51猎奇入口

Supporting Middle School Children to Develop Critical AI Literacy: An Interaction Design Framework

Alissa Antle, Faculty of Communication, Art and Technology

Insight Grant recipient

Young people today are growing up surrounded by AI technologies such as generative AI, algorithmically driven social media and voice agents. These technologies offer real benefits but also pose risks that can harm children's well-being. Although K-12 AI curricula are proliferating, most focus on technical training for future AI careers rather than helping children critically analyze AI and develop agency to mitigate its harms. This program of research investigates what and how children need to learn about AI by designing and evaluating hands-on AI tools. These tools are intended to help children directly explore issues such as why chatbots are designed to mimic humans and create emotional attachment, how and whose values become embedded in AI systems and who holds agency and accountability for generative AI. The research will produce new knowledge along with concrete learning tools, lessons and guidance for designers, educators, policymakers and developers, helping children engage more safely with the AI they encounter every day.

Scaling Up Social Infrastructure

Meg Holden, Faculty of Environment

Partnership Development Grant recipient

The goal of the Scaling Up Social Infrastructure (SUSI) partnership development project is to develop pathways for social infrastructure policy, provision and care that ensure adequate provision of social infrastructure among growing and changing communities in BC's lower mainland and southern Vancouver Island. SUSI is coming together at a time of intersecting crises, changes and opportunities related to social infrastructure. It involves research and community-engaged practices and is being co-constructed with health authorities, municipalities, the regional government, grassroots and advocacy organizations, and architecture and design organizations. The work is organized in 'sandboxes' that allow participants to reach outside the normal bounds of professional practice, in particular to reach for anti-racist and Indigenous reconciliation approaches to scale social infrastructure.

AI-Augmented Work Metrics and Sociotechnical System Savvy for Designing the Future-of-Work

Chaitanya Kaligotla, Beedie School of Business

Insight Grant recipient

This project examines how AI is reshaping the future of work by studying changes in job flexibility, task complexity and AI-augmentable skill demands. The research develops machine-learning tools to measure these changes using job texts, work products and professional communications, with a particular focus on sociotechnical systems savvy: the ability to understand and act on the interaction between technological and social factors in work. The project will track how job design and sociotechnical systems savvy co-evolve over time, and aims to produce open tools, datasets and training modules to support organizations, policymakers and researchers navigating AI-augmented work.

Ethical Elementary Teacher Mentorship in Support of Indigenous Sovereignty: Responding to the Calls for Reconciliation and Justice at the School District Level

Jeannie Kerr, Faculty of Education

Insight Grant recipient

Collaborating with Indigenous leads at the school district and provincial teacher association levels, this project addresses a significant research gap regarding sustainable models of mentorship based in Indigenous teachings, which can inform Indigenous public education, pre- and in-service teacher education and graduate programming. Through studying the implementation of a mentorship model in a large urban school district in BC, based in located Indigenous ethical relational principles, the project seeks to understand how needed systemic change can be fostered through relational mentorship opportunities and recognition of responsibilities for action.