Tag: reflections

12 Years of Blogging

It was now 12 years yesterday that I posted my first ever blog post (see here).  Not sure where the time has gone but it has seen me move from the UAE and working with schools mainly in Abu Dhabi and Dubai, to working in Somerset at Millfield, but also working with the Digital Futures Group and Association of Network Managers in Education (ANME) trying to support schools across the UK and beyond.  

My first post involved me sat on the bed in the evening on the 12th Feb 2013 posting my first thoughts.   I am now 550 further posts on and my blog has afforded me the opportunity to share my thoughts, but also has forced me to structure my thoughts in order to write them down and has allowed me to keep a permanent record of how my thinking has progressed and changed over the intervening 12 years.   I think sometimes we aren’t as conscious of how our own views and beliefs change and develop over time and with age and experience as we should be.

It has also been great to meet people and connect with people that actually have read some of my posts.   This includes meeting online with discussion via social media, but also meeting in person at events including events such as BETT or the Schools and Academies Show (SAAS).    I continue to believe that networking and sharing is important, and if we take into consideration the pace of technological change and the potential, or even requirement, for the use of technology in schools, it becomes all the more important.    I keep coming back to the David Weinberger quote, “the smartest person in the room, is the room”, so I can but hope my posts continue to contribute to the room of global educators sharing online.

Here’s to continuing to post, to share and to the year ahead.  And for those thinking about creating a blog or posting or sharing my advice is simple:  just do it!

BETT 2025: reflections part 2

Continuing on my reflections of the BETT conference from my previous post, I found sir Stephen Frys discussion with Dr Anne-Marie Imafidon to be quite interesting in the exploring “science reality” and how some things science fiction have come to pass, plus in looking at how Artificial Intelligence (AI) has actually been around for some time.    In terms of science reality, I did a presentation last year where I referenced an episode from Star Trek: The Next Generation, where it appears that captain Piccard is using a device very much like an iPad or other tablet device.     It is notable the episode aired in the 1980’s and focused on events from the 23rd century, when in fact the iPad made its appearance in 2010.   For me this highlights that science fiction sometimes presents us with novel and interesting ideas, that people then seek to make happen.   It also highlights that we are pretty crap at predicting the “when” of things with any real accuracy.

In terms of the longevity of AI, the concept has been discussed since the 1950’s with period of progress and then periods of quiet, with one particular quiet period known as the AI winter.    The reality is that the current progress of AI, as discussed by the sir Stephen and Dr Imafidon, is likely the juncture between increasing computing poor and increasing “oil fields of data”.    I found the point regarding how we “sleepwalked into the internet age” interesting, highlighting we cannot do the same with AI, but did we truly know what the impact of the internet was going to be, so can we truly know what the impact of AI might be?      I also found discuss of how social media focussed on “maximising engagement” to hit the nail of the head especially when this was expanded to include maximising bias, hatred and other negatives.   The term socio-technical skills as something we should possibly seek develop, was a new one on me, but I can see the point.

The discussion then progressed to education and assessment categorising the implications of ChatGPT for cheating as a minor issue brought about by the education system we currently have.    This aligns with some of my views on the need to reform education.    Education is not about tests or coursework, it is about learning.  It isn’t about grades.    I found the comment regarding our current system “testing for ignorance” and then pushing it, to be a particular telling and critical assessment of the world we consider to be education.    In the roundtable on assessment I took part in, that was one of our discussions regarding how coursework and exams are simply scalable for use across different schools, regions and countries, so we use them due to this scalability rather than because they are the best thing for education or for learning, or for our students.   

As the discussion moved back more towards AI there was an interesting discussion on AI development in terms of how we often describe AI as currently being the worst it will be, and that it is constantly improving.  This is fair to a point but sir Stephen referred to the internet as “filling with slop” and “contaminated” and if we assume that AI continues to use the AI in its training data then it too may become contaminated so it maybe possible to suggest that AI might be at its best now and only get worse as it becomes more contaminated by its own “slop”.    And who controls the AI and its development.  It was suggested that the three worst options might be the three groups most likely to lead the way on AI development, being countries, corporations and criminals.   In all three cases I can see the outcomes being far from positive and we can already see the internet being used to political and national ends, for pure commercialisation, consumerisation or profit, or for crime.   

I could likely write a whole series of blogs based on the session by sir Stephen and Dr Imafidon however rather than focussing on that I just want to share how they finished the discussion, on the need to find the “sweet spot”.   The need to find a balance between pessimism and optimism.   Now this aligns very much with my view of balance, in that most good things will have some balancing drawbacks or challenges.   We need to try and find our way and find the best middle group, the “sweet spot”.

