Teaching kids to think matters more than ever in the age of AI

详细摘要

I do not need to expand on all that is being said about generative AI and its potential positive and negative impact on the world. I choose to write from personal experience and…

Learners are reaching for instant answers, raising concerns about the skills they may lose or never learn.

In January 2017, I drove onto campus for the first time since September 2016, after the extensive Fees Must Fall protests. I remember feeling a sense of hope after a very dark four months during which I often questioned the future of academia in South Africa. Little did I know what was waiting for me.

Three weeks later, my BSc Honours in computer science student, Byron Batteson, walked into my office with an idea for his project: “Prof, I want to create an app that will teach learners coding concepts without the need for computers.”

For the previous 20 years, I had been promoting our department and discipline in schools across the Eastern Cape. Many times I drove away wondering whether I had achieved anything by talking about software development in a school with no computers, and sometimes with limited electricity.

So the TANKS coding app was born, later evolving into the Tangible movement, which now has a footprint across five continents.

Back to 2017. In those days, I basically had two arguments for why corporates should invest in our coding project. The “Fourth Industrial Revolution” had resulted in huge software developer vacancies being reported in South Africa and many other countries.

And then there was the planned coding and robotics curriculum in its infancy. Our mantra became: “Teachers need to prepare themselves and their learners for this curriculum by implementing our games.”

The three curricula for Grades R to 9 were gazetted in 2024, but still need to be rolled out to all schools.

“AI will be like the lava of Pompeii. It will roll over us and we will be buried in it.” – The Devil Wears Prada 2, 2026

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