Charting the territory of AI-Mediated informal digital learning in teaching design thinking for addressing design problems

In the era of digital-based education, the learning process is officially in the AI era. Given recent advances in generative AI, this research seeks to investigate how users of language modelling platforms (Monica Bot) use and utilise this tool to develop design problems (DP) for pre-service teachers and how design thinking can work together. This implies that, today, design thinking can be more practical with the help of AI. Using an interview guide and an adapted Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) questionnaire, this study used an explanatory sequential mixed-methods approach to collect data. The research population was 207 teachers of professional education (PPG), and 32 pre-service teachers were the sample in this study who were selected using purposive techniques and participated in AI and an online survey, with seven pre-service teachers attending follow-up interviews. Quantitative analysis provides a statistical explanation for the implementation of AI bot technology by teacher professional education (PPG) as perceived ease of use, perceived usefulness, intention to use, actual use, and design problem. The interview data revealed three main themes: (1) how students’ ideas about how easy Monica Bot is to use changed as they used it; (2) how students’ desire to use grows as they learn more about AI-Bot’s strengths and weaknesses; and (3) how students actually use AI-Bots for design thinking, which means using them as design partners. How pre-service teachers engage in innovative DT activities while navigating the opportunities and limitations of advanced AI systems can be better understood when quantitative and qualitative data are correlated. This study offers implications for future classroom practice and research by understanding these activities, thereby paying attention to attitudes and adding to the existing body of knowledge about the theoretical foundations of design thinking and education using design thinking and computational thinking and the practices that shape AI literacy for addressing design problems (DP).