The next session I watched before hitting the BETT conference floor was a session titled “Education in the AI era”.   Again I could write a lot about what was said as I found it to be very interesting indeed but am going to avoid doing that.    One key comment mentioned 30% of teachers not using AI;  My sense is this figure is lower than the reality.   The data came from TeacherTapp which I think is great, but I also think that the subset of teachers using TeacherTapp are likely to be those who are a little more tech savvy and therefore likely to use AI, and that a greater proportion of those who don’t use AI will also not be using TeacherTapp.  The bigger and possibly more important question is why some teachers who know of AI aren’t using it;  Is it they don’t know they are using AI, but are, that they don’t have access, lack training, lack confidence or something else?    In terms of access, this session also mentioned access to technology and affordance, which to me links to the concept of digital divides.

I also liked the discussion on banning and blocking AI where they compared it to knives in food tech.   Why would we ban AI in some or all subjects when we know knives can be dangerous, yet don’t ban them?    Now I know that this is a very simplistic and flawed analogy and that it was likely used for effect rather than accuracy, but I think the point is valid;  How often has prohibition of anything ever been beneficial or effective?   It just tends to make people do it more, but do it in secret.

This session finished on the big question, which had also been raised the previous night at the Edufuturists event, in terms of what the purpose of education is?     In terms of what we measure, tests, coursework, grades, are these what truly matters?   And if not, what does matter, and how might we measure it, assuming we need to?

That’s some pretty deep questions to end this post on, but that’s where I found myself and I was still in the morning of day 1 of BETT.   The afternoon would see me getting around the event and doing the networking side of things, which for me is one of the main benefits of BETT, but the sessions from the morning, and some of the other sessions I attended across the conference were also very beneficial in stimulating thoughts and ideas, and in some places in confirming or challenging some of my thinking.    Next BETT post to follow soon……….

Running and AI

I was running the other day, trying to ensure I hit my 500km target for 2024, and I got to thinking about AI, seeing some interesting parallels in relation to my experiences as I lumbered around one of my usual 5km routes.

The key issue that sparked my thinking was peoples reaction to me saying “good morning” as I made my way around my run.   People seemed to be very surprised and uncomfortable with my polite announcement and this is despite some of the people I passed being people I passed on my run pretty regularly and therefore where my greeting should have been familiar.    Now I have to acknowledge I am a 6ft 2in Scotsman, and in my running would likely appear to others as hot, breathless and sweaty, so this may play into their reaction in that they may be seeking to just stick their heads down and ignore me.   But what if it is more than that?

It all got me wondering if we have become more insular as a society and as I thought about it plenty of supporting evidence came to mind.    My parents knew every neighbour and my mother often got lost in Asda for hours speaking to various people she knew, much to my disdain as a child who did not enjoy being dragged around a supermarket.    My visits however, which are fewer due to online shopping, are in and out of the supermarket with minimal fuss, and as to my neighbours, I know a few to talk to but don’t know many.   Considering online shopping for example, this works due to its convenience and ease but in doing so reduces the opportunities for in-person social interaction and for the accidental introduction or chat which the in-person visit to a supermarket might facilitate.   And that’s why some supermarkets have actually added in-person checkouts back, rather than self service checkout, to try and reintroduce the social side of the weekly or monthly shop.   In fact looking around the common conversations of the past, with people stood in their gardens or outside their houses talking of the weather and their kids, these have now been replaced by argumentative conversations regarding inconvenient parking, dog fouling and children kicking their ball against the fence.   Have we became so obsessed with “stranger danger” that we now don’t seek out or embrace new people as we once did?    Is convenience king such that we want things easy even if it means losing out on opportunities to interact with our fellow human beings?   And have we moved to a “me”, a world focussed on the individual and our rights, rather than the “we”, the world focused on collectiveness, community and our responsibilities?

So what does this have to do with AI?   

Some are worried about the fact AI might see us becoming over reliant on it and that it might see us interacting with other people less often.   These appear logical worries however as I indicated above, these things are already happening.    We are already becoming focussed on convenience;  on demand TV, next day delivery, food delivery services and more.    We are also less likely to engage with others in person through not having to go out for shopping, etc and through the increased amount of time we spend on our screens and devices;   I think at the moment I still average around 2.5hrs per day on my phone, and that excludes the time on my work device so where did those hours come from if we assume I am spending the same time sleeping as people did in the past?   So maybe the issue isn’t going to be AI causing these problems, but AI accelerating them?    But if we take as fact our want for convenience and our want for ease, where in person interactions maybe aren’t easy, isn’t it obvious that we would choose to make use of AI tools to make things easier, to help us with our interactions or to present us with someone, or thing, to interact with without all the complexities of a human to human interaction?    You cant reset a human being however if your chat bot gets disagreeable you can simply reset it and start again.

Conclusion

I suspect AI like other technologies before it will simply magnify and accelerate issues which already exist in society.   Convenience is great, but to have a meaningful existence and to flourish there needs to be a suitable level of challenge, some desirable difficulty.     A focus on yourself is great and safe but it leads to missing out on the warmth and colour of human interactions, albeit they are often messy and complex, but they are a core part of what it means to be human.

