Suggestion: Try Minecraft: Educatiion Edition (you may have to work with your IT/network people for firewall, install, etc.)
https://education.minecraft.ne...

If you want to go more 2D graphics, CMU CS Academy (Carnegie Mellon U) has some free browser based tools/programs for Python programming with graphics, a lot like Processing if you're familiar with it. I customize most of the lessons though, as it can be a bit basic/repetitive, but it has a sandbox that you can play with
https://academy.cs.cmu.edu/cou...

I've used MC:EE with a lot of success with 8th graders for one semester elective, lots of engagement. It utilizes MakeCode which supports, block, JavaScript and Python. The students, even the 'non-coder' ones, love it -- a simple loop to spawn creatures, or using the Agent to build a structure with nested loops is a more engaging that a lot of traditional lessons. By the end of my class, the kids learn all the core stuff (variable, lists, loops, control-flow, some OOP basics, writing their own functions with parameters, etc.) that you're probably aiming for. Not sure of your age levels, but there's enough complexity available that if you have older kids you can definitely adapt it to more challenging projects.

Yes, it's gamification, but that's not always a negative. I use that class as a feeder into our more advanced stuff for high school, and the vast majority of kids who do the MineCraft stuff enroll in our high school classes.

Honestly, it's also a lot of fun to teach with, I mean, it's MineCraft... :)

I've been teaching for 8+ years, it's not easy so I know jumping into it is a challenge, but stick with it -- focus on the fun, do a lot of project-based learning, and give the kids so more control over the projects they work on, they will be more involved if that have more agency.

" .NET was actually designed as a programming language specific to Microsoft Windows. "

Wtf... that's wrong on so many levels, not sure how it was labelled insightful. .

NET is a framework, NOT a language. You can program against the framework using C# (most common), F# or VB.
https://dotnet.microsoft.com/e...

And it was specifically designed NOT to be platform dependent, MS woke up and moved away from being Windows dependent, .NET was intentionally architected to be multi-platform:

".NET is supported on Android, Apple, Linux, and Windows operating systems. It's available in several Linux distributions, like Red Hat Enterprise Linux and Ubuntu."
https://dotnet.microsoft.com/e...

Lol, I'd mod you up if I had the points. Jive coding indeed...

I looked briefly at the site, it's pretty basic fullstack site with a CMS.

I fullstack web development to high school students (Django framework (Python), mySQL backend), and have had some of my students build similar data-driven sites, in a month or so after they've learned the core skills needed, and they're not working on it 40 hrs a week either since they have 5+ other classes. Granted I have some pretty motivated & sharp kids, but even an average programmer just out of college could build this thing in pretty short order, or should be able to.

30,000 lines of code for THAT? and a year to build? I call bullshit. Or is that's really 30k lines of code, it's a REALLY verbose inefficient 30k. What's he counting a bunch of json files / dictionaries he's using for data? I'm kidding, I'm assuming there's some kind of actual db behind it, but I just don't see where you'd need anywhere near 30k?

Clearly he's trying to sell something, oh right this guys who 'knows who to code' is part of the Y-combinator hype machine, yawn...

You as an individual may be ok, but I'm thinking more collectively as a society that we're going be screwed. Your point that "I'm being forced to herd a growing flock of ChatGPT-dependent morons." is what I meant, the next generation of IT staff/programmers/engineers might be these 'ChatGPT-dependent morons' responsible for software and systems down the road. It's terrifying.

Another reason to use other options like duckduckgo, or other browsers (I still like Firefox even with its missteps).

The big problem with this too is that you reinforce echo chambers using your history, which isn't really a good thing, getting a range of perspectives even in search / AI results helps mitigate exaggerated beliefs or viewpoints (e.g. 'x is everywhere', 'y is always happening', 'everyone believes z')

I also wonder how long it will be 'opt-in' until they make it the default and you have to 'opt-out'

Total clusterfuck of an idea imo...

