Irene Lee, Safinah Ali, Helen Zhang, Daniella DiPaola, Cynthia Breazeal
This paper was very interesting, and I really enjoyed learning about the approach they took to teaching middle school children about AI. I think it’s a really great idea to take the initiative to introduce concepts like AI to middle school children considering the significance it holds in shaping the future, especially when the presence of even basic computer science classes/lessons in middle school are too limited, at least in my opinion. I didn’t expect them to place such an emphasis on learning about child development to make the course better suited for middle school children, but it seems to have played a significant role in making the course as successful as it was. It’s also really cool that they made the effort to teach the children about the ethics, too. While it was well thought out to aim this course at middle school age children, I wonder how the course might be adapted to serve elementary school children in the future. It’s interesting how a focus on ethics attracts people from underrepresented minorities, and I wonder if this could be used in various subjects to attract underrepresented students and find ways to minimize inequalities in education. Also, it was really interesting to read about the different activities and how they made the activities both extremely informative and enjoyable. I was surprised to find out that the students preferred the ethics related activities over the other activities. I guess this means that it is very important to make the activities fun in order to make them more effective. It makes sense that the overall interest in AI didn’t increase since most of the students only enrolled because they were already interested in AI. I think it would be interesting to see if the course improves AI interest amongst students without a prior interest in it.
Duri Long, Brian Magerko
This paper was very thorough and provided a lot of insight into things people need to consider when developing resources to promote AI literacy. When I think about AI literacy, the first thing that comes to mind is the ability to effectively use AI, so it was interesting to see how the definition in the paper also placed emphasis on the ability of people to evaluate AI technology. Furthermore, the lack of awareness on how much we interact with AI on a daily basis is not surprising, considering that a lot of it doesn’t look like what the general public thinks when they think of AI, but it is definitely something that needs to be addressed so that people can become more informed users of technology. In addition, it’s interesting that people generally need digital literacy but not computational literacy for AI literacy; however, many people probably think they need some level of computational literacy, and this could discourage a lot of people from learning about AI. I think advertising that computational literacy is not needed for AI literacy would increase the general population’s interest towards learning more about AI. I agree that it’s very important to teach about the strengths vs weaknesses of AI, because even though chatGPT is being used more and more by the general public, there is a lack of awareness on things it can do well vs things it can’t do well. Also, it was interesting to read about how children are more trusting of AI than adults, and this makes me wonder how the generational differences between how people perceive AI will change going forward. Furthermore, this paper mentioned how focusing on cultural values and personal identities can help attract people from underrepresented groups, and I think this could be used in tandem with teaching about AI ethics to reach a wider audience.
I am in a research based course comprised of undergraduate and graduate students where we will create educational AI tools for middle school age children. Throughout this semester we will be reviewing existing literature, making our own AI tools for children, and testing them with middle school age children. Suggest some project ideas for how we could engage middle school age children in learning about AI. The project ideas should be very fun and engaging, as well as educational
AI Language Learning Adventure: Build an AI-driven adventure game that teaches foreign languages. Children can embark on quests, solve language-related challenges, and interact with AI characters who speak the target language.
Mystery-solving AI Game: Create an interactive mystery-solving game where AI characters help children solve mysteries or puzzles. The AI can provide clues, engage in conversations, and adapt the story based on the player's choices.
AI Science Lab: Build a virtual science lab where children conduct experiments with the guidance of AI scientists. They can explore various scientific concepts and learn through hands-on experimentation.
AI in Space Exploration: Create an AI-driven space exploration game or simulation where children can navigate spaceships, visit planets, and learn about astronomy and space science.
AI Detective Agency: Set up an AI detective agency game where children solve mysteries using AI-driven tools such as facial recognition, voice analysis, and code-breaking algorithms.
AI Coding Playground: Create a coding playground with AI-driven characters that help children learn programming concepts in a fun and interactive way.