Vibe coding allows Peninsula to create digital tools that cost less than what\u2019s commercially available, are more tailored to the district\u2019s needs, or both.<\/p>\n
Problems that would have been too pricey to fix in the past now \u201ccost us an hour of having a coding agent write something out and test it,\u201d said James Cantonwine, the district\u2019s director of research and assessment. \u201cAnd then away we go.\u201d<\/p>\n
Beyond LessonLens, Peninsula has vibe-coded tools to help with accounting, human resources, and other basic operations. <\/p>\n
For instance, Kris Hagel, the district\u2019s chief information officer, adapted an open-source electronic signature tool and used AI coding to customize it. He believes this bespoke version can replace the district\u2019s subscription to a widely used product.<\/p>\n
![\"Kris](\"https:\/\/epe.brightspotcdn.com\/dims4\/default\/46ad38e\/2147483647\/strip\/true\/crop\/956x1440+0+0\/resize\/215x324!\/quality\/90\/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fepe-brightspot.s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com%2F47%2F04%2Fce79f45a46569bc8918b7c946700%2Few-kris-hagel-bs.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
All told, vibe coding may save Peninsula around $220,000 annually\u2014perhaps much more, Hagel said.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s going to cause us to not buy some things, either stop buying them, or just decide, like, \u2018oh, we want this thing, but we\u2019re not going to buy it. We\u2019re just going to build it,\u2019\u201d Cantonwine said.<\/p>\n
AI coding is fast, but risky, experts say<\/p>\n
Here\u2019s how vibe coding works: Using everyday language, users prompt (techspeak for \u201cask\u201d) a generative AI platform such as Claude Code to build an app, website, simulation, or other digital tool. <\/p>\n
For educators, that could be a choose-your-own adventure game to teach a historical event, or an app to help teachers figure out how to make lesson plans more accessible for students in special education. <\/p>\n
Then the AI writes the code for creating that tool. If the tool doesn\u2019t fit what the user is looking for, users can prompt AI to revise the code.<\/p>\n
But just as with traditional writing assignments, AI can make mistakes.<\/a> A user with a solid understanding of coding languages\u2014such as JavaScript or HTML\u2014can go back and edit the code the same way a teacher might rewrite an AI-crafted email to parents to present the right voice and context.<\/p>\n Without that coding knowledge\u2014and sometimes, even with it\u2014a lot can go wrong.<\/p>\n A vibe-coding AI assistant erased a software company\u2019s database, then apologized for its \u201ccatastrophic\u201d mistake, Forbes reported last year.<\/a> <\/p>\n And companies have experienced outages that engineers attribute to problems with AI-coded tools.<\/a><\/p>\n When AI is coding, it appears to \u201cintroduce more security vulnerabilities and bugs than a human would,\u201d said Torrey Trust, a professor of learning technology at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. \u201cIt can create more problems than solutions, or it can take longer to [use vibe coding] than if you were to code [the same application] yourself.\u201d<\/p>\n School districts\u2014which deal with sensitive student data, such as IEPs and student health information\u2014have to be especially cautious about any tool created with vibe coding that incorporates children\u2019s personally identifiable information, she added.<\/p>\n On the other hand, vibe-coding may be one step toward fixing a long-term problem: The mismatch between educators\u2019 needs in the classroom and the ed-tech products on the market, Trust said.<\/p>\n \u201cMost ed-tech tools are not designed by educators,\u201d Trust said. Instead, they are developed by \u201cpeople in computer science or innovators who think they have an idea that will transform education or help teachers, but their only experience is when they went through K-12 school.\u201d<\/p>\n Excited administrators then buy these products and teachers are forced to adapt them as best they can, Trust said.<\/p>\n If instead \u201cyou could have educators vibe-code exactly what they need, I think there\u2019s a lot of potential there,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n District developed its own generative AI platform, which opened up vibe-coding possibilities<\/p>\n Peninsula has an advantage not every district can claim: Several members of its tech team, including Hagel, a former software developer, have degrees or a deep background in computer science.<\/p>\n Last year, the district, an early leader in drafting AI usage guidance<\/a>, developed its own generative AI enterprise platform, dubbed \u201cAI Studio.\u201d<\/p>\n Though the technology is powered in part by commonly available large-language models\u2014such as ChatGPT\u2014the companies that operate them are prohibited from storing Peninsula\u2019s data or using it to improve their platforms. The district\u2019s data remains in Peninsula\u2019s cloud server.<\/p>\n Hagel sees AI Studio as \u201con par\u201d with commercially available AI tools specifically designed for K-12 districts, such as MagicSchoolAI and SchoolAI.