Innovative approaches to Informal Education in Artificial Intelligence

作为加强非正式环境中学习的整体战略的一部分，推进非正式STEM学习（AISL）计划资助创新研究，方法和资源，用于各种环境。尽管人工智能（AI）无处不在，但公众对它的工作原理和使用方式的理解是有限的。 项目内容包括与人工智能领导者进行实时社交媒体聊天、应用程序开发、对机器学习中的道德问题进行新闻调查，以及对基于人工智能的消费产品进行审查。Youth Radio是一个非营利性媒体和技术组织，为青年提供STEM，新闻，艺术和通信方面的技能。他们每年通过免费的课后班和轮班工作吸引250名青年参与。参与者90%是有色人种，80%是低收入者。项目合作伙伴包括麻省理工学院媒体实验室，它开发了App Inventor，允许新手用户构建功能齐全的应用程序。谷歌的工作人员将担任该课程的项目顾问。该项目通过NPR和Teen Vogue等国家媒体以及各种平台（包括在线，广播以及演示，出版物和培训工具）传播其媒体和应用程序，从而在全国范围内具有特殊的影响力。该项目通过让这些低收入的有色人种青年参与发展对未来劳动力至关重要的技能来扩大参与。它将帮助下一代人工智能创造者、用户和消费者做好准备，他们了解这项技术，并拥抱和鼓励其潜力。它将为他们提供必要的知识和机会，在人工智能驱动的未来中从事职业。 该项目以社会文化学习理论和实践为基础，是跨学科的设计。 该理论框架认为，计算思维加上批判性教育学导致批判性计算素养。此外，数字时代的公民加上公民文化导致公民想象力帮助青年通过技术建立一个更美好的世界。驱动研究的问题包括：代表性不足的年轻人对人工智能及其在社会中的作用有何理解？人工智能从其Vantage位置带来了哪些伦理困境？人工智能中以道德为中心的教学法有哪些特点？青年开发的人工智能产品对目标受众有什么影响？研究设计将使用民族志技术和设计研究来研究和分析青年学习。数据来源将包括基线调查，录音和来自参与者学习课程的录音，研究分析备忘录，焦点小组访谈，学生产生的学习和成品工件等。 基于设计的方法将使该倡议的活动、教学方法和产品能够有系统地、循证地重复。独立的总结性评估将提供补充数据和观点，以与研究结果进行三角分析。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并被认为值得通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估来支持。

As part of its overall strategy to enhance learning in informal environments, the Advancing Informal STEM Learning (AISL) program funds innovative research, approaches and resources for use in a variety of settings. Despite the ubiquity of Artificial Intelligence (AI), public understanding of how it works and is used is limited This project will research, design, and develop innovative approaches focusing on Artificial Intelligence (AI) for under-represented youth ages 14-24. Program components include live social media chats with AI leaders, app development, journalistic investigations of ethical issues in machine learning, and review of AI-based consumer products. Youth Radio is a non-profit media and tech organizations that provides youth with skills in STEM, journalism, arts, and communications. They engage 250 youth annually through free after-school classes and work shifts. Participants are 90% youth of color and 80% low income. Project partners include the MIT Media Lab which developed App Inventor which allows novice users to build fully functional apps. Staff from Google will serve as a project advisor on the curriculum. The project has exceptional national reach through the dissemination of its media and apps through national outlets such as NPR and Teen Vogue as well as various platforms including online, on-air, as well as presentations, publications, and training tools. The project broadens participation by engaging these low income youth of color in developing skills critical to the workforce of the future. It will help prepare an upcoming generation of Artificial Intelligence creators, users, and consumers who understand the technology and embrace and encourage its potential.It will give them the necessary knowledge and opportunities for careers in an AI-driven future. This project is grounded in sociocultural learning theory and practice and is interdisciplinary by design. The theoretical framework holds that Computational Thinking plus Critical Pedagogy leads to Critical Computational Literacy. Also, Digital Age Civics plus Participatory Culture leads to Civic Imagination helping youth build a better world through technology. The driving research questions include: What do underrepresented youth understand about AI and its role in society? What are the ethical dilemmas posed by AI from their vantage point? What are the features of an engaging ethics-centered pedagogy with AI? What impact do the AI products developed by the youth have on the target audience? The research design will use ethnographic techniques and design research to study and analyze youth learning. Data sources will include baseline surveys, audio recordings and transcriptions from learning sessions with the participants, research analytic memos, focus group interviews, student-generating artifacts of learning and finished products, etc. The design-based approach will enable systematic, evidence-based iteration on the initiative's activities, pedagogical approach and products. An independent summative evaluation will provide complementary data and perspective to triangulate with the research findings.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.