Programming Is Hard -- Or at Least It Used to Be: Educational Opportunities And Challenges of AI Code Generation

TL;DR

The paper discusses the rapid rise of AI code generation tools in programming education, emphasizing the need for the community to proactively explore opportunities and address challenges to shape future educational practices.

Contribution

It highlights the urgency for computing education researchers to evaluate and guide the integration of AI code tools in programming curricula.

Findings

AI tools offer new educational opportunities

Potential challenges include dependency and skill degradation

Community action is needed to guide responsible adoption

Abstract

The introductory programming sequence has been the focus of much research in computing education. The recent advent of several viable and freely-available AI-driven code generation tools present several immediate opportunities and challenges in this domain. In this position paper we argue that the community needs to act quickly in deciding what possible opportunities can and should be leveraged and how, while also working on how to overcome or otherwise mitigate the possible challenges. Assuming that the effectiveness and proliferation of these tools will continue to progress rapidly, without quick, deliberate, and concerted efforts, educators will lose advantage in helping shape what opportunities come to be, and what challenges will endure. With this paper we aim to seed this discussion within the computing education community.