Aotearoa AI Tertiary Network (ATAIN) - Mark Nichols on AI and the future of online delivery

 In this first session  for 2026 from ATAIN we have a presentation from  Dr Mark Nichols who presents on 'AI and the future of online delivery: some whakaaro (thoughts). 

An updated version (and updated regularly) of a presentation to the Open Polytechnic as the field is moving rapidly. 

Began with AI as being helpful and then shared examples including in education, closing with some thoughts on the future. 

Billions are being invested in AI and this accounts with some of the speed of development and the ways AI is shifting in its focus and capabilities. Anthropic for example, is worth much more that NZ's yearly output! 

Demonstrated how quickly AI can provide resources, but paints a positive picture of how AI can be useful in education. Humans still need to have input, otherwise, it only provides a shallow view point.

Used Meta AI glasses and Hugging Face with Reachy Mini - built it yourself AI desktop robot. 

Warned if AI as 'slop' but the relentless pace of development continues! Rise of agentic AI perhaps not so far away. Shared examples of AI generated videos and bands - Velvet Sundown; Doppl to allow you to try out outfits; jobs being taken over by AI, especially entry level jobs; AI will cheat and hide its tracks if it is in its own interest ! - See Popular Mechanics blog - AI has learned to cheat and punishing it makes it smarter! and Times on when AI thinks it will lose, it can cheat; able to outsmart CAPTCHA tests; fake videos; deep fakes :( flaws in AI therapy chatbots; 

Ethics is trailing the ways AI is being used for nefarious activities (sigh). Positive outcomes include accelerating drugs and vaccines; research - lit reviews, analysis, etc. but care needs to be used - case of company having its data erased when testing an AI agent.

What does it mean to be artistic, creative, have expertise?? What happens in education when we have personal coaches / teachers / mentors? What is the future of book writing?? 

AI is non-anthorpomorphic - has no conscience/shame, here to stay and reminds disruptive. Important to keep the human in the loop (HitL) How can AI fit into education - not to increase cognitive debt but to augment our human capabilities.

Shared two sides of the coin - AI useful in education but important it does not replace the learning required to attain knowledge and skills. Be critical - see article by Sparrow and Flenady (2025). 

How students use AI? AI users now increasing in personal use, instead for organisations. Primarily used for searching (rather than browsers). See this on use of ChatGPT. AI destroying universities.  Student use of AI - Microsoft report.  Educators use of Anthropic. 

Concerns - cognitive self harm - metacognitve laziness; cognitive debt; reducing cognitive friction; -inequitable access; passing off - not only needing to think. Young people are no longer reading and AI exacerbates this. 

AI can bring these roles -  Socratic dialogue partner, personal coach, drill sergeant, study buddy. Reminder of the science of learning and apply AI to support these to occur. 

Short Q & A followed. Good summary of the challenges and possible direction. 

OECD Digital Education Outlook 2026 - exploring effective usses of generative AI in education

 This report from the OECD is worth a look through. A summary reviews the key findings. These include:

-  indication from several studies that Gen AI increases quality of student work but the advantage is obviated when the tool is removed - indicating cognitive debt.

- planned and structured use of Gen AI to improve learning, critical thinking, creativity and collaboration works.

- Gen AI can add to teaching while still supporting teachers' agency

- Gen AI can boost scientific research and streamline institutional operations.

The report has 13 chapters organised into 3 main parts.

There are two introductory chapters before Part 1 (4 chapters) on the topic 'enhancing student learning with Gen AI.

Part 2 has 4 chapters on 'augmenting teachers' performance using Gen AI.

The last part focuses on 'improving system and institutional management' with 3 chapters.

Of note are the following:

- Page 15 - figure 1.1 increase of ChatGPT users as a share of internet users, 2024 to 2025. NZ is 7ths with usage between 30 - 40 %. Stats need to be carefully used - China has very little use of ChatGPT but use their own Gen AIs - DeepSeek, Manus etc.

- Page 17 - figure 1.2 - most students still use gen AI for obtain information, about 1/2 use it to explain terms and concepts. Data from a few European countries only.

- Page 18. figure 1.3 - similar pattern for teachers (German study).

Page 26 - personalised learning discussion.

Annex 1.A provides examples of country strategies and frameworks for Gen AI and two chapters (5 and 6) capturing perspectives from researchers/practitioners

Chapter two - Gen AI for human skills development and assessment: implications for existing practices and new horizons by D. Gasevic and L. Yan is worth putting some time into reading and unpacking.

Part 1 chapters provide case studies, examples and evaluations of various approaches.

