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Games-based Pedagogical Approaches to AI Literacy

Engage in hands-on games and activities developed by participants to explore alternative pedagogical approaches to understanding generative AI tools, and their socio-technical considerations.

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September 23, 2026, 10:00am - 12:00pm
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Research Data & Digital Scholarship Exchange (RDDSx), Van Pelt-Dietrich Library Center, 1st floor
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Open to the Public
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Hosted by: Research Data & Digital Scholarship

The image shows a surreal landscape with vast green fields extending toward distant mountains under a cloudy sky. Embedded in the fields are digital circuit patterns, resembling an intricate network of blue lines, representing a technological infrastructure. Four large computer monitors with keyboards are placed in a row, each with a Navajo woman sitting in front, weaving the computers.

Designing Data Center City: A Games-based Pedagogical Approach to AI Literacy

In this session, developed with the Price Lab for Digital Humanities Dream Lab Digital Humanities in the Classroom, you will engage in hands-on games and activities developed by participants to explore alternative pedagogical approaches to understanding generative AI tools, and their socio-technical considerations. This session will also include notes on the local implications of data centers and more information around Penn-specific sustainability efforts.

In this introductory workshop, participants will help design and test Data Center City, a board game where players work together to either build or block the construction of data centers in the Philadelphia area. Participants will draft game rules, create character backstories and motives, test gameplay, and more. We'll also learn more about what data centers are, why (and where) they're being built, and why various actors support or oppose their construction.

This is an in-person, beginner-friendly, non-technical workshop that is part of the AI Literacy Interest Group at Penn Libraries Book Club series, where we are discussing Empire of AI by Karen Hao this year.

Learning Objectives

  • Understand the infrastructure behind how gen AI systems work
  • Minimal Computing pedagogical approaches
  • Educational game design strategies through interactive, participatory, craft-oriented activities
  • Call to Action and networking with Computational community of mindful practitioners at Penn and beyond

Prerequisites

  • No prior AI experience is required.
  • You are welcome to contextualize yourself to the session by reading Karen Hao’s Empire of AI.

Software required

No Device / Software Installation Required

About the Facilitators

Jaj Karajgikar, Amber Zambelli, Yumi Dineen Shiroma, and Chris Lamack. 

Image Credits: Hanna Barakat  & Archival Images of AI + AIxDESIGN / https://betterimagesofai.org / https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

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