KISDI has developed a school textbook that enables students to play, experience and explore the world of AI with contents that embody the three principles and ten conditions of the ‘AI Ethics Standard’.

▲ Development of educational contents that can play a leading role in cultivating students’ comprehension of AI ethics.

▲ Development of educational materials that enable students to absorb the ten core requirements of AI ethics through play-oriented learning (elementary schools), experience-oriented learning (middle schools) and, later, exploration-oriented learning (high schools).

▲ Development of a modular textbook for the teaching of AI ethics that can be used in conjunction with existing AI basic textbooks.

To promote the core principles of the AI Ethics Standards (promoted in December 2020) and strengthen students’ competencies (elementary, middle, and high schools) in AI, KISDI(President Kwon Ho-yeol) and the Ministry of Science and ICT released a textbook designed for the teaching of AI ethics and hosted an online briefing event on February 13 (Monday) for all elementary, middle and high school teachers and lecturers who were interested in using the textbook in their AI ethics courses.

This AI ethics teaching material, which is based on the three principles and the ten requirements of the ‘AI Ethics Standard’, is designed to help cultivate the AI ethics skills that citizens must possess in the age of AI, and to help elementary, middle and high school students to deal flexibly and correctly with the future issues and threats posed by AI technologies.

As the follow-up to the ‘AI Ethics Education Content Development Standards’ released by KISDI and the Ministry of Science and ICT in 2021, this textbook was developed based on AI education teaching and learning methods that take into account the learning capacity of the students and the process by which their moral principles are formed.

The textbook was released as a set of six e-books, including three books for students that teach ethics through play-oriented learning (elementary school), experience-oriented learning (middle school), and exploration-oriented learning (high school), and three books for teachers that contain instructions on how to teach AI ethics. Developed as a tool for play-oriented learning to suit the learning capacity of elementary school-aged children, the textbook for elementary school students in the upper-grade levels (grades 4 to 6) explains the concepts of AI and provides opportunities to experience the reality of AI. The table of contents consists of 1) Protecting Human Dignity, 2) Using Technology According to its Purpose, and 3) Creating a Better World Together, thus reflecting the three principles of the ‘AI Ethics Standard’.

The middle school textbook is designed to make the principles of AI easily understandable for middle school students and to have them encounter - from multiple angles - the ethical issues that may arise in the process of using AI. It is organized around ten core requirements, with the related requirements grouped into units, each of which also contains 4 hours of experience-oriented activities. The textbook covers the following five units: 1) Why do we need AI ethics? 2) Does AI know what I have done? 3) Could AI be biased? 4) Can AI be trusted? 5) Is AI considerate of all persons?

The high school textbook was developed to help students understand the international discussions and trends surrounding the issue of AI ethics by first learning the concepts before moving on to basic/in-depth learning aimed at a more detailed exploration of the concepts. In the high school textbook, each unit is dedicated to just one of the ten core requirements so as to allow students to comprehend the concepts fully, while the inclusion of basic/in-depth activities allows them to explore AI ethics.

Because the elementary, middle and high school textbooks have been developed as a modular program based on the aforementioned ten principles, they can be used together not only with teaching materials for elective courses such as social sciences, practical knowledge, society & culture, information studies, technology, life & ethics, and AI, but also with teaching materials for extracurricular activities such as free activities, club activities involving creative learning and experiences, free-semester programs, after school activities, and summer camp activities.

The six textbooks (three books for students, three for teachers) can be downloaded in e-book format from the websites of the Ministry of Science and ICT and KISDI. Furthermore, the textbooks will be made available at websites like edunet.net, software centered society (software.kr), and indischool.com where any teacher interested in using them for their own personal development can easily download them.