| Summary | This 1-hour lesson plan brings students to consider AI’s impact on employment both factually and critically. Referencing the Writers’ Guild of America Strike in 2023 as a running thread throughout the lesson plan, students should understand four ways that AI may impact employment: replace workers, augment their work, create more jobs, and place more emphasis on human-centered skills. Building on the philosophical question “Why do we work?” students are encouraged to critically assess the role that AI should adopt in the workplace, together imagining a future for employment that students feel more personally connected with. The lesson aims to help students to:
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| Topics | Employment Transformation due to AI, Future AI Impact on Society |
| Audience | K9-12, all subjects, especially for students who display less interest in STEM/technology/AI. Can be adapted as part of a college-level Intro to AI course or Intro to Computer Science course as well. |
| Difficulty | The lesson requires around an hour; apart from the reflective prompts, the assignments are to be completed during the lesson. The assignments are more reflective than they are technical and can be completed by anyone who is engaged in the discussion. |
| Strengths | Rather than solely teaching AI’s technical capabilities, this lesson adopts a learning trajectory that highlights AI as a socio-technical system–where AI technology can transform society, just as how society can impact the way AI is developed or implemented. This makes the lesson more relevant to students even if they don’t have an interest in coding or technology. It’s also easier for teachers without AI experiences to facilitate, lowering the barrier of teaching this lesson. Furthermore, this lesson is action-oriented and embedded in real-world context, which is designed to empower students with actionable steps rather than passive knowledge intake. |
| Weaknesses | The lesson does not involve coding. It also relies on the teachers’ facilitation, as most of the activities involve group work. |
| Dependencies | No prerequisite and no technology needed, though knowing stakeholder analysis and ethical matrix would be a bonus. |
| Variants | Feel free to use case studies other than the WGA Strike to make it more relevant to your own context or local workforce. Teachers can also incorporate other examples of socio-techno interplay, such as that of driverless trucks both in terms of displacing workers and sharing road with other driven trucks. Depending on how political the classroom is comfortable being, the teacher can also tone up/down the discussion on policies and societal change. Assignment work can be a presentation or an essay. The lesson plan also recognizes that there is no “factual” discussion when it comes to predictions about the future. Therefore, the four-impact framework and the examples given in this lesson plan are limited by the development of AI as witnessed in the Summer of 2024. It is entirely possible that AI’s impact on employment drastically changes in the near future. When that happens, please feel free to change the specific content within the skeleton of this lesson plan. |
AI is an evolving technology with immense social impact. As narratives of AI outperforming and replacing humans put conventional career paths at risk, many young people perceive AI’s impact as anxiety about future employment prospects. Notably, part of the anxiety is manufactured by an education that teaches AI as a technology with a de facto impact rather than a socio-technical system that can change and be changed by societal factors. This lesson plan targets young people’s understanding of future employment by addressing the current shortcomings in AI education. In this 60-minute lesson plan, students use the Writers’ Guild of America Strike in 2023 as the primary case study to explore four ways in which AI can impact future employment. Students are then encouraged as active agents by adopting the roles of workers or decision-makers in drafting AI-related policies. As this lesson is less technical and more reflective, it is suitable for students of all subjects in high school and teachers without an AI background, lowering the barriers to learning about AI.
Teaching Script
Teaching Slides
Citations & Resources
Class worksheet 1: Infographic
Class worksheet 2: Demands & Responses
Homework: Reflection