Guidelines for Designing AI Technologies to Support Adult Learning

The hype around generative AI seems to promise unprecedented productivity (and learning) gains. However, these technologies' increasing agentic features seem to push learners towards individualism (or individual isolation), over-reliance, and dependence on them. Human-centered design approaches (e.g., value-sensitive design) assume that, by unearthing human needs, preferences, and values, technology researchers/designers may avoid such dangers, which are driven by wider systemic factors like economic incentives or inherent human limitations (e.g., our tendency to seek, in the moment, the easiest path of action). Yet, so far these efforts seem insufficient to guide our design of educational technology that avoids the aforementioned dependency and isolation dangers, while finding widespread adoption. This paper presents an alternative, more emancipatory vision for future educational AI technology, oriented towards learner flourishing while considering the wider complex systems they inhabit, including tentative design principles and an overall design methodology. Yet, many open questions remain before this vision can be realized.

Large language models generate code from natural language prompts, enabling "vibe coding," which allows non-programmers to develop computational solutions. Vibe coding for teachers amplifies the value of teachers-as-designers, improving technology integration while fostering AI literacy. However, structured guidance on supporting this process is lacking. We propose GAIDE (A Guiding Framework for AI-Integrated Design for Educators), a framework that supports K-12 teachers in creating AI-powered learning technologies through vibe coding. The initial framework, built on Design Thinking and INTERACT, was validated through a CORDTRA interaction analysis of three teachers and four faculty mentors in an eight-week workshop to derive the final framework. Additionally, the qualitative analysis of pre- and post-interviews found an enhancement of teachers' AI literacy. Findings highlight the potential of learning-by-creating for professional development.

Education is not merely the transmission of information or the optimisation of individual performance; it is a fundamentally social, constructive, and relational practice. However, recent advances in generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) increasingly emphasise efficiency, automation, and individualised assistance, risking the weakening of relational learning processes. Despite growing adoption, AI in education (AIED) research has yet to fully articulate how AI can be designed in ways that sustain the social and ecological relationships through which learning occurs. In this paper, we re-centre education as relational and frame learner-AI interactions as context-specific relationships with clearly defined purposes and boundaries, rather than positioning them as substitutes for, or replacements of, human interaction. Grounded in participatory design practices and inspired by Indigenous worldviews (including Aboriginal Australian, Native American, and Mesoamerican traditions) that foreground reciprocity and relational accountability, we argue that meaningful educational AI should support learning with others rather than replace them. We advance this perspective by: i) conceptualising AIED as a relational design problem grounded in reciprocity; ii) articulating key tensions introduced by GenAI in education; and iii) outlining design directions that expand the AIED design space toward reciprocity, including when not to use AI, how to define pedagogical boundaries, and how to support responsible uses of AIED innovations that sustain communities and natural environments.