FISEE 2026, Villebrumier

New Computing.New Pedagogy.

Nobody Knows How to Teach Conversational Programming:
Today’s Most Powerful Computing Skill
geoffreychallen.com/talks/2026-09-29
Geoffrey Challen // Teaching Professor // University of Illinois geoffreychallen.com/ai
20,000introductory students taught
Grace Hopper at the UNIVAC I console, 1960
Edsger Dijkstra, 2002

“Anyone—accountants, analysts, operations managers—can use this system with little training. Detailed computer coding is no longer necessary.”

FLOW-MATIC, Grace Hopper’s team, 1958

“It is practically impossible to teach good programming to students that have had a prior exposure to AI toolsBASIC: as potential programmers they are mentally mutilated beyond hope of regeneration.”

Edsger Dijkstra, 1975

The Duckies: CS 124, Spring 2026

cs124.org/duckies

Using and Understanding AI: Final Projects

usingandunderstanding.ai/spring2026/final-project/showcase

Summer AI Studio: 34 Faculty Projects

go.illinois.edu/aistudio-dashboard

The Programming Assignment

Instructor idea specification Student program grade

The Programming Assignment, With AI

Instructor idea specification Student specification Agent program

go.illinois.edu/ai-can-do-your-homework

An Assignment: Your Own App, With an Agent

Student idea conversation Agent app, and the transcript Instructor

cs124.org/educators

A Course: Conversational Programming

Student Student Builds Builds Watches Watches Instructor

conversationalprogramming.org/educators

A Degree: Applied Computing

Y1 Fall
Conversational
Programming
Computing
in Culture
Y1 Spring
Agentic Software
Development
Y2 Fall
AI Models
and Agents
Integrative Design
Studio I
Y2 Spring
How Software
Works
Conversational Programming. Designing and building software through conversation with an agent: the course running now, as the first course of a degree.
Computing in Culture. How software has reshaped human behavior. The critical lens runs alongside learning to build.
Agentic Software Development. Constructing and evaluating agents and agentic workflows, real deployment. Students learn to direct.
AI Models and Agents. How models actually work, placed after fluency: students step back to reason about systems they have already built with.
Integrative Design Studio I. A paired domain problem brought into the studio; architecture-style critique; a portfolio begins.
How Software Works. The classical programming course, last rather than first. Then studios II and III, a domain minor, writing, literature, moral reasoning, studio art, and a capstone with public defense. In front of my faculty now.

Applied Computing: current proposal, working draft

Few built for everyone.
Now everyone can build for a few,
or for themselves.
New shoulders.
Same challenges.
usingandunderstanding.ai/create
1Say what done looks like, not how to get there.
2Say what you saw, not what you concluded.
3Never accept “done” without looking.
4Correct it, out loud, early.
5Ask it how to work with it.
conversationalprogramming.org/educators

I don’t know

what my students need to learn. how to teach them. what happens next.
1Learn
2Study
3Teach
4Build
I hope to meet you all in this future.geoffreychallen.com/ai
FISEE 2026, Villebrumier

Thank you.

Bertrand, Annie, and Armando, everyone here this week, and the wonderful staff of the Château de Villebrumier.
Geoffrey Challen // Teaching Professor // University of Illinois geoffreychallen.com/ai

How These Slides Were Made

geoffreychallen.com/talks/2026-09-29-fisee/prompts.html