Maybe we need to zoom out and forget about AI and take a long hard look at where we are going as a society and as a human race.    I often talk about balance, and maybe that’s what we need most, to look at balance.  

Or if sticking with looking at AI, maybe its to help us speed up some tasks to allow us to focus on other things which are more difficult, that provide the challenge rather than convenience, or which involve interacting with others, in which case the trade-off sounds beneficial.

I do hope these musing strike a cord as I don’t have any answers, only questions, and maybe that in itself is important, in finding the time to explore the bigger questions.

Running fast but standing still?

The last 12 months have seen things in my life change significantly and I find myself still trying to establish new norms.   It has also got me thinking about life and its meaning, something which I have enjoyed exploring through reading psychology and sociology books.    So, I would just like to share some reflections both for myself, hoping to find some logic in the act of writing down my thoughts, but also maybe in the hope that it might help others or lead to others sharing their thoughts which might further add to the discussion.

The pace of life is only increasing

I have long considered that the pace of life is increasing but generally I have put this down to age.  I have put it down to the fact that as we get older there are less “new” experiences in our lives, where these experiences are markers of time in our memories.  As such when we reflect on being younger we find lots of markers as everything was new at some point, but as we age the markers get further apart as less things are “new”, creating an illusion of time moving quicker.    

But what if this is only part of the story?   The world has and is becoming increasingly digital and technological, driven on by increased convenience, such as on-demand TV and next day online delivery.    Technology has also provided us with short video social media content allowing us to quickly while away our time, or fill any gaps in our day, but without engaging in more significant content such as a movie or TV series.    We also have email, SMS and chat software allowing for immediate contact and sharing, and now are staring down the face of generative AI and its potential to allow us to be more efficient and get more done, quicker.    Its all about doing more, so maybe this drive for convenience, do more and do it quicker, is all resulting in lives where the pace of life is only quickening, with no sign of this abating.

Handling a fast paced life

As the pace of life increases, whether due to tech or due to age, we develop strategies to help us manage the situation.    In particular we look to automate ourselves, building human habits to reduce the cognitive load and ensure we get more done, quicker.    For example, going out for a run in the morning; by making sure that your trainers and your running gear is at the side of your bed, you seek to automate your behaviour minimising friction such that you are out of bed, dressed and out the door without the need to think.    This is but one of the many routines and habits we build to help us navigate life, with these habits becoming all the more important as the pace of things quickens.   Could it be though, that for all these habits are a good thing, they also have a drawback?   Yes they aid efficiency and allow us to get more done but at what cost?

A habit of habits

I suspect I have fallen into a habit of habits, where I have developed habits for running, for getting regular tasks done, using online tools to help with this, for getting housework and chores done, and for much beyond this.    Building habits have become a habit, and I would go so far as to say, a successful one if the measure is how much I get done.  If life was a quantitative game I would be winning.   It is only that a sudden change in my life has disrupted this leading to me evaluating my situation and at times leading to me feeling a little bit lost and at times, depressed.    My routines have been disrupted such that I have suddenly had some downtime, some alone and reflection time, and in this time, the difference between this and the busy, habit laden norms I have developed, there is a gulf.   Looking back on the pace of life, when things were slower and less fast paced, the difference between a busy period and quiet reflection time was notable but not huge.   As the pace of life has increased the difference between these two points has only increased with a corresponding increase in the mental impact when we find ourselves stopped. 

Human Flourishing

I think part of the problem is that if we average out our lives they are getting more fast paced and busier, and we are being driven by the need to do more, do be better, to be more efficient.  Eat right, exercise, work harder, socialise, look after your family, have time for yourself, read, study and much more;  Its all about doing more but there are still only 24 hours to each day, and we spend at least some of those sleeping.    This has left me feeling lost and unfulfilled.   We are squeezing the time to stop, to reflect and to make sense of things out of our lives and this isn’t a good thing.    Yes we are getting the quantity of things done but maybe at a cost of quality of life.   We need this downtime or slow time, and it has taken a significant life change to make me aware of this, and I am finding it far from comfortable.   When I stop and have time to reflect I feel I should be doing something more productive.    I find it difficult to slow down and to live in the moment, to take things in and truly appreciate them as I feel I should be doing if I am flourishing as a human being.    In a world of efficiency, hard work, productivity and continual improvement, fast paced lives and fast technology change is it any wonder?   Am I just existing and doing, or am I truly living?    Is life measured by what we do, what we achieve, or is it how we feel about it?

Conclusions

I don’t have answers for this and this post was more about sharing and dumping some ideas rather than presenting solutions.   I feel our current trajectory is one we cannot continue on and discussions of workload concerns seem to agree.   AI can help but if all it does is allow us to do even more, then it may actually play into the problem rather than solving it.    For me I think we need to slow down, we need to seek to do less, focussing on what is most important, we need to find a better balance.    As I said, I am not comfortable with things at the moment, but maybe I need to be uncomfortable for a while, maybe its desirable difficulty.    The thing is it took a major life upset to get to this realisation, so I suspect many will be that busy being efficient that they might never have the time to make this leap.    As a society do we need to take another look at what is truly important, whether it be in life, in education or in any other sphere which we as humans operate?

