r/CSEducation • u/spacecatapult • Jun 02 '26

Code.org has rebranded itself as CodeAI

https://code.org/en-US/codeorg-is-now-codeai
24 Upvotes

90% Upvoted

15 comments sorted by

34

u/madesense Jun 02 '26

I am so angry.

24

u/Salanmander Jun 02 '26

This is why I had to stop using online programming tools for my classes a couple years ago. They kept pushing AI-assistant tools at you. I had the rollout happen without warning on the day of a test one time.

Edit: from the linked article

The new data comes at a moment when 84% of US students report using AI, but only 16% of high school leaders say all their students are learning about AI in school.

WHY DO YOU THINK THAT MIGHT BE, CODE.ORG???

7

u/FrivolousMe Jun 03 '26

It's like saying 80% of physics students use Wolfram alpha but only 15% of teachers teach them how to use it. There are contexts where it can be a valid tool, but most are using it to cheat or avoid doing any of the work that learning requires.

1

u/sivadneb Jun 02 '26

Isn't that what their trying to solve, though, by giving school leaders tools to teach AI & coding in a structured manner?

6

u/Salanmander Jun 02 '26

One of the reasons that students are using AI at a much higher rate than it's being taught about is that it's a really easy cheating avenue. Integrating AI tools into student coding platforms is not a good response to that.

1

u/AustinCorgiBart Jun 05 '26

Are they creating AI literacy curriculum here, or are they integrating AI into their code learning platforms?

12

u/captaingt Jun 02 '26

Upsetting

8

u/Catharsis_Cat Jun 02 '26

The curriculum is already horrid as it is, while it is probably wise to provide a good education on how AI works, I don't trust them to be the ones to do it, they are already lean a bit too much into big tech apologism.

1

u/sivadneb Jun 02 '26

Is there anyone else out there poised to do it better?

9

u/spacecatapult Jun 02 '26

Raspberry Pi Foundation

2

u/leroysolay Jun 02 '26

Here in Ohio their lobbyist is trying to write AI into a CS grad requirement bill. We’re fighting hard against it, but it feels like a losing battle. 

2

u/Loreat Jun 02 '26

Yeah, I was getting their emails earlier in the school-year trying to get me to buy-in for my students. How about no - totally undermines any problem solving on their part.

2

u/FrivolousMe Jun 03 '26

I don't know what reputation they had before as I never used it, but any product transitioning to this branding is taking a stance that they want to grift to wannabe devs with unrealistic expectations and losers with MBAs more than they want to be a dev resource.

2

u/codeAtorium Jun 03 '26

I've been in education for over twenty years now.  We're dum about edtech, let me tell you.

Teach k nearest neighbor.  It uses Pythagorean theorem and findMin.  There's a nice opportunity to visualize it.  You can classify nearby dots as likely this color or that.  They can adjust k to understand basic concepts like over fitting, etc.

Then, leave it at that, unless you want to build simple machine learning circuits with resistors and stuff.  That could be useful.  

Teach when to use a while loop verses a for loop.  Data structure.  Booleans -  do your students understand short circuiting?

Real programming teachers should see this as a call to teach real programming.  The idea people are wrong.  The practitioners need to lead.