TL;DR:
- AI is integrated into the curriculum of the General Assembly, a coding boot camp.
- Instructors teach students about the responsible use of AI and how the technology works.
- AI is being embraced in education, but students must provide citations when using AI tools.
- As AI technology advances, education companies must adapt their business models.
- Online education companies like Chegg may be negatively impacted by AI.
- Coding boot camps are incentivized to adapt to the pace of change, relying on students who invest in their careers.
- AI may eventually change K-12 education.
- Generative AI is expected to create new jobs and transform existing ones.
- Preparing people for jobs with AI technology is crucial to help them be happier and more successful.
Main AI News:
Artificial Intelligence (AI) has been making waves in the education sector, transforming the way students learn and complete coursework. At General Assembly, a renowned coding boot camp, AI is already an integral part of the curriculum. Instructors are incorporating the use of ChatGPT, an AI chatbot, into their lesson plans, and students are encouraged to leverage its capabilities to complete their homework assignments.
According to Robert Jones, the Vice President of Product Strategy at General Assembly, “Our instructors are on the ground teaching it now.” The boot camp, which was founded in 2011, is also teaching students about the responsible use of AI and how the technology works. As the use of AI continues to grow, General Assembly is receiving informal feedback to create standardized curriculum materials to be rolled out to all 30,000 of its teachers this summer. This means that coding instructors must keep up with the pace of technology to meet the demands of their students.
General Assembly is embracing the use of AI by students to complete their coursework but with certain expectations. While students are free to use ChatGPT, they must also be prepared to provide citations to show where they used the AI tool in their coursework. Jones emphasizes the importance of critical thinking skills that enable students to get the most out of these technologies.
The trend of using AI in education is not exclusive to coding boot camps. Many universities and high schools are also grappling with the topic. Jeff Maggioncalda, the CEO of Coursera, an online education company, believes that in the era of generative AI, students will need to show their work, similar to how they do in a calculus class. Maggioncalda suggests that in an English literature class, for example, students might need to demonstrate how they wrote their essays rather than just submitting them.
As AI continues to advance, educators and students must adapt to its impact. By responsibly incorporating AI into the curriculum, students will be better prepared for the demands of the workforce, where AI is expected to impact two-thirds of US occupations to some degree.
As AI technology advances, education companies are facing a critical need to adapt their business models. However, the uptake of AI may be slower in public education settings, given the challenges associated with implementing new technologies in large, complex systems.
Online education company Chegg recently saw its stock drop by almost 50% after acknowledging that ChatGPT was affecting its customer growth rate. Meanwhile, coding boot camps like General Assembly are incentivized to adapt to the pace of change, as they rely on students willing to invest in their careers by paying upwards of $15,000 for a 12-week program.
As coding boot camps incorporate AI into their curricula, they may provide insights into how the technology could eventually change K-12 education. Tech-oriented educational nonprofits in the US, like Code.org, are already expanding their curricula to include lessons on how AI is used in natural language processing and image generation.
Robert Jones, Vice President of Product Strategy at General Assembly, expects generative AI to create new jobs and transform existing ones in the same way that the internet did. He stresses that those preparing people for jobs must consider how to use this new technology to help people do their jobs better, be happier, and be more successful. By adapting quickly to the pace of change, coding boot camps can position themselves for success as the industry evolves.
Conlcusion:
The integration of AI into education, specifically coding boot camps, presents a significant opportunity for the market. As AI technology continues to advance, companies that adapt quickly and responsibly to these changes will be better positioned to succeed. Additionally, the implementation of AI in education has the potential to transform the way students learn and complete coursework. As a result, we can expect to see continued growth in the AI education market as more companies and institutions incorporate this technology into their curricula.
