Volume 3,Issue 8
From Technology Empowerment to Value Reconstruction: Paradigm Transformation of AI Literacy for Design Postgraduates
Against the background of the deep involvement of artificial intelligence (AI) technology in the design field, the application of AI in design postgraduate education mostly remains at the level of “technology empowerment”, with cognitive limitations such as “valuing skills over thinking, efficiency over value, and output over criticism”. To transcend the traditional “instrumentalism” paradigm, this study proposes a new paradigm of AI literacy centered on “value reconstruction”, aiming to promote the in-depth cognitive transformation of design education from “how to use AI” to “why to use it”. By combining theoretical construction with case action research, the study first analyzes the inherent flaws of the existing paradigm through critical literature review; then constructs a four-dimensional AI literacy framework covering technical cognition, critical application, value reflection, and ecological construction; and verifies the feasibility and effectiveness of the framework in the postgraduate course of a design major at a university in Chengdu. Teaching practice shows that the new paradigm effectively promotes students’ transformation from passive technical operators to “reflective designers” with ethical awareness and critical spirit, and their project achievements have been significantly improved in the dimensions of humanistic care, ethical awareness, and sustainability. The research concludes that AI literacy is essentially the value rationality that designers must possess in the digital age; design postgraduate education should complete the paradigm leap from “technology empowerment” to “value reconstruction”, cultivating a new generation of design leaders who can control technology and endow it with humanistic significance.
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