Exploring the Usage of Generative AI for Group Project-Based Offline Art Courses in Elementary Schools

TL;DR

This study explores how Generative AI can enhance elementary school art projects by improving creativity and engagement, introduces a tailored tool called AskArt, and discusses both benefits and challenges observed in real classroom settings.

Contribution

It presents a novel four-phase field study on GenAI in elementary art education and introduces AskArt, a specialized interface supporting young students' creative projects.

Findings

GenAI provides useful background and inspiration for students.

Students used diverse collaboration strategies with GenAI.

Teachers observed increased engagement but expressed concerns about misuse.

Abstract

The integration of Generative Artificial Intelligence (GenAI) in K-6 project-based art courses presents both opportunities and challenges for enhancing creativity, engagement, and group collaboration. This study introduces a four-phase field study, involving in total two experienced K-6 art teachers and 132 students in eight offline course sessions, to investigate the usage and impact of GenAI. Specifically, based on findings in Phases 1 and 2, we developed AskArt, an interactive interface that combines DALL-E and GPT and is tailored to support elementary school students in their art projects, and deployed it in Phases 3 and 4. Our findings revealed the benefits of GenAI in providing background information, inspirations, and personalized guidance. However, challenges in query formulation for generating expected content were also observed. Moreover, students employed varied collaboration strategies, and teachers noted increased engagement alongside concerns regarding misuse and interface suitability. This study offers insights into the effective integration of GenAI in elementary education, presents AskArt as a practical tool, and provides recommendations for educators and researchers to enhance project-based learning with GenAI technologies.