And the idea is …

It all starts with an idea. What you do, what you believe, who you are. An idea. So what’s your idea? What is your big idea? Do you have one? Do you know what it is? How difficult is it to have an idea? And how difficult is it to act on it? How many of us have ideas and then act on them? How conscious are we if and when we do? These are some of the questions I had to ask myself when we started to teach our children and young people how to build with AI.

And this is the essential skill our AI Coding Skills curriculum teaches. How to have an idea, any idea, and build it. Have different ideas and build them. Understand what you built and make it better. Then ask someone what they need, and build it. Finally, ask someone, anyone, what they need that they will pay for, and how much they will pay, and build it.

Four stages. Forty gamified lessons. Every lesson you build. And every lesson builds on the previous one so you build more and you build better. From AI Explorer to AI Builder, your portfolio expands. Every successful build gets showcased on our Student Builds page.

After 40 games and a portfolio of builds you show that you are an AI Builder. This is our goal. And our kids have started building.

At first I wasn’t sure. It seemed they did not get it. They did the lesson and scored high marks. But they did not build. So we tweaked it and made it obvious. Still no build. So we made it compulsory to build. They copied the examples. We marked them zero for a lack of originality. We spoke to them. We said, think of anything. Think of what you like, your hobbies, a game you would like to play. How you would like to play it. Then build it. We said be creative, be original.

We resorted to teasing them. We told them you get more marks for your builds. Then we said someone had built 7 games. They gasped. Who? The ICT Officer? The ICT Lab Assistant? Good guesses but no and no. Ms Victoria. My assistant. Aah. Who among you will be our first builder? Me. Me. Me. Prove it, we said.

I wasn’t sure they got it. I hoped they did. A day passed. Then another. Nothing. I was anxious. Then the next. Then we had our very first build. A jumble of words. Not your best well constructed sophisticated prompt but the idea was there. And the reasoning was perfect. To teach students how to spell better. The prompt worked. The code ran. A game. Legend Word Puzzles. Built by Precious in JSS 2. I must have played it 5 times in a row, I was that happy. Oh me of little faith.

Precious was the only one on our AI Builders leaderboard for less than a day. Then we got the next build. And the next. By the end of the week we had 12 builders. By the next week we had 30 builds – games, apps and tools. All from Game 1.

Someone asked me yesterday, a young adult, disbelievingly, if she would be building from Game 1. And I said with all confidence, yes. I had the proof. 30 games. So let me say it with my full chest. You will be building from Game 1. Our student builds are the proof.

And Precious? She’s built 4 games from Game 1 but she’s no longer at the top of the AI Builders leaderboard. That position is now held by Emmanuella with 6 games. Precious is now tied with Joel, Emmanuella’s brother, on builds. Things are hotting up as my dad used to say.

As you progress, you get better. You build better. Take Victoria. She’s now on Game 3 and she’s building better. From games like Ludo, Ayo Olopon and Scrabble from Game 1, to the multi-layered Laundry Rush from Game 2 to business-facing tools like Teachers’ Class Register and Business Invoice Generator in Game 3. She’s definitely building more, she is building better and she is loving it.

We are not teaching how to become programmers or prompt engineers. We are teaching how to become AI Builders. By the end of our curriculum you will have a portfolio of at least 40 games which will make you a beginning programmer and a medium level AI builder.

Our goal is to get all our young people across Nigeria and Africa building useful things with AI that they can earn a living from or start a side hustle with. We put all working student builds on our website. And soon those builds, once vetted, will be upgraded to the Kade Play Store.

Why don’t you try Game 1 for free now here. Build something, anything.

Sign up and invite or sponsor others to start learning how to build with AI here. So soon you or they can start earning a living with it.

If you have any questions, comments or feedback, please Contact us.