FutureShots 2024, Part 2

This is the second of two blog posts reflecting on the FutureShots event which I attended and spoke at earlier this month.   You can read the first post here which focussed on the first part of the morning, including the keynote from Laura Knight and the panel session which I myself was involved in.   This post picks up from there midway through the morning and starts with another panel session where once again some of the early comments resonated with my thinking in relation to AI and education..

Should we consider if AI means we should stop that which we are currently doing?   This early comment in the session, to me goes to the fact that technology, including AI, is but a tool and you need to use the right tool at the right time, and therefore there is a lot which we do in schools and colleges currently that we should continue doing.   I love a good post-it note in a lesson, posting different thoughts and ideas around the room.  Some of what we do may change however equally some things may not change and this is fine.    The potential for technology and particularly AI to act as an enabler and a leveller was also mentioned, highlighting how, if used appropriately, technology has the potential to have a profound impact on Bobby, a student I will introduce shortly, and other individual students.   Equally during the panel the importance of putting humans at the centre of things, including of AI use, was stated alongside human characteristics such as emotional intelligence

Gemma Gwilliam, a fellow member of The Digital Futures group was up next as part of a panel session alongside Jordan King, Global Opportunity Scholar di Franklin University Switzerland and Jean Wu, Director of Green Office Sustainability Programs di Franklin University.   This was the first of Gemma’s two contributions to the event.   This session focussed on sustainability and I very much liked the comment on the multi-faceted nature of sustainability.   As a director of IT when I consider sustainability I am often thinking about financial sustainability in terms of ongoing replacement and refresh of devices and hardware, or about systemic sustainability in whether a process will be repeatable and scalable.   There is also the environment sustainability; does the solution allow us to thrive or merely to survive?   Gender equality was also raised as a sustainability issue which to me makes a lot of sense, but I had never previously heard it discussed in this way, in relation to sustainability.   It was also very refreshing to hear how AI shouldn’t be seen as a replacement for “flawed” humans, as AI is also flawed.  I think this is very interesting as it acknowledges our human flaws and therefore suggests we may need to re-evaluate quite how critical we are of AI when it comes to bias and inaccuracies, etc, where we as humans, on careful analysis, don’t do much better despite the fact we convince ourselves that we do.     On this panel, Jordan a young researcher raised the issue of how some see gen-Z as being lacking in resiliency and maybe even  being “soft” and in need of constant “trigger” warnings however she then proceeded to point to all the social media and the events in the press, to conflict such as those currently engulfing various parts of the world, which have bombarded her generation through technology more than any other generation in history;   Maybe we need to cut gen-Z a bit of slack here.

Now in the afternoon I didn’t take any real notes mainly due to my Surface battery giving up, and me having left by battery pack back at the room which was some distance away.    I do remember Gemma’s second contribution of the day, although this might be due to arriving just as she was due to start, sitting in the front row and beginning to eat from a little tub of ice cream;   Who needs supportive colleagues when you have me?    Now as it was great to hear Gemma hit a particular theme which I believe is so important, in the need to seek collective knowledge.   She mentioned a great set of books, including Darren Whites book, where Darren is also a Digital Futures Group member, plus a variety of others.  She also mentioned blogs, including mine, plus other online groups and individual sharing ideas, thoughts and resources.  For me in a world where technology is moving so fast the old methods of centralised reform and of waiting for CPD are no longer as appropriate as they are too slow.    The key and our best hope is to network and to collectively share ideas, thoughts and resources, and this type of networking is the key tenet of the Digital Futures Group.   “The smartest person in the room, is the room” as David Weinberger would say, so the bigger the room or more rooms you get involved in the better you, and collectively everyone, will be.    Gemma towards the end of the session eloquently brought things back to the students, as that is what education and schools are all about, however her use of “Bobby” and it all being about Bobby, and about us needing to consider Bobby and the effect on Bobby was so very impactful    This act of putting a name and making it about a specific, visualisable student rather than the generic and nebulous “students” makes all the difference and really helps nail the need to consider the individual learners in all we do.  

It was great to finish the day on top of what we dubbed “Teletubby hill”, being the grassed roof of the building in which the conference was held, looking off towards the setting sun.   It was a very busy but also very useful and interesting day.  And there was ice cream so what more can you ask for.  

How little did I know that attempted murder and Gondola related trauma awaited on day 2!

FutureShots 2024, Part 1

Early this month I had my second opportunity, post returning to the UK from the UAE, to contribute to an international conference event, this time the FutureShots event in Italy, not far outside Venice.   Now I have already posted on my Gondola experience during this particular trip however I would now like to share some thoughts from the conference proper, and in particular the first day of the conference which was focussed on AI in education.

