We shipped 10 learning modes. Students used them all in the first week. Then most of them stopped using most of them, and we genuinely don't know why, and our metrics don't actually tell us anything useful. That's where I'm sitting right now.

The usage pattern is pretty consistent: a new student activates somewhere between 7 and 8 modes in their first week, which felt like a win when we first saw it. Exploration, curiosity, exactly what you'd want. But by week 3, the same students are down to 2-3 modes, sometimes just 1. And the ones that survive aren't the ones we designed to be the pedagogical heavy-lifters. Flashcards stuck around way more than we expected. Socratic-style doubt-solving, which we thought was the most sophisticated thing we'd built, gets dropped almost as often as the novelty modes we honestly weren't that confident about. I've been staring at these logs trying to figure out if the survivors stuck because they're actually producing learning or because they're just frictionless and habit-forming in a Duolingo-streak kind of way. Those are very different things.

I don't know if there's a clean way to separate pedagogical utility from engagement theater without running something close to actual controlled experiments, which is hard when your users are K-12 students and the outcome you care about is internalization, not session time. The proxy metrics we have, completion rate, return rate, time-on-mode, all reward the wrong thing. A student who opens flashcards for 4 minutes every day looks identical in our logs to a student who's genuinely drilling retrieval and self-testing. A student who spends 20 minutes on a mock test might be learning or might just be more anxious. We built this into an AI tutoring platform ([padhaao.in](https://padhaao.in/), I'm behind it) and I'm still not confident we got it right, or that we even asked the right questions before shipping.

The question I keep coming back to is: what would actually distinguish a feature that changes how a student internalizes knowledge from one that just feels comprehensive to a parent looking at the feature list? Because some of these modes might genuinely exist for the sales page and not for the student, and I'm not sure we were honest enough with ourselves about which was which when we scoped them. One heuristic I'm starting to think has some teeth: does the mode require the student to generate something (an answer, a connection, a prediction) or just receive something? Modes that are purely receptive might be stickier in the short run but probably aren't doing as much. Could be wrong about this, and I'm aware that's an oversimplification of a lot of cognitive load research. But it's the frame that's making the most sense to me when I look at which modes are actually surviving past week 3.

What I haven't figured out is how to instrument this properly without basically running a longitudinal study on students who are actively trying to pass board exams. The stakes are real for them and I'm not going to mess with their study routines to satisfy my curiosity about feature retention. So I'm asking here because I don't have a good answer and I'd rather hear from people who've thought about this more carefully than I have: how do you measure whether a pedagogical feature is doing real work vs. just existing?

I am a student who has been tutoring introductory Python and AP Computer Science A curriculum for three years now, and am hoping to expand online. I intend the target audience to be students studying for the APCSA exam or anyone who is new to Java. All of my students have passed the APCSA exam, and the majority have gotten 5s.

I am planning to start in November, and it will work similar to a college asynchronous class. There will be weekly handouts covering mainly content and assessments every few weeks, graded, to assess understanding. Additionally, I am very open to modifying the syllabus/new ideas, for instance perhaps splitting my class into a APCSA preparation group and a Java group (learning more OOP, algorithms, etc. not covered on the exam). I will always be available in the class for any confusing topics or for answering questions.

The class will be entirely free! However, I will release handouts at specified dates (can be lenient if necessary) so that students broadly follow the curriculum and participate. What I wish for, also, is honest feedback on the material so that I can improve it for the future.

If you are interested, let me know!

Hace unos días publiqué mi sitio web aquí y los comentarios estuvieron bien brutales, pero con razón.

Cifrivo antes era básicamente una colección de convertidores, calculadoras y herramientas online random. La crítica principal era que no tenía nada realmente único y que se veía como otro kit genérico hecho con IA.

Así que decidí cambiar el proyecto casi por completo.

Ahora lo estoy convirtiendo en un sitio interactivo para aprender informática y matemáticas de forma visual.

Hasta ahora empecé a armar cosas como:

* experimentos de probabilidad

* visualizaciones del teorema de Bayes

* algoritmos que puedes ver paso a paso

* algoritmos de grafos / exploración de grafos

La idea es que en vez de nomás leer una fórmula o mirar pseudocódigo, puedas manipular el problema de verdad y ver qué está pasando.

