Teaching Tech to Talk: K-12 Conversational Artificial Intelligence Literacy Curriculum and Development Tools

Abstract

With children talking to smart-speakers, smart-phones and even smart-microwaves daily, it is increasingly important to educate students on how these agents work—from underlying mechanisms to societal implications. Researchers are developing tools and curriculum to teach K-12 students broadly about artificial intelligence (AI); however, few studies have evaluated these tools with respect to AI-specific learning outcomes, and even fewer have addressed student learning about AI-based conversational agents. We evaluated our Conversational Agent Interface for MIT App Inventor and workshop curriculum with respect to 8 AI competencies from the literature. Furthermore, we analyze teacher (n=9) and student (n=47) feedback from workshops with the interface and recommend that future work (1) leverages design considerations to optimize engagement, (2) collaborates with teachers, and (3) addresses a range of student abilities through pacing and opportunities for extension. We found evidence for student understanding of all 8 competencies, with the most difficult concepts being AI ethics and machine learning. We recommend emphasizing these topics in future curricula.