The Transformation of Educational Media in the Age of the Algorithm Generation: Adapting Learning to an AI-Based Digital Ecosystem

Abstract

The rapid advancement of artificial intelligence has fundamentally changed how young people access information and interact with digital technology, giving rise to the term “algorithm generation” a generation whose thinking patterns, preferences, and learning habits are substantially shaped by automated recommendation and content-curation systems. This study addresses three research questions: (1) how educational media is transforming in response to the algorithm generation’s cognitive-behavioral formation; (2) what learning-adaptation strategies are needed for this transformation to move toward augmentation and redefinition rather than inversion of learning; and (3) what challenges accompany this shift and how a human-centered approach can mitigate them. The novelty of this study lies in explicitly positioning “algorithm generation” as an analytic construct rather than an uncritical generational label and in building an integrative conceptual framework linking learners’ cognitive formation, educational media transformation, and multi-level adaptation strategies (teachers, learners, curriculum), an integration rarely found in existing AIED (artificial intelligence in education) reviews, which tend to remain fragmented. The study adopts a qualitative approach with a systematic-integrative literature review design: identification, screening, and eligibility procedures follow PRISMA 2020 logic across 22 primary sources, followed by critical-comparative thematic synthesis. Findings show that educational media is shifting from a static, one-way model toward an adaptive, personalized, data-driven model, yet the direction of this shift toward augmentation/redefinition or toward inversion of learning depends heavily on how seriously adaptation strategies and human-centered, critical, and ethical AI design are actually implemented. This study recommends that the development of educational media in Indonesia explicitly integrate this conceptual framework, particularly during the transition from Kurikulum Merdeka toward deep-learning pedagogy.