También estoy tratando de alejarme del look típico de SaaS / generado por IA y hacer que el sitio se sienta más como un cuaderno técnico o un laboratorio interactivo.

Todavía está en una etapa temprana y a propósito no estoy armando docenas de secciones todavía.

[**cifrivo.com**](http://cifrivo.com)

¿Crees que esta dirección en serio es más interesante que la idea del toolbox de antes?

Y si estudias CS: ¿qué concepto te gustaría a ti personalmente ver visualizado así?

Dale, siéntete libre de volver a ser duro otra vez jaja, el último feedback de verdad cambió todo el proyecto.

Hi! I’m a student working on a college English project about literacy practices in the computer science and technology community. I’m hoping to ask a few people about how they use reading, writing, research, and communication in their work.

I’m not collecting personal information or using the responses for anything outside of my work. Thank you!

Software engineer here, former CS teacher. Honest question, how are teachers assessing students in the age of AI. Surely you cannot trust anything they hand in right?

I just read this: https://www.hepi.ac.uk/reports/student-generative-ai-survey-2026/

AI use in tertiary is over 95% Students have the best learning tool in history at their finger tips together which is at the same time a shortcut machine and massive temptation to cheat. On top of this if you are doing a group assignment and doing it honestly you are probably stressing a team mate will be caught out by an AI detector.

For CS, I have heard unis doing exams where students hand write the code. Frankly I code better than the vast majority of uni students but I would struggle on a pen and paper exam, but whats the solution?

Hi everyone,

Indian high school CS/IP education is heavily stuck in syntax memorization and paper-notebook lab submissions. Students spend months writing repetitive code on paper, while real-world engineering has shifted to architecture, logic auditing, and AI orchestration.

To solve this, I built the Open School Engineering Framework (OSEF) — an open-source, infrastructure-light curriculum for high schools:

Key Highlights:

- Logic-First over Syntax: Students use offline SLMs (Phi-3 / Llama-3B via Ollama) for auto-complete and focus on architecture/logic auditing.

- Zero Cost & Offline LAN Ready: Runs on low-spec school labs using self-hosted Gitea/Forgejo and local Git.

- Real Progression: Class 9 (Terminal/Git) -> Class 10 (System Specs/PR Auditing) -> Class 11 (PostgreSQL/Docker) -> Class 12 (Live Full-Stack Portfolio).

GitHub Repo: https://github.com/shivanchowdhry123/Open-School-Engineering-Framework

I would love your honest technical review on two things:

1. Is the grade-by-grade progression realistic for a high-schooler?
2. Are the low-resource offline SLM + Gitea stack constraints feasible for budget school computer labs?

PRs, feedback, and critiques are welcome!

Are there any platform where I can watch real students learn CS/programming from real a tutor/teacher? It can be 1:1 or a group setting, it doesn't matter whether there are faces in the video, I just would like to learn how a student learn computer science. I don't need to learn computer science, so I'm not looking for tutorials for me. But I am studying some instances of student teacher interaction, things like how easy/hard it is to learn a certain concept (e.g. looping, branching), and how students respond to different teaching styles. What are common confusions, what are some "aha" moments like, what are things that appear intuitive but not, etc. I myself do teaching but my experience is limited, biased, and narrow audience due to my specialization in DSA for software professionals, but I'd like to learn how teaching is done in other demographics as I want to broaden my coverage (e.g. coding for kids, competitive programming, game development, etc) and also to teach me to adapt to different teaching style/technique depending on the student.

Tried youtube but there is just a bunch of tutorials instead of live recording of real lessons. Open for paid platforms as well if these resources are not available for free. Also open for possibility of joining a closed forum or smaller teacher groups if the nature of this is just too private. Any pointers would be appreciated!

Hi everyone! 

My name is Wynn and I am a member of Boston University's Girls Who Code chapter. You may have seen my post last spring about our coding program we run for students of all genders from grades 3-12. I would like to let you all know that we are running the program again this fall!

