For the third semester, I am teaching web development. This semester, I am asking my students to do some vibe coding.
Vibe coding is a trend of using natural language prompts in computer programming. Google explains vibe coding in two ways: “pure-vibe coding” and “responsible AI-assisted development.”
There are a lot of opinions about it. Computer science purists think it’s for amateurs. They laugh about the AI chatbot that deleted an entire code base and then lied about it.
Then there are the entrepreneurs who see vibe coding as a “work-around” where they don’t have to learn anything or pay anyone.
From what I have learned from old school programmers, they used to fake knowledge by buying a big fat book and bumbling their way through their first job. There were no coding problems in your interview. Most hiring managers didn’t even know the lingo.
And I faked it too when I first started teaching this course. I knew a lot of technology theory, but lacked hands-on experience. So, I copied the code in the textbook and stayed two weeks ahead. But I also used AI.
Am I encouraging my students to cheat? But AI is an industry standard that they need to learn, and it also helps them understand that AI is not infallible and that it can make mistakes.
My generation was the first to do school with the internet. And educators wrung their hands and fussed about cheating too. But eventually, everyone had to learn to use it and we learned.
I’m Nia Norris and this is my perspective.
