On the 12th December 2024, we held the event “Creativity and Emerging Tech” at the Edinburgh Futures Institute, which focused on the creative side of technology and how digital techniques, skills and literacies, such as AI, can inform creative projects and ideas.
Around 20 S3 learners from George Watson’s College and around 15 S3 learners from Castlebrae Community High School attended the event.
Team member Kate Farrell led the learners through “Unplugged AI”, a series of activities on data and AI (Is this a Zegah?, Let’s Generate a Sentence, Let’s Write a Story). The students then split into groups and took turns to try out three kinds of activities: “Duck or Die”, a game that allows players to train an AI machine to distinguish between ducks and dice; “Microbits Dancing”, where players wear microbits while dancing to collect data that allows AI to recognise dance moves; finally, the students were given question prompts to discuss the ethical implications of data gathering and AI.
The second part of the event saw the students be judges of an AI-themed talent show. “Unbelievably Talented” by Digital Skills Education asked the learners to distinguish between art entirely made by humans, and art created with the help of AI. The game led to fruitful discussion on whether such a thing as AI artist exists and whether and/or in which instances we are allowed to use AI to create art.
The event was an opportunity to introduce secondary students to tools and key issues in the use of Artificial Intelligence for creative projects.