Judgmental competence for artificial intelligence? Civic education and AI
What may sound like a futuristic fantasy to some people has long since become a reality: robots that provide medical care to patients in care facilities and keep lonely residents company. Criminal trials in which algorithms take over the defense. Software that reads and approves or rejects social welfare applications. Schools in which students are filmed by cameras with facial recognition and receive tips and feedback on how to continue working in the event of disruptions to lessons.
Artificial intelligence is the key technology of the 21st century. It is changing how we live, how we work and how we learn. Why go through training if an algorithm can do my job better and more effectively than I ever could? What function should school education fulfill at all if neither knowledge nor problem-solving skills are necessary tools for orientation in society? What significance do judgment and action skills have as goals of political education when it is not humans but algorithms that make social and political judgments and decisions about social participation?
Current developments in the field of artificial intelligence affect political education at the core of the subject. Political didactics is faced with the task of completely redeveloping and establishing artificial intelligence as a complex area of activity in political education. The selection of social science and political didactics publications compiled in this dossier can be seen as a suggestion to find initial approaches to the topic of "artificial intelligence" and to identify research gaps in the existing political didactics discussion on AI and algorithms.
Recommended reading:
Besand, Anja/ Sander, Wolfgang (Hrsg.) (2010): Handbuch Medien in der politischen Bildung, Schwalbach/Ts.
Obwohl das bereits 2010 erschienene Handbuch weder KI noch Algorithmen als Themenfelder politischer Bildung abdeckt, zeigen die Beiträge anschaulich, was es bedeutet, die Relevanz von Medien und Technik für Politik und Gesellschaft nicht nur als Unterrichtsthema zu formulieren, sondern Verflechtungen zwischen Politik bzw. politischer Bildung und Technologien ernst zu nehmen und sie als elementares Arbeitsfeld politikdidaktischer Forschung zu begreifen.
Bundeszentrale für politische Bildung (Hrsg.) (2018): Aus Politik und Zeitgeschichte: Künstliche Intelligenz, Jg. 68, Bonn, S. 6-8. online verfügbar
The individual articles in the APuZ issue on artificial intelligence address key questions in the social debate on AI: What are the benefits and advantages for people? How will the economy, work and everyday life change? How can developments be controlled socially and politically?
Gapski, Harald/ Oberle, Monika/ Staufer, Walter (Hrsg.) (2017): Medienkompetenz. Herausforderungen für Politik, politische Bildung und Medienbildung, Bonn. online verfügbar
This anthology is dedicated to the concept of media literacy as a key competence for political judgment and action-taking capacity, as a task for politics and society and as a general goal of political education. Artificial intelligence is discussed in the context of surveillance, data protection and self-determination.
Hausner, Niko/ Wendlandt, Katharina/ Wendlandt, Matthias (2019): Informatikunterricht – Ein Muss zur politischen Mündigkeit. In: Pasternak, Arno (Hrsg.): Informatik für alle, Bonn. online verfügbar
The article discusses the connection between the goal of political maturity and the need for basic computer science knowledge and core skills and how computer science education can contribute to the promotion of political judgment.
Mosene, Katharina. (2020): KI und Intersektionalität: Feministische Netzpolitik und Künstliche Intelligenz in der politischen Bildung. In: Niedersächsische Landeszentrale für politische Bildung (Hrsg.): Politische Medienkompetenz, Hannover. online verfügbar
The article describes intersectional discrimination in the context of AI technology and discusses the potential of political education in dealing with discriminatory algorithms and power structures.
Schieren, Stefan/ Pohl, Kerstin (Hrsg.) (2016): Politik: Big Data. 1/2016, Schwalbach/Ts. Leseprobe online verfügbar
With articles on "The power of algorithms", "Algorithms and big data as a political issue" and "The politics of big data research", the articles in this issue of Politikum are dedicated to questions of changing power relations, societal responsibility, legal regulation and new forms of governance in the age of the "fourth industrial (r)evolution".
Zweig, Katharina (2017): Hat ein Algorithmus immer recht? online verfügbar
In an interview with media educator Claudia Mikat for the Federal Agency for Civic Education, socio-computer scientist Katharina Zweig talks about the opportunities and risks of big data and AI for social sciences and media education.