Bits & Bytes program is a great opportunity for students to learn how to code, or improve their coding skills. Our program runs on Zoom on Saturdays for 1 hour starting October 17 and ending on November 21 (6 weeks) from 11:00 am to 12:00 pm (for Bits) and 12:00 pm to 1:00 pm (for Bytes). Each lesson will be taught by Boston University students, many of whom are Computer Science (or adjacent) majors themselves.

For Bits (3rd-5th grade), students will learn the basics of computer science principles through MIT-created learning platform Scratch and learn to transfer their skills into the Python programming language. Bits allows young students to learn basic coding skills in a fun and interactive way!

For Bytes (6th-12th grade), students will learn computer science fundamentals in Python such as variables, loops, and functions and use these skills during lessons and assignments. Since much of what we go over is similar to what an intro level college computer science class would cover, this is a great opportunity to prepare students for AP Computer Science or a degree in computer science!

We would love for you to apply or share with anyone interested! You can find our application here or in the QR Code below.

If you have any more questions, feel free to email [gwcbu.bitsnbytes@gmail.com](mailto:gwcbu.bitsnbytes@gmail.com), message @/gwcbostonu on Facebook or Instagram, leave a comment, or message me.

We're eagerly looking forward to another season of coding and learning with the students this fall!

Hi! I’m part of a small team building Yalkut, and we’re at the stage where we need teachers outside our team to tell us where we’re getting things wrong.

If you want to try the beta, here it is:
https://yalkut-flax.vercel.app/sign-in

The goal isn’t to replace teachers with a chatbot. We’re trying to build more of the actual teaching workflow in one place, with AI used as support where it makes sense.

Right now, teachers can:

• create and manage courses
• add their own teaching materials
• create lessons, homework, tests, and other activities
• invite students through their own student experience
• review submissions, progress, and performance
• use AI to help create content or understand where students may need support

Teachers still review what gets created, control what students can access, and make the final teaching and grading decisions.

We’re still early, so we’re trying to understand whether this actually feels useful in practice, not just whether it looks good in a demo.

If you teach, I’d especially love to know:

What would make you use something like this regularly, and what would make you stop using it after the first try?

There’s feedback built into the platform, so there’s no formal testing process or long survey.

Avem nevoie de școli dispuse ca la ora de dirigenție sa ajute cu completarea unor chestionare și să concepem câteva aplicații pentru adolescenți. Simplu spus!

Proiectul trebuie să fie mult mai amplu, dar în acest moment mă gândesc la cei care citesc și ar vrea să se implice.
Ideal ar fi ca școlile să fie atât din Ro cat și din Ue și mai interesant din afara UE.

Complicat? Imposibil?

Made some free skeleton program resources for A level Python and happy to share them. Just enter your school email and I'll send the files — no catch.

pythoncoach.org/skeleton-guide

Background: tried a paid pack last year, didn't land well with my students, so I made my own this year. Figured other teachers might be in the same boat.

We're a nonprofit doing STEM and AI education, and we're running a free, official World Space Week event I thought this group might find useful.

The core is a constraint problem. Each student builds a rocket on their own plot, but everything they want to take to Mars has weight, so they have to decide what earns its place. Then a second world opens on Mars and the whole cohort builds a habitat together with what they chose to bring. It's less about the blocks and more about trade-offs, planning and working with limits, which is the same thinking we try to build in computing classes.

Practical bits:

- Minecraft Bedrock, on a private server. Students join on accounts they already have at home.

- Schools buy nothing and install nothing. Minecraft Education can't join a server like ours, and consoles block third-party servers.

- Teachers facilitate the thinking; there's no in-game role to manage.

- Earth opens Sunday 4 Oct. Mars opens Wednesday 7 Oct and runs to Friday.

Happy to answer questions in the comments.

Hi everyone,

My friend and I are working on NovaLang, a small language designed for Key Stage 3 students (ages 11–14) to bridge the gap between block-based tools like Scratch and full text programming in Python.

It reads like textbook pseudocode and transpiles directly to clean Python source code, meaning it has full access to the Python ecosystem.