- chapter 3 on - dialogue-based AI - implementing the Socratic method with Gen AI

- chapter 4 - fostering collaborative learning

chapter 5 - developing creativity

chapter 6 - AI in education unplugged. 

Part 2 has 3 chapters with one as an interview.

Chapter 7 - conceptual framework for teaching -AI teaming

Chapter 8 - transforming from general-purpose to educational-oriented Gen AI

Chapter 9 - Gen AI as a teaching assistant

Chapter 10 - Gen AI to support teachers.

In the last section, chapter 11 covers AI in institutional workflows; Chapter 12 on Gen AI for standardised assessments; and the last chapter on Gen AI and the transformation of scientific research.

Currency is the main motivation to read through this report. Although mostly covering the formalised school and higher education sectors, there is much commonality of use to vocational education approaches. 

Handbook on personalised learning - book overview

 The Handbook on Personalised Learning, edited by M. L. Bernacki, C. Walkington, A. Emery and L. Zhang and published by Routledge late in 2025 is a timely resource. Editors and authors are all based at  US of A Universities. 

A preview pdf with the preface summarising the book's content, Chapter one by J. L. Plass and F. Froehlich on 'Trends in personalised learning' is available. 

There are 7 sections in the book The first section has chapters to define and provide the theoretical background for individualised learning.

Section 2 reports on 2 approaches, exemplifying what personalised learning can achieve. The contexts are digital and game-based learning environments).

Section 3 centres around the psychological theories of learning on how individuals learning and what characteristics support learning.

Section 4 covers instructional design principles for individualises/personalised learning

Section 5 digs deeper into learning design for specific disciplines - math, reading, social studies, computer science).

Section 6 revolve around the advantages of personalised learning

Section 7 has a focus on the policies and environmental factors which support/or disrupt tje implementation of personalised learning. 

Chapter 1 - lays out the definition of personalised learning, along with how it is designed. Integrates the contribution of Gen AI into the mix, how can Gen AI be leveraged to support personalised learning and especially to provide greater accuracy for adaptive learning - which has been a major challenge for personalised learning platforms. 

 A book setting down some of the precepts and foundations for personalised learning with the inclusion of Gen AI and its potential. 

Discussing AI in vocational education with Kai Pākiki Canterbury

Last week (January 5th) on the podcast with the Canterbury branch of the Royal Society of NZ - Kai Pākiki Canterbury. Dr. Amit Sarkar and myself, present our work on AI in vocational education. 

The podcast runs for an hour and includes Morgan Merien from the NZ enthomological society on the 'bug of the year' initiative. The hosts Tom Goulter and Adrian Paterson discuss facts and the probabilistic worldviews (from 21 minutes), and Amit and myself present and discuss AI (from 30minutes) 

We discuss the initiatives, challenges (digital divide, data sovereignty) and some solutions. The importance of attainment of AI literacies for both our teachers and students, ethics and the pedagogy of integrating AI are aspects discussed. This includes using AI to support learning and not to replace the processes of learning. The ensure the effectiveness of AI as a coach requires careful training of the AI. Customisation or localisation is also important to ensure that there is authenticity in the interactions between learners and AI. 

Plans for 2026

Back into the fray after a few weeks back in the home country to support by aging mother. I am looking forward to what this year will bring. 

Progrramme review and redevelopment will take up much of my time. It is a great opportunity to get to know a degree programme well and to built relations with the teachers. Professional Development for our teachers will revolve around AI. We need to develop a good understanding of what, how and when to use AI. The selling point for AI is that it can be used to take some of the workload off teachers. However, it can also add to teachers' workload, especially if the effect of AI on assessments is not worked through. 

On the research front, our AI projects continue with work on personalised learning based on Cogniti and continuance of our work to develop AI chatbots to support specific disciplines and learning activities. Next month, I will be sending out a call for chapters towards a book to collate initiatives and perspectives on deploying AI to support personalised learning. The goal will be to publish this book early 2028.

I am also working on co-editing a book that records the many initiatives and projects undertaken between the initiation and cessation of the Reform in Vocational Education. Through the 5 -6 years across the reform, the new entities which were formed, have worked conscientiously to improve vocational education across NZ. Therefore it important to archive these in one package, as many entities  no longer exist beyond the end of 2025. Their work either disappears or is curated in sites hosted by other institutions and the knowledge and wisdom of their staff and communities of experts is dispersed and rearranged in the new configurations for Aotearoa VET.. 

It will be another busy year but one that already has several objectives to reach. There is much work to be done with respect to learning design and curriculum development as we normalise the use of AI across the institution and VET along with the business as usual objectives to ensure aspects of cultural competencies, academic literacies and sustainability are also woven through the curriculum.