Schools are considering AI companies’ offers more cautiously than coding courses — The Verge
Schools appear to be considering offers from artificial intelligence companies more cautiously than they once considered technology coding courses. The Verge reports this, citing Natasha Singer, The New York Times’ education technology reporter.
The experience of coding courses
In her book Coding Kids, Singer describes how technology companies played a central role in promoting computers and programming skills in education. They presented computer science knowledge as a path to high-paying jobs.
According to Singer’s account, by the time many students entered the labor market, new technologies had called that promise into question. At the same time, companies involved schools in preparing a new generation of potential workers and taught students to use their own products and software, which could make them future customers.
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Arguments of the AI industry
According to Singer, the AI industry is now approaching schools with similar arguments. Companies offer educational resources and programs, often free of charge, emphasizing that students need to master the new technology in order not to fall behind.
Singer expressed concern that society may fail to take into account the lessons of previous technological cycles in education. In her view, when implementing AI, it is important to ensure benefits for education and introduce the necessary safeguards immediately, rather than decades later. At the same time, she believes that in some respects attitudes toward such offers have already become more cautious.
The book also states that more than ten years ago, the largest technology companies directly integrated into school curricula through courses for Advanced Placement Computer Science Principles.