<\/p>\n Because the platform is hosted by the district instead of an outside company, \u201cwe\u2019re able to add features and build tools on top of it that actually make a difference here in the Peninsula school district,\u201d Hagel said.<\/p>\n Staff can build AI assistants in this system, essentially specialized chatbots that look similar to Gemini Gems or ChatGPT\u2019s Custom GPT, Hagel said.<\/p>\n \u201cIt turned into a place where we can use AI to try out new theories, new ideas,\u201d Hagel said. \u201cThat\u2019s where we\u2019re starting to see some really interesting things happen with some of the software that we\u2019re [considering] getting rid of.\u201d<\/p>\n The platform has allowed the district to create a new budgeting tool\u2014potentially allowing it to ditch another pricey subscription.<\/p>\n While Hagel relied on his own coding know-how to refine some of these tools, he believes that AI is evolving fast enough that soon district tech officials won\u2019t need sophisticated computer science knowledge to take advantage of vibe coding.<\/p>\n \u201cI believe today you do,\u201d he said. \u201cI think six months from now you won\u2019t.\u201d<\/p>\n How the district is already saving money from vibe coding<\/p>\n Already, many of the apps Peninsula has developed are narrowly tailored, and \u201clow lift. They can be created by someone without a substantial background in computer science, like Cantonwine, a former middle school science teacher.<\/p>\n And these tools don\u2019t touch personally identifiable student information, just what is publicly available\u2014an extra caution, given that the district\u2019s agreements with the large-language models that fuel its AI studio are designed to keep sensitive data secure.<\/p>\n Example: A tool that can comb the internet for scholarships that Peninsula students may be eligible for and add the information to district communications and postsecondary planning kits for kids and families.<\/p>\n The tool allows a district counselor to \u201cspend more time face to face with kids instead of digging into scholarship websites,\u201d Cantonwine said.<\/p>\n \u201cBefore we start thinking about things that need to work for 9,100 kids, we [can] think about solving these more concrete, very specific problems, and get better at the process,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n The district also created a tool that helps educators explore Peninsula\u2019s career and technical education budget and request new purchases, and an app that helps parents and caregivers compare the performance of its schools to similar schools around the state. <\/p>\n Hagel estimates an app Cantonwine created to aid the school board with long-term strategic planning would have cost about $30,000 to $40,000 if purchased from a vendor.<\/p>\n Instead, \u201che had [Claude Code] do it for him in a few hours,\u201d Hagel said.<\/p>\n For now, the district is unlikely to turn to vibe coding for all its digital learning tools. \u201cI\u2019m a little skeptical about using AI to write all of our curriculum,\u201d Cantonwine said. \u201cI don\u2019t see that happening in the near future.\u201d<\/p>\n Questions loom about how vibe coding might change ed tech<\/p>\n Other districts are intrigued by Peninsula\u2019s AI work.<\/p>\n In fact, shortly after K-12 Dive published a story about the district\u2019s vibe coding efforts<\/a>, Hagel was at the center of attention at the Consortium for School Networking<\/a> annual conference this year. He fielded questions from district tech leaders who \u201cwant to start doing what we\u2019re doing,\u201d Hagel said.<\/p>\n He was also approached by ed-tech company leaders, who are worried that vibe coding could put them out of business.<\/p>\n Hagel suggested that district tech leaders interested in vibe coding talk to vendors about ensuring their platforms\u2019 AI agents (the software that allows the tech to take on tasks with minimal human direction) can operate alongside the tools district officials create themselves.<\/p>\n And he plans to make sure vendor contracts allow Peninsula to retain its own data, so it can inform new tools created with vibe coding, as opposed to getting locked in some outside company\u2019s server.<\/p>\n Still, Cantonwine, for one, expects vibe coding could put the squeeze on some vendors.<\/p>\n \u201cI think that\u2019s going to be really hard for them to show value and show that they\u2019ve got something that we couldn\u2019t create ourselves,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Teachers in Washington state\u2019s Peninsula school district seeking critical feedback on their instruction have a new tool to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":19911,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[95],"class_list":{"0":"post-19910","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-valencia","8":"tag-valencia"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19910","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19910"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19910\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/19911"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19910"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19910"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19910"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}