Artificial intelligence is the future and kids can prepare by learning all about it now while the technology is still in the early stages. It’s always going to be a skill in high demand, especially as AI grows and becomes a more integral part of everyday life.
As with any in-demand skill that involves technology, there is an abundance of online learning classes kids can learn from. There are free and paid courses and as the interest grows, so will the number of learning opportunities.
What Is AI for Kids?
Artificial intelligence is the capability of a program/computer to learn. Students can create these AI programs that learn from a specific set of data by implementing them with programming languages.
Artificial intelligence classes for kids teach the fundamental purpose of this technology and how to apply it through programming and problem-solving. These classes give children examples to work with that are easy to understand and great for beginners to start with in order to build a solid foundation before moving onto more complicated components.
You will find courses that have children build emotion detector software to chatbots that can talk about different subjects and even gesture-controlled robots. Students often work with other peers, ensuring they improve their teamwork skills and learn how to effectively communicate with one another.
Many of the available beginner-level classes for AI are suitable for young kids and older teens alike because they treat the students as though they come in with zero knowledge of the subject matter.
The most rudimentary examples are used and implemented to teach the fundamental concepts that give AI such awesome power. User-friendly coding languages like Scratch, Javascript, and Python are often used with many of these choices.
AI Camp
AI Camp was founded by Ph.D. professionals at Stanford who are committed to teaching the next generation of leaders everything about artificial intelligence. It’s a serious program intended for students 13 and over who express a strong desire to study AI technology.
Over 5,000 kids from all over the world have taken the courses at AI Camp and produced more than 300 unique products with real-world value. The classes at AI Camp are intended to solve real-world problems and produce a finished product ready for the market.
AI Camp offers three courses depending on how in-depth kids want to go. All courses are 100% online and feature full or part-time schedules for one to ten weeks.
AI Sandbox for beginners teaches the fundamentals. AI Bootcamp is an intermediate course that produces a fully functional product, and Guided Internship features one-on-one instruction from industry-leading experts. Payment plans are available to spread the cost of tuition over several months.
CodeWizardsHQ
The AI Camp for Kids by CodeWizardsHQ is a two-day program offered for children ages 8 to 18. Kids will engage in fun online activities that will teach them about artificial intelligence and machine learning. Each session is broken up by age group (8-10, 11-13, and 14-18), so children will learn at their level and be able to advance higher.
The attentive staff of CodeWizardsHQ makes learning fun by focusing on project-based learning, where kids create an AI-powered web application that recognizes images and more. These are small group live classes where kids can always receive help when needed.
The AI Camp has one class each day lasting two hours. Each class is filled with fun and educational opportunities. They help your young kids build a foundation in artificial intelligence and help teen campers prepare for a future in tech.
IBM SkillsBuild
IBM is one of the biggest names in AI technology, and they have made a catalog of resources open to students interested in learning the basics. These lessons dive into the fundamental aspects of artificial intelligence including language processing and practical applications. They also teach the potential ethical aspects of using the technology.
The best part about the lesson catalog through IBM SkillsBuild is that it’s completely free for anyone who wishes to learn. There are over 24 hours of classes available with a getting started course, a foundational knowledge course, and finally a practical application where students get to build their own chatbot.
In addition, IBM also hosts free lessons about blockchain, cloud computing, cybersecurity, data science, and many other topics. You will also find a useful section that teaches children the value of workplace skills.
All lessons are available with a free account, and you can rest assured that your child will be learning valuable information from IBM, one of the pioneers in the industry.
Tynker AI
Tynker is an online learning platform for children K-12 that has a beginner through advanced level, all-in-one AI course. This is a full-featured platform that gives kids everything they need to learn about AI and create working models completely from scratch using Javascript.
The Tynker AI class consists of over 30 lessons, complete with 113 modules, and the opportunity to build multiple projects like image classification software. It’s 100% online and lets kids code at their own pace, providing a progressive learning opportunity for students of any skill level.
By completing all the lessons, students will have an intermediate to advanced understanding of the core concepts. Tynker offers lessons through a subscription and you can choose from quarterly billing at only $12 a month, annual billing for just $10 a month, or a lifetime pass for $312.
All plans include access to the complete Tynker library of lessons including coding, Minecraft, and Python, among others.
Machine Learning For Kids
Machine Learning For Kids offers classes for students between 2nd and 12th grades. They run year-round and only require a simple registration and assessment to place children where they are best suited.
Classes are categorized by age group and coding platform. The beginner’s course is for 2nd through 5th graders and utilizes Scratch. Older students in grades 6-12 focus on learning Python. The last course doesn’t require coding at all and instead utilizes a visual and interactive presentation to operate data science.
Tuition for all courses is a flat rate of $425 and this gets all 12 sessions as well as the coding platform and group of peers to communicate with. It’s a project-based learning system, meaning that by the time kids have completed everything, they will have created a working example of AI.
Machine Learning For Kids provides a hands-on approach to learning where children get busy doing and seeing results right away.
AI Club
AI Club is a set of more than 30 courses administered through live lessons completely virtual. Children can attend the courses starting in elementary school to begin to gain an understanding of the fundamentals of AI.
Building upon this, courses progress through high school and include intermediate and advanced-level topics diving into coding and producing an AI solution to a real-world problem.
All courses in AI Club have been designed by Ph. D.s coming from universities such as UC Berkeley and Harvard. This ensures a comprehensive and progressive learning plan to keep children engaged for the long haul. Over 3,000 students have attended courses at AI Club, producing over 14,000 apps.
Classes at AI Club are pick and choose based on preferences and start at only $200 for a six-week course. Kids are free to take as many courses as they like and in any order that they desire on their own time, providing a great deal of flexibility.
Live classes meet once a week for an hour-and-a-half session, and instructors are open to questions through their Slack channel.
Udemy
AI For Kids is a Udemy course available for children of any age who want to learn the basics of artificial intelligence utilizing the Scratch coding language. The course includes over an hour and a half of video lessons, covering 12 sections through a series of 65 lectures.
This is a great beginners’ course and goes over the must-know information about AI before diving into the nuts and bolts of coding a functioning model. It provides a wealth of information about applications, an intro to the concept of machine learning, and a chance to create and interact with AI functions of all varieties.
Udemy offers this course for just $9.99, and that grants lifetime access to all materials within the course. It’s a fantastic value and the platform is an amazing place to go for all learning needs no matter the subject matter.
Check out the full course catalog to get an idea of the myriad other topics that Udemy has lessons for.