Digital Alchemy using Bolt as a 'No-code' IDE

Bolt.new is one of numerous 'no-code' platforms currently available in the AI tool space. These tools are AI-enabled and allow users with little to no coding experience to produce fully functioning web applications in a matter of hours. Other similar IDEs (Independent Development Environments) include Cursor, Repl.it, and V0 to name but a few.

First Impressions

I first came across Bolt whilst introducing the concept of 'no code' coding to my students in Year 10 and tasked them with 'spinning up' a 2D retro platform game such as Tetris or Flappy Bird. As a teacher who likes to walk my talk, I worked alongside them and was amazed at how quickly I went from a concept to a fully functioning game. 'Starmada' was the result, and you can see an example of the gameplay here.

I have gone on to use Bolt to create several projects which have been deployed in my classroom and in my wife's work in a primary school, showing that these resources can be used across the age range.

Some of my recent 'No Code' projects

'EZ-SA Planner', an interactive tool for teaching students how to build out Point Evidence Explanation paragraphs for extended writing.

'Andyfisher.me', a digital portfolio, which I think is the direction all CVs will be heading in the future.

'The Regions Scavenger Hunt', a series of landing pages which were accessed through QR codes pinned up around the classroom to help students learn about the various regions of Britain. This was a scheme of work my wife used in her primary school to great effect.

'Vyperion's Lair', an escape room experience that I ran as an end-of-term treat for my Year 9 pupils who were completing a scheme of work on Detective Fiction. I used AI to generate all the images, voice files and interactive map elements you'll see here.

Not without its challenges

The process of working within a no-code environment is not without its frustrations. Apps like Bolt.new use a Large Language Model interface, and while they are getting better by the week, they can end up producing error loops or faulty code, which must be fed back into the system to fix. Each time you run into a problem, you can burn tokens trying to resolve it, but just in the last two months, the development team have introduced 'div mode', rollbacks and one-click deployments to ensure version controls are in place.

Digital alchemy

When you type in a simple prompt at the beginning of a new project (e.g. 'I would like a modern, clean-looking landing page to promote a new board games club at my school which will be running every Friday lunchtime') and hit 'enter', it is like watching a magic show as the code composer goes to work building out the dependencies, file structure and code. Then, a few minutes later, a preview window pops open, and you are staring at a digital asset that was just an idea in your mind's eye.

We are entering a point in time where personalised software is a reality. As these platforms continue to improve, we will be able to describe something we need, and it will be ushered into existence for immediate use. In this sense, AI tools like Bolt are turning us into digital alchemists. What would you create, if the only limit was your imagination?