This participatory study utilizes the IDC 2026 Research & Design Challenge on sustainability to explore how middle school youth, with varied backgrounds and experiences with emerging technologies, develop maker identities and responsible technology design skills through a series of co-design workshops. We engaged a team of three youth participants and four adult researchers, to develop Milfoil Milly, an AI-powered robotic fish system for detecting invasive milfoil. The process of developing Milfoil Milly through co-design offered an opportunity to investigated (Q1) how designing technology solutions shapes youth identity as technology creators, (Q2) their conceptualizations of sustainability in design solutions, (Q3) their consideration of responsible technology development, and (Q4) how the co-design process impacts both the learning and design experience for youth.

AI technologies have become increasingly embedded in children’s lives. While there are many frameworks for designing AI technologies for children’s well-being, few have been tested against the tensions children experience when using AI across different global contexts. This workshop explores how to design AI technologies that enhance children’s digital well-being in accordance with various developmental and child-computer interaction frameworks, as well as what developers and designers should consider as they do so. Our goal is to convene an interdisciplinary international community to pave the way for future research and practice that seeks to design AI technologies with children’s well-being in mind.

Schoolchildren in the United States are increasingly exposed to Educational Technologies (EdTech) , many of which are or will be infused with AI. Despite this growing integration, there is limited understanding of the current perceptions and attitudes toward EdTech with AI among parents, teachers, and teens. To address this gap, we conducted a mixed-method study involving an A/B experiment through an online survey with 3,051 participants and complemented by focus group discussions with 80 participants. Providing a comprehensive snapshot of AI perception in education in 2024, our findings indicate that participants, particularly teachers, may hold more negative perceptions of our AI-powered EdTech mock-up compared to the one powered by human tutors. Based on these insights, we discuss the future of EdTech regarding the current perceptions. This research contributes to an empirical understanding of the perceptions and attitudes toward AI in K-12 education, providing valuable insights through a comprehensive national survey and in-depth focus group sessions.

Adaptive Learning Technologies (ALTs) have gained prevalence in K-12 classrooms.ALT automation features like real-time data insights and content sequencing shift teachers' approach to understanding and addressing students' learning needs, yet few studies have explored teachers' experiences.This study uses self-determination theory to examine how ALT features and implementation practices affect teachers' fundamental psychological needs for autonomy, competence, and relatedness-factors known to influence teacher motivation and student outcomes.Through thematic analysis of short-answer and video responses from 47 K-12 teachers across the US, we found that teachers' psychological needs are supported when automated features provide reliable assessments and are balanced with opportunities for teacher intervention.However, our analysis revealed that current ALTs constrain these key features, diminishing teachers' feelings of autonomy, efficacy, and connection with students.We discuss implications for enhancing ALT design to better support teachers and thereby support student learning.

Artificial intelligence's (AI) increasing presence in children's daily lives requires careful consideration of its impacts on children's digital well-being.This workshop aims to examine different contexts where children are interacting with AI to explore design guidelines that support youth digital well being, and ways educators and caregivers could identify these supportive tools.Our goal is to convene an interdisciplinary community of researchers, industry professionals, and experts in AI and child well-being to pave the way for future research and practice that seeks to design AI technologies with children's well-being in mind.

"TogetherTales RPG" is an augmented reality (AR) platform designed for children aged 4 to 6, aiming to foster prosocial behavior through interactive and collaborative role-playing. TogetherTales RPG is inspired by children’s design ideas related to technology supported social inclusion and prosocial skill development, a theme prevalent in children’s submissions in light of pandemic socialization restrictions. TogetherTales RPG integrates classic tabletop role-playing game mechanics with advanced AI and AR technologies to immerses children in a narrative-driven world where their personalized avatars interact with virtual elements and collaborate with peers to solve challenges. This blend of imaginative role-play and real-world social interaction facilitates prosocial skill development in a fun, engaging, and developmentally appropriate way.

Although specific design decisions are known to support Joint Media Engagement (JME; co-play with digital media) it is unclear whether current off-the-shelf tablet experiences are designed with this in mind and whether parents and children are able to engage in JME in practice. As apps that promote artistic creation (i.e., music, drawings) fulfill many extant design recommendations for JME, we observed joint play with two artistic creation apps in a culturally and socioeconomically diverse sample of 20 United States child-mother dyads. Using interaction analysis, we found that in these ”ideal” circumstances, families used varying styles of co-engagement, with Co-Creation and Parent Coaching standing out as collaborative arrangements toward which designers and families can strive. However, there were still challenges, with parents often assuming spectator roles despite their apparent intentions. We highlight key challenges to JME plus design supports and parent strategies to help families jointly engage and create with media.