Building with AI: What's possible in the classroom?

In this episode of the Hello World podcast we chatted with Julie York, a computer science and media teacher with over 20 years experience in the classroom. Julie shares her experiences using AI in the classroom to build accessible tools and apps to help teaching and learning. 

Transcript

Hello World, and welcome to the podcast for educators passionate about computing and AI. I'm the editor of Hello World magazine at the Raspberry Pi Foundation. Today we're coming to you from the CSTA Conference in New Orleans, Louisiana.

I'm joined by a superstar who is a high school teacher and CSTA fellow. Hi, thank you so much for joining us.

Thanks for having me!

Could you tell us a little bit about yourself and the work that you do?

Sure! I am a computer science and media teacher at South Portland High School in South Portland, Maine. I've been teaching for over 20 years, and I teach classes like Media Literacy, Intro to Computer Science, Animation & Game Design, and Digital Graphics. I basically have the best job in the world.

Oh, that's so cool! That's fantastic. Since we're here at the conference, could you tell me personally why you feel like events like these are so important?

Oh, I love events like these—I love events anyway! I'm not one to turn down a committee meeting and say yes to everything, but I think events like these are really important because they bring us all together. As a computer science teacher, you tend to be in your own silo. For years I've taught alone, and I've been the only one in my district who's been really jazzed about computer science. Coming here is this great celebration, a get-together, and PD where everyone around me is just as excited about the things I'm excited about. It reinforces that I'm not alone in a very big way. I really look forward to it every year. This is my favorite conference for teachers because I just get to nerd out and have an amazing time.

Well, part of nerding out... obviously we're living in an age where things are changing so fast. My experience working with you on your article is that you're very good with technology—you're somebody who really likes to get stuck in and learn about it ahead of time instead of waiting for it to happen to you. What do you feel is the vibe at this year's conference in terms of how people are feeling about AI and how it affects their teaching?

AI isn't as new as it used to be, so I feel like we're not as shell-shocked. But depending on what district you're in, whether or not your district even allows the use of AI, and how much you've used it yourself, a lot of us are excited but also concerned. I think a lot of computer science teachers are like, "I really am excited to see new technology coming out and to try new things, but I'm also a little bit like... I don't want the robot to do everything. And I do like a world that has water and electricity, and boy, it's real nice to have trees outside!" So there are things that even I find myself being a little concerned about. I feel like that's the vibe with everyone. Having more tools available to you as a teacher gives you more options on how to plan and prepare for classes. But at the same time, there's that question: "Is this safe for my kids to use?" and "Is this something I'm going to have to eventually pay for?" We're all just kind of like, "Well, it's here, and it's not as scary, but it's still unknown."

Speaking of AI tools, that is the perfect segue into your article for this issue, hot off the presses! In our issue on critical thinking in the age of AI, you've written a really cool article about AI-supported app building. Can you tell our audience a little bit more about it?

When I first started using AI, I assumed it couldn't do something as hard and complex as programming. A couple of years ago at CSTA in Las Vegas, I was on a panel and asked the room, "Who here has tried using AI to program an app?" We all raised our hands. Then I asked, "Who here has had AI fail miserably?" and we all raised our hands again. Afterward, a software technician from the industry came up to me and asked, "Have you ever tried Thunkable / Lovable?" He introduced me to it, and when I tried it, a lightbulb went off. I thought, "This is amazing! How is this going to change how my students learn?" Another CS teacher and I were doing volunteer shifts together. She made herself an app, and I made an app that translated languages. I have 52 languages spoken in my school! I wanted an app that live-translated into multiple languages at once—like a multi-language caption generator. I built this app in about an hour. Meanwhile, the teacher sitting next to me built herself an app for flying drones that checked flight permissions and maps, also in an hour! That's when I realized: if we're CS teachers getting this excited about tools we can build for ourselves, what would it be like if students could do that? What if the librarian, the English teacher, the health teacher, or a Special Ed teacher could build a custom tool in an hour or two to do exactly what they need? Building a computer program is easier and more accessible than it's ever been. We aren't replacing computer scientists—there are obvious pitfalls when you use AI to create—but the idea of it being accessible just blew my mind. I went a little hog-wild wanting to talk to teachers and students!

That's amazing, because your enthusiasm was really infectious and got other people involved! How did you get teachers who aren't computer science specialists to build apps?

