Behind the Chatbot: Interactive AI Mechanics & Literacy

This interactive flipped classroom or workshop activity demystifies generative AI by seamlessly blending a pre-class AI dialogue with an in-depth workshop connecting information literacy frameworks, LLM mechanics, ethics, and prompt engineering.

Part 1: Pre-Class Activity (20–40 Minutes)

Students engage directly with an AI chatbot using a structured prompt. Through conversational dialogue rather than a lecture, the prompt introduces core technical concepts one step at a time:

• Next-Word Prediction & Probability: Role-reversal exercises where students act as the AI to understand statistical token likelihood .
• Tokenization & Vector Embeddings: Exploring how text is split into sub-word token chunks and mapped into multi-dimensional semantic spaces ("the geometry of language") .
• Attention Mechanisms & Context Windows: Visualizing the transformer attention mechanism as a "moving highlighter" and tracking memory limits.
• Temperature & RLHF: Testing creativity controls ("the chaos knob") and examining Reinforcement Learning from Human Feedback.
• The "Black Box" & Hallucinations: Uncovering algorithmic opacity and how confident fabrications happen .

Students note surprising moments and bring their questions to class.

Part 2: In-Class Workshop (1+ Hour)

The workshop builds directly on the pre-class dialogue by grounding discussions in core ACRL Framework concepts—specifically exploring "Information Creation as a Process" (comparing peer review with probabilistic text generation) and "Authority Is Constructed and Contextual" (contrasting academic authority with SEO "Domain Authority"). Students practice lateral reading, review LLM mechanics, unpack ethical challenges, and learn to build effective research prompts using a structured framework.

Materials Included

• AI System Prompt: A sequential, guarded prompt that guides students through activities and reflective questions.
• Sample Instruction Email: A customizable template to prep students for the pre-class activity.
• Presentation Slides: Example presentation slides and visual outlines.

This resource is ideal for one-shot library instruction, embedded course partnerships, or standalone AI literacy workshops.

Disclaimer

The included prompt is designed to guide AI chatbot behavior, but AI outputs are probabilistic and cannot be fully controlled. Responses will vary across platforms, model versions, and individual sessions. The author is not responsible for unexpected, inaccurate, or inappropriate content generated when students use the prompt—in fact, this variability serves as a core teachable moment for the lesson.

Feedback & Collaboration

I am interested in any experiences you have with this prompt, whether through personal testing or in a classroom setting. Please feel free to reach out to share your findings or discuss the activity further via my personal email, ALA Connect, or LinkedIn.

Updated 8/12/2026