Pedagogy 2025

Abstract

Artificial intelligence (AI) is rapidly transforming creative industries, prompting urgent reflection within higher education on how best to prepare students for uncertain futures. This paper presents the design of a new pathway in animation that integrates AI through practice-based teaching, experimental projects, and close observation of industrial change. Rather than focusing solely on technical workflows, the curriculum foregrounds critical engagement with AI and its implications for creativity, authorship, and employability. The pathway encourages students to explore the shifting boundary between originality and productivity, asking how creative value is defined when algorithms contribute to the process. It rethinks the identity of the animated filmmaker alongside the emerging identity of AI: is it a threat, a tool, or a teammate? These debates are embedded in studio practice, where students develop not only technical skills but also the critical literacies required to evaluate and direct AI-assisted processes. The study identifies new abilities—such as adaptive thinking, ethical reasoning, and collaborative problem-solving—that can be fostered through this approach. For educators, the pathway raises challenges: how to keep pace with rapidly evolving technologies, how to deliver up-to-date content in sustainable ways, and how to balance training for industry relevance with space for critical questioning. By addressing these tensions, the project argues for a pedagogy that is responsive, experimental, and outward-looking, equipping students to actively shape rather than passively inherit the changing conditions of digital animation practice.