Ako Aotearoa - launch of support for educators on AI

 Attended the online launch of Ako Aotearoa timely resource - Artificial Intelligence (AI) in Tertiary Education.

The resource lays out the key concepts to help understand the role of AI in education; and provides access to a curated range of practical tips, including a beginners guide; using AI to support learning and teaching; and AI and assessment integrity.

Graeme Smith opened the session with karakia. Linda Keesing-Styles introduced the session and the evolution of the resource. AI was a critical professional development need that was identified through the project that Ako Aotearoa is working on, to identify the key PD needs of the sector.

Jane Terrel who worked on the resource with Linda, introduced the resource and started the session with an overview of the session and encouragement to fill in the survey at the end of the session.

Chris Smiley introduced the web pages that make up the resource and went through the various pages of the resource. The 'Where to now' section in the key ideas section, provides a formative assessment opportunity to be undertaken before moving on into the practical tips. Encouraged feedback.

Graeme then shared the 'AI tool' which is developed through ChatGPT agents, AIhoa - here to guide our learning as an AI companion. Assistance to help educators integrate AI, within the Aotearoa tertiary context. Will assist with AI literacy and be cognisant with the ethical and indigenous sovereignty that is specific to education and Aotearoa. A demonstration undertaken, with Graeme having a conversation with AIhoa on AI integration, the challenges/possible solutions. Quite impressive, but the Ai agent has been trained specifically to undertake this conversion, it will be important to see how it works with someone who is not so skilled with prompting. 

The agent is now available but requires user to have the ChatGPT subscription. 

Q & A ensued. A question was asked of AIhoa around the review on the vocational education and some ideas on a way forward. Took a pedagogical perspective and had a positive approach. 

Pathways Awarua also has an AI agent called Alec. Ai agents often require high resourcing. AIhoa probably took a week plus of work to setup/train. 

The demonstration provides an example of the capabilities and limitations of using an AI. Ihoa is only in the ChatGPT sandbox and a subscription. Therefore, there are issues with equitable access.

Discussion revolved around the use of AIhoa and Jane shared user experience. Joachim shared how to use ChatGPT to generate a lesson plan using the RIGHT (Role, Instruction, guidelines, hurdles, target) acronym to guide the prompt engineering. AIhoa does it similar but includes more of the Aotearoa context and provides a more detailed plan. 

Overall, a good overview of a valuable resource. Let us ensure that the many Ako Aotearoa resources are archived, post their cessation. 

Graeme closed with karakia. 

Humanizing the digital workplace - book overview

Thia book - humanizing the digital workplace: creativity, innovation and leadership in the age of technology - published by Springer 2025, brings the focus of digitaising away from technology, towards a people-centric approach. The book is edited by M. Orel, M, Cerne and S.I. Wong. 

The book has 23 chapters, organised in 8 sections. 

The book begins with the introductory section - theoretical perspectives on humanizing digital work. The various frameworks and concepts grounding the other chapters, are presented. Of note is the emphasis on understanding the implications of human life through digitisation and the need for all to understand and be proactive in how technology is foisted upon us.

The second section covers ' strategies for managing digital transformation and has 3 chapters. There is a focus in these chapters to pay cognisance to employee's intentions and support adaptive performance, so that humans are able to keep up with the rapid changes wrought by digitisation of work. 

Section three has 3 chapters on 'designing human-centric digital work. The chapters provide examples and conceptualisations as to how to humanise digital work, hybrid work, and to bring meaningfulness into work.

Section four has 3 chapters on supporting collaboration and productivity. Again the focus is human-centric rather than just on quantitative productivity.

The next chapter has 4 chapters on 'well-being and connection in a digital workplace. Models and frameworks are introduced and discussed around how to support workers, from diverse backgrounds, working remotely or in-situ, facing continual change to their work tasks and designations.

Then 4 chapters in the section on 'creativity and innovation in the digital age'. Discussion across the chapters on how to harness but also how to support the challenge to continually create and innovate and a VUCA world.

Section 7 has 2 chapters on 'leadership and change in the digital era'. Here the chapters shift towards supporting leaders to work in local and international contexts, as organisations cope with the effects of digitisation, globalisation and socio-political-economic challenges.

The last section has one chapter on environmental considerations and hybridisation.

In all, a book of relevance, contributing much towards better understanding the myriad factors involved in human activities.  Digitisation may bring about advantages, but there will always be a cost, not only in infrastructure etc. but also in terms on the human factor. Although humans are inherently flexible, the pace of change is now so rapid, that change fatigue causes organisations to have to think through their objectives and approaches. The book is a timely contribution to better understanding the human aspects of technological 'progress'. 

ACE (Adult and Community Education) Aotearoa conference

 Attended and presented at the ACE Aotearoa conference today, held in Otautahi (Christchurch). The conference began yesterday, with a hui/fono. The main conference runs today and tomorrow. I am facilitating a workshop today but will not be able to attend tomorrow. Therefore, notes only from today. 

The conference begins with a mihi whakatau (Māori welcome) and the theme is 'AI - bridging AI and ancestral intelligence

A series of 'setting the scene' presentations follow. These provide the context and background for the presentations and workshops that follow. Firstly, Tāwhiwhi mai i te tangata whenua - a special welcome from Ngāi Tuāhiri. Charmaine Tukua from Ara Institute of Canterbury provides the background on the conference theme - in Māori and then in English and the context in which the conference is situated.  she used her story to connect to the present challenges. Then, housekeeping/safety etc. and a scan of the ACE environment led by Te Ataahia Hurihanganui who used various activities to keep the momentum and positive vibes through the session. 

