109 - Digital Thinking Tools for Education and Depolarisation
What this challenge is about
Never before in history has so much information, from different points of view, been available on contemporary controversial issues. And yet, social media platforms (Facebook, YouTube, TikTok, …) can confine people to filter bubbles and political echo chambers. This is compounded by the online proliferation of mis and disinformation as well as the advent of Generative AI, with its own biases and limitations, most prominently, the tendency to “hallucinate” factually incorrect information.
In this digital age, good thinking is endangered. Good thinking is grounded in the navigation of multiple perspectives and evidence-based well-reasoned arguments. Digital thinking tools, including generative artificial intelligence (AI), can both amplify and mitigate the challenges of our digital age. The aim of this project is to explore how to develop and use digital thinking tools to support good thinking and mitigate against risks such as filter bubbles and reliance on questionable information and one-sided arguments.
The project has two main strands. Firstly, the digital thinking tools for education strand focuses on digital thinking tools in the context of educational technology and pedagogical practices. The aim of the educational strand is to produce evidence-based recommendations for integrating AI tools into higher education, with a particular emphasis on enhancing argumentation skills in early undergraduate students.
The second strand of this project, digital thinking tools for depolarisation, goes beyond education, looking at society at large. It continues work in the Opening Up Minds project, which found that argumentative chatbots can “positively change people’s attitudes regarding the reasons their opponents have.” This strand is aimed at the further development, evaluation and deployment of digital thinking tools for depolarisation.