This section explores the integration of artificial intelligence in Design and Technology (D&T) education through practical case studies and classroom strategies. Drawing on live teaching examples, it demonstrates how generative AI tools such as text-to-image and image-to-image platforms can enhance creativity, support communication, and increase learner confidence. It also addresses ethical considerations, including safeguarding, intellectual property, and bias, offering guidance for schools engaging with AI tools. The argument is made for thoughtful, student-centred use of AI that meets learners where they are, while ensuring the values of design education remain at the core.

Meeting the Moment
The pace of change in artificial intelligence can be both exciting and overwhelming. For educators in Design and Technology, the emergence of generative tools presents new opportunities for creativity as well as new responsibilities in how we support students through a fast-changing digital world.

All Case Studies

A natural starting point for many educators is text-to-image AI. These tools take a written prompt and generate a visual output. In the classroom, this can be used to:

• Create product examples or visual references

• Generate discussion prompts

• Show a particular drawing style or material application

For example, a prompt like ‘sketches, construction lines, pro markers, toothbrushing and shaving’ can produce an image that helps kickstart a design brief. These kinds of visuals can spark curiosity and support learning, especially when no physical exemplar is available

Generative AI can be used to prompt critical thinking. One classroom example involved an AI-generated image of a spaghetti Bolognese disassembled into its ingredients. The image contained several inaccuracies, such as multiple types of pasta and excessive salt, which led to a rich classroom discussion about accuracy, authorship, and the limits of AI.

The activity also introduced students to the concept of knolling — a method of visually laying out a product’s component parts. This ties directly into existing D&T practice, especially when analysing products at Key Stage 4 and 5. These kinds of prompts show that AI outputs are not correct answers, but rather starting points for analysis and discussion.

This can be VERY useful when creating resources for projects or competitions that have never been done before. It is important to be clear with students that AI has been used. Keeping honesty and transparency at the fore when using AI as a teacher will encourage students to do the same.

Being able to merge two visual languages together into one image can have hige potential for learning opportunities. Above is an example of older students (17yrs) compiling an inspiration board for a fashion- recycling - 'junk to funk' project. The images below were generated in conversation with a child in early years education (5yrs) about what his favourite superheroes would look like if they were trains. The Captain America example led to lots of discussion about how design has changed through history and the steamline movement of the 1930s/40s.

In one lesson, students imagined a futuristic bike, described it to a partner, refined their descriptions, and then created prompts to generate visual representations. A Padlet board was used to share the results, supporting discussion across the class.

This activity helped develop oracy, vocabulary, and iteration — all fundamental skills in D&T. A variation of the activity asked students to design toothbrushes for secret “clients,” using notes passed or whispered. This built empathy and inference and led to thoughtful critiques of design outcomes.