Cited by 69Artificial Intelligence in EducationEthics and Social Impacts of AITeaching and Learning Programming

Constructing Dreams Using Generative AI

Open access
Ali, Safinah, Ravi, Prerna, Williams, Randi, DiPaola, Daniella, Breazeal, Cynthia·2024·Proceedings of the AAAI Conference on Artificial Intelligence

Abstract

Generative AI tools introduce new and accessible forms of media creation for youth. They also raise ethical concerns about the generation of fake media, data protection, privacy and ownership of AI-generated art. Since generative AI is already being used in products used by youth, it is critical that they understand how these tools work and how they can be used or misused. In this work, we facilitated students’ generative AI learning through expression of their imagined future identities. We designed a learning workshop - Dreaming with AI - where students learned about the inner workings of generative AI tools, used text-to-image generation algorithms to create their imaged future dreams, reflected on the potential benefits and harms of generative AI tools and voiced their opinions about policies for the use of these tools in classrooms. In this paper, we present the learning activities and experiences of 34 high school students who engaged in our workshops. Students reached creative learning objectives by using prompt engineering to create their future dreams, gained technical knowledge by learning the abilities, limitations, text-visual mappings and applications of generative AI, and identified most potential societal benefits and harms of generative AI.

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Crossref · 10.1609/aaai.v38i21.30374

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  • Many studies report enhanced critical thinking, reflection, and problem-solving with GenAI.

    “More importantly , many studies report enhanced critical thinking [70,77,99,100,103,111,114,119,132,142,145,150], reflection, and problem-solving [70,128,141].”

    From A Systematic Review of Generative AI in K–12: Mapping Goals, Activities, Roles, and Outcomes via the 3P Model (2025) · cites this paper as [132]

    The Workshop Design and Discussion sections describe guided reflection and report that students considered AI’s biases and expressed more nuanced views about its classroom use. This supports the reflection component, but the paper does not report enhanced critical-thinking or problem-solving outcomes. (LLM, conf=0.83)

    Experimental — accuracy not yet measured
  • AI literacy and ethical reasoning objectives in the reviewed studies develop students' understanding of how AI works, their ability to assess truthfulness, detect bias, and recognize the limits of creativity.

    “This objective develops students' understanding of how AI works, their ability to assess truthfulness, detect bias, and recognize the limits of creativity.”

    From A Systematic Review of Generative AI in K–12: Mapping Goals, Activities, Roles, and Outcomes via the 3P Model (2025) · cites this paper as [132]

    The Technical Learning Objectives section aims to teach students about text-to-image algorithms and their limitations; the Ethical Learning Objectives section includes identifying bias and fake media that can spread misinformation (page numbers unavailable). The paper does not establish that students developed an ability to assess truthfulness, and its discussion of limitations concerns text-to-image generation rather than creativity generally. (LLM, conf=0.82)

    Experimental — accuracy not yet measured
  • AI literacy and ethical reasoning objectives address deficits in technical understanding and resistance to deception.

    “It addresses deficits in technical understanding and resistance to deception [132-134].”

    From A Systematic Review of Generative AI in K–12: Mapping Goals, Activities, Roles, and Outcomes via the 3P Model (2025) · cites this paper as [132]

    The Technical Learning Objectives section targets students’ understanding of generative AI’s abilities and limitations. The Ethical Learning Objectives and Ethical Impact sections address fake media, misinformation, and the difficulty of distinguishing generated media from real data. The paper does not show that the activity improved students’ resistance to deception. (LLM, conf=0.83)

    Experimental — accuracy not yet measured
  • In visual arts, learners employ Midjourney, DALL·E, and related text-to-image tools, repeatedly adjusting prompts to refine visual detail and aesthetics.

    “In visual arts, learners employ Midjourney, DALL·E, and related text-to-image tools, repeatedly adjusting prompts to refine visual detail and aesthetics [111-116,132,143]”

    From A Systematic Review of Generative AI in K–12: Mapping Goals, Activities, Roles, and Outcomes via the 3P Model (2025) · cites this paper as [132]

    The Constructing Dreams section reports that high-school students used Dream Studio, a Stable Diffusion text-to-image tool, and edited prompts until satisfied. The section on expressing imaginations says they repeatedly changed prompts, style options, and visual details to reach their goals. The paper does not report learners using the specifically named tools Midjourney or DALL·E. (LLM, conf=0.88)

    Experimental — accuracy not yet measured
  • Within the AI-empowered framework, students actively set prompts and control content generation, while AI, functioning as an autonomous collaborator, continuously analyzes learner preferences, behaviors, and project progress to adaptively optimize its models for individual needs.

    “Within this framework, students actively set prompts and control content generation, while AI, functioning as an autonomous collaborator, continuously analyzes learner preferences, behaviors, and project progress to adaptively optimize its models for individual needs [70,96,108,132,144].”

    From A Systematic Review of Generative AI in K–12: Mapping Goals, Activities, Roles, and Outcomes via the 3P Model (2025) · cites this paper as [132]

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Research works printed but not linked: 6

  1. [2]2. Aggarwal, A.; Mittal, M.; and Battineni, G. 2021. Genera- tive adversarial network: An overview of theory and appli- cations. International Journal of Information Management Data Insights, 1(1): 100004.
  2. [5]5. Ali, S.; Payne, B. H.; Williams, R.; Park, H. W.; and Breazeal, C. 2019. Constructionism, ethics, and creativity: Developing primary and middle school artificial intelligence education. In International workshop on education in artifi- cial intelligence k-12 (eduai'19), volume 2, 1-4.
  3. [15]15. Kafai, Y. B.; and Peppler, K. A. 2011. Youth, technology, and DIY: Developing participatory competencies in creative media production. Review of research in education, 35(1): 89-119.
  4. [18]18. Papert, S.; and Harel, I. 1991. Situating constructionism. constructionism, 36(2): 1-11.
  5. [20]20. Ramesh, A.; Pavlov, M.; Goh, G.; Gray, S.; Voss, C.; Rad- ford, A.; Chen, M.; and Sutskever, I. 2021. Zero-shot text-to- image generation. In International Conference on Machine Learning, 8821-8831.
  6. [21]21. PMLR.

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Authors
Ali, S., Ravi, P., Williams, R., DiPaola, D., & Breazeal, C.
Affiliations
Massachusetts Institute of Technology (US)
Venue
Proceedings of the AAAI Conference on Artificial Intelligence
Published
2024-03-24
Volume
38
Issue
21
Pages
23268-23275
ISSN
  • 2159-5399 (ISSN-L)
  • 2374-3468
OpenAlex
W4393145628
Cited by
69
References
24
Citations by year
2026: 15 · 2025: 30 · 2024: 19 · 2023: 4 · 2021: 1
FWCI
24.37
Type
conference paper
Language
en
Open access
Locations
  • Proceedings of the AAAI Conference on Artificial Intelligence (publishedVersion)
  • arXiv (Cornell University) (submittedVersion, cc-by-nc-sa)
  • arXiv (Cornell University)
Topics
  • Physical Sciences › Computer Science › Information Systems › Artificial Intelligence in Education
  • Social Sciences › Safety Research › Ethics and Social Impacts of AI
  • Physical Sciences › Computer Science › Computer Science Applications › Teaching and Learning Programming
Keywords
generative AI, text-to-image generation, high school students, prompt engineering, AI ethics education, creative learning

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