Vibe Coding for Teachers: Exploring What’s Possible with AI

This week, I had the pleasure of co-presenting a professional learning session on Vibe Coding for Teachers at the Australian International School Malaysia (AISM), alongside my wonderful colleague James Abela and AISM's Head of Science and Technology, Anna Wood.

The session brought together teachers from across Primary and Secondary, all curious about the same question:

What does this new wave of AI-powered “vibe coding” actually mean for teaching and learning?

Rather than focusing on theory, we designed the session to be hands-on, practical, and exploratory, giving teachers time to experiment, test ideas, and reflect on what might genuinely support their day-to-day work.

What is “Vibe Coding”?

Vibe coding is about describing what you want in natural language and letting AI generate, refine, or connect the code behind the scenes.

Instead of writing code line by line, the focus shifts to:

• clearly describing an idea or workflow

• testing what the AI produces

• refining and iterating based on your needs

For teachers, this opens up interesting possibilities, especially for those who don’t see themselves as “technical” or who have never written code before.

A Session Built Around Doing, Not Watching

From the outset, we wanted teachers to try things themselves. Throughout the session, teachers were encouraged to:

• pause and experiment

• discuss ideas with colleagues

• test tools live

• reflect on what felt useful (and what didn’t)

The energy in the room was fantastic. Many teachers were genuinely blown away by how quickly ideas could be turned into something usable, even with minimal setup or prior experience.

Two Tools, Two Very Different Strengths

A key part of the session focused on two contrasting approaches to vibe coding, each with clear classroom relevance.

1. Making Learning Materials Interactive

Using tools like Canva Code, teachers explored how static slides or worksheets can be transformed into:

• clickable quizzes

• drag-and-drop activities

• interactive support tools

• quick checks for understanding

These can live inside existing lesson materials and are particularly powerful for:

• whole-class teaching

• revision activities

• boosting engagement without extra tools

2. Automating Teacher Workflows

We also explored Google Opal, which takes a very different approach. Rather than focusing on presentation, Opal is about process:

• describing a task once

• reusing it repeatedly

• reducing time spent on planning, admin, and repetitive work

Examples included:

• lesson planning workflows

• simplifying repeated texts

• generating vocabulary lists and summaries

• drafting communications or planning documents

For many teachers, this sparked excitement around time-saving and consistency, rather than student-facing visuals.

A Balanced Conversation: Excitement and Caution

Importantly, we didn’t present vibe coding as a silver bullet.

We spent time discussing:

• where these tools shine

• where they fall short

• why understanding limitations matters just as much as understanding capabilities

Questions around transparency, debugging, and how learning transfers to “real” coding contexts led to thoughtful discussions. This balance helped keep the session grounded, practical, and realistic.

What Stood Out Most

What really stood out was how quickly teachers moved from “This is interesting” to “I can see how I’d actually use this.”

Across phases and subjects, teachers began identifying:

• small changes they could make immediately

• workflows they’d like to experiment with

• ideas worth testing rather than fully committing to

That mindset - experiment, test, refine - is exactly what we hoped to encourage.

Final Thoughts

Vibe coding isn’t about replacing teachers or turning everyone into a programmer.

It’s about:

• lowering barriers

• empowering experimentation

• improving what students see and interact with

• and giving teachers back some time and headspace

A huge thank you to AISM and Anna Wood for hosting such an engaged and curious group of educators, and to James Abela for co-presenting and helping to shape a session that genuinely sparked conversation and creativity.

I’m excited to see how teachers continue exploring these tools thoughtfully, critically, and with purpose.

If you’d like to explore the tools and ideas shared in the session, you can view the slides here.