The keynote session was delivered by my friend and colleague from the ISC Digital Advisory Group, Laura Knight who delivered her usual flawless presentation with so many take aways, so let me try to summarise the ones which particularly resonated with me.

Binaries: I have long been concerned by binary arguments which seem to dominate lots of education discussions.    In the case of AI things are no different with people either being doom and gloom, AI will end the world, or being evangelical about its ability to transform the world and education for the better.    The reality, as I have often stated, is that reality lies somewhere in between with positives balanced out against negatives, challenges or drawbacks.   AI isnt positive OR negative, but both positive and negative, and very dependent on the people using it, how they are using it and the task to which they are putting it, be it for good or for evil.

Trough of Disillusionment:  Laura suggested that we may be passing the hype part of AI and moving into the “trough of disillusionment”.   There has certainly been a lot of singing and dancing about AI in education and maybe this is wearing thin as generally the impact has been less than advertised, but I also note that the tech is improving and advancing quickly.   Only in the last few weeks we have seen GPT 4o and similar advancements coming out of Google, so could it be that as we approach the trough of disillusionment with one iteration of generative AI, that a new iteration and new functionality appears throwing us back into awe and wonderment.

Now Laura delivered many more points which I took away from her session. This includes considering ownership of ideas, agency in the use of the tools, the importance of trust, integrity and truth, and much more.   I will however save some of these for future blogs.  

The final, and possibly biggest point I took away from the session related to the term “resilience” which is often stated as a characteristic we wish to foster in students.    Laura raised concerns that although resilience is important it is not a state we can live in for any length of time.   This loosely aligns with my concerns regarding the “do more”, “be more efficient” narrative which we encounter all so often, both in education and beyond.   This “do more” with the same resources, pushes us increasingly into survival mode and “resilience” and this is something which is unsustainable over time.   Laura suggested an alternative in “equanimity” and being comfortable and calmly coping and managing change.   Now I am not 100% sure on this term yet, but I definitely agree with the sentiment that maybe we need to be a little more careful in over selling resilience as the solution to our challenges.

Next up was the panel session which I was involved in, chaired by Alessandro Bilotta, Content Director for EDUtech di Terrapinn along with Carlos Garriga Gamarra, CIO, IE University, Donatella Solda, Presidentessa, EdTech Italia, and Diego Pizzocaro, Head, H-FARM My School.   Now I must admit I didn’t take any notes during this one, having been a bit too busy being involved in it but the session did pose some interesting questions such as what it means to be human in a world of AI and generative AI?    If they key thing for us humans to do is the things AI cant do, what are those things?   Now I think the key thing is the social side of life, the human to human interaction including non-verbal queues, so not a Teams or Zoom call.   I used the term “human flourishing” as I think that sounds about right in principle although I will admit I havent quite bottomed out what human flourishing actually looks like;  I suspect that’s a work in progress.    Another question related to GDPR and AI, and whether GDPR was a road block.  For me it isnt;  We’ve been using satnav and google and social media for years without too many GDPR related questions.   Data protection is important but good practice in terms of data protection is independent of whether you are looking at an AI based solution or a non-AI based solution;  Its simply just good data protection practice.

EdTech startups were the next session of the conference with a number of startups each providing a short pitch of their product;  I must admit to being impressed with some of the pitches not just due to the ideas, but due to the presenters delivering in English where their native language was generally Italian.   Doing a short time bounded pitch is hard enough without having to give it in a second language.   Now the fact that H-Farm has these startups as part of their campus is such a great idea as it encourages the co-creation of solutions rather than tech vendors creating what they think education wants, and then spending lots of money convincing educationalists that their product is the one and best solution.

We were not even through the morning at this point and I already had quite a few thoughts and ideas to take away and consider.   My surface battery was depleting fast, an issue which was to impact me later on in the day but the day was going well.   Now I have plenty more to share from the event, however am going to split things here for now and continue in a subsequent blog.    If I was taking away a key thing from the morning it was the need to put the humans at the centre of AI use.   It is about assisting humans and allowing humans to therefore focus on the things which humans do well, and that support “human flourishing”.

2024 + 2 months: A review

Ok so its now the end of February, that’s 1/6 of the year gone already and I am left wondering where the time has gone.   Now part of me thinks time is flying simply as we are all becoming busier, as we do more, try to be more efficient, try to do things better, while part of me also thinks its an age thing (but I am not keen to admit to the 2nd option).    I also need to acknowledge taking on quite a number of projects however I am finding keeping busy and the diverse nature of the projects to be fun and engaging and therefore keeping me in a more positive place than I was back in December;  That said I also need to ensure I do say “No” where appropriate.    So with 2 months from 12 gone I thought it might be useful to have a quick review against my pledges from the start of the year, so here goes…..

