Month: December 2024

Pledges – A review of 2024

And so 2024 draws to a close.  Where has the year gone?    Although I note I suspect I say that every year, and at the end of each term and half term….Is it an age thing or related to the frenzied pace rushing from one half term, term, academic year or calendar year to the next; I am not sure.    But as 2024 draws to its close I think its about time for that little bit of annual reflection and a look back on my pledges which I set out in January (Read more here).

Doom Scrolling

This was something I worried about at the start of the year, that I was spending too much time mindlessly flicking through my phone.   The end of 2023 did find me feeling a bit lost with social media being a welcome distraction, albeit not a positive one.   2024 saw me install and delete TikTok on a number of occasions in relation to this, while also seeing me removing Facebook also as I made little use of it other than to consume content, and doom scroll.   Looking at quantitative figures, in late December 2023 I was on my phone around 3hrs 20mins per week however half way through December 2024 my average had dropped to 2hr 38mins based on a 5wk rolling average, so that suggests a reduction albeit it’s a little higher than the 2hr 30mins I was looking to achieve.    In terms of increased real social interactions I mentioned, am not sure whether I managed this or not.  I certainly have been out and about a bit more recently plus professionally 2024 has seen me involved in a number of groups and projects.   Maybe my ideal view of what I think I should be doing is different from what might be possible in the digital world we now live in?   Maybe I need to manage my expectations better here?

Fitness

I managed my target of running 500km this year, with a couple of weeks to spare however I didn’t manage the longer runs or a social run as I had set myself.   I did find it challenging this year, never really building up any real momentum with my running and being quite erratic at times, but sometimes it is pushing through and succeeding when things are difficult which matters.    I suspect I will relax on fitness for next year just to give my body a bit of a breather after a couple of years of 500km+ per year of running.   Again, the issue of social activities comes up as something I fell short on, but is that as I am more of an introvert and self-motivated rather than someone who really enjoys doing activities, including fitness related activities, with a group?   With a bit of OCD, do I prefer the assuredness and ease of doing things solo, versus the messiness and complexity where it involves other humans being?    Do I need to be happier in my own solo fitness efforts rather than looking towards others?

Exploring

Not sure I really did much exploring this year, although I did venture once more to Tenerife, and maybe explored Fareham and surrounding areas a little bit.   Oh and who could forget the trauma of my visit to Venice and the Grand Canal.   This is definitely an area where I have fallen short this year, but where at least some progress was made and something I need to consider for next year.    That being said, exploring and travel requires a number of pre-requisites such as time and money, both of which I have struggled at times with during 2024.

Happiness and adapting

2024 for me was very much about adapting to changes which started at the end of 2023.  It has been a difficult year with some definite dark and bright spots, with the tail end of the year starting to show signs of promise.   I think one of the challenges for me has been, being happiest when I am busy but feeling a little lost when I am less busy and should be relaxing; This is something I need to resolve, possibly in finding a better balance between work and personal life, which is something I feel I started to in the 2nd half of 2024. It is with this thought that I want to see in the new year and start 2025, hopefully growing the things that have made me happiest over the recent months.

Achievements

This year has been really busy in terms of engaging with various EdTech events with my involvement in over 20 different events, including an event in Venice.   I was also close to getting back out to the Middle East and contributing to an event out there, after almost 10 years since I was last out there however this proved a bit costly so I had to give it a miss;  Maybe something for next year!    I have repeatedly found myself referring to David Weinberger’s, “the smartest person in the room is the room” this year, so am grateful for so many opportunities to contribute to various rooms and to hear from so many amazing educational and IT professionals who are equally sharing their thoughts, knowledge and expertise.   In an increasingly frantic world, with the significant pace of technological change, our best chance continues to be to share with others and work collaboratively.  If acknowledging anyone the ANME and the Digital Futures Group are of particular note, as are my colleagues on the ISC Digital Advisory Group, who have all provided me so much help, advice and much more throughout 2024.

Conclusion

2024 is almost at an end, and my reflection rather than providing me answers has provided me more questions.   That reminds me of a quote I saw recently which said “the problem with the world is that the intelligent people are full of doubts and the stupid ones are full of confidence”.   Now am not saying I am intelligent, but I definitely have had and continue to have my doubts in many areas of my life, being it about my fitness, my career and work, my family and more, but maybe these doubts are normal.   Maybe seeking the answers is an eternal struggle, but where no answers will ever be found, and in which case maybe I need to be happy with the journey.    So maybe that’s a good way to leave this review of 2024, in saying its been a bit of a journey, with an unknown destination, but at least the weather here, where I am now compared to where I was in Dec 2023, is better!

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.

Uses of AI in education – For the student

I have previously posted that student uptake of AI was greater than the case with staff in schools and colleges.    Now my sense is that this is true.   I myself gathered data between Jan 2023 and Apr 2023 in relation to uptake of generative AI tools like ChatGPT and the rate of uptake with students was definitely greater than it was for staff.  A more recent analysis of weekly use in schools, focusing on the big well known AI tools, showed around 83% of the usage on the school network belonged to students.   This got me thinking about students and generative AI and why use of generative AI might be a good thing.

So what might students get from generative AI?