This kind of short-sightedness will cost us. Some companies just want -- 'poof', magically experienced programmers/engineers and want 'someone else' to give them entry-level work to get them to mid-senior level. They don't want skilled and they don't want to pay/invest. Same reason company loyalty died a while back, no one wants to invest in their younger employees, and they also try to force out the most senior (e.g. expensive high-salaried) ones.

Between this, and now many young programmers/college students becoming so dependent on AI that they don't have actual knowledge (other than what they can look up), I think we're going to gave a massive skill gap in the next few years. Too many 'programmers' who won't actually know how to build and fix complex systems. More black boxes that no one understands...

I saw a funny comment here on another article, saying the best job security now is cybersecurity since there's going to be so much shit code and security holes out there that needs to be addressed and protected against -- it's pretty much guaranteed work.

Fine, but the companies using/building/employing these tools are still culpable and should 100% be held responsible for any bad outcomes (e.g. suicide) that result from their 'services' (I use the term loosely).

People build these tools, which means they trained them, or hired someone to train them -- in either case, they are responsible for the data used in the training as well as the end result and the product. Don't give them an easy out.

As long as they have 'engagement' they don't give a shit what slop they're feeding you. I still use Facebook periodically (don't judge me! older family members still use it to keep in touch), and I've noticed the amount of shitty AI content on the feeds, suggestions, etc., has exploded in the last couple of months -- fake animals, fake people, fake incidents, etc. I use some extensions/add-ons to mitigate/block the worst of it, but it's still so much shit. Dead Internet indeed.

FB/Meta could undoubtedly do something if they wanted given their resources, but they don't care as long as people are on the platform, if they say otherwise, they're lying... shocking I know!

We use Discord for our D&D club (we're spread out), I can't see any of us being willing to give up that kind of information/privacy for Discord, we'll just use something else.

I've meet some crazy smart people from Harvard, average folks, and some that I was not impressed by.

I think that the varsity blues scandal and other recent admission policies that has come to light, showed concretely that some people sneak into place like Harvard and are NOT the cream of the crop, just wealthy and/or connected.

You are confusing The College Board for actual universities and colleges.

The College Board is a non-profit (questionable) that administers APs, ACTS, PSAT, SAT -- they don't run ANY schools nor define college/univ curriculum

As more and more schools, including elite private schools which are often Ivy feeders -- drop AP courses from their curriculum, The College Board is just trying to stay relevant and justify its existence and keep revenue streams.

They've been adding more non-college level course to their AP curriculum, which is odd since they whole point of Advanced Placement originally was to offer courses supposedly equal to 1/2 or maybe 1 year college level 100 courses typically.

I'm a teacher with 20 years in industry prior, and taught AP CS A (the Java based course). Few years ago they added, AP CS Principles, it's is a joke, you can literally teach the course in Scratch, yes, drag and drop block coding, enough said. The curriculum is level the of what my schools taught for MS.

Both the schools I've taught at dropped APs in favor of their own Honors courses. It allows more flexibility, and including more relevant material. AP CS A for example doesn't include any basic I/O, kind of important . While I'd say maybe about 3/4 of the content is good, there's definitely stuff they could drop in favor of more used/useful concepts. They also overemphasize certain things imo.

I think the College Board has 'diluted their brand' for a while, and now more and more schools are not giving credit, or only giving credit for a 5. Or, they might give you general grad requirement credits, but not departmental credit, meaning AP CS A might give you so a few units, but schools won't let you skip out of intro/100 level.

Which is my point. Harvard is failing in its mission as a high ed institution, 2000 kids a year is not enough -- it's NOT meant to be a fucking luxury brand worrying about dilution.

While their cost is certainly an issue, one of the biggest problems in higher ed (esp among so-called elite schools) if the stagnant enrollment size. The purpose of higher ed SHOULD be to educate as many eligible people as possible (notice I said eligible I don't mean let in people not meeting the standards), but schools like Harvard LOVE their low acceptance rate and 'elite' status, so they won't do it.

The US population has grown a lot since the 80s, but universities and college haven't kept up. Harvard has a massive fucking endowment, they could expand their offerings and enrollment if they chose to invest. They enroll a measley 2000 freshmen a year, how about adding 100 every year?