What’s at Stake? Young Peoples’ Take on AI & Education
Zine layout, graphics and illustration
2024
Zine layout, graphics and illustration
2024
The goal was to design a zine that was not only aesthetically bold but that also ensured that these young people’s insights, ideas and voices reached and influenced educators, policymakers, and the wider public.
Designed to Make an Impact
The zine’s design needed to reflect the energy, honesty, and diversity of the voices at its core. I wanted the zine to retain the handmade, DIY aesthetic of traditional zines while also feeling accessible. The layout embraced a scrapbook-like feel, layering different media to give a sense of the workshops' collaborative and experimental nature. I used bold typography, collage-style compositions, and even old-school scanning and photocopying techniques to reflect the complexity of the young people’s perspectives—sometimes hopeful, sometimes frustrated, always thought-provoking.
Representation and Personalisation
One of the most striking sections of the zine explores how AI represents (or misrepresents) people’s identities. Some saw AI as an empowering tool, using it to visualize themselves in creative ways, like a peacock in a galaxy-print suit—a bold expression of individuality. Others experienced AI’s biases firsthand when it failed to generate accurate depictions of aspects of their identities.
The design in this section intentionally juxtaposes these contrasting experiences, highlighting both the promise and the shortcomings of AI in education. Elsewhere, students reflected on AI’s potential to personalize learning, debating whether it genuinely helps them or simply offers shallow, pre-programmed responses. To illustrate this tension, I structured the pages in a way that mirrors their mixed emotions—on one side, AI as a helpful “second brain,” and on the other, the frustration of overly simplistic answers.
Labour, Educational Value and Cost, Agency & Rights
Another key theme was labour—whether AI lightens students' workloads or just shifts the burden in new ways. One particularly powerful image emerged during the workshops: the idea of a person pushing a boulder uphill, with AI embedded in the weight of it. Other sections of the zine examined the educational value of AI, balancing its potential benefits against its environmental and ethical costs, and explored personal agency—emphasizing the desire to have control over our own learning data and the ability to opt out of AI tools when we choose.
Why a Digital Version Was Essential
A traditional print zine has an intimate, tangible feel, but a static format would form just part of its reach. From the start, I designed a fully responsive online version, ensuring that the zine was accessible across devices—whether someone was reading it on a laptop in a classroom or scrolling through it on a phone. This decision wasn’t just about convenience; it was about accessibility and impact. By bringing the zine online, we gave it the potential to reach a much wider audience, making it available to educators, researchers, and young people far beyond the initial workshops.
Explore the zine here! https://ai-and-education.shorthandstories.com/zine/index.html