University of Winnipeg Collegiate Makes AI Literacy Lessons Mandatory

The mandatory module is intended to give students a common starting point before they encounter AI tools in their coursework and daily lives. The Free Press reported that the school views it as comparable to a prerequisite safety lesson: a baseline before students use a technology that can affect learning, privacy, and decision-making.

The Grade 10 elective is separate from that requirement. Its first intake is full, and its course description says it will help students understand AI’s growing role in modern society. The published description lists the course among the Collegiate’s Grade 10 offerings, while the Free Press reported that the class will begin this fall.

Instructor Cameron Cerasani described the elective as a critical-thinking course rather than a computer-science class. Students are expected to examine how AI systems are trained and how the tools affect communication, education, media, and decision-making. The course will also cover prompt-writing skills, but the reported scope is broader than optimizing chatbot prompts.

That distinction matters. The required module establishes basic AI literacy for the whole Grade 9 and 10 cohort, while the elective gives interested students a structured setting to discuss both the usefulness and the limits of generative tools. The reporting also describes an emphasis on students’ own judgment and voice rather than treating AI as a substitute for learning.

LDS interpretation: this is a localized curriculum pilot, not evidence that a broader school system has adopted the same model. Its practical significance is that the Collegiate is pairing a universal introduction with a deeper elective, making AI literacy a defined part of secondary-school instruction rather than an optional workshop.