TY - GEN
T1 - KinderGPT
T2 - European Conference on Technology Enhanced Learning
AU - Pape, Rebecca
AU - Zabolotna, Kateryna
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2026.
PY - 2025
Y1 - 2025
N2 - As Artificial Intelligence (AI) rapidly integrates into children’s daily life, fostering AI literacy is essential for ensuring their reflective and responsible engagement with AI. This study presents a design and its evaluation of how an AI-powered chatbot, KinderGPT, can serve as a tool for both implicit and explicit teaching of AI literacy to children aged 6–12. Using the original design of the chatbot aimed to introduce AI to children implicitly through content generation and interaction, we integrate interactive educational materials that explicitly teach main AI concepts and functionalities. The materials on AI literacy were developed based on UNESCO’s AI Competency Framework for Students and the AI Literacy Framework developed by Digital Promise for K-12 education in the US to cover three main competencies: (1) understand, (2) evaluate, and (3) use. Five conversational AI-student interaction scenarios were developed through a co-design process with research, teaching, and technology experts to ensure pedagogical relevance and appropriate technological implementation. These scenarios were subsequently used as contextual embeddings within the KinderGPT software to provide a basis for the generation of AI literacy content in child-AI interactions. To evaluate the effectiveness of this approach, usability tests were conducted through semi-structured interviews to evaluate users’ engagement with the chatbot and their understanding and reflections on the AI use. The findings offer practical recommendations for integrating AI literacy principles into AI-driven educational tools, ensuring children’s meaningful and responsible engagement with AI. This research contributes to the growing discourse on AI literacy in education by demonstrating how AI-powered applications can be designed to not only support knowledge acquisition but also foster ethical reasoning and critical AI awareness. Future work will explore scaling KinderGPT’s AI literacy components, assessing its long-term impact, and refining its interactive features to further enhance children’s learning experiences.
AB - As Artificial Intelligence (AI) rapidly integrates into children’s daily life, fostering AI literacy is essential for ensuring their reflective and responsible engagement with AI. This study presents a design and its evaluation of how an AI-powered chatbot, KinderGPT, can serve as a tool for both implicit and explicit teaching of AI literacy to children aged 6–12. Using the original design of the chatbot aimed to introduce AI to children implicitly through content generation and interaction, we integrate interactive educational materials that explicitly teach main AI concepts and functionalities. The materials on AI literacy were developed based on UNESCO’s AI Competency Framework for Students and the AI Literacy Framework developed by Digital Promise for K-12 education in the US to cover three main competencies: (1) understand, (2) evaluate, and (3) use. Five conversational AI-student interaction scenarios were developed through a co-design process with research, teaching, and technology experts to ensure pedagogical relevance and appropriate technological implementation. These scenarios were subsequently used as contextual embeddings within the KinderGPT software to provide a basis for the generation of AI literacy content in child-AI interactions. To evaluate the effectiveness of this approach, usability tests were conducted through semi-structured interviews to evaluate users’ engagement with the chatbot and their understanding and reflections on the AI use. The findings offer practical recommendations for integrating AI literacy principles into AI-driven educational tools, ensuring children’s meaningful and responsible engagement with AI. This research contributes to the growing discourse on AI literacy in education by demonstrating how AI-powered applications can be designed to not only support knowledge acquisition but also foster ethical reasoning and critical AI awareness. Future work will explore scaling KinderGPT’s AI literacy components, assessing its long-term impact, and refining its interactive features to further enhance children’s learning experiences.
KW - AI literacy
KW - children-AI interaction
KW - informal learning
UR - https://www.scopus.com/pages/publications/105023439580
U2 - 10.1007/978-3-032-03873-9_27
DO - 10.1007/978-3-032-03873-9_27
M3 - Conference contribution
AN - SCOPUS:105023439580
SN - 978-3-032-03872-2
T3 - Lecture Notes in Computer Science
SP - 218
EP - 223
BT - Two Decades of TEL. From Lessons Learnt to Challenges Ahead - 20th European Conference on Technology Enhanced Learning, EC-TEL 2025, Proceedings
A2 - Tammets, Kairit
A2 - Sosnovsky, Sergey
A2 - Ferreira Mello, Rafael
A2 - Pishtari, Gerti
A2 - Nazaretsky, Tanya
PB - Springer
Y2 - 15 September 2025 through 19 September 2025
ER -