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Three-category taxonomy of K-12 AI learners: AI Consumers, AI Operators, and AI Developers

Design · All designs
Evidence · no claims cited

Description

The article organizes high school AI learners into three categories drawn from the K-12 AI education research community: "those who will be AI end-users in their everyday lives and careers, those who will need to implement AI algorithms, and those who will research and advance AI algorithms." AI Consumers (all students) need to learn what is possible with AI and its impact; AI Operators need to understand algorithm varieties, strengths and weaknesses to make informed decisions; AI Developers need deep algorithmic understanding including estimating space and time complexity. ARIN-561's design targets appropriate takeaways for each category.

Design Implications

Context

Requirements

  • Designs must provide takeaways appropriate to each learner category, as the article's game does by exposing algorithm tradeoffs for Operators and step-by-step algorithm mechanics for Developers

Constraints

Target Learners

  • high school students

Learning Goals

  • understanding what AI can accomplish
  • selecting appropriate AI algorithms for tasks
  • understanding how search algorithms work in detail

Claims

Examples

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Key Sources

  • Leitner, M., Greenwald, E., Wang, N., Montgomery, R., & Merchant, C. (2023). Designing Game-Based Learning for High School Artificial Intelligence Education. International Journal of Artificial Intelligence in Education, 33, 384–398. https://doi.org/10.1007/s40593-022-00327-w
Page metadata
Field Value
type design
id ai-consumers-operators-developers-taxonomy
title Three-category taxonomy of K-12 AI learners: AI Consumers, AI Operators, and AI Developers
description The article organizes high school AI learners into three categories drawn from the K-12 AI education research community: "those who will be AI end-users in their everyday lives and careers, those who will need to impl...
status review
generated by process:settle-candidates on 2026-10-28
trust unverified — no one has confirmed this page's content
sources 1 — leitner-2023

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