Informatics in Education

This article examines pre-service teachers’ data agency, defined as the ability to act according to one’s own values and goals rather than being directed by algorithmic systems. Data agency involves understanding how computational systems, such as algorithms, data-driven profiling, and platform infrastructures, collect, process, and use data, and how these practices shape individuals and society. This article introduces a self-assessment instrument developed to measure data agency and applies it to a sample of 163 Finnish pre-service teachers. The findings show that pre-service teachers evaluated their competencies across different dimensions of data agency rather cautiously. The study highlights the importance of strengthening future teachers’ understanding of the mechanisms behind algorithmic and data-driven decision-making. Such knowledge is increasingly essential for preparing future teachers to address challenges related to datafication, including commercial data collection and algorithmic influencing in contemporary education.

The integration of artificial intelligence (AI) topics into K–12 school curricula is a relatively new but crucial challenge faced by education systems worldwide. Attempts to address this challenge are hindered by a serious lack of curriculum materials and tools to aid teachers in teaching AI. This article introduces the theoretical foundations and design principles for implementing co-design projects in AI education, empirically tested in 12 Finnish classrooms. The article describes a project where 4th- and 7th-graders (N = 213) explored the basics of AI by creating their own AI-driven applications. Additionally, a framework for distributed scaffolding is presented, aiming to foster children's agency, understanding, creativity, and ethical awareness in the age of AI.

This paper deals with the process of expanding the virtual secondary education school network, aiming to provide daily basis, online teaching. The context of this research is the ESR funded Eastern Finland Educational Network Project, which is a network of 36 high schools providing courses via web-based learning environments. The project is a shared activity between teachers and researchers. The aim of the present study is to investigate teachers' technological pedagogical content knowledge by finding out what kind of pedagogical solutions the teachers use while designing and carrying out online teaching. In this study thirteen online courses were analysed and based on the analysis, four different course design patterns were found. The most general approach in course designs seems to be teacher centred, focusing on well guided individual learning processes. There seems to be need for development of teacher technological pedagogical content knowledge, to support approaches of more collaborative course designs.