Doom Scrolling

I think my doom scrolling on my phone has reduced which is good but I still feel I reach for my phone a little too much at the moment.   It’s the old issue of my phone and its notifications providing me with the dopamine fix, leading to checking my phone more often due to increasing dependency on this fix.   It is now less social media I am looking at and more the likes of WhatsApp;  Am not sure if that makes it better screen time or not, however the need to constantly check my phone feels like a bad thing.   That said for the time period from December to the end of February my average daily screen time had dropped to just below 2hrs 40mins which is below the 3hr target I was looking to hit so this seems to be good progress.   I will however need to continue to review this especially around my habits   

Fitness

My target was 500km for the year so with 2 months gone I am happy enough with 95km completed.  Projecting this out, if I kept up the current rate would get me above the 500km target by the end of the year.    I have also seen my pace improve and now am generally sat around the 6min/km which is a pace I am happy with.   At this point I still haven’t engaged with any social running such as a parkrun so this is definitely something I need to look towards, plus I haven’t looked at runs beyond the 5km range so again this is something for me to look at.

Exploring

So far I haven’t managed any real exploring, aside from a trip up to Sheffield to work with The National College;   There wasn’t much exploring done during the couple of days up there due to a focus on filming a number of webinars.    So this is definitely something I need to look to address with Easter likely to be the first opportunity although I suspect Easter will be focused on family rather than exploring so it may be that any exploring has to be put off until the summer at the earliest.

Happiness

This is always a difficult question to deal with;  At work our perception is likely we are happier when on holiday, but if we quantify our happiness, the reality is we are often happier when busy, engaged and operating autonomously at work.    I think I am a little happier at the moment than I was in late December and I suspect a lot of this relates to being busy and engaged in different and diverse projects and events.   But maybe this leads to a question about how I balance this out in terms of my downtime?    I am reading a bit more and spending time with the velociraptor (she’s actually a German Sheppard but having eaten 3 dining room chairs among other things I think the velociraptor reference is more than fair) plus am running regularly and there are a few other things in their early stages which are making me feel a bit better, but I suspect I have a long way to go in finding the balance I want to achieve.  My current book, Lost Connections: Why you’re depressed and how to find hope, is an interesting read which is helping, although I note I am not reading it as I necessarily feel “depressed” but more because the topic and managing our lives in this busy and technology driven world is something that interests me.   We will see how I feel about the book once I am further into it.

Achievements/Contributions

I think as with 2023 things are already shaping up well with the upcoming ISC digital conference, my work on the ISBA’s Technology Survey, work with the Association of Network Managers in Education (ANME), an event looking at esports within schools, my work with the amazing Digital Futures Group ahead of EduTech Europe 2024 and a number of other things on the cards.   The key in all of these events are the brilliant people they allow me to work with, collaborate with and bounce ideas off of, plus the amazing educators which I get to network and share with.   Oh and I can’t not mention the really enjoyable Cyber Security webinar I did only the other day with Mark Anderson and Abid Patel; Is always great sharing with these two amazing individuals, but I clearly need to continue to work on Mark in relation to moving over to Scotland’s favourite soft drink rather than coffee. Abid is on the Irn-Bru Extra which is at least part way there!

Conclusion

I think, two months into 2024, I am still trying to find my new normal but I am happier with that than I was.   Maybe my new normal isn’t a fixed place but something more fluid, but where I am more accepting and happy of this fluidity?    It is still early days for 2024 but I am positive about what lies ahead and that’s a good place to start from.   

As I often find myself saying; onwards and upwards!   

ISMG Cyber Summit: Reflections

I recently undertook my annual trip outside of the education bubble and into the wider tech and particularly InfoSec world, attending the ISMG cyber summit in London.   Now my trip was largely uneventful in terms of my usual transport disasters although I note that Google Maps did make its best effort to send me off on a wild goose chase between the tube station and the event venue, but for once my common sense prevailed.  

The purpose of my annual trip outside education is to sense check where we are as schools in terms of cyber security, in relation to the wider world.   It is also an opportunity to gather advice and best practice from industry.   I note those in the room with me were largely senior security staff, rather than my more broader role which encompasses security, plus they had budgets far exceeding anything any school will ever have access to for spending on technology, never mind purely on cyber security.

The day was very useful with a number of key topics coming out:

AI

Artificial intelligence was a hot topic during the course of the day particularly in relation to the increasing use of AI solutions within businesses, much in the same way we see increasing use in education.    The challenge and focus was on how we secure AI solutions against issues such as prompt-injection, poisoning of the training model and data exfiltration among other areas.    For me the key takeaway from this is that AI solutions are yet another area which organisations, including schools, need to consider and secure.  And as schools seek to use more AI solutions, including third party solutions, this risk will only increase.

