How schools and further education use AI - UK Ofsted report

Gradually, various nations are gathering data on the introduction and integration of AI into their educational systems. The UK Office for Standards in Education (Ofsted) undertook an preliminary study into early adopters of AI in schools and further education colleges.

A cautious approach was reported across school leadership. The importance and contribution of  'AI champions' was identified as a key factor in creating opportunities for AI to be introduced and integrated into school learning.

The 'early adopters' report is supported by another Ofsted report on how is looks at AI during inspection and regulation.  This does not spell out strict parameters but sets out expectations especially with regard to the use of AI by children and learners. In turn, Ofsted also provides its approach to AI in another paper. 

All the above reveal the need to not rush into ad hoc use of AI, especially across the school sector. However, there is still an important need to ensure that AI is not simply ignored. Building capability across the educational workforce is one important aspect that needs to have already begun and be better planned, structured and supported. 

Funding for vocational education for the construction and infrastructure sector - ConCOVE Tūhura project

 I missed the ConCOVE webinar discussing the funding of vocational education which was presented a couple of weeks ago. The webinar summarised the findings and recommendations from the report. 

Concove is seeking feedback on the above, closing tomorrow the 27th of June.

The report was prepared by Brenden Mischewski and Roger Smyth.  It summarised a range of interviews with stakeholders across industry (mainly construction and infrastructure), tertiary education, and government. The paper also provides a brief overview of the literature review, proposes a conceptual model (five key changes).

Feedback is sought with regard to the five key changes to try to bring better effectiveness towards how funding is used, These are:

- take a people-centred approach to learning support - at present the system is dis-connected, fragmented, confusing, missing key pieces and not reaching the people who need the support.

- devolved decision-making - industry and providers are not well connected. Centralised direction is the norm at the moment but this is not necessarily efficient, especially with regard to regional and localised skill needs.

- strengthening the investment approach - to ride out the economic ups and downs which affect training provision in the workplace.

- increase work-based learner fees - to support higher completion rates.

- introduce industry training levies - small amounts from each company, can help power 

The discussion paper details the issues for each of the above and proposes solutions. 

Overall, an important discussion document, given that Aotearoa is a small country, with a strong need to ensure the populace is better supported for the future of work inclusively and equitability and help provide the country with skills required where it is required.

Effect of using ChatGPT - accumulation of cognitive debt

 This article. 'Your brain on ChatGPT: Accumulation of cognitive debt when using an AI assistant for essay writing task' has been doing the rounds across LinkedIn. 

The American authors - N. Kosmyna et al, used electroencephalography (EEG) to record the brain activity of participants. Cognitive engagement and cognitive load were measured to find out what neural activations occurred during essay writing activity. 

The finding confirms what most teachers will have worked out, that reliance on external supports, diminishes the amount of neural engagement, leading to lower attainment of essay writing skills. The findings also reflect other studies. For example Lodge, Yang, Furze and Dawson (2023) made similar assertions with their article 'Its not a calculator, so what is the relationships between learners and generative artificial intelligence?' They posit that using AI, allows for cognitive offloading, as with a calculator undertaking the arithmetic. Over reliance on calculators mean many now find mental arithmetic to be beyond them. Therefore, it is important to understand the implications of introducing and integrating AI to support reading and writing.

Academic literacies are fundamental to our humanness. Many studies concur that learning how to write, is an important practice for collating and articulating concepts, helping learners attain and practice critical thinking. Similarly, reading provisions a wide range of skill sets, including the abilities to sift through multiple perspectives and to understand the world through different lenses.

Therefore, AI literacies are of importance to educators and learners. Knowing why, how, when and where to use AI, is a basic skillset for all. There are occasions when AI can be useful, but it must not overtake the need for learners to 'learn by doing'. 

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.