How do we prepare teachers to teach AI to their students, teach their students to use AI effectively, and how to effectively use AI themselves. I was having this discussion with a friend this morning and I'm sure many educators have been having this and similar conversations over the past year or so. While the discussion around AI is different from the discussion of CS, after all an AI writing assistant can be used with zero understanding of AI and in any subject area but AI is a subset of CS and there are a number of parallels when thinking about preparing teachers in both cases.

CSTA was only a week ago but I've already been trotting out things learned there in conversations. Specifically, during the panel keynote, one panelist, while discussing the affects of AI cited a study. Two groups of programmers were tasked with writing some safe and secure code. One group used AI tools like copilot and chatGPT. The other didn't When all was said and done, the group that didn't use the AI tools produced more secure code.

Saw this earlier as posted on Linkedin by Pat Yongpradit of code.org. According to the article, nine out of ten educators think that students should be taught how AI works prior to graduating from high school. How it works, not just how to use it. This is a good thing. Sure, opinions vary as to when to teach it - elementary, high school, or across the board but still, a good thing.

Went back to school yesterday. Specifically, I was back at Stuy running an AI panel discussion for the Stuy HS Alumni Association. I figured it's time for me to get back in the CS / CS Ed game. Plans started a few months ago when a member of my Stuy CS family who's also in the SHSAA board asked about doing something. I was game but a little apprehensive, mostly because there have been, let's say, issues with the way the SHSAA had operated in the past.

Yesterday we had another Professional Development Workshop for High School CS Teachers and as usual, I wnat to express my thanks to Digital Ocean for continuing to provide space, food, and great overall support. This time though, instead of JonAlf and I having to run the show we had a guest speaker. We were joined by Sarah Judd of AI4ALL. Sarah gave an overview of what AI4ALL was up to and why but the core of her presentation was taking us through some of the exercises they have been developing at AI4All.