Youth Constructions of the Future
Depictions of and Responses to AI on Scratch
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.21240/constr/2025/100.XKeywords:
Logo programming, constructionism, computer science for all, computational fluency, robotics, project-based learning, teachingAbstract
This study examines how youth engage with AI through Scratch projects, revealing how they depict, critique, and reimagine futures with AI. By analyzing 131 projects and 22,692 comments, we identified five representations of AI: Game Player, Conversational Agent, Learning Entity, Discussion Topic, and Creative Partner. Youth creators and commenters actively negotiate AI’s meaning, envisioning futures where AI is playful, collaborative, or dystopian. Findings highlight the importance of constructionist learning environments for youths’ collaborative sensemaking regarding emergent technology.References
Ackermann, E. (2004). Constructing knowledge and transforming the world. In A Learning Zone of One’s Own: Sharing Representations and Flow in Collaborative Learning Environments (pp. 15–37).
Braun, V., & Clarke, V. (2006). Using thematic analysis in psychology. Qualitative Research in Psychology, 3(2), 77–101. https://doi.org/10.1191/1478088706qp063oa
franzke, a.s., Bechmann, A., Zimmer, M., Ess, C.M., & the Association of Internet Researchers (2020). Internet Research: Ethical Guidelines 3.0. https://aoir.org/reports/ethics3.pdf
Greenwald, E., Leitner, M., & Wang, N. (2021). Learning Artificial Intelligence: Insights into How Youth Encounter and Build Understanding of AI Concepts. Proceedings of the AAAI Conference on Artificial Intelligence, 35(17), Article 17. https://doi.org/10.1609/aaai.v35i17.17828
Hitron, T., Orlev, Y., Wald, I., Shamir, A., Erel, H., & Zuckerman, O. (2019). Can Children Understand Machine Learning Concepts? The Effect of Uncovering Black Boxes. Proceedings of the 2019 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, 1–11. https://doi.org/10.1145/3290605.3300645
Jordan, B., Devasia, N., Hong, J., Williams, R., & Breazeal, C. (2021). PoseBlocks: A Toolkit for Creating (and Dancing) with AI. Proceedings of the AAAI Conference on Artificial Intelligence, 35(17), Article 17. https://doi.org/10.1609/aaai.v35i17.17831
Kahn, K., & Winters, N. (2021). Constructionism and AI: A history and possible futures. British Journal of Educational Technology, 52(3), 1130–1142. https://doi.org/10.1111/bjet.13088
Kligler-Vilenchik, N., & Literat, I. (2024). Methodological Appendix: Doing Qualitative Content Analysis on Social Media. In Not Your Parents’ Politics: Understanding Young People’s Political Expression on Social Media (1st ed, pp. 159–172). Oxford University Press, Incorporated.
Lee, C. H., Gobir, N., Gurn, A., & Soep, E. (2022). In the Black Mirror: Youth Investigations into Artificial Intelligence. ACM Trans. Comput. Educ., 22(3), 25:1-25:25. https://doi.org/10.1145/3484495
Papert, S. (1980). Mindstorms: Children, computers, and powerful ideas. Basic Books.
Reddy, T., Williams, R., & Breazeal, C. (2021). Text Classification for AI Education. Proceedings of the 52nd ACM Technical Symposium on Computer Science Education, 1381–1381. https://doi.org/10.1145/3408877.3439689
Scratch Foundation. (n.d.-a). Scratch. Retrieved December 8, 2024, from https://scratch.mit.edu/
Scratch Foundation. (n.d.-b). Scratch—About. Retrieved December 8, 2024, from https://scratch.mit.edu/about
Scratch Foundation. (n.d.-c). Scratch Statistics—Imagine, Program, Share. Scratch. Retrieved December 14, 2024, from https://web.archive.org/web/20241214213759/https://scratch.mit.edu/statistics/
Song, Y., Katuka, G. A., Barrett, J., Tian, X., Kumar, A., McKlin, T., Celepkolu, M., Boyer, K. E., & Israel, M. (2023). AI Made by Youth: A Conversational AI Curriculum for Middle School Summer Camps. Proceedings of the AAAI Conference on Artificial Intelligence, 37(13), Article 13. https://doi.org/10.1609/aaai.v37i13.26882
Vakil, S., & McKinney de Royston, M. (2022). Youth as philosophers of technology. Mind, Culture, and Activity, 29(4), 336–355. https://doi.org/10.1080/10749039.2022.2066134
Downloads
Published
Conference Proceedings Volume
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2025 J.K. Voorhis, Paulo Blikstein
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