After lunch, the first keynote is with Dr. Karaitiana Taiuru who works extensively in the field of indigenous digital knowledge. Dr. Taiuru speaks on Te Ao Māori ethics and protecting mātauranga Māori. He did not use AI to create the presentation and as AI develops daily, it is up to date for today's presentation :) Warned that AI needs and will take Maōri mātauranga - if we do not take this warning, there is a risk of repeating the things that have always happened around digital colonialism, the risk of property rights abuses. Māori are ethnographers and we are the ancestors of AI knowledge.

Steps taken to protect Mātauranga Māori with AI include defining and understanding what is Māori data and what is Māori data governance, engage Māori stakeholders, label Māori data and create and implement Te Tiriti and Tikanga based principles that apply to your own context. Detailed the progress or lack of for each of these steps. 

Shared the various frameworks and guidelines/policies etc. already existing. Shared principles for AI creation. embedding Māori leadership, achieving equitable outcomes, active protection, effective stewardship and following tikanga through the AI development and deployment cycles. Be mindful of the principles - rangatiratanga, (authority) whakapapa relationships), whanaungatanga (obligations), kotahitanga (collective benefit), manaakitanga (reciprocity), kaitiakitanga (guardianship)

A panel followed to discuss Dr. Taiuru's presentation. The panel included Heidi Renata, Fesaitu Solomone, Ta’i Richards and Emily Broadmore. Each shared the impact and implications of AI in their contexts. A good overview of how AI impacts acroass industries and communities.

I then present a workshop with Jo Fox from Hagley Learning Centre  (twice) to introduce the concepts and principles derived from our work with supporting foundation/bridging learners to use AI to support learning. The workshops included time to try out the AI chatbot, developed by our third year computing students. 

Digitally enabling 'learning by doing' - Chinese version

 My book ' Digitally enabling 'learning by doing' in vocational education, has now been translated into Chinese and accessible through the Chinese publishers website.

The translators have worked hard and even the figures have been translated. Citations and references remain in English. 

The original book was published in 2011 as a Springer brief and has had wide readership and a sprinkling of citations :) 

The principles and concepts in the book arose from our work as we grappled with shifting the 'hands on' learning aspects of vocational education into 'distance education' across the CoVID years. One major pedagogical approach is that we must not only 'push' information out to our learners, but also 'pull' evidence of their learning from them to establish 'deliberate practice'. Both the 'push' and 'pull' resources can then be used in synchronous learning sessions to 'connect the dots', thereby encouraging and supporting both deliberate practice and reflective learning.

AI in Vocational Education

 My edited book "Artificial Intelligence in Vocational Education" Understanding learner and teacher perspectives on the integration of Generative AI through Participatory Action Research" is now published. 

Chapters in the book cover a range of disciplines and approaches to introducing and integrating AI:

- the participatory action research and case study analysis used in the studies reported in the book (Dr. Selena Chan)

- ethical issues surrounding the utilisation of Gen AI in VET (Dr. Rea Daellenbach)

- teaching (Information and computer technology) database topics (Dr. Amitrajit Sarkar)

- AI-assisted situational analysis in construction management (Sundeep Chowdary Daggubati)

- AI-assisted ideation in graphic design (Carl Pavletich)

- AI to support student research projects (Dr. H.M.R.S.S. Gunawardana)

- exploring Gen AI for developing reflective practice in nursing (Dr. Julie Bowen-Withington)

- perspectives of neurodivergent learners (Rachel van Gorp)

- Gen AI in craft/trades industries (Dr. Selena Chan and Alan Hoskin)

- guidelines and recommendations for integration of Gen AI into VET learning (De. Selena Chan)

The book records our nascent studies and our learning from the projects are now applied to the various projects recently completed (including this one with foundation/bridging learners) and in progress. 

Methods for researching professional learning and development - book overview

 This is a timely book published in the Professional and Practice-based learning series by Springer in 2022. 

The book is edited by M. Goller, E. Kyndt, S. Paloniemi, and C. Damsa.

There are 28 chapters, collated into 4 sections.

A good range of research methods are covered. Many chapters include exemplars, case studies and discussion on the relevance of the methodology to the challenging contexts which characterise learning and development - especially in the workplace.

The first chapter by the editors, does a good overview of  the challenges inherent in professional learning and development (PLD) research. Challenges include small sample size; the team/project/work tasks nature of PLD as opposed to individualised investigations in other teaching and learning contexts; the difficulties of carrying out traditional 'control group' type studies in the PDL context; the tacit nature of work processes and workplace learning; the complexities of workplace learning; the heterogenous nature of professional domains and workplaces; the impact of current technological changes which are often rapid; and the abundance of data but a lack of clarity as to the connections and longevity of these data.

The first section has 8 chapters covering data collection. These include chapters on experience sampling, diaires to uncover informal workplace learning, using the vignette method to increase insights; integration of self-reports and electrodermal activity; multimodal stress assessments; combining physiological and experiential measures; computer generated log data; and interaction analysis.

The next section covers methods for data analysis with 6 chapters. These include using Bayesian statistics; latent profile and latent class analysis; equation modelling; participant vidoe annotations; data mining and analytics; and visual analysis. These cover a range of quantitative and qualitative approaches.

Then a section on research methods which include the Delphi-technique; relational, temporal and dialogical perspectives on professional identity; virtual ethnography; video based interaction analysis; Q method; eye tracking; social network analysis; design-based research; change laboratory method; professional learning analytics; and longitudinal case study. A good range with coverage of multi-modal ways to collect and collate perspectives, use of digital technologies across various contexts, and both short and longitudinal studies.

The last two chapters end the volume with discussion and commentary. There is a good overarching chapter discussing the many approaches - researching PDL in complex environments, and a last chapter on 'how to deal with the complexity of research in workplace learning'.

All in, a good reference source for anyone investigating real-world, authentic contexts.