ve also updated and expanded access to many other AI literacy efforts:

For K-12 teachers, students and families:

• Now available online, self-guided courses — Meet LEO, Meet LEA and Super Searchers — are designed to help teachers and parents navigate today’s digital environments confidently and responsibly.
• AI Quests, a gamified AI literacy experience developed by Google Research in collaboration with the Stanford Accelerator for Learning, is expanding to eight additional languages including Spanish and French.
• Our Online Safety Roadshow is bringing the Be Internet Awesome literacy guide to middle schools around the U.S. and includes foundational lessons for building understanding and critical thinking about AI for grades 2-8.

For higher education:

• 1,400+ higher education institutions globally are using the no-cost Career Launchpad program for faculty and students with AI trainings and credentials on Google Skills, from experts in Google Cloud and Google DeepMind. 90% of students say these credentials help them get in-demand jobs faster.
• U.S. institutions can now apply to the Google AI for Education Accelerator, a program that offers free access to industry-recognized certificates, AI training like the Google AI Professional Certificate, and Google’s most advanced AI tools.
• Higher ed faculty can boost their AI skills and learn how to streamline workflows through Gemini Faculty Fundamentals, Google AI for Higher Education, or Gemini Academy for Faculty – the faculty exam has now been localized into 12 languages.

All these and more are available at ai.google/literacy.