Illuminate forum: Building capability and capacity within the VET sector using AI

 The VET Development Centre (VDC) in Melbourne hosts a day of presentations and workshops on AI. There is the option of viewing the presentations on zoom and I pop in and out as my schedule allows. Presenters would have just recently (or in the process) of completing an International Specialised Skills Institute (ISS) Institute fellowship.

The day begins with a welcome to the day, acknowledgement to country and housekeeping for the attendees at the VDC itself, from Martin Powell (CEO or the VDC) and Dr. Katrina Jojkity (CEO of the ISS Institute). Thanked everyone at the VDC for hosting the session. Provided a brief background  (and video) of the ISS fellowships which have been going since 2000 and their have been over 200 fellowships across a wide range of craft/trade skills and VET pedagogy/systems/innovations.

Craig Robertson (CEO of Victoria Skills Authority (VSA) begins with a short welcome address. Began with the quote 'we hold these truths to be self-evidenct, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by the Creator with certain unalienable Rights. That among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.' How does VET contribute to the pursuit of happiness? In times past, happiness was quite a different concept than its more 'frivolous' present version. In VET education, the similar attribute would be self-actualisation. Digitisation represents a major challenge to all. Task/units of competency have been the main outcomes of VET, but what happens now with AI? Education needs to now change to keeps up. We can tweak the current system but this may not be enough. There is a need to move away from task based competencies towards empower people to pursue happiness - which for everyone is always 'work in progress'. As always, Craig's summarises the challenges in a way that will be understood by the audience :) 

Notes taken from sessions:

- AI in Action: developing curriculum resources with AI with Leigh Dwyer (William Angliss) - notes on 3/4 of the session. Began with a Slido - most were 'getting there' along with their organisations ' getting there' or 'just starting'. His report had a framework of teams, tools, design, VET, Docs, ethics as the parts that inform curriculum development with Gen AI. Used this to also present on each of these with examples.

(teams) Shared a case study where a team created a game, using AI. Roles were defined, testing and feedback led to revisions. AI accelerated the workflow. Another example using Chat GPT and Grok to craft lyrics, iLovesong to make music, Leonardo to create artwork, ChatGPT and Grok for worksheets, DistroKid to publish music and Vidmuse to create music videos (for resources for English teacher training - TESOL). Album published to T-soul.  (Tools) Another example a video to help learn OSASCOMP  and discussed how to create resources which engage learners but also help them remember key concepts. Shared the work of Eric Tsui - on using ChatGPT to enhance student's personal learning.

(Design) (VET) Shared how to undertake Industry Aligned Design (IAD) - listing scenario and examples - company, role, job duties, way of working (SOP) reason to do the work. which can be used to build resources that are authentic - for instance - a day in the life of ---.

(Docs) Moved on the document management with mail merge. Workflow shared. 

- Teaching the future: Integrating cybersecurity into education. Faraz Khan (Victoria University). Report yet to be published. Began with a background on his work and the objectives of his fellowship. He visited US of A (decentralised system, high variation, education-driven approach - starting from school). Canada / Ontario has strong industry education collaboration. workforce and industry driven approach. Estonia has an integrated, system-wide digital competence. Embedded into education.

Themes include - coordination through frameworks (reduce fragmentation, shared skills and role structures, curriculum guidance, and coordination through policy and standards); Teacher capability as a constrain (requires structured learning, industry engagement and system support required); practice-based learning (using simulations/labs, work-integrated learning, and scaling these through cloud platforms and industry partnerships); cybersecurity across disciplines (across all industries, but requires sector-specific application, still largely IT-focused in practice and cross-disciplinary integration emergent). Provided examples of cross-disciplinary models in practice; and Pathways and workforce alignments (connecting education to workforce teaching - structured pathways, industry aligned learning, expand pathways, and non-formal pathways). 

Shared the various system challenges and tensions - fragmentation, sustainability, access and equity and the experience gap. Implications for VET are many - need to embed cybersecurity across disciplines, build teacher capability, expand practice-based learning and strengthen pathways and partnerships. Q & A ensued.

