Children grow up surrounded by computers, encountering them at home, in school, and in virtually all aspects of their lives. This raises crucial questions: How do children perceive the difference between humans and computers? What preconceptions do they hold? The existing literature is limited, mainly describing children's preconceptions about humans and robots, not humans and computers. To address this gap, we conducted a mixed-methods study with participants across diverse regions of Czechia (N=49, n6+7=25, n8+9=24), aiming to identify these preconceptions. As part of a complex research project, children answered questions comparing humans and computers during 45-minute semi-structured Zoom interviews. Using Atlas.ti 24 for Mac, we performed inductive thematic analysis and identified 11 unique preconceptions. Some were common, such as “computers are smarter than humans” (24%), “computers don’t have free will” (29%), and “computers are not alive” (16%). Others were less common, such as “computers are not creative” (8%), “computers cannot move” (12%), and “computers need their own special language” (2%). Interestingly, half of the children held only one or no preconception, highlighting a difficulty in commenting on a complex issue. The findings provide unique insights into children’s minds, informing the development of educational materials in digital technologies and enabling educators to create more effective and engaging learning experiences.
Comments