Shaping the Future of AI Education

Members of the App Inventor community shared their expertise on AI education at the inaugural UNESCO Digital Learning Week.

(Left to right) Daeun Yoo, Pedro Philippi Araújo, and Natalie Lao pose at UNESCO Digital Learning Week.

From September 4 to 7, 2023, three members of the App Inventor community—Dr. Natalie Lao, Pedro Philippi Araújo, and Daeun Yoo—were invited to share their expertise on AI education at the inaugural UNESCO Digital Learning Week in Paris, France. A reboot of UNESCO’s Mobile Learning Week, Digital Learning Week is touted as the “new annual flagship event on ⁠digital learning and the transformation of education.” The first edition of the conference focused on steering technology for education, with an emphasis on generative AI and digital learning platforms.

Defining AI learning objectives for students

Dr. Natalie Lao, Executive Director of the App Inventor Foundation, became involved in UNESCO’s “AI and the Futures of Learning” project in spring 2023, when she was invited to be a contributing expert for the AI Competency Framework for Students. The purpose of this initiative is to define the knowledge and skills needed for students to actively engage with AI in a safe and ethical way. During a plenary session at Digital Learning Week, Lao presented an initial draft of the framework alongside Kelly Shiohira, an Executive Manager at JET Education Services who works on advancing STEM education in South Africa.

The AI Competency Framework draws inspiration from the guiding principles of the App Inventor project, particularly computational action, which centers community-oriented problem solving and project-based learning. Motivated by this principle, the framework proposes that students should have opportunities to create AI technology that has a direct impact on their lives and their communities. Not only that, but it emphasizes the need to educate students on how to evaluate the societal impact of AI, create ethical and inclusive AI products, and deploy AI tools in contexts that uplift human rights and human dignity.

Lao and Shiohira’s presentation was followed by reactions from stakeholders like Pedro Philippi Araújo, an undergraduate student studying computer science at Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina (UFSC) in Brazil. Earlier this year, Araújo teamed up with other students and professors from UFSC to tackle the dengue epidemic in their region. The result was XôDengue, an App Inventor-powered mobile app that uses AI to identify dengue-carrying mosquito larvae. The team was recognized as a finalist in the App of the Season competition hosted by the App Inventor Foundation.

During his presentation, Araújo talked about the process of creating XôDengue, which tapped into several aspects of the AI Competency Framework: engaging in project-based learning, applying AI to real-life scenarios, gaining skills in data modeling, and considering the ethical impacts of AI. “With the rapid advance of AI technologies, the discussion of its effects on both education and society as a whole is vital,” said Araújo. “Being able to talk to panelists and discuss digital learning topics from the perspective of a student was a wonderful experience.”

Sparking creativity and self-expression with generative AI

Daeun Yoo is a graduate student in Design Engineering at Harvard who serves as a UX Consultant for MIT App Inventor. Yoo has been collaborating with the App Inventor team to develop Mind Palette, a drawing app that leverages generative AI to deliver digital art therapy in an accessible way. When she saw that UNESCO was hosting a breakout session on generative AI art, she thought it would be a great opportunity to share her project and engage with other experts in the field.

Yoo’s presentation on Mind Palette sparked meaningful conversations with educators, policymakers, and NGOs on the future of technology-enabled education. These discussions allowed her to see beyond the therapeutic implications of her project and envision the potential for educational impact, such as fostering creativity and social-emotional learning. “Considering that education is a lifelong journey, and the right interventions are needed at different stages of learning, I believe that generative AI for creativity or self-expression can make a significant impact,” she said.

“My experience at Digital Learning Week reinforced the importance of our work at the App Inventor Foundation and left me inspired to continue empowering learners and educators in the ever-evolving technological landscape.”

All three attendees left the conference feeling invigorated to continue pursuing their work in AI education and build on the conversations they had with experts around the world. Lao remarked, “My experience at Digital Learning Week reinforced the importance of our work at the App Inventor Foundation and left me inspired to continue empowering learners and educators in the ever-evolving technological landscape.”