What AI literacy means for a school team
AI literacy is a short list of habits, not a technical course. Here is what school staff need to know to use AI well.
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"AI literacy" gets used to mean everything from coding to ethics seminars. For a school team it is narrower and more useful. It means knowing enough to use AI tools well, and to notice when one is steering you wrong.
It predicts text. It does not look things up.
A chat tool writes the words that are most likely to come next. That is why it sounds equally confident when it is right and when it is wrong. Once staff understand this, a lot of strange behaviour makes sense: invented sources, made-up policy numbers, a smooth answer to a question the tool has no way of knowing.
Better input gets better output
A vague request gets an average answer. A good prompt says who you are, what you need, what to avoid, and shows an example of the voice you want. People can learn this in an afternoon, and it carries across tools. The prompt library has examples you can fill in and copy, such as a reply to a hard parent email.
Checking is part of the job
Every output needs a reader. Compare it with your own notes, your marks or the source document. If the tool names a source, open the source yourself. If you cannot check a claim, leave it out.
Know what stays out
Staff need a plain rule for what never goes into a tool: student names alongside marks, health and learning-support information, family details and photos. Your board or school decides which tools are approved, so start with that list. A school without one can use this guide to a first policy.
Know when not to use it
Some work should stay human: a difficult conversation with a family, a judgment about a student, anything where your professional opinion is the point. AI can help you prepare for those tasks. It should not do them.
Literacy is shared
If one teacher knows these habits and the rest do not, the school is still exposed. A shared starting point matters more than a few experts. A simple target: every staff member can say in one sentence why an AI answer needs checking, and can name three things that never go into a tool.