Wellbeing during an incident

This particular issue resonated with me.   IT teams often work hard behind the scenes only becoming visible when there is an issue or when someone wants a new solution, new functionality, etc.   And in the event of a cyber incident the stress largely falls on them to get things up and running.  If the school, or other organisation, seldom recognises the hard work which goes into the normal working day, what hope is there during a cyber incident when they are working even harder and under significantly more stress.   As such the wellbeing, mental health and general support for IT staff, and broader with all staff, is so key.    How are we supporting wellbeing, and this has to be beyond the tick box efforts, the wellbeing working party, etc. How can we evidence we truly are cognizant and focussed on wellbeing?   Also, in the event of a high stress incident, how will we manage wellbeing?   One suggestion during the event was to have a “chief care officer” during incident response, which was an idea I liked.

Ransomware and Third parties

Two of my key concerns from an educational IT point of view have been ransomware and third-party incidents.   Both of these appeared as significant discussion points in relation to industry and enterprise organisations.     Ransomware continues to be a common attack method in general while third party data breach also continues to be common.  One particular presenter during the course of the conference talked about adding additional external solutions to monitor logs, etc, but thereby adding an additional vendor and vulnerability risk, as this third party become yet another vector through which an organisations data and systems might be comprising.  Here is one of the key challenges in our attempts to improve our security resulting in layering of solutions, where each new solution may represent an additional risk and attack vector.  This to me highlights the important of governance over security, so that decisions of risk v. benefit can be appropriately authorised and accountability made clear;  I note accountability was another discussion point from the event in relation to CISO liability however I didn’t feel this quite impacts on schools.

Conclusion

Once again, this event proved to me that the challenges that impact on education are not limited or unique to education.   They are issues which impact organisation across different sectors with only the context and resourcing varying across sectors.  In the case of education there continues to be the issue in the limited resourcing in relation to cyber security in terms of the products but also in terms of the staffing and expertise; A bank might have a while cyber team however how many schools can claim to actually have even a single cyber security focussed professional?   This, the large and varied user base, and the need for quite so many users to have access to sensitive personally identifiable information, means schools and other educational organizations will continue to be a focus for attacks for some time to come.

If I was to take anything away from the event it was that enterprises and schools all suffer the risk of a cyber incident.    All we can do is limit the impact, and delay the inevitable    A banks spending seven figures on security might sound like the way forward but the reality is that all it does is reduce the risk so spending huge amounts of money might make no difference in the long run; It is just case of when rather than if.    As such, for schools, the focus needs to continue be on doing the basics in terms of user awareness, MFA, backups, least privilege access, patching and incident planning.

AI in Education

The other day saw me attend a meeting at the Elementary Technology offices in Leeds, meeting with a number of EdTech legends (and me!) to plan an artifical intelligence (AI) conference event due to occur in October.    The planning event was a brilliant opportunity to discuss all things AI and education with some excellent and varied discussions occurring across two days.   

In thinking about my personal use of AI it became clear to me that my own use is still short of what is possible, where there is such potential for me to make greater use of generative AI solutions in a way that will improve my productivity, my creativity and also hopefully my wellbeing through gains in efficiency.  

As I sat on the train on the way home typing this I considered how I might make better use of AI.   Now I could use it to help me write this post, however this post is very much a personal reflection, where AI cant really help although I may be able to use AI to help adjust and improve the post following initially drafting it. I could also use it to create some interesting images with me in different locations or situations, which although fun to do, is unlikely to enhance my work day significantly.   So, what can AI help me with and how may I create situations where it is easier or more convenient for me to make use of AI?

In drafting emails, policies, reports or other documents I suspect generative AI can certainly help.   Also in relation to the creation of presentations there is potential for the use of Generative AI, with Darren White demonstrating the impressive functionality in Canva in relation to creating both content and design within a presentation.   I suspect I may use this in preparing for some of the talks I am due to give in the year ahead.

The key though to achieving the benefits is in making it easier for me to use AI solutions at the point I need them.   My solution to this is to look to include ChatGPT and Bard along with some other AI tools within my “normal day” collection in MS Edge so that they are instantly opened when I begin my work day, ready to use as and when needed.    I also need to spend a bit of time investigating AI powered plug-ins which can put the functionality right in the browser ready to access.

The potential for AI is significant and the two days of discussion were definitely useful.   I now look forward to the actual conference event on the 3rd of October and to sharing thoughts and ideas with a variety of colleagues in UK schools/colleges and beyond.   

BETT 2023: Some reflections

BETT 2023 has been and gone so thought I would write my usual reflections piece.   I think this was my sixth BETT conference since returning back to the UK, a figure that pales into insignificance when compared to some of my friends and colleagues, however now exceeds my visits to the UAE GESS/GEF event.     It was a busy few days with lots of walking, lots of talking and a fair amount of listening too.  So what did I learn and how did it go?

