Teach with Belle.
Belle of the Bot is a free AI literacy project. It is 164 cards explaining how AI systems work, who builds them, how they behave, and where the risks sit, with quizzes at three levels. It is free to use, needs no accounts, and collects nothing from your students. Use it however is useful to you. No permission needed.
Who it is for
Anyone teaching people what AI actually is. High school and community college classrooms, library programs, adult and workforce education, staff training at organizations trying to get their footing, and self-directed learners. No technical background required, yours or theirs.
What is inside
- 164 explainer cards across five areas: the components of AI systems, the people and companies building them, core concepts, how these systems behave, and risk
- Quizzes at three levels, so a group can start where it actually is
- A claim type on every card, which is the part worth teaching on purpose
The part worth teaching on purpose
Every claim on every card is labeled with its claim type: one of four things: a measurement, a theory, a definition, or someone’s position. That is there because most writing about AI blurs those together. A benchmark number, a researcher’s hunch, and a company’s marketing all tend to arrive with the same confidence. Telling them apart is an information literacy skill, and it outlasts any particular fact about any particular model. If you use only one thing from Belle, use that. Have students find a claim about AI in the news and label it.
Three ways to use it
- Five minutes. Put one card on the screen as a warm-up. Ask what kind of claim it makes and how you would go about checking it.
- One class period. Pick one of the five areas, work through the cards together, then run the matching quiz. The three levels let you differentiate without preparing three separate lessons.
- A unit. Move through the areas in order, then have students write their own card on something Belle does not cover, claim type included. Making one is where the understanding actually lands.
Practical details
- Free, and free to use in your classroom, library, or course
- Works in any web browser. No app, no install
- No accounts, no logins, no student data collected
- Nothing to purchase and no procurement process to survive
- Made by one person, so if something is wrong or unclear, telling me actually fixes it
Can I use this?
Yes. Project it, assign it, adapt it, print from it. Attribution is appreciated and not required. If you do something interesting with it I would genuinely like to hear about it, partly because it is nice to know and partly because it tells me what to build next.
Usage
Belle of the Bot is free to use for teaching and learning. Project it, assign it, print from it, adapt it for your class or program. Attribution is appreciated and not required. For commercial use, or if you want to build something on top of it, please just ask me.