NSF K-12 AIED Workshop 1

Educating K-12 students on AI topics is an emergent and urgent issue with the rise of AI. There is little research informing practitioners and policy makers on the progression of AI education through the grade bands and on best practices in introducing AI topics in K-12 classrooms. Recognizing this need, the first of a series of workshops on K-12 AI education was convened with the support of the National Science Foundation. The workshops aim to build a community around AI K-12 education research and foster interdisciplinary discussion and collaboration. On December 12th and 13th, 2019, 40 researchers, teachers, school district administrators, and industry representatives gathered at the Institute for Creative Technologies of University of Southern California in Los Angeles, California. The researchers brought expertise in learning sciences, K-12 STEM education, K-12 Computer Science education AI technologies for education, and more. For two days, the group discussed four topics: (1) Learning to be AI literate; (2) formulating a research agenda for K-12 AI education; (3) shaping the design and development of AI Education in K-12 based on: lessons learned from other disciplines; and (4) envisioning and building the future of AI education through collaborative efforts. At the conclusion of the workshop, the group acknowledged the growing needs and enthusiasm from districts, teachers, and students for K-12 AI education, identified critical research gaps, shared lessons from other disciplines that can inform the K-12 AI education research agenda, and called for researchers, practitioners, and industry partners to collaborate to answer the call to address the research needs.

The two-day workshop agenda is here.

The first workshop included K-12 practitioners, industry representatives, and researchers from different fields such as artificial intelligence, computer science education, the learning sciences, educational psychology, and teacher education. A total of 40 participants attended the workshop.

The Report of workshop 1 is here.

The series of workshops aim to build an interdisciplinary research community to address the critical challenge of creating a national K-12 AI education strategy. The workshops include leading members of the AI research community, the education research community, AI industry, and educational practitioners. The workshops aim to play a central role in introducing researchers from across AI and education to each other to establish the connections that are essential to the success of a national K-12 AI education initiative. Collectively, leaders in these fields will develop a research agenda on best practices for AI education for K-12 student populations. Such a research agenda can have broad societal implications ranging from science, technology, engineering, and mathematics applications in every sector of the economy to workforce development and national security.