AI Fake Festival: sparking creative critical thinkers

The rapid emergence of Generative Artificial Intelligence (GenAI) in education presents a paradox: how can we cultivate students' creativity and critical thinking when these tools can generate ideas and simplify reflection? Despite concerns about potentially weakening human creative and reflective capacities, it's necessary for students to learn how to use GenAI responsibly and critically. While GenAI adoption is accelerating, empirical research remains limited on effectively reconciling its use with developing these student skills. Current discussions often focus on GenAI's risks or efficiency, rarely exploring how to design sound learning approaches that enhance, rather than replace, students' creative and critical abilities. To address this gap, our research explores integrating GenAI into education to develop students' creativity and critical thinking. We designed and experimented the "AI Fake Festival," a pedagogical approach specifically aimed at fostering a deeper, critical understanding of GenAI and purposeful tool use. Built on active learning principles(ICAP framework), this approach encouraged students to move from passive to interactive cognitive engagement, allowing them to question, test, and expand their GenAI use. Our findings demonstrate how aligning GenAI use with active learning principles can enrich student experiences, equipping them with the critical and creative skills useful for their future careers and lifelong development.