My school allowed teachers to run PD sessions, so I ran a couple of sessions at school, one for a local female leadership organization in Maine, and another at our state conference. I just told teachers, "Hey, I really love doing this. If any of you need help, I would love to help you." My classroom is where students learn video, making, digital graphics, and taking apart computers. It's a space meant to create, so I reached out to other staff to say, "We can create too! Making stuff is fun!" For example, a Special Ed teacher I work with—who was actually a student of mine years ago—doesn't really like computers, but he loves coaching basketball. He built himself an app to help with his basketball coaching. He worked on it bit by bit on a free account, breaking problems down and using computational thinking without even realizing it. When he ran into an issue where his data output was too large, he came to me, and I was able to casually introduce concepts like data filtering. It helps him and his students, and it proves technology isn't gatekept anymore.

You also mentioned in your article that it's about looking under the hood and engaging in critical thinking. They are having fun, but they are learning through solving their own problems.

Exactly! We always tell students learning should be relevant. But when working with teachers, I always warn them about guardrails. There is valid reason for concern. One person I was working with wanted to build an app where you'd input all the student information. I was like, "You know what? No!" We had a long discussion about cybersecurity, privacy laws, and why you shouldn't input sensitive student data into a service you don't own. They just wanted to make things easier, but they didn't understand the risks. Making safe mistakes and learning from them is how we learn best.

Going back to the apps you made—how did your students react when you showed them?

It was great feeling like the smartest teacher in the building! They were like, "Excuse me, you made this?" The translation app was cool, but I learned that some multilingual students understand spoken language better than reading it, so having text on a screen wasn't always ideal. So, I made another app that blew them away—and it solves a universal teacher problem: forming student groups. Grouping kids is like playing football and trying to figure out who can't work together, who needs who, and you end up with lines drawn everywhere on a whiteboard. So I built a grouping app in an hour! Students log in, take a quick quiz, and rank which roles they want to do (like Timekeeper, Organizer, Speaker, or Researcher) and select roles they never want to do. Then I click a button, and it sorts the entire class automatically! It doesn't collect any private data—just a name and a chosen emoji. My students were amazed that it was free and that I built it. Other teachers started using it too—teachers in New York even used it to let students pick history topics like Rome, Italy, or Greece! It saved so much time and gave students genuine buy-in to their groups. The reason I wrote the article is that while there are reasons to be intimidated by AI, there are also reasons to celebrate tools that give us freedom. Building that app manually with APIs and hosting would have taken me 1 to 2 months of focused work, which I don't have time for while teaching full-time.

I love that everyone was using it to solve real classroom problems—like replacing worksheets with interactive "Choose Your Own Adventure" stories or personality tests!

Yes! An English teacher created a "Which Lord of the Flies Character Are You?" quiz. My librarian and another English teacher came to me wanting to build an internal "Craigslist" for staff to post events, swap supplies, and share resources. We built it in one afternoon! A science teacher built a wave simulation app. It didn't fully work at first, which was a great lesson in showing where AI hits its limitations and where you actually need human expertise and a proper dev team. Students often worry that AI is going to take their future jobs, or they worry about the environmental impact like data center water consumption. I tell them all the time: "I am better than a machine! I might not be faster, but I am better." I even held a race in my CS class. A student hit a coding bug, so I fed the file into Claude (my favorite for coding) and also worked on it myself. I fixed it in 2 minutes, while the AI took 15 to 20 minutes! Humans are better. I want AI to handle the tedious admin stuff—like writing rubrics or sorting groups—so I can spend my time actually talking to kids and seeing what they create!

As someone who writes for and reads Hello World, what value do you feel it brings to educators??

What I love about Hello World is that it features real teachers' voices sharing what actually works in the classroom. It doesn't feel like reading a dry research paper with abstracts and sources; it's honest practitioners saying, "Here's what worked for me, here's what didn't, give this a try." It allows me to share stories from my own classroom on a global scale. CSTA makes me feel not alone, but Hello World makes me feel valued. When I was growing up, I was told I could never do computer science because I struggled with math and was in Special Ed until 6th grade. People assumed CS was just sitting in a cubicle writing HTML or SQL all day. But CS is so much more than coding! We need people doing hardware, UI design, and repair. Hello World reinforces that broad, accessible view of computing.

Thank you so much for joining us today! If you want to read the full article, check out the latest issue of Hello World at helloworld.cc. Thank you so much, and we'll see you soon! Bye!