This is basically the pitch for AI Coding Educator as it exists now. What is this project about? What is unique about it? Why is it needed? What is the plan? These questions are answered here.
The short version is that AI Coding Educator is a free project for learning web development with AI. It teaches the practical parts of website work that I actually use as a developer, including HTML, CSS, basic design thinking, SEO, user experience, accessibility, and quality assurance. The goal is not to teach everything. The goal is to make the beginning easier, clearer, and more useful.
The Premises
- Learning about web development is an introduction to coding that is highly engaging and accessible to a diverse range of kids.
- AI tools can now make learning to code more accessible, easier, and cheaper than ever before.
- After school programs are an important venue for web development instruction.
The Unique Importance of Web Development
Learning web development is one of the most accessible introductions to coding. Rather than dive into abstractions, kids can learn about code by quickly building something practical. This makes the process more engaging because it can connect directly to their own interests.
The fundamental concepts involved in building websites are accessible to kids as early as elementary school. Related concepts in design, marketing, user experience, accessibility, and quality assurance are also accessible, and they offer new coders an overview of many paths to employment.
With some knowledge of all these related skills, students also gain perspective on project management. They can begin to look at a website with a comprehensive eye and understand the interrelated elements of their work. This kind of perspective, and early coding more generally, offer a fast and practical path to many of the outcomes we want from STEM programs.
This is why the site starts with broad concepts before jumping into code. The web development lessons are meant to give beginners a practical foundation, not overwhelm them with every possible detail.
A Revolution in Coding Education
STEM programs in public schools can move the dial on employment outcomes, but many of those outcomes require the kind of time, money, and stability that a lot of kids just don’t have. In addition, many STEM jobs are not high paying or numerous. It is important to be realistic about that.
But interactive large language models like ChatGPT have created an unprecedented opportunity in coding education. They can provide a faster, easier, and cheaper path toward many jobs in the tech sector, especially when they are used to support real practice instead of replace it.
While there are many ways to learn to code, most are limited by two main issues. Many instructional options are either too basic and underestimate beginners, or they are too involved and assume prior knowledge.
In contrast, LLMs like ChatGPT can simply be asked to offer more or less detailed answers. You can paste some code into ChatGPT and ask what it does or why it is not working. You can ask how to center some text and usually get one useful answer, often with helpful notes about usage. You can even ask it for a lesson plan on any topic. And it can work with many languages.
Nothing like this was widely available before. Other educational tools still have value, especially at more intermediate levels. But these new tools offer more people than ever a path to technical literacy and possibly to tech jobs.
That is the reason AI Coding Educator includes an AI Tutor. The point is not that AI magically teaches everything. The point is that a learner can ask questions while they are already looking at the lesson, instead of getting stuck and quitting.
The Magic of After School Education
Most public schools do not offer coding or web development classes as primary curriculum, even though they would seem to fit well into a STEM program. Where then are these opportunities being offered to children?
While there are coding summer camps, coding classes at certain magnet schools, and educational businesses that teach technology, most kids simply don’t have access to this instruction. Currently, one of the most common options for many kids is free after school programs. But most of those programs are not offering the kind of bridge to employment that a web development class can really be.
After school programs offer a uniquely beneficial environment for technical learning. They often have computers with internet access. Program choices are largely voluntary, giving kids a sense of ownership over the choice to attend. And after school programs allow instruction by people without a teaching credential, including many tech professionals.
Taken together, these benefits make after school programs an optimal place for this kind of instruction. If we really want to create pathways into the tech sector, after school instruction should be one key focus for investment of time and energy.
The Lesson Plan
- Start at the beginning.
- Teach kids about the broad set of skills used in website development.
- Focus on specific skills and strategies most used by a web development professional in order to limit the scope.
- Teach kids how to use AI tools to get answers to their questions and facilitate their own learning.
- Create and implement a lesson plan that results in each student building a live website owned by them.
