Conversational
Programming
A hand-drawn skyline: the Illinois campus inked on the left gives way to an imagined future city, then to pencil sketches, then to a bare horizon line running off the page.

Walkthroughs

An activity is hard to picture from a description, because it happens on several screens at once. So each one is recorded end to end: every screen in the room side by side, a step at a time, with a caption saying what just happened and why.

These are rehearsals, not recordings of a real class. The students are invented and the conversation with the agent is generated by the same model the course uses, but everything else is the software students actually use, driven the way they would drive it. We make these to check a flow before we run it; they're here because they're the clearest answer we have to "what do you actually do in there?"

  1. 6 min · 27 steps · 6 screens

    What Done Looks Like

    The vote's standings on the wall, the top sites one at a time and live before anyone learns who found them; then partners seated by the room by one rule, and each student backing up from the idea they picked to the goal behind it, asking their agent for different ways to get there, and choosing, while their partner listens. The class on October 7 ran only the first half; the film plays the plan as designed. The sites, the ideas, and the students are invented for the rehearsal.

    The activity itself

  2. 5 min · 25 steps · 6 screens

    What's Out There

    The first day of the second project: each student picks an idea from the list the class invented for itself, someone else's, and tells their agent, which reports it to the course while the projector counts. Then in pairs, one researches the problem with their agent while the other checks what it names in a browser. Wednesday's ideas are invented for the rehearsal.

    The activity itself

  3. 3 min · 20 steps · 4 screens

    Built for Us, Then Head to Head

    A second class period with nobody running the room, and the clock moving it: everyone writes down three things they care about, then in four short rounds with someone new each time makes up one app for the people in the group, and at the end every idea in the room is sorted by who it's for. Then the vote on Friday's finds, two live sites at a time. The sites are invented, served from the rehearsal rig.

    The activity itself

  4. 2 min · 12 steps · 4 screens

    The Room Display

    What the projector shows during an activity: the section and its clock, the pairs, who still needs a partner, and the music the room added, taking turns by who added what.

  5. 3 min · 19 steps · 4 screens

    Eight Sites

    A class period with nobody running the room: everyone goes hunting for eight personal websites that are both effective and distinctive, writes a sentence or two about each, and finishing them is what counts as having been there. The sites found here are invented, served from the rehearsal rig, since a recording can't carry somebody's real website.

    The activity itself

  6. 5 min · 25 steps · 4 screens

    Ask the Agent

    A class period with nobody running the room, and the clock moving it: everyone asks their own agent how to work with it well and writes down its three best pieces of advice, then in three short rounds with someone new each time, merges them into one list the class arrives at together, set beside what the agent told me in August. The agent's answer shown is one it gave in rehearsal to an invented student.

    The activity itself

  7. 4 min · 19 steps · 4 screens

    Show and Tell

    Everyone presents their website to the whole room from their own laptop, with nothing plugged into the projector, while the rest of the room looks at the site and sends notes and questions. The students' screens here are stand-ins drawn by the test rig, since a recording can't show someone's real desktop.

    The activity itself

  8. 4 min · 19 steps · 4 screens

    Going Live

    Two students get their websites onto the internet side by side, each with an agent that knows the day's plan and hears when the other's site goes up.

    The activity itself

  9. 4 min · 21 steps · 4 screens

    Fresh Eyes

    A partner looks at your website the way a stranger would and says what they see; you change it while they watch. Then you swap, then you find someone new.

    The activity itself

  10. 3 min · 19 steps · 4 screens

    Pair Prompting

    One student talks to the agent while a partner follows the conversation, asks, and keeps notes. Then they switch.

    The activity itself

  11. 1 min · 10 steps · 2 screens

    Your Website

    Connect Codex to the course with one line, then ask the agent the question almost nobody asks it.

    The activity itself