With the growing emphasis on cultivating computational thinking in K–12 education worldwide, many advanced countries have introduced visual programming and microcontroller-related curricula at the elementary level. In recent years, the emergence of transformative artificial intelligence systems such as ChatGPT has further driven the global advocacy of AI literacy as a core component of 21st-century digital competence. These emerging educational trends are increasingly influencing elementary teacher education and prompting teacher preparation programs to develop responsive training initiatives. In response, this study designed an AI-based project to enhance pre-service elementary school teachers’ competencies in programming and AI applications. Participants were required to collaboratively develop AI-powered educational game devices that support energy-related knowledge acquisition, using visual programming software, microcontroller boards, and AI vision recognition cameras. The results showed that all pre-service teachers successfully completed the AI-based project and developed several educationally meaningful AI-powered educational game devices. Moreover, significant improvements were observed in their computational thinking concepts, computational identity, and AI literacy scores following the activity. Participants also reported highly positive feedback, affirming the relevance and practical value of the instructional approach.

Authors:
Fu-Hsing Tsai, National Chiayi University, Taiwan

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Posted by James Alexander Gordon

Last updated: 2023-02-23 23:45:00

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