The era of AI 2025 is just around the corner

Hour Of Code has been renamed. This year and the coming years are called “AI time” as we surrender to this AI-driven era. This is another sign that coding has moved from a manual task to an automatically generated task. The rebrand is very important because Code.org is a trendsetter and important for children’s education related to computer science.

The latest HoC events have gradually introduced AI, with last year’s event in particular focusing primarily on GenAI, making computer science the new language of music, coupled with activities such as writing code and using AI to generate music. This year’s event is all about AI.

So, you may be wondering why you need to learn coding in this era of GenAI when you can generate code just by using a prompt. We answered this in 2017, examining why the focus shifted from just coding to AI and machine learning in AI for Oceans – Kids Use Computer Science for Good.

It’s no longer enough to just teach people how to code. Children need to be taught AI concepts at the same time. Things are evolving rapidly, and getting familiar with AI from school age has become the new norm in the tech education industry. The next generation should be able to cope with the situation shaped by the Fourth Industrial Revolution.

The reason is that AI will impact most aspects of our lives in some way in the near future, so children should not only be consumers of this technology, but also be able to leverage it to create solutions that collectively make the world a better place.

But the value of coding goes beyond giving instructions to computers to create great and useful applications. Coding, like math, teaches you how to think. How to structure your thoughts, how to break down complex tasks into subtasks, and how to proceed efficiently to solving them. It is essential for everyone, for their daily life and for the problems they have to face. The rebranding from “Hour of Code” to “Hour of AI” supports the idea of using AI and machine learning activities to learn how to solve problems without having to explicitly code using a programming language.

LEGO Education’s Machine Learning Modeling activity is a task that attempts to demystify artificial intelligence and machine learning models. To understand how computer scientists train computers, we ask students to build and train animal models.

Rather than surviving alone, Minecraft’s The First Night lets players team up with an AI agent who teaches them how to survive the night, turning a familiar Minecraft scenario into a hands-on exploration of artificial intelligence. What stands out about this activity is its purpose, which represents the philosophy behind the new Hour Of AI.

Areas of AI literacy: pattern recognition, generalization, inference, error detection, and correction as experienced through gameplay.

Computational thinking: Code, debug, algorithms, and problem solve to understand the rules and relationships that govern agent behavior and build the foundation for working with intelligent systems.

AI Thinking: Critical Thinking and Responsible Use – Learners practice evaluating output, deciding when to use AI (and when not), and correcting mistakes.

Coding skills: Move coding from just “writing instructions” to teaching, mentoring, and collaborating with AI. This skill is applicable whether you use ChatGPT today or the advanced systems of tomorrow.

Confidence and creativity: From initial dependencies to empowered collaboration, students experience how competency grows and how knowledge is transferred between tasks.

This is a summary of the exact gist of the event and future outlook regarding coding.

Of course, there are activities that involve newly acquired skills that encourage LLM. In the “Mix & Move with AI” activity, students learn how to design their own dancers by using AI prompts to remix songs and choreograph movements to the beat. Along the way, you’ll learn basic coding ideas like sequencing and repetition.

Another example of utilizing prompts is Create a Dream Product with Generative AI, where students brainstorm an original product idea, design its logo or advertisement using Adobe Express, and use Generative AI to visualize what it would look like. The purpose of this activity is to foster creativity, innovation and idea generation.

As always, Hour Of AI will be held during Computer Science Education Week, this year from December 8th to 14th. enjoy!

Detailed information

AI time

Time for AI, funded by Microsoft

AI for Oceans – Kids use computer science for good

Hour Of Code 2024 is coming soon

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