Forms of Alliances between Humans and Technology: The Role of Human Agency to Design and Setting up Artificial Intelligence-based Learning Tools
Authors: Osmanoglu Baran 
Published: June 2023

This paper investigates the development of new forms of alliances between humans and technology in the context of interaction and collaboration between human and artificial intelligence (AI), with the aim to address responsible development and use of artificial intelligence-based learning tools (adaptive learning).The future of adaptive learning can make important contributions in education and improve student and teacher experiences, while raising challenges and risks that can be formulated as impacts on human life, both at the individual and societal levels. In todays’ context, adaptive learning tools are implemented to support instructors in the delivery of content and to provide learners personalised learning, without necessary involving end users throughout the design and running phases of these tools. The findings indicate there is a need to focus on human agency and pedagogy to enhance the adoption of adaptive learning. This paper investigates whether an embedded feedback system in AI based learning tools, based on participatory design, involving learners and instructors would help to overcome the risks and challenges related to the adoption of these tools. A process that involves an embedded feedback system is proposed. The approach adopted is to extend research on Cybernetics theory and other research on human-AI interactions to revise mutualistic relationship between humans and AI. The theory of cybernetics brings the idea to control entropy in a system through feedback. In other words, cybernetics is the science of feedback, information that travels from a system through its environment and back to the system (Wiener 1961). As stated by Dubberly, learning and adapting to the needs of a system are the goals of both iterative design processes and cybernetics. Thus, Cybernetics can provide a useful framework for augmenting designers in creating human-centred interactive AI-enabled products (Dubberly 2015). As these systems become more reliable and easier to work with, designers can embed them into tools-as AI subsystems-that can interact with people. This interaction can then support the AI subsystem to further learn and adapt to the user.This research will further extend with empirical studies to investigate more details on how human computer interaction design approaches can address risks and challenges associated with it and to show that there is a need to focus on human agency to enhance the design and setting up of adaptive learning, where learners, instructors and other education stakeholders need to be actively involved. The methodology used for data collection is primarily interviews conducted with different groups of AI-enabled tools practioners (data scientists, software engineers, software vendors, and leaders within organisations, EdTech professionals). Semi-structured interviews are chosen. The methodology used for data analysis is thematic analysis. This study is further supported with extensive literature reviews on research conducted on cybernetics, education technology and adaptive learning, and analysis of case-studies of organisations in the process of adoption of adaptive learning systems.Dubberly, H., Pangaro, P.: Cybernetics and design: conversations for action. Cybern. Hum. Know. 22(é-3), 73–82 (2015)Wiener, N.: Cybernetics or Control and Communication in the Animal and Machine, vol. 25. MIT Press (1961)