BEIJING, Aug. 29, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- The new revolution of artificial intelligence (AI), triggered by the introduction of large language models (LLM) like Chat-GPT, has been fueling the importance of coding education in the increasingly AI-driven world, according to Walnut Coding, a leading online learning platform for young learners. The rapid rise of generative AI, instead of diminishing the role of coding education, underlines the skill that empowers students to thrive in the global digital economy.
The Role of AI Today
AI innovations and products have been dominating the attention of the world and reshaping every facet of people's daily lives in recent years as global tech giants are racing to upgrade and fine-tune their LLMs and AI applications. OpenAI, the creator of ChatGPT, impressed the whole world with the launch of ChatGPT-4o and Sora, the AI models that can reason across audio, vision, and text in real time. The 2024 World AI Conference, which was held in July this year, once again brought a sharp focus on the latest AI evolution, with LLM-powered innovations stealing the limelight of the show.
"As we have already experienced, AI technology has become an integral part of our everyday lives, from smart assistants on our mobile devices to autonomous vehicles in the modern mobility industry. This rapid progress leads us to question the relevance of coding education in the AI era. Think of AI's expanding capabilities and applications, programming serves as the fundamental to its development; it not only provides the groundwork for AI but also drives these technologies forward; hence, coding education is more indispensable today." said Mr. Yuhang Wang, Co-founder of Walnut Coding.
Google's open-source AI library, TensorFlow, serves as an excellent example of how active contributions from the global programming community can enhance machine learning. Rather than two rival forces, programming and AI work together in a complementary mechanism. A solid grounding in programming is instrumental in pushing the revolution of AI; and for AI professionals and policymakers, programming skill is crucial to ensure AI evolves ethically, responsibly, and in line with eco-social development in the long run.
Coding Education: The Foundation of AI Development
AI has also transformed how educators approach teaching, with programming becoming an important tool for updating curricula and nurturing future tech experts. The transformative technology is prompting educational institutions worldwide to redesign their course structures and incorporate more AI and programming content to elevate the learning outcomes of students, with coding education as a key connector across various disciplines.
Exploring the frontier of education and AI, MIT researchers have leveraged generative AI tools to visualize data dynamically to support decision-making. Top universities like Stanford are offering programming courses that not only teach basic coding skills but also integrate AI technologies, focusing on the development and optimization of AI algorithms.
Chinese regulators have released a series of consecutive policies and curriculum reforms to promote coding education since 2017. Beijing, the capital of China, has already listed information technology (IT) as part of the mandatory middle/high school curricula. However, challenges such as imbalanced teaching resources across different regions, which lead to inequality in IT education, are still being addressed. However, this move signifies the role of coding education as a critical skill for future professions and the importance of online coding education in young learners.
"In the era of AI, despite skill acquisition, coding education fosters innovative and logical thinking as well. At Walnut Coding, the goal of our differentiated, fun, and engaging coding learning courses is to provide every student a chance to learn programming; coding skill not only serves a strong foundation for young learners' careers but also unlocks their creativity. The future belongs to those who can both understand and create technology, and this journey begins with our dedication in coding education today." said Mr. Yuhang Wang, Co-founder of Walnut Coding.
About Walnut Coding
Walnut Coding is a leader in coding education in China. Founded in 2017, The Company offers differentiated, fun, and engaging coding learning courses for young learners, covering various subjects including Scratch, Python, and C++. Its courses feature adaptive software products with definitive learning objectives and interactive content for learners, as well as individualized guidance from full-time learning assistants throughout the learning process. As of February 2024, Walnut Coding had 7.2 million cumulative paying users.
