Informatics as a Fundamental Discipline in General Education: The Danish Perspective

Abstract

Informatics in general, and the particular development of artificial intelligence, is changing human knowledge, perception, and reality, thus radically changing the course of human history. Informatics has made it possible to automate an extraordinary range of tasks by enabling machines to play an increasingly decisive role in drawing conclusions from data and then taking action. The growing transfer of judgment from human beings to machines denotes the revolutionary aspect of informatics. For societies to maintain or regain democratic control and supremacy over digital technology, it is imperative to include informatics in general education with a dual perspective on possibilities and implications of computing for individuals and society. The Danish informatics curriculum for general education acknowledges the dual and bipartite nature of informatics by complementing a constructive approach to computing with a critical analytic approach to digital artifacts.