AI Friends: A Design Framework for AI-Powered Creative Programming for Youth
This work addresses the problem of enhancing creative self-efficacy and agency for youth in AI-powered programming, though it is incremental as it builds on existing Wizard of Oz methods in educational contexts.
The study investigated how AI can support and constrain creative coding for families, finding that an AI Friend made it easier for families to generate game ideas and encouraged children to write code for novel ideas, with parents stepping in for complex tasks when the AI failed.
What role can AI play in supporting and constraining creative coding by families? To investigate these questions, we built a Wizard of Oz platform to help families engage in creative coding in partnership with a researcher-operated AI Friend. We designed a 3 week series of programming activities with ten children, 7 to 12 years old, and nine parents. Using a creative self efficacy lens, we observe that families found it easier to generate game ideas when prompted with questions by AI Friend; parents played a unique role in guiding children in more complex programming tasks when the AI Friend failed to help, and children were more encouraged to write code for novel ideas using the AI friend help. These findings suggest that AI supported platforms should highlight unique family AI interactions focused on children's agency and creative self-efficacy.