Kids coming of age alongside AI is what Media Literacy Week’s about

Media Literacy Week kicked off in style at one Australian school as the AI revolution promises to change the world in which today’s kids will come of age.

Ballina Coast High School in the Northern Rivers of NSW transformed into a hub of digital innovation* on Monday as students from Years 7 and 8 participated in a full-day of interactive AI lessons.

The event also launched a new media literacy lesson at a time when 2025 UNICEF Australia research has found that 56 per cent of Australian children and young people had been exposed to deepfake* content. Program provider Day of AI Australia cites further research that less than half (41 per cent) of young Australians say they know how to tell fake news stories when they see them.

The new lesson saw Ballina Coast students design their own AI bots in Win the Farm, a competitive challenge that tackles AI-driven misinformation within the world of George Orwell’s classic text Animal Farm.

The game challenges users to back a political candidate in a fictional election on the farm. Users design their AI campaign bot’s personality and decide tactics to persuade other animal citizens and win votes.

“The game provides a terrific opportunity to assist students to move from being passive* to critically reflective* AI users, which is absolutely essential for responding to the prevalence of AI in our society”, said the Australian Media Literacy Alliance chair Professor Michael Dezuanni.

Incoming school captain and an AI champion on the day, student CJ Dodgson said it was incredibly important that they learn about AI because “we won’t be going back”.

“We will never be in a world without it … now that it is made, it is only going to keep progressing. We may as well learn about the benefits and disadvantages while we can,” CJ said.

“I like that the program gives students ideas that they might not have had about (AI). It’s really expanding what they realise is AI and (is) not … for myself looking at the program, I was like, it can be hard to realise sometimes.”

Ballina Coast High School Principal Peter Howes said AI had the potential to transform education and reshape the world.

“By focusing on the qualities that make us human, equipping our young people with critical thinking skills and the ability to be discerning digital citizens, we’re giving them the best possible chance to succeed in a future where AI will be everywhere,” Principal Howes said.

“Developing these capabilities is essential not just for career readiness, but for thoughtful and ethical participation in society.”

By designing a bot, students gained direct insight into how algorithms* and automated systems* are used to shape narratives and influence public opinion online.

The incursion was run by Day of AI Australia, a free, national education program developed in partnership with MIT RAISE and UNSW Sydney that equips students from Years 1 to 10 with the skills to understand, use, and question AI.

Teachers across Australia can deliver the free media literacy lesson from 27 October.

Ballina Coast High’s teams will now compete against students from across the country to see whose AI strategy most effectively owns the narrative and “wins the farm”.

THE MAJOR PLAYERS
Companies owned and run by a group loosely known on social media as “tech bros” currently dominate the rapidly emerging AI universe. As some of the most powerful businesses on the planet, it’s no surprise this cyber club was first behind the astronomically expensive recent space race but now their attention has snapped straight back to Earth with the surging advent of AI.

Google staked an early claim as one of the forerunners leading the pack and it’s joined by the usual suspects: Apple, Open AI (which owns ChatGPT), Microsoft and Meta.

Google recently launched Google Skills, a new unified learning platform designed to help people and organisations master AI.

The company said the initiative would offer nearly 3000 courses, labs, and credentials, combining resources from Google Cloud, Google DeepMind, Grow with Google, and Google for Education into one hub.

Predictably, the tech giant has added gamified learning tools, such as streak tracking* and social achievements, to attract more learners, because AI is booming and these companies are already locked in a fierce competition to make many more mega bucks from tech consumers – that is, most people.

Apple is already one of the most popular, recognised brands in the world and former CEO John Sculley has said that OpenAI was Apple’s “first real competitor in decades”.

Mr Sculley – who led Apple between 1983 and 1993 – said the ChatGPT maker’s influence was comparable to the launch of the original Macintosh or iPhone.

Speaking at the Zeta Live conference, he said: “OpenAI has managed to capture the world’s imagination with generative AI, and that kind of momentum doesn’t happen often. It’s reminiscent of what Apple did when it brought personal computing to the masses.”

“What OpenAI is doing now with AI feels like the next iteration of that same vision. It’s pushing everyone, including Apple, to evolve faster.”

The comments come at a time when Apple is under growing pressure to strengthen its AI ecosystem.

Despite unveiling Apple Intelligence last year, critics have argued that the company has lagged behind rivals like Google, Meta, and Microsoft, all of which have deeper ties to AI model developers.

Mr Sculley – who famously hired Steve Jobs before the two clashed over Apple’s direction in the 1980s – said he saw parallels between Jobs’ vision and OpenAI CEO Sam Altman’s approach.

“Both leaders think beyond technology,” Mr Sculley said. “They’re driven by how people experience it – and that’s what makes OpenAI such a formidable challenger.”

*This section contains content copyrighted to BANG Showbiz which was sourced via Reuters Connect. It is reproduced for Kids News with permission.

POLL

GLOSSARY

• innovation: the introduction of new ideas, methods or things.
• algorithms: sets of mathematical instructions or rules that, especially if given to a computer, will help to calculate an answer to a problem
• automated systems: set of connected things or devices that allow machines to do the work instead of people
• streak tracking: series or a run of successes or failures in a particular activity
• passive: not acting to influence or change a situation, allowing other people to be in control
• critically reflective: a process of identifying, questioning, and assessing our assumptions

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QUICK QUIZ

1. Which classic novel by which author sets the scene for AI challenge Win the Farm?
2. Why does Ballina Coast High incoming captain CJ say it was incredibly important they learn about AI?
3. Who is Sam Altman?
4. What are features added to Google Skills to “gamify” it and appeal to more users?
5. Which tech company did former Apple CEO John Sculley name as Apple’s first competitor in decades?

LISTEN TO THIS STORY

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CLASSROOM ACTIVITIES
1. Tell the teachers!
What do you think teachers need to know about Gen Alpha? Write a report about your generation that will help your teachers to understand you, how you learn and how they can teach you as well as they can.

Time: allow at least 20 minutes to complete this activity
Curriculum Links: English, Health and Physical Education, Personal and Social Capability

2. Extension
What do you think it means to be a ‘critically reflective’ user of AI? Design an infographic or poster that will help other kids understand what it means and why it is important.

Time: allow at least 30 minutes to complete this activity
Curriculum Links: English, Information Technology, Personal and Social Capability

VCOP ACTIVITY
Wow word recycle
There are plenty of wow words (ambitious pieces of vocabulary) being used in the article. Some are in the glossary, but there might be extra ones from the article that you think are exceptional as well.

Identify all the words in the article that you think are not common words, and particularly good choices for the writer to have chosen.

Select three words you have highlighted to recycle into your own sentences.

If any of the words you identified are not in the glossary, write up your own glossary for them.

Extension
Find a bland sentence from the article to up-level. Can you add more detail and description? Can you replace any base words with more specific synonyms?

Down-level for a younger audience. Find a sentence in the article that is high level. Now rewrite it for a younger audience so they can understand the words without using the glossary.