- AI integration for student engagement with Thuy Cao Reynolds (AMES Australia). Report yet to be published. There are challenges in the Australian workforce and VET - low completion rates in VET (50%) along with low participation rates when VET is Australia's largest workforce pipelines. Improving engagement can be useful. Engagement has cognitive, emotional, behavioural and social dimensions. These then add as forces to influence student engagement. Cognitive forces can be supported through hybrid human AI shared regulation in learning models, personalised learning and learning activity that promote critical thinking; emotion can be tapped into with game based learning to increaser fun, curiosity etc. AI can also be a team member, tutor, mentor and simulator. These influence wellbeing and change /transformation through learning. 

To test the framework above visited Singapore (SMU - chatbot to understand people and culture), Germany (VR for German language practice and ChatGPT as a language learning assistant) to see and experience AI integration. Wellbeing (through teachers acting as mediators between students and AI tools, and change management - instructor led-training, were also observed.

Shared considerations for organisations - alignment to strategic vision, invest in teaching and learning and embark on and support change management. Teachers also must be considered. Competencies and support required on how to select the appropriate AI tools as matched to learning activities - pedagogical alignment, usability, accessibility, ethics and data privacy and well-being. Shared a guide for the selection process. Thanks for presenting on two references from my work - Identity, pedagogy and technology enhanced and Ai in VET. 

Stressed importance for considerations for teachers - model enthusiasm and build trust around AI use and integrate tools to boost learning and performance. Considerations for students include the need to learn how to learn before using AI and be prepared with purpose and independence. Include learning goals, independent thinking, focused prompting, Ai literacy and learning how to learn. Proposed considerations for Department of Education and Training - quality teaching / learning and lifelong learning, future workforce and career readiness and sustainable and innovative education system development. 

Closed the presentation with UNESCO ' education transforms lives; but education must also be transformed to meet the challenges of today and tomorrow'. 

Two applied workshops of 45 minutes each follow. One with Faraz Khan - 'think like a hacker: practical cybersecurity skills for everyday protection' and Leigh Dwyer on 'building capability and capacity within the VET sector using AI'. I will need to get back to these through the recordings (along with the missed presentation earlier on).  

Magnifica humanitas - On safeguarding the human person on the time of AI

 Worth a read. Pope Leo XIV's statement/encyclical letter on AI - Magnifica Humanitas.

The argument for the primacy of human endeavours and the need to ensure that any form of technology is given deeper thought before wholesale adoption by humanity.

A brief google search will reveal many reviews, both from within the Catholic / Christian community and without.

The essence of the statement is of importance as it is a call to reevaluate where humanity is going with technology along with the free-market capitalism which funds it. There are reminders of the  many ethical issues surrounding technology. It effect, its a wake up call for many, to be vigilant and to monitor technological advances, to ensure that their adoption does not lead to detriment to the human race. 

Exploring the future of learning with Gen AI

 A webinar of the keynote and panel discussion from The Centre for the Study of Higher Education at University of Melbourne. It is an in-person event with zoom of  the opening keynote and panel session. 

Associate Professor Tim Fawns (Monash University) presents the keynote - Beyond cognitive offloading: student as a complex phenomenon. 

Notes of the presentation:

The presentation began with a welcome from Associate Professor Cochrane and an acknowledgement of country and an introduction to A/P Fawn.

Began with defining cognitive offloading - which might not be a bad thing! A sustained lack of critical thinking, through using technology, is one way to look at it. Current studies on cognitive offloading etc. have not perhaps been conducted validly. A student using AI, does not cause any form of brain damage. It is difficult to work out what students are thinking and we must not assume what students are thinking.

We move to assumptions when students use AI. We need to find out why and how students use AI. Students' practices, contexts and temporalities matter. One use of AI does not tell us much, however, intentionality matters - what are they using AI for?? 

In learning, collaboration matters. However, humans are a collective species. We need to work with others to achieve objectives. Individual knowledge matters but they need to also use this in conjunction with the milieu they are in. Dialogue with students is important to find out what they are doing with AI.

