“Make All Teachers Robots”: How Middle Schoolers Negotiate the Possibilities of AI in Education

• In Event: Student Interactions With AI

Abstract

This study highlights how middle schoolers discuss the benefits and drawbacks of educational AI agents. Using thematic analysis of focus group discussions, we identified four key roles students discussed regarding how AI might function in education. Students talked about beneficial ways that AI could improve their learning via engagement and differentiation, while also addressing the unsettling risks of being surveilled by AI tools. Students also noted how AI falls short when compared to emotionally and intellectually complex human counterparts. Overall, we argue that middle schoolers can articulate deep, multifaceted understandings of the possibilities and pitfalls of AI in education, and that centering student voices in AI design can provide learners with much-desired agency over their future learning experiences.

Authors

• Megan Alyse Humburg, Indiana University

• Dalila Dragnic-Cindric, Digital Promise

• Cindy E. Hmelo-Silver, Indiana University

• Krista D. Glazewski, North Carolina State University

• James C. Lester, North Carolina State University