So I definitely understand where you're coming from, but let me provide a little bit of context.
The workshops are 3-4 hours and we do spend a lot of time discussing how things work in reality vs. how they work in the context of the workshop. It's worth noting that these workshops span the gamut of non-technical people in sales to seasoned developers, so a lot of people simply won't learn much (or have the excitement to learn on their own) if we spend the first 2-3 hours setting things up.
In my experience the heaviest lift for teaching practically any technical subject is getting someone interested by showing them how to accomplish something they care about, and then leaving them with lots of information and resources so they can continue experimenting and growing even once we're done. The way I do that is to make sure they leave the workshop having built their own idea — without taking shortcuts!
Being able to use Codex to accomplish something because you spent an hour crafting a good prompt isn't cheating, it's learning the skill of becoming a better technical communicator — in a short period of time — and taking advantage of the skill you've just learned. I don't consider that magic, it's actually the core tenant of building with AI, and is very much how I work with AI every day.
I'm late for dinner so I should probably stop here, so I'll leave just one final note. After every workshop I send each student a list of personalized resources that will help them continue on their journey by demystifying things that we may have glossed over or weren't clear in the workshop — so they should be armed with the tools to take their next steps away from any magical thinking.
It's a bit hard to boil down exactly what I do and how I try to design for best hands-on pedagogical practices in an HN post I'm writing on the go — but I am absolutely open to your thoughts! :)
The workshops are 3-4 hours and we do spend a lot of time discussing how things work in reality vs. how they work in the context of the workshop. It's worth noting that these workshops span the gamut of non-technical people in sales to seasoned developers, so a lot of people simply won't learn much (or have the excitement to learn on their own) if we spend the first 2-3 hours setting things up.
In my experience the heaviest lift for teaching practically any technical subject is getting someone interested by showing them how to accomplish something they care about, and then leaving them with lots of information and resources so they can continue experimenting and growing even once we're done. The way I do that is to make sure they leave the workshop having built their own idea — without taking shortcuts!
Being able to use Codex to accomplish something because you spent an hour crafting a good prompt isn't cheating, it's learning the skill of becoming a better technical communicator — in a short period of time — and taking advantage of the skill you've just learned. I don't consider that magic, it's actually the core tenant of building with AI, and is very much how I work with AI every day.
I'm late for dinner so I should probably stop here, so I'll leave just one final note. After every workshop I send each student a list of personalized resources that will help them continue on their journey by demystifying things that we may have glossed over or weren't clear in the workshop — so they should be armed with the tools to take their next steps away from any magical thinking.
It's a bit hard to boil down exactly what I do and how I try to design for best hands-on pedagogical practices in an HN post I'm writing on the go — but I am absolutely open to your thoughts! :)