How using AI changes the way students learn and cook
With a Thermomix You Lose the Ability to Cook: A Kitchen Machine Analogy for Applications of Generative AI in Education
Computers and SocietyArtificial Intelligence
Summary
Using tools like AI in education can change how people learn, much like smart kitchen gadgets change how people cook. The authors compare AI’s impact on learning to the Thermomix, a machine that can both help and take over cooking tasks. Their work shows that the key question is not if students use AI, but how it affects their engagement and understanding. This analogy helps guide educators and researchers to find better ways to include AI in teaching.
What this means in practice
- •For educational technology developers: Design AI learning tools that promote active student engagement by considering how tool use affects learning depth, inspired by the Thermomix analogy.
- •For corporate learning designers: Create corporate training programs that critically integrate AI tools to balance efficiency with meaningful employee skill development.
A position paper. It proposes an approach and reports no results.
Authors
Nikol Rummel, Valentina Nachtigall, Ernesto Panadero
Abstract
The rapid adoption of generative AI tools such as ChatGPT has sparked intense debate about their risks and opportunities for education, as well as the ways researchers should investigate them. In this paper, we approach these discussions through an analogy with the Thermomix, a smart kitchen appliance that has similarly provoked both enthusiasm and critique. By mapping Thermomix use cases onto examples of learning with generative AI, and situating them within the ICAP and SAMR frameworks, we show how different modes of tool use can either support or undermine meaningful engagement and learning. The Thermomix metaphor underscores that the central question is not whether learners employ AI, but how such use shapes their learning processes. In doing so, we provide a conceptual lens for researchers and practitioners to critically examine - and more effectively guide - the integration of generative AI into educational practice.