{"id":234466,"date":"2026-06-21T06:30:00","date_gmt":"2026-06-21T10:30:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/testing.news-you-need.com\/index.php\/2026\/06\/21\/can-kids-learn-to-use-ai-without-touching-a-screen-this-chicago-after-school-program-is-betting-on-it\/"},"modified":"2026-06-21T06:40:14","modified_gmt":"2026-06-21T10:40:14","slug":"can-kids-learn-to-use-ai-without-touching-a-screen-this-chicago-after-school-program-is-betting-on-it","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/testing.news-you-need.com\/index.php\/2026\/06\/21\/can-kids-learn-to-use-ai-without-touching-a-screen-this-chicago-after-school-program-is-betting-on-it\/","title":{"rendered":"Can kids learn to use AI without touching a screen? This Chicago after-school program is betting on it"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.wbez.org\/education\/2026\/06\/21\/can-kids-learn-to-use-ai-without-touching-a-screen-this-chicago-after-school-program-is-betting-on-it\">Can kids learn to use AI without touching a screen? This Chicago after-school program is betting on it<\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.wbez.org\/education\/2026\/06\/21\/can-kids-learn-to-use-ai-without-touching-a-screen-this-chicago-after-school-program-is-betting-on-it\">https:\/\/www.wbez.org\/education\/2026\/06\/21\/can-kids-learn-to-use-ai-without-touching-a-screen-this-chicago-after-school-program-is-betting-on-it<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Publish Date: <a href=\"publish_date]\">2026-06-21 06:30:00<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Source Domain: <a href=\"www.wbez.org\">www.wbez.org<\/a><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Matthew Uriosdegui and his friends at South Shore after-school program collaborate to create a rap song and use an AI tool, Suno, to generate music.<\/li>\n<li>Overture Games, an initiative founded by Northwestern graduates Aspen Buckingham and Steven Jiang, focuses on teaching children AI skills through a paper-and-pencil method to maintain a balance and enhance learning while minimizing screen time.<\/li>\n<li>The program aims to address the lack of formalized AI education for young children and offers hands-on learning, such as creating games and characters, with AI assisting in the final output.<\/li>\n<li>Experts have differing views on the method; while some believe prompting AI is not the key skill, others argue hands-on creation aids retention, fostering creativity alongside critical thinking.<\/li>\n<li>Uneven access to AI education exists, with wealthier districts more likely to provide it. Overture addresses this through partnerships and grants, making their programs free or low-cost.<\/li>\n<li>Parents generally support the initiative, appreciating the opportunity for their children to learn about AI in a controlled manner while ensuring traditional skills like handwriting are maintained. However, some express concerns about increased interest in screens post-participation.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Can kids learn to use AI without touching a screen? This Chicago after-school program is&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":234467,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cst.brightspotcdn.com\/dims4\/default\/772947b\/2147483647\/strip\/true\/crop\/6415x3662+0+20\/resize\/1461x834!\/quality\/90\/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fchorus-production-cst-web.s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com%2Fbrightspot%2F70%2F77%2Ff9c9fce04767b563bc4749e1c10b%2Fovertureai-260609-010-1.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-234466","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-artificial-intelligence"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/testing.news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/234466"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/testing.news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/testing.news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/testing.news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/testing.news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=234466"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/testing.news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/234466\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":234468,"href":"https:\/\/testing.news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/234466\/revisions\/234468"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/testing.news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/234467"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/testing.news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=234466"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/testing.news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=234466"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/testing.news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=234466"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}