CreateAI Insights from an NSF Workshop on K12 Students, Teachers, and Families as Designers of Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning Applications

TL;DR

This paper discusses empowering K-12 students and teachers to become creators of AI/ML applications, emphasizing tool design, ethical considerations, and integration into education to foster responsible innovation.

Contribution

It provides recommendations for designing AI/ML creation tools, integrating ethics into curricula, and supporting educators and students as responsible AI creators.

Findings

Guidelines for AI/ML creation tool features

Importance of ethics in AI education

Strategies for integrating AI creation into classrooms

Abstract

In response to the exponential growth in the use of artificial intelligence and machine learning applications, educators, researchers and policymakers have taken steps to integrate artificial intelligence applications into K-12 education. Among these efforts, one equally important approach has received little, if any attention: What if students and teachers were not just learning to be competent users of AI but also its creators? This question is at the heart of CreateAI in which K12 educators, researchers, and learning scientists addressed the following questions: (1) What tools, skills, and knowledge will empower students and teachers to build their own AI/ML applications? (2) How can we integrate these approaches into classrooms? and (3) What new possibilities for learning emerge when students and teachers become innovators and creators? In the report we provide recommendations for what tools designed for creating AI/ML applications should address in terms of design features, and learner progression in investigations. To promote effective learning and teaching of creating AI applications, we also need to help students and teachers select appropriate tools. We outline how we need to develop a better understanding of learning practices and funds of knowledge to support youth as they create and evaluate AI/ML applications. This also includes engaging youth in learning about ethics and critically that is authentic, empowering, and relevant throughout the design process. Here we advocate for the integration of ethics in the curriculum. We also address what teachers need to know and how assessments can help establish baselines, include different instruments, and promote students as responsible creators of AI. Together, these recommendations provide important insights for preparing students to engage thoughtfully and critically with these technologies.