Cognitive offloading is 'the use of physical action to alter information processing requirements of a task so as to reduce cognitive demand (Risko & Gilbert, 2016). If you offload enough, the reduced task becomes the task. We offload all the time, due to the volume of information overload we encounter.

Human learning can be distinguished from 'cat learning (J. Dorn). We need to be more precise as to what we are looking at and how to better understand the values we need to protect with regard to human learning. Therefore, we cannot offload cognition that has not been thought of yet. You cannot know what would have been thought otherwise. The thing you overload to does not think what you would have thought. Offloading enables and requires (different) thinking, depending on your goals. 

There is both beneficial and bad effects of cognitive offloading. Short/long term effects are difficult to pin down. Cognitive offloading came about through work on transactive memory. A shared cognitive system where groups or couples collectively encode, store, and retrieve information. ' not traceble to any individual. Distributed cognition is the processes distributed across members of a social group, between internal and external resources, and across time (Hutchins, 2000). Therefore, it is cognitive distribution, 'remixing'.

Shared the work undertaken on student perspectives on AI in HE - AIinHE.org. The complexity and diversity of what is happening is a defining factor of the study, carried out over the last few years. Over 8000 responses show the main use to be editing/writing, brainstorming, teaching how to something, searching/researching, getting feedback (all over 50%). When an assessment task restricts AI, students think they are able to learn less deeply. 19% of students feel that being able to use AI in assessments, helps them to learn more deeply.

As an summary of using AI to undertake summaries, students found that it saved time, helped understand key concepts, manage heavy reading loads, engage with complex or unfamiliar (over 50%). Most students say they read the original text, as well as the summary.

Therefore, there is a big, messy and diverse mix, including resistance, low trust of outputs, varying confidence in their ability to use AI and worries about learning (Jung, 2025) AI is embedded in different ways. AI feedback seen as less trustworthy, less relevant, clearer, more 'objective' and less emotionally fraught (Henderson et al., 2025). Students were concerned about dependency, needed to trust themselves and their processes and were developing moral and ethics (Bearman, 2025).

Optimism, guilt, scepticism, relief, moral boundaris, fears ---- complex moral negotiation (Oberg et al. 2026). Things 'stick' to AI including alarm, distrust, enthusiasm and hope. 

Therefore, many students are worried about becoming lazy and taking ahortcuts. Overall, thoughtful. 

Shared work at Monash with a focus on evidence of learning. (Fawns, Boud, & Dawson, 2026) pm targeted learning to focus not only on product, but the performance, process and practices. Important to help students leverage off AI. However, the practices are still emergent and need to be better understood.

Questions on assessments include - are learning environments appropriate for encountering students and what they can do? Do assessment tasks allow demonstration of learning outcomes via a range of proxies? Are the conditions appropriate to generate evidence of learning? Are the evaluation methods appropriate to the evidence?

Therefore, AI relate beliefs and practices are as diverse as those of staff. AI in education is an even bigger, and more emotional and personal challenge. Students need educators who understand all of this and help them navigate. Competing demands, the competitive nature of HE, eroding trust between students and institutions are perhaps more important. 

Q & A ensured. 

Panel discussion followed (I will need to catch up on these in the recording) was moderated by Dr. Shannon Rios with Laura Chambers (board director at Mozilla), Dr. Solange Glasser (University of Melbourne) and Jim Hsiao (University of Melbourne).

Weekly collation of AI news - Ai and the future of AI & The AI Corner

 With so much 'news' and commentary on AI in education, it is difficult to keep up!. I have subscribed to these two 'news feeds' or collations to try to keep up with the flow of updates, issues, and discussion.

1) Nick McIntosh - AI and the future of HE

Nick posts on LinkedIn each Monday. Having an account is useful but not compulsory. This week's post covers various relevant publications, news on NVIDIA and Micorsoft moving AI off the cloud on onto your desks, and the Pope's Magnifia Humaitas.

2) The AI Corner

Subscription to the AI corner and a weekly (Monday) email is posted into your inbox summarising AI developments of relevance in Aotearoa NZ. Recent new is summarised  through a commentary along with updated happenings across the major AI providers - Anthropic, Open AI, Microsoft, Google/Deep Mind etc.