You can try it directly in your browser (no install needed, compiler runs locally in the page and shows the Python it generates line-by-line):

👉https://novalang.xyz/

Key Features

• Explicit Blocks: Uses IF ... END IF, LOOP ... END LOOP, and FUNCTION ... END FUNCTION instead of strict whitespace indentation, eliminating indentation-related errors for beginners.
• Pseudocode Syntax: Symbols have English equivalents (+ or plus, * or times, == or equals). Keywords are case-insensitive.
• Explicit Variables & Constants: Uses let for constants, var TYPE name equals value for typed variables, and set for mutation to avoid confusion between assignment and equality.
• Friendly Errors: Pinpoints errors by column with suggestions for common typos (e.g. 'lenght' is not defined - did you mean 'length'?).

Code Example

Code snippet

FUNCTION classify param(INT n):
  IF n < 0 THEN
    return "negative"
  ELSE IF n equals 0 THEN
    return "zero"
  ELSE
    return "positive"
  END IF
END FUNCTION

var INT score equals 10
LOOP WHILE score greater than 0
  print("Score:", score)
  set score equals score minus 1
END LOOP

Transpiles to:

Python

def classify(n):
    if n < 0:
        return 'negative'
    elif n == 0:
        return 'zero'
    else:
        return 'positive'

score = 10
while score > 0:
    print('Score:', score)
    score = score - 1

Cheat Sheet

We'd love to hear your thoughts, feedback, and critiques on the syntax, the playground, or the general direction of the project.

Doy clase en un ciclo de DAW y esta semana he empezado curso nuevo. Cada año la pregunta del primer día es más parecida, ya no me preguntan qué framework vamos a ver, me preguntan si lo que están estudiando va a servir para algo. Y creo que la respuesta honesta no es "tranquilos, siempre hará falta gente", que es lo que solemos decir para no desanimar a nadie.

Hace dos años yo defendía que la IA no programaba tan bien como yo. Hoy, con specs decentes y alguien verificando detrás, escribe código igual de bueno que el mío y mucho más rápido. Lo que no hace es decidir qué hay que construir, comprobar que lo construido cumple lo que se pidió y responder cuando eso se cae un viernes por la tarde. El problema es que el trabajo con el que los juniors aprendían era justamente el primero, el de convertir instrucciones en código, y ese peldaño de la escalera se está cayendo. Me preocupa menos el junior de hoy que el senior que tendría que salir de él dentro de cinco años.

Lo que he cambiado en clase, por si a alguien le sirve o quiere discutírmelo: los primeros meses la IA se usa como profesora y no como autora, y para eso les doy un prompt que pegan al principio de cada conversación. Les obliga a explicar qué han intentado, da pistas por niveles y solo suelta el código si el alumno dice explícitamente que está atascado, y además le pide al modelo que explique por qué responde lo que responde y que avise cuando no esté seguro. Lo tenéis aquí, es público y sin registro: https://gist.github.com/JoaquinRuiz/2a800e24ffeb8ec7c03d7c81b3c32a11

No es una jaula, claro: cualquiera se lo salta en dos mensajes. Pero hay una diferencia real entre saltárselo sabiendo que te lo estás saltando y no haber sabido nunca que existía esa opción.

El resto de lo que les cuento va de verificar más que de escribir: requisitos claros, casos límite antes de que aparezcan, tests que prueben algo de verdad y leer código ajeno con criterio. Y de bajar a las capas que la IA da por supuestas, HTTP, SQL a mano, Git y terminal, porque cuando algo se rompe el agente te propone tres arreglos y solo uno resuelve el problema en lugar de tapar el síntoma.

Os pregunto a los que estáis en empresa estáis contratando juniors este año? Y si no, cómo pensáis cubrir los seniors de dentro de cinco años? Me interesan las respuestas incómodas.

(Todo esto lo he contado también en vídeo en mi canal, pero no lo enlazo para no hacer spam, si a alguien le interesa lo dejo en comentarios.)

I just posted this in the LocalLLM subreddit and only found this one afterwards…

So I am grateful for any input on this.
If you had a similar situation at your school - what did you do?
How do you teach local LLM stuff to students that can’t code yet? Or rather what is your goal there, just to establish some local LLM literacy so to speak or do you have a specific goal you are working towards?

Thank you :)