Curriculum Framework

Technology is rapidly reshaping our daily lives. Proficiency in navigating, engaging with, and working within the digital environment is essential for learners’ future success. As a result, educational systems are evolving to meet these changes.

Digital education in New Brunswick is grounded in the following principles:

• Technology should support and enhance pedagogy and curriculum outcomes.
• Technology skills exist on a continuum. All learners and teachers are capable of enhancing their technology skills.
• Digital and AI tools should enhance, not replace, human thinking and creativity.
• Ethical, safe, and responsible participation in digital environments is essential.
• Students require balanced opportunities to use, understand, create with, and critically examine digital and AI technologies.
• Digital literacy competencies are transferable and enduring, even as specific technologies evolve.

For Educators:

What is Digital Literacy?

Digital literacy is defined as the harmony of digital skills, attitudes, and behaviours that help students achieve their goals and become thoughtful and able citizens that contribute to the betterment of society and the common good. In New Brunswick education, there are six components to digital literacy:

• Digital Citizenship
• Digital Health and Wellness
• Critical Inquiry and Meaning Making
• Creativity, Design, and Problem Solving
• Communication and Collaboration
• Computational Thinking

What is AI Literacy?

AI literacy builds on digital literacy. It develops the knowledge and critical thinking needed for learners to understand, use, question, and apply artificial intelligence. The goal is to develop the foundational understanding required to assess what AI systems can and cannot do and to recognize both their limitations and their potential.

AI literacy includes understanding the social, cultural, environmental, and economic impacts of AI. The goal is to prepare learners, educators, and education leaders to make informed decisions in a world where AI increasingly shapes information, relationships, opportunities, and democratic processes. AI literacy helps learners understand that AI systems are human-designed technologies that require ongoing human judgement and responsibility.

(AI Literacy Framework for Elementary and Secondary Education in Canada, Digital Moment, 2026)

Four modes of learning with AI

A framework for K-12 educational design

Artificial intelligence is positioned as an integrated dimension of contemporary digital literacy, supporting all learners in developing the knowledge, skills, and judgement needed to thrive in a technology rich world.

Students benefit from engaging with AI in multiple, balanced ways:

• learning with AI as a support for thinking and creation
• learning through AI-mediated environments such as adaptive tools and simulations
• learning about AI both as a technology and as a subject of critical, ethical, and societal inquiry
• learning without AI to strengthen independent reasoning and skill development

The New Brunswick Digital Literacy Framework articulates what effective integration of digital technology and artificial intelligence looks like in New Brunswick’s K–12 classrooms. It serves as a shared reference point for all education rightsholders as the province advances thoughtful, equitable, and sustainable digital innovation in education.

Enacted in the Curriculum

Common Misconceptions

Ethical Considerations

Technology, Equity, and Ethical Considerations in Digital Learning

All technology has limitations. At the same time, thoughtfully integrated technology can support greater equity in a classroom by removing barriers to access, offering multiple means of representation and expression, and providing personalized pathways for learners with diverse needs. When engaging in digital learning, educators should consider both the learning goals and the skills being developed, ensuring that technology acts as a scaffold rather than a barrier. Educators are encouraged to approach technology use through the lens of Universal Design for Learning (UDL), which prioritizes flexible, inclusive design from the outset.

Ethical Considerations in Generative AI

Generative AI introduces important ethical considerations that affect learners, educators, institutions, and communities. Supporting a shared understanding of these considerations is foundational to responsible use. These issues are not hypothetical; they reflect real tensions that educators, policymakers, and researchers are actively navigating. These issues include, but are not limited to:

• Generation of biased, ableist, racist, sexist, and/or inaccurate information – Generative AI systems are trained on large datasets that reflect existing societal biases. Outputs may perpetuate stereotypes or produce content that is harmful or discriminatory, even when the prompt appears neutral.
• Hallucinations and factual inaccuracy – Generative AI tools can produce responses that are fluent and confident in tone but factually incorrect, fabricated, or misleading. This is sometimes referred to as “hallucination.” Educators and students must develop the critical literacy skills to verify AI-generated information against authoritative sources, particularly in research, assessment, and decision-making contexts.
• Impact on environment – The energy and water demand of large-scale AI systems are significant. Training and running generative AI models contributes to carbon emissions and draws heavily on water supplies for cooling data centres, raising sustainability concerns relevant to climate education.
• Unregulated development – The pace of AI development often outstrips regulatory frameworks. Learners and educators operating in this environment may encounter tools that have not been subject to rigorous review for safety, accuracy, or appropriateness for use with minors.
• Overreliance for creation and decision-making – Dependence on AI tools for writing, problem-solving, and decision-making risks undermining the development of critical thinking, creativity, and metacognitive skills. Educators should be intentional about when AI use supports learning versus when it may displace it.
• Economic impact – Generative AI raises questions about equitable access (device and subscription costs), workforce disruption (job creation and loss), and the concentration of technological power in a small number of private entities.
• Lack of transparency on data use and security – Many AI tools do not clearly disclose how user data is collected, stored, or used to train future models. This is a particular concern in K-12 contexts, where student privacy protections are paramount.

While it is challenging to fully address these issues, awareness of them is essential to mitigating risk and preventing unintended harm. Educators are encouraged to engage students in critical conversations about these dimensions of AI as part of broader digital and AI literacy development.

(Adapted from Recommended-Approaches-to-Generative-AI.pdf, 2024)