Hello everyone,
I teach technology classes to upper elementary students. My primary focus with this age group is on establishing a solid foundation for computational thinking. We do a fair amount of offline work before they dive into working with code blocks, and our projects generally do not extend beyond 3-4 weeks (2 sessions/week). AI is definitely a powerful coding partner for professionals, and I do address that with students as a mini lesson on AI literacy; however, my students are still developing their foundational problem-solving and algorithmic thinking, so I don't see AI as having any direct role within my computer science curriculum. I'm curious about a few things, though:
1. Am I completely wrong? Is there a valid role that AI could play when coding with 3rd-5th-grade students?
2. At what grade level or level of coding skill mastery should AI-assisted coding tools be introduced?
3. What guardrails could be put into place to ensure that AI is not getting in the way of students' understanding of coding concepts?
4. What about vibe coding? I could actually see the use of this that isn't necessarily tied to the coding unit. There is a lot of critical thinking and problem solving that goes into creating and refining something via Gemini Canvas. I'd still be hesitant with my youngest students because of how they perceive the role of AI; however, there could be some merit in using this process with my oldest group.
I'd love to hear insights, classroom guidelines, or lesson experiences as I think through my coding curriculum (and beyond).
