AI: A Tool for Training Questions, Not Just Finding Answers

This method utilizes Socratic dialogue to guide children in asking questions and finding answers themselves.

The main goal of this education is not simply to instill knowledge, but to help children expand their thinking through questions and develop problem-solving skills.

This can pique children's interest and boost their motivation to learn through activities involving both parents and children.

For example, by building projects starting from a child's interests with AI, it naturally helps them learn technology and express creativity. Kim Deok-jin, Director, emphasized the importance of using AI as a tool, saying, "AI is a means, not an end. It's for playing with."

A case was introduced where a child's ideas were realized into an actual game by combining Claude and ChatGPT. The child directly saw their planning become a product through AI and continuously proposed additional ideas.

This encourages children to not remain passive content consumers but to actively generate ideas and create products. Kim Deok-jin, Director, explained the importance of this experience, saying, "My son saw it and suddenly kept talking. It wasn't a one-time thing; he felt like it was going somewhere because his dad was doing something for him."

The child played the AI-created game directly, found functional errors, and asked for them to be fixed. They pointed out specific issues like the game screen not scrolling or cookies overlapping, making them difficult to select.

In this process, the child performed QA (Quality Assurance) and QC (Quality Control) roles for the game, gaining experience in proposing modifications to improve completeness. Kim Deok-jin, Director, recounted the situation where the child gave feedback, saying, "No, not this, not this, suddenly this thought came to me. No, it's not that, it works, but the scroll doesn't work, and the cookies overlap making them hard to select. Please put each in a square. The cookies were like..."

The child continuously provided feedback on the game they created and added various features. In the second version, a gacha feature was added, allowing random skin acquisition or checking owned skins.

Furthermore, game quality was gradually enhanced by introducing an auto-play mode. Kim Deok-jin, Director, explained the update process, saying, "The second version came out, and as it says here, a gacha system was added, so if you gacha for skins, it goes 'thump-thump-thump' and something comes out, or if you check owned skins, skins come out like this."

Thoroughly learning terminology and theories during the learning phase leads to more precise and in-depth results from AI.

Kim Deok-jin, Director, emphasized the importance of specialized knowledge, saying, "Later, when they use AI again, if they start inputting the terms and specialized words they've memorized after the exam, the results come out differently. They realize that even with AI, the more I understand the basic principles and content, the more deeply I can use AI."

Kim Deok-jin, Director, pointed out that adults using AI together with children is important to reduce potential trial and error if a child uses AI alone. Creating an AI learning environment where parents and children learn together can also increase parents' understanding of AI.

This approach helps children learn and provides an opportunity for parents to actively learn and keep pace with changes in AI technology. Director Kim said, "Adults must do it together. And I think this is very good because then dads and moms also study AI, even if it's for their children."

These periodic updates to AI models provide users with more refined and optimized results.

As technology advances rapidly, AI models are continuously evolving, further expanding their potential for use in education and creative fields. Kim Deok-jin, Director, explained the speed of AI development, saying, "The models improve every three months, right? And they improve in real-time too, right?"

Education should begin with play with the child, not parental coercion.

This approach empowers the child, increasing their intrinsic interest in learning. Kim Deok-jin, Director, suggested that this educational approach is suitable for children up to the 6th grade of elementary school.

This mode doesn't just provide answers; instead, it guides thinking through questions, applying Socratic dialogue.

Major AI services like Gemini and ChatGPT also offer such learning features to help children develop their ability to think and explore independently. Kim Deok-jin, Director, explained, "It shouldn't just instantly give answers to questions; it should help them think together. It's like giving them a Socratic learning method."

For math problems, learning is facilitated by encouraging the solution process instead of just providing the answer.

Kim Deok-jin, Director, cited an example of his 4th-grade son understanding a math problem through AI, saying, "It adapted to the problem's level. My son is in 4th grade, and it was at a level he could understand. When we tested it, he said, 'Oh Dad, I understand it this way.'"

In this way, AI adjusts learning content to individual learners' comprehension levels, contributing to increasing actual learning effectiveness.

Laissez-faire education, where children are simply given AI and left to figure it out, should be avoided. Instead, 'collaborative AI' education is needed, where parents learn alongside their children, providing motivation and guidance.

This helps children learn how to use AI correctly and grow healthily in a digital environment. Kim Deok-jin, Director, emphasized, "Instead of just giving AI to children and telling them to figure it out, it's about things they can do together, things they can share."

Personalized smartphone use can make a child's digital environment closed off and should be avoided. A 'transparent' living room-style digital culture should be restored, like having a shared PC in the living room in the past.

It is advisable to share control over digital device usage with parents and restrict external communication like messengers by having parents mediate. Kim Deok-jin, Director, pointed out the problem of personalization, saying, "A smartphone enters one's private room, right? So I think that's where issues ultimately arise."

Just as mobile-native generations adapted to mobile devices, they quickly adapt to AI environments, learning trends like challenge videos.

Kim Deok-jin, Director, explained the characteristics of this generation, saying, "Because I really feel the power of native generations. We had mobile natives, and now we're moving into AI-native generations. They know everything even if we don't tell them."

In the digital age, it is crucial to provide analog experiences such as writing by hand or reading physical newspapers. Basic etiquette education in public places like elevators is also emphasized as much as digital tool usage education.

Kim Deok-jin, Director, stressed the need for basic education that is easily overlooked in digital environments, saying, "I believe it's right to provide them with things they wouldn't encounter if we didn't force it or tell them."

Instead of leaving a child alone with AI, it is important for parents to provide good direction and use AI together according to the child's age. Parents and children should explore the results generated by AI together to expand knowledge.

In this process, managing the risks of AI use and setting the right direction is the role of parents. Kim Deok-jin, Director, advised, "Rather than leaving them to it, let's provide good direction. Let's do it together according to their age."

Utilizing AI not merely as a means to obtain answers, but as a tool to train questioning skills, is highly effective. The existing educational environment often has limitations in asking questions.

AI provides a platform for experimenting with various questions without time and space constraints. Kim Deok-jin, Director, explained, "It's much better to use that good thing not just to get answers, but to train questioning."

Instead of parents dictating answers or directly asking questions, it is important for them to pose 'leading questions' that stimulate a child's curiosity and encourage them to explore through AI independently. Parents play the role of providing clues for the child to interact with AI.

Kim Deok-jin, Director, emphasized the importance of leading questions, saying, "I used the term 'leading questions' for what parents should do. Leading questions. It's about starting. It's not giving answers or questions, but occasionally nudging them so that children develop curiosity and can try something with AI."