Prompts First, Finally

Generative AI (GenAI) and large language models in particular, are disrupting Computer Science Education. They are proving increasingly capable at more and more challenges. Some educators argue that they pose a serious threat to computing education, and that we should ban their use in the classroom....

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Bibliographic Details
Published inarXiv.org
Main Authors Reeves, Brent N, Prather, James, Denny, Paul, Leinonen, Juho, MacNeil, Stephen, Becker, Brett A, Luxton-Reilly, Andrew
Format Paper
LanguageEnglish
Published Ithaca Cornell University Library, arXiv.org 12.07.2024
Subjects
Computer science
Education
Flow charts
Generative artificial intelligence
Large language models
Natural language
Natural language (computers)
Problem solving
Representations
Science education
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Summary:Generative AI (GenAI) and large language models in particular, are disrupting Computer Science Education. They are proving increasingly capable at more and more challenges. Some educators argue that they pose a serious threat to computing education, and that we should ban their use in the classroom. While there are serious GenAI issues that remain unsolved, it may be useful in the present moment to step back and examine the overall trajectory of Computer Science writ large. Since the very beginning, our discipline has sought to increase the level of abstraction in each new representation. We have progressed from hardware dip switches, through special purpose languages and visual representations like flow charts, all the way now to ``natural language.'' With the advent of GenAI, students can finally change the abstraction level of a problem to the ``language'' they've been ``problem solving'' with all their lives. In this paper, we argue that our programming abstractions were always headed here -- to natural language. Now is the time to adopt a ``Prompts First'' approach to Computer Science Education.
ISSN:2331-8422