Using AI to Empower Digital Creativity in the Classroom

In this episode, we explore how teachers can embrace the Australian Framework for Generative AI in Schools to move students beyond passive screen time and into active digital creation. You’ll learn how to guide your learners to become ethical AI users, creative content creators, and digitally fluent innovators—plus a practical teacher checklist you can start using today. 

Music by amado zapana from Pixabay

Transcript

Hi everyone — welcome back to Digital Pedagogy in Practice.

Today we’re exploring how we as teachers can use AI to help our students’ become creators of digital content—not just consumers.

In 2023, Australia’s Education Ministers endorsed the Australian Framework for Generative AI in Schools. The framework is clear: as teachers, we have a responsibility to help students use AI to enhance learning, foster critical thinking, and—importantly—become digital content creators.

The framework encourages us to guide students to use AI ethically and creatively, so they’re not just copying and pasting or letting the AI do all the thinking. Instead, we should aim for learning experiences where AI supports student-led creation—things like writing, video production, digital art, game design, coding, or creating podcasts, just like this one.

As students move through primary and into secondary school, our focus must shift when we are thinking about technology use. Instead of “how much time?” we should ask: “What kind of time?”

Are students in the classroom being passive consumers, using their device to just read content and take notes, scrolling through content? Or are they active creators—designing, building, coding, composing and collaborating?

This is where your role as a teacher is crucial.

Think of it like this:

In the younger years, we build positive attitudes toward technology and introduce foundational skills. In Years 4 to 10, the goal is to develop digital content creators, technology innovators, and digitally fluent learners.

This shift isn’t just about what students use. It’s about what they make.

Now, let’s get practical. I want to share with you a simple teacher checklist to help guide your digital pedagogy and AI use in the classroom:

• Am I giving students opportunities to create digital content—not just consume it?
• Is AI being used as a tool, not the author of student work?
• Are students learning to critically evaluate AI outputs and detect inaccuracies, bias, culturally insensitive outputs?
• Does the activity promote higher-order thinking—creating, analysing, designing?
• Am I balancing screen time with unplugged, collaborative, and hands-on learning?
• Are students learning to use AI and digital tools ethically and responsibly?
• Does this activity develop students’ digital fluency—not just technical skill, but the ability to use tools to express, communicate, and solve problems?
• Am I modelling curiosity, creativity, and a positive mindset toward innovation?

For example, instead of asking students to summarise a text using AI, what if we asked them to write their own stories and then use AI tools to illustrate or animate those stories? What if they used AI to co-create a virtual world, a game, or even an augmented reality experience?

The SAMR model gives us a way to think about this shift from user to creator—from basic substitution, like typing a document instead of writing by hand, to redefining what’s possible with technology. At the modification and redefinition levels, students are using tools like AI as an integral part of the creative process.

Remember—AI and digital tools should help students move “above the line” to become creators of new knowledge, new content, and new ideas.

And yes, as teachers, we need to model this mindset. The Framework specifically highlights our role as experts in the classroom—not AI, but us. We must design tasks that require human thinking, creativity and ethics. The goal isn’t to replace what we do; it’s to amplify it.

You don’t have to use AI in every lesson. Sometimes, traditional methods will be the best choice for your learners and your content. What matters is intentionality. AI should be used thoughtfully, not for the sake of it.

So educators—our responsibility is clear:

We need to guide our students to become confident, ethical digital creators. Help them harness the potential of AI to build, design, make, and innovate. That’s how we prepare them for the world ahead.

Thanks for listening