A digitalized toolkit for design thinking experience on cybersecurity: Leveraging collaborative K-12 learning on wicked problems

Design Thinking (DT) is a promising approach for addressing complex real-world problems. Its application in education enables learners to build new knowledge through open-ended, creative processes. However, given DT’s strong reliance on hands-on activities and collaborative teamwork, challenges arise when extending DT activities into digital interactions through tools and platforms in K–12 settings. To address the limited availability of such resources, we present the design of a fully digital dt-toolkit that supports all DT phases and is tailored to the wicked problem of cybersecurity and online awareness for young learners. We conducted a two-day workshop with 62 sixth-grade learners. Following the activity, group interviews with 30 participants examined how the dt-toolkit ’s interaction scaffolded DT practice, collaboration, and cybersecurity knowledge acquisition. The results indicate improvements in learners’ understanding of online safety and risks contextual to their daily life. Learners reported engagement and creativity supported by digital affordances, and that dt-toolkit phase-based interactions facilitated coordination and collaboration within groups. However, learners also identified challenges related to uneven pacing across groups and mixed perceptions of the AI hints embedded as an additional form of guidance. From our findings, a fully digital DT experience shows preliminary promise in supporting learners’ engagement across DT phases and in cultivating their awareness of cybersecurity concepts such as phishing and online scams. The implications for the interaction design of digital learning toolkits elaborate on the importance of coherent narratives, authentic scenarios, and carefully calibrated AI support.