Fragments of the past: The intersection of AI, historical imagery, and early childhood creativity

Abstract

This paper explores the intersection of early childhood education and AI, with a focus on promoting multimodal play. Drawing from implementation research in preschools, we explore the potential of an AI-powered painting tool to foster historical imagery, creativity, and self-expression. The findings demonstrate how technology can be used to democratize access to cultural heritage resources while enabling children's creative play centered on variation, improvisation, and human interaction. The human-in-the-loop approach is crucial in aligning AI integration with early childhood pedagogy, ensuring that technology supports, rather than replaces, teachers' roles in the classroom. The paper highlights the importance of maintaining a human presence in the learning process to create educational experiences that are developmentally appropriate and transformative for young children.