In June 2024, we worked with artist-facilitators and teachers to run speculative workshops with young people at three secondary schools in the UK. These workshops were designed to explore young people’s hopes, concerns and imaginations about the future of Generative AI in education, using arts-based methods, GenAI tools and a range of provocations and activities, including the creation of zine pages to be shared with education leaders.
A zine (short for ‘fanzine’ or ‘magazine’) is “a small-circulation self-published work of original or appropriated texts and images, usually reproduced via a copy machine. Zines are the product of either a single person or of a very small group, and are popularly photocopied into physical prints for circulation” (Wikipedia, accessed January 2025). Our version was professionally designed but with a creative aesthetic that came from the collages, AI-generated images and other materials the workshop participants created.
The zine is organised into five sections, reflecting different areas of concern and interest for the young people in our project: representation, personalisation, labour, educational value & cost, and agency & rights. Along with the images, there are also summary texts, written by the researchers, and provocation questions for educators and others to consider and take forward.
The digital version of the zine is at https://ai-and-education.shorthandstories.com/zine/index.html . There are also beautiful paper copies of the zine and the provocations available, pictured below – if you would like copies, please contact Jo Spiller – Jo.Spiller@ed.ac.uk – to request them.