Networking

The key reason I continue to attend BETT is the networking side of things, to meet up with friends and colleagues and share thoughts and ideas in relation to the use of technology in education.    Am not going to try and list those I met up with this year through fear of missing people out.   This year didn’t fail to deliver on this front although, as has been the case in the past, there were many people at the event who I failed to meet or catch up with.   I suspect this will always be the case given the importance of planning your trip ahead of time, meaning that there is only so much time available for those impromptu and unplanned meetups or for reaching out via social media to try and locate and meet up.    I will note that my selfie collection this year is once again a poor comparison to others often due to being too engaged in discussion to even think about getting the phone out for a quick selfie.  Maybe a note-to-self for next year is needed here.     On a more positive note it was great to hear from a few people who had read some of my previous blog posts or had listened to the “In our humble opinion” podcast which myself and Ian Stockbridge have been producing recently. It always great to hear that there is an audience although, as I have noted in the past, I find the process of blogging and podcasting useful in itself even if no-one reads or listens.

Presentations

I attended a number of the presentations during the course of BETT with those I attended mainly taking the form of panel style discussions.    I think this worked very well when compared with the “sage on the stage” style presentations which were more common in the past.   It allowed for a number of panellists to put across their views and approaches in relation to the given topic while highlighting that there is seldom a single solution and the important need to consider school context.     It also highlighted for me the importance of discussions, including discussions like those of the panellists, to help us share practice and improved collectively as educational professionals.

It was nice to hear panellists present thoughts which agreed with my own such as the importance of considering context when looking at data, the importance of culture and the need to accept technology advancement, and then identify how best to make use of it and best manage any risks.    One particular session which touched on Artificial Intelligence provided some of the standout comments in relation to technology being neither good or bad, but simply being “here” and also the risk associated with AI in regarding its potential for “automating inequalities”.  I also particularly enjoyed the esports discussion I attended which once again highlighted for me the potential which esports has within the education space.

Stands

As I pointed out last year I no longer go to BETT to visit the various stands although I will note I did visit a number of stands for quick discussions and to touch base with companies which I am either using or likely to be using in the near future.   I therefore avoided my usual frustrations with the number of interactive panels, floor and wall solutions as are normally on show, although my sense is they were, as always, dominant at the event despite representing a technology which must now be approaching 30yr old.   It was Dave Leonard who pointed out the BETT futures area as a specific area of the BETT conference to visit focussed on the new startups and the new solutions, and I will admit it was here that I had the most interesting and useful stand based discussions.    Data analytics and the use of the block chain to store certificates or identification documents being two of the more interesting topic discussions I engaged in.

Themes

Across the BETT event I believe there were a couple of themes which stood out for me.    These were:

  • Artificial Intelligence: this has the potential be a significant catalyst for change in the world of education representing many potentials and also a number of risks and challenges, and it is here, now!   We need to seek to adapt to this new normal and to use this new tool in the best, most effective and safest way possible to support our learners.
  • Digital Citizenship:  I use the term very loosely to including cyber security, data protection, online safety and digital safety, however in an increasingly digital world this continues to be increasingly more and more importance yet the resources to address the challenges, principally time to discuss and educate students, teachers and parents, isn’t currently there.
  • Culture: The often used quote of “culture beats [or eats] strategy” is true in the importance of culture, but what does this actually mean?   It makes for a nice one-liner when asked what the solution to the EdTech, or any other, challenge is, or what we need to focus on, but how do we seek to action “culture” and develop it across the board, in all our schools?   This was a question well raised by Al Kingsley in a session he chaired and a question I think we all need to consider.

The mishap

OK so I have shared my reflections but as always BETT had to come with a mishap and it would be wrong of me not to share.   This years mishap was a wardrobe issue in deciding to wear my new suit to the event.  It hadn’t been out of its suit carrier since purchase and I thought a nice new suit was perfect for BETT;  Remember I am rarely seen out of a suit when on school business even if it means a trip to Blackpool zoo with students or on a history field trip.     So as I headed out of the hotel room in the morning for BETT and just as I went for the door my wife noticed the back of the suit jacket still had a security tag on it, and it wasn’t for budging.    So no suit jacket for the duration of BETT. Doh!

And possibly more importantly I only brought a couple of cans of Irn-Bru so found myself having to drink Fanta instead;  The BETT organisers had failed to ensure that there were vendors selling Irn-Bru on site. The horror of it!!   Such a failure in their consideration of equality and diversity!

Conclusion

BETT 2023 was another useful event.   Lots of walking, listening and talking.   I do as always wonder if it delivers on the time and expense of attending especially given 3 or 4 hours on a train in each direction, plus hotel accommodation, but then this might be me just having unrealistic expectations of what the event can deliver.   I know others that are far more positive of the event than I am so wonder if maybe I am doing something wrong or not making the most of the event?   Flipping it on its head, if I didn’t go, would I achieve similar value, and save money, in just attending school over the days of the conference?    I suspect the answer to this flipped question is clearly no and therefore BETT continues to be the place to be.    And maybe its as simple as that, that if you are involved in Technology in Education then for the duration of the BETT conference you simply have to be there, at least for some of it.   As such I suspect 2024 will once again see me at BETT with a detailed plan in hand, still failing to adhere to the advice re: comfy footwear and clothes, but with more Irn-Bru to hand this time!