The above safes me time but serendipitous finds through LinkedIN, Google News feeds, Google Scholar alerts etc. still yield scholarly material :) 

ATAIN - Human-led, tech-empowered: Evaluating educational AI tools for impact, ethics and pedagogy

 Notes taken from the monthly ATAIN session.

This month, Joan Sutherland and Associate Professor Trish McCluskey Director Digital Learning from Deakin University on 'Human-led evaluation process: learning and teaching.

Joan presented, beginning with a acknowledgement of country and emphasising the human in technology.

Asked for what tools are used and why are these used.

What are the challenges? Drew on Laurillard (2012) Teaching is Design - knowledge acquisition, collaboration, inquiry, production, discussion and practice to place emphasis on the pedagogy and not on the tool itself. This was to address what tools, when, what good practice looks like and where to get support. 

The initial evaluation surfaced the following: subjective view, lack of transparency, manual process, security risks, AI integration, workflow diversity, lack of alignment, duplication.

An explicit process required and aligned with institutional direction. Therefore, the current process was mapped; alignment and gaps identified; what does the research say? defined the ideal process; align and refine; how can automation be leveraged? 

Shared process that was initiated. A new request is raised, need analysis and alignment, research and tool selection, pilot and test, evaluation and recommendations, implementation, ongoing monitoring and support, and evaluation for license renewal. The process is visible to all staff at the university. Each stage is recorded and available so that progress through the evaluation process is shared. 

It is important to do the needs analysis is a human-led conversation to provide consistency, one source of truth, alignment, transparency and to avoid duplication. To identify gaps/duplication cover what challenges will the tool address? which activity types does the tool best align to (as per Laurillard and pedagogy approach) ? what key features expected of the tool? what specific tasks must this tool support? the tool is evaluated against a function and a feature matrix. 

AI is challenging as it is probabilistic and will not provide the same output consistency. Privacy and cybersecurity are added challenges. Cross cutting principles include privacy-by-design, data minimization, security by design and ethics and compliance. Therefore, context needs to be taking into account along with user experience, AI components (transparency, clarity, relevance, usability, integration to ensure strategic alignment and pedagogical impact.

Shared an AI tools heatmap evaluation to help users/staff understand all of the above parameters. 

Impact measured using SAMR (Puentedura, 2006), does it enhance and transform? However, it does not reflect the complexities of AI. Therefore, adding the layer of people, process, practice may help to provide a bit more representation for the wide range of AI.

A good overview of a process to evaluate technology tools that support teaching and learning. Q & A followed. 

However, my take is that perhaps we are trying to fit a problem into an existing framework. AI is especially tricky as it is what the user does, that actually defines its pedagogical role. AI is therefore not a tool but more of a 'social-cultural' partner. It can be used as a 'sage on the stage' giving answers, a 'guide on the side' to support nascent conceptualisation and learning, or 'a muddler in the middle' a socratic opponent, thinking partner etc. AI literacy for our teachers and then in turn our students is a major key to reach the potential use of AI to support teaching and learning. Learning becomes a hybrid of human+AI rather than a 'tool'. 

AI likely needs another evaluative process. 

Mysterious brain - Royal Society Te Apārangi presentation by Emeritus Distinguished Professor Cliff Abraham

 Notes from last night’s presentation organised by the Royal Society Te Apārangi on ‘Our mysterious brain: the making and breaking ofmemories’. 

The session is presented by Emeritus Distinguished ProfessorCliff Abraham - who worked for many years at the University of Otago.

After a welcome from the Royal Society and ‘housekeeping’, Professor Abraham is introduced through a background of his long research career.

Began with an overview of the parts of the brain, its structure and the function of various parts. Then the microscopic structure of axons, nodes (90 million ++) and the speed at which it works. Defined learning as the process by which experiences change the nervous system and hence behaviour (referred to as memories).

Summarised memory hyper-functionality during early development. Psychiatric disorders (psychosis, PTSD) and additions also bring about hyper-functionality. Memory hypo-functionality occurs and exampled by amnesia and dementia.

