Hello World Podcast

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Does “Vibe Coding” have a role in programming education?

In this episode we ask whether “vibe coding" has a role in programming education? We hear from a university academic, a secondary school teacher, and a student, who have each investigated using AI tools to support students learning to program.

‘‘Vibe Coding’’ is a new term most associated with how professional programmers might quickly create prototypes using AI tools in a fast and iterative way. But learning to program, particularly for school-aged learners, is very different to developing IT solutions. We will talk to a university academic, a secondary school teacher and a student who have each investigated using AI tools to support students learning to program. We ask what role might Vibe Coding, a software engineering approach, bring to the complicated job of young people learning how to program?

Meet our guests

Jane Waite

Jane is the senior research scientist at the Raspberry Pi Foundation. She leads the research team that explores teaching school-aged learners about AI and how they might learn to program with AI. Jane is a visiting academic at the Raspberry Pi Computing Education Research Centre at the University of Cambridge.

Jedidah Ajala

Jedidah Ajala is a first-year Computer Science student at the University of Edinburgh (UoE). During her final year of secondary education (2024/25), Jedidah contributed significantly to a computing education study at UoE. Jedidah's academic interests centre on the intersection of computer science and ethics.

Irene Stone

Irene is a doctoral researcher at Dublin City University, focusing on generative AI and introductory programming. She has over 20 years’ experience teaching Computer Science and Mathematics at second level. She has also helped support the professional learning of teachers of the Leaving Certificate Computer Science subject.

Daniel Zingaro

Dr. Daniel Zingaro is a Teaching Professor at the University of Toronto. He is the recipient of several awards including the SIGCSE 50th Anniversary Top Ten Symposium Papers of All Time Award. He co-Directs the GenAI in CS Education Consortium, and has written several books on programming.

Does "vibe coding" have a role in programming eduction?

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In this episode, educators discuss the pros and cons of using Scratch, Python, Java and other programming languages to teach coding skills at different learning stages. In the meantime, you can get in touch with your questions or comments about the current episode at podcast@helloworld.cc. If you can, please take a moment to give us some feedback on this episode or our podcast generally.

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