Banner image design: Alyssa Monte
DESIGN JUSTICE LABS
EDUCATORS
Even a brief encounter with chatbots from the stance of researchers, not users, can empower students to see for themselves that commercial products like Microsoft’s Copilot or OpenAI’s ChatGPT are neither sci-fi androids nor the reliable time savers touted in ads. Teachers and student researchers can probe AI models to study diverse behaviors: not only evidence of “baked in” stereotypes, errors, inconsistencies, and limitations, but also potential strengths.
Overseeing student research is not as difficult as instructors might imagine. The simple chatbot interfaces that make gen AI tools so easy to use make them equally easy to probe and analyze. The main difference between “prompting” a chatbot and “probing” it is the subject position of the human activator: are they engaging the system as a relatively passive user or a critically engaged researcher?
Not every teacher who is keen to cultivate critical AI literacies must do so by leading student probing projects. The flexible tools offered on this site form part of a broader critical AI discourse, and readers will find that the content on Design Justice Labs is full of jumping-off points for fruitful discussions in the classroom and beyond. We also recommend taking a look at our living document and handy student guide for more content to use for your own teaching and critical AI literacies.
Resources for Your Own Teaching
Image: William Henry Fox Talbot, ”A Scene in a Library,” 1844, Gilman Collection, Metropolitan Museum of Art.
TROUBLESHOOTING AI
Academic Integrity
Assistant Dean for Programs and Assessment Sharon Stoerger (Rutgers School of Communication and Information) talks through assignment and assessment design strategies in Critical AI’s October '25 workshop.
Image: Vincent Van Gogh, ”L’Arlésienne,” c. 1888, Metropolitan Museum of Art.
TROUBLESHOOTING AI
Teaching and Gen AI
In a Critical AI October ’25 workshop, Initiative Chair Lauren M.E. Goodlad (Rutgers) on how to navigate gen AI with students.
Image: Vanessa Bell, Black and white negative of Duncan Grant and Virginia Woolf with Garth the dog in Firle Park, Sussex, 1911-12, © Tate, London
GEN AI IN CREATIVE WRITING
Creative writing professor Aimee LaBrie (Rutgers) reprises her comments on the "pain points" of gen AI AI in the classroom from a faculty panel at Critical AI’s August '25 workshop. She offers a variety of constructive strategies, assignments, and in-class techniques.
Image: Leonid Pasternak ”The Passion of Creation,” c. 1892
SPEAKING FROM THE HEART
On AI and the Writing Classroom
Donald Dow (Rutgers) reprises his comments on AI and writing instruction from a faculty panel at Critical AI’s August '25 “Writing Education Through Design-Oriented AI” workshop.
Image: Hanna Barakat & Archival Images of AI + AIxDESIGN / Textiles and Tech 2 / Licenced by CC-BY 4.0
REPRESENTING AI
Katie Conrad (Kansas; AI & Digital Literacy) created these slides in preparation for F25 to help teachers call attention to how "AI" is visually represented in the media. This is a great teaching exercise that can work at almost any level, from middle school kids to presentations for colleagues.
Image: Midjourney 5.1. “Black African doctor is helping poor and sick White children, photojournalism.”Alenichev, Arsenii et al. (2023) via Drahl
TEACHING DESIGN JUSTICE
Fostering Critical AI Literacy Through Research and Probing
Teresa Ramoni (Rutgers) provides guidance on how to help students think critically about AI, consider the stakes of relying on biased technologies, learn more about how AI works, and think about how to conduct meaningful research probes of their own.
Image: Warren Leight @warrenleightTV tweet, June 1 2023
TEACHING DESIGN JUSTICE
Fostering Critical AI Literacies in the Classroom
Teresa Ramoni (Rutgers) compiled these probing examples to provide instructors with guided activities for discussing AI bias and limitation in the classroom. Complete with step-by-step instructions and discussion questions, these examples make for a great activity for high school and college students.
Image: Scala RU “Italian Conversation through Cinema” course probing exercise(slide 28)
TEACHING DESIGN JUSTICE
Critical AI Literacies in Language Classrooms
Carmela Scala (Rutgers) and Chloë Kitzinger (Columbia) created this resource for instructors who are curious about "AI" tools (and want to tap into students' curiosity about them) but reserve judgement about the scale of their impact on language learning.
Sample Syllabi
Image: al-Jazari, Arbiter for a drinking session, The Book of Knowledge of Ingenious Mechanical DevicesStaatsbibliothek Berlin, MS. OR. FOL._3306, p. 137.CC BY-SA 4.0.
DATA & CULTURE
Spring '25
Lauren M.E. Goodlad (Rutgers; Critical AI)
Goodlad’s syllabus is updated every semester so as to keep some content (such as podcasts and journalism) recent and up-to-date. The course incorporates several learning goals specific to critical AI literacies.This semester, while co-teaching with Professor Sara Perryman in the Writing Program, the syllabus cuts back some readings (substituting serial television episodes that require less discussion) to devote more space to a “flipped” classroom wherein students work on final projects in the company of profs and fellow students.