Mechanisms of memory storage through neural connections include dendrites receiving inputs and axons sending outputs. The synapse forms the connection between axon and the spines from the dendrite through neurotransmitters (glutamate, dopamine, serotonin, adrenaline, histamine) and electrical activity. Synapses are work-horses of memory, there are 1015 of them, they are metabolically active and individually modifiable. Astrocytes are also in the mix. All densely packed together.

Summarised the ‘making of memory’ through from the early 1900s. Long term potential (LTP) or depression (LTD) allows for modifiability (plasticity) of synaptic transmission. If the LTP is blocked, impairment of spatial memory formation occurs.

Therefore, does altered plasticity contribute to memory impairments in neurological disorders? Can knowledge drive new cognitive enhances and disease therapies.

Introduced Alzheimer’s disease and its effect on the human brain (lost of large amount of brain cells and inclusion of plaques and tangles). Causes neuroinflammation, synapse dysfunction / loss and nerve cell loss.

From a research and clinical perspective, understanding the process helps inform prevention/delay, lead to earlier detection, and towards more effective treatment.

Prevention involves ‘using it or losing it’. Good diet, weight control, physical exercise, good quality sleep, and keeping up with mental and social activity. Early detection of plaques with ‘PET’ scan. Blood tests being developed for early stage Alzheimer. Shared work at University Otago on ‘microRNA’ that may be a useful contribution.

Treatment – new drugs increase brain ‘tone’ – about ½ of the people taking these drugs experience modest improvement in cognition. However, effective treatment needs to be more effective, long-lasting, non-invasive, have a brain-wide delivery, cross the blood-brain  barrier, have few side effects and be affordable. Some progress presently on antibodies that remove plaques from the Alzheimer brain. Presently not widely available, very expensive and only deal to the plaque, not the tangles.

Stressed the importance of building brain resilience and maintaining cognitive reserve. Persons with brain resilience hold off dementia for longer. Shared a new treatment strategy to amplify production of neuroprotective proteins. How can these specific proteins in the brain be increased. Gene therapy approach alters cell function at a genetic level to generate a therapeutic outcome. For instance, to make more of its own neuroprotective proteins eg. sAPPa. Explained how virus-mediated gene transfer can be used. The gene encoding protein (sAPPa) is packaged into a virus shell (Trojan horse). This package is administered (injection – intracranial, intravenous). The gene enters the nerve cell nucleus, the virus shell dissolves and the protein enter the cell.

Trial of above through intracranial virus injection increased sAPPa rescued spatial memory in mice with Alzheimer. Also reduced plaque development in the hippocampus and the cerebral cortex. Future work on a human-ready virus shell. The hope is to increase neuroprotective proteins in the brain. 

An interesting foray into neurobiology and neuroscience. 

 

Future postdigital classroom - Special issue of Postdigital science and education

 The September 2025 issue of Postdigital science and education focused on the topic of the future postdigital classroom.  

The special issue was edited by I. Forsler, E. Bardone and M. Forsman.

There are 20 open access articles covering a range of topics. Each is provides interesting perspectives and provoke thought and trigger further investigations. Most are schools or higher education focused but frameworks and discussions are useful to inform VET.

- Walls come tumbling down: imaginaries and materialities of the postdigital classrooms by the editors sets the scene for the issue. The objective of the issue is to envision, discuss and critique the 'future postdigital classrooms' and on how technology impacts on teaching and learning. ChatGPT was used to generate images of a classroom without walls and found it wanting as it drew on the historical conceptualisation of classrooms with desks, chairs and whiteboards. The goals of the issues are to understand the dominant imaginings and narratives of a future classroom; how educators enact and negotiate these narrative; what methods or approaches can be used to imagine the future; can such futures be translated into the physical world; what are the boundaries of the classroom and how can the risks and promises be met or transcended?

Articles are then briefly summarised.

A 'pick and mix' of the articles for a first reading through recommended as there are many ideas introduced through the chapters. Then a focus on the pertinent ones will pay dividends. A recommended read.