A Human-Intuitive Approach to Technology and AI Literacy

Currently, computer science and machine learning is taught in ways that make it difficult for most people to develop intuitions about underlying ideas. This is troublesome because it leaves more people feeling excluded from and alienated by new technological systems. Moreover, this exacerbates inequities — both involving the impact of technical systems and in who participates in designing and engaging in discourses involving the use and development of technology and AI.
In this workshop, we explore strategies for introducing core concepts underlying AI and technology in ways that are more accessible and transformative to more people. We draw on strategies developed by early AI and computing pioneers such as Alan Kay and Seymour Papert known as syntonic reasoning. Syntonic reasoning and similar approaches make technical concepts more accessible by creating opportunities for learners to tap into their existing human intuitions and experiences.

In this workshop, participants will interactively explore and generate new intuitions for connecting and teaching three core machine learning and computer concepts using human-centered reasoning. Each concept will be seeded or lightly introduced as a group, and then explored in breakout sessions from angles of relevance to self experience and real world phenomenon. The goal is for participants to not only come away with new intuitions about technology, but also to develop insight into how to learn and teach technology using human cognition and behavior as a starting point.