What’s the Mission?
The most important part of any lesson plan for learning web development is starting at the beginning. What is a website? Why build a website? What is the purpose of the elements we generally find on a website? What do I need to be thinking about as I plan, design, and build a website?
This approach is significantly different than showing a beginner some code and explaining it. Starting from first principles, many web design and development practices make a lot of sense. Without a clear picture of the intent, web conventions can seem arbitrary and confusing.
That is why the site includes introductory material about how to start learning web development, not only lessons about syntax. Beginners need context. They need to understand what they are building before the details of the code really matter.
The Big Picture is Empowering
Once kids are introduced, they will likely be more interested in certain parts of the design and development process. Those interests map to potential jobs. A broad approach that includes many aspects of the process can be a compelling way to engage kids and move them toward employment options.
Relevant topics include HTML, CSS, web design conventions, user experience, accessibility, SEO, content management, and quality assurance. A student may not want to become a programmer. They may be more interested in design, content, testing, or planning. That is still useful. That is still part of real website work.
Instruction on all those topics also gives kids the broad view of a project manager who looks at all the moving parts and knows how each contributes to the whole. This involves active critical thinking that is generally beneficial regardless of specialization.
Only What’s Really Needed
While introducing many related topics, it is easy to overwhelm new students with so many details that they become intimidated. The full scope of web production is fairly endless. That is why it is critical to narrow down the specifics to a level that is manageable by beginners.
One obvious strategy is to teach new students only what developers are actually using on a daily basis. There are so many facts and code elements that are rarely if ever used. By excluding these and allowing beginners to learn about them only when needed, the scope of instruction can be managed.
This is also one reason AI can be useful. A beginner does not need to memorize everything. They need to understand the core ideas well enough to ask good questions, test answers, and keep building.
Your New Digital Assistant
While web development instruction is beneficial in encouraging and facilitating learning, the real truth is that we usually teach ourselves to code by doing it. In the past, that involved a lot of searching for answers and combing through half baked solutions.
That really did change with the debut of ChatGPT in November of 2022. Since then, AI tools have become a normal part of how many people write, debug, understand, and improve code. While LLMs have many limitations, they are surprisingly good at providing information about the basics of coding and assisting in the coding process.
Before these tools, you would often have to search Google and then dig through questionable websites filled with various possibly accurate answers. Now you can often get one generally correct answer with notes provided about its implementation. And you can ask follow up questions.
Learning how to ask useful questions of an LLM is now a real job skill. The quality of answers you receive is tied to the quality of the questions you ask. For this reason, talking to an LLM can test your linguistic flexibility in interesting ways that are educationally beneficial.
Helping beginners get comfortable with interacting with an LLM is an important part of any modern development lesson plan. The important thing is to teach AI as a support tool, not as a substitute for understanding.
This is also why the site includes a code sandbox. Reading about code is not enough. A learner needs to change code, break things safely, ask questions, and see what happens.
The Motivations
- Expanding employment opportunities.
- Taking advantage of an unprecedented learning resource.
- Encouraging after school instruction.
Teaching web development after school would offer many benefits to kids. Unlike some paths into academic or scientific jobs, many coding and website production jobs require limited formal education and limited monetary investment. That means they can be more accessible to people with less time and money.
We are also entering a new period for employment in tech where knowledge and use of AI tools is becoming mandatory. As many are saying, the jobs eliminated by AI may often be the jobs done by people not using AI. But more than a competitive necessity, this technology opens a bridge to maybe the easiest path to technical literacy ever created.
Finally, if public schools are not going to provide this path to employment, we need to take advantage of available options in after school programs to bring this opportunity to where the kids are. Most after school programs are very interested in skill building, so there is little likely resistance to this plan.
That remains the purpose of AI Coding Educator. It is not meant to replace a complete computer science education. It is meant to give beginners a practical, approachable starting point for learning web development with AI and understanding the kind of website work that real developers do every day.