One of the things a teacher offers to a class of students is their knowledge as shared through lessons and the set learning activities.   But the teacher is only available to students fleetingly during their lessons, or occasionally when they are free at other times in the busy school week.    GenAI also has knowledge to offer.   It however benefits from being available anytime and anywhere that students have access to a smart phone, tablet, laptop or computer.   It also benefits from being much broader in its knowledge;   If we were to read the same data as ChatGPT 3.5 has ingested, it would take us 2500 years to do so.   Surely having easy access to knowledge, and such a wealth of broad knowledge, and more often, is a good thing?

And we also need to consider how Generative AI delivers its knowledge.   A library provides knowledge but requires significant time, effort and a bit of skill to traverse.  Google provides knowledge, but we need to get the search terms right plus then dig through the links.  But with Generative AI we can actually have a bit of a dialogue, discussing and finessing our requirements to get that which we want.   Maybe a little like when chatting about an interesting topic with your teacher, but available anytime, anywhere and without other commitments which they need to rush off too?

And another key aspect and feature of GenAI is the often chatbot style with which we interact with it.    As human beings this is one of our key methods of communication to allow us to understand or seek to understand.  We have a dialogue.   We make comments, are corrected, reply and adjust our approach, our thinking and our language.   It’s a two way process, back and forth and that’s exactly how we interact with GenAI such a Gemini, ChatGPT or CoPilot.   It’s very much like the dialogue a student might have with a teacher.

One aspect of this dialogue between teacher and student in schools is that of feedback.   I remember the Hattie research which indicated that feedback was one of the more powerful levers which could be pulled to influence student outcomes.   Now the issue with feedback is always the time for the teacher to provide the feedback and the time taken to create it, however with GenAI students could potentially get feedback as and when they need it, and at every stage of the creation of their work.   Its like having at least part of a teacher on call to provide feedback 24/7. 

This feedback also needn’t be simply limited to feedback on coursework and other submissions.  It can extend to a variety of topics including health, wellbeing, study tips and more, where GenAI can provide some advice and help as and when needed.    AI can help students  get started with work, it can advise regarding interpersonal issues or can help draft ideas or to restructure ideas the student have already identified.   And if you have issues with language, its there to translate, or summarise to help.    Its an IA, or intelligent assistant, there to help and assist, as and when needed.

Its also important to circle back to the broad knowledge set of GenAI as not only is it valuable in its own right, but it also means that quite often prompts generate responses which go beyond that which we expect, opening up other things to consider within the scope of the topic or task we are exploring.    It helps stimulate our creativity and introduces further breadth, plus it also allows us to access other mediums, allowing students to be artists, musicians, poets and more, through the support of generative AI.   Why would any student still believe they aren’t creative, when they have generative AI to help?

Another thing to consider, is where students might find it difficult to talk to an adult or even one of their peers.   It may be that a generative AI based chatbot might be able to help here, providing at least some initial advice and hopefully reassuring students but also pointing them towards appropriate help services and individuals.   I don’t think the AI would provide all the required support however it might just be that starting point that gets that shy or unsure student looking in the right direction for the support they need.   AI could just be that quiet friend with advice and support, positive words of reassurance and more, which a student needs.

It is also a tool to automate things, helping organise and coordinate our lives to make things easier;  It can take notes in lectures, it can update your to-do list and more, and a world where things are getting increasingly busy and hectic, maybe our young need this help more than anyone else.   Its all new to them so they haven’t built the coping strategies that those older than them may have developed, so something that helps take at least a little bit of the busyness out of life would be a good thing.

Conclusion

So is it any wonder that students are using Generative AI.    Students, and the young more generally are experimental where adults, who have been conditioned by a world of systems, processes and rules, are less so.    As such students are more likely to try new things, and as something as shiny and which promises so much, it’s no wonder they are experimenting with generative AI.   And all of the above, in my eyes anyway, is potentially positive and doesn’t even touch on the possible mis-use of GenAI for “cheating” which many are concerned about.    Is it cheating anyway if it helps the students achieve the best they can potentially achieve?   Why would we want students to achieve less?    Is it right to be happy with students being academically honest and achieving a B, when with the help of tools so commonly now used in the world they could achieve an A?    Why is it academically dishonest, or unfair, to try and achieve the best grade by using the tools available, in an educational game which ranks all students in terms of grades irrespective of their individual needs, abilities and disabilities?    If AI produces better outcomes, or reduces stress and anxiety, or improves wellbeing, confidence, etc, then surely it’s a good thing? 

Maybe we need to worry less about the change being brought about by generative AI and worry more about why our education systems are so reluctant to allow for change?

SAAS Birmingham 2024

The schools and academies show and co-hosted EdTech Summit are marked in my calendar as an annual event to attend, so it was with this that I made my way over the Birmingham NEC for this years event.  

As always the key benefit of the event is the networking which is provides with so many great people to meet up with and share ideas with.  

The Digital Futures Group, including Gemma Gwilliam, Emma Darcey, James Garnett, Jonny Wathen and Abid Patel were all in attendance, and with Abid bringing a Bru, albeit the wrong one.  

Additionally I met up with Osi Ejiofor and Georgina Dean and Nicola Pondsford.    Some of the ISC Digital Advisory Group were around including the chair, David Horton, and Neelam Parmar as well.    And the event is never complete without the ANMEs presence, the stand complete with the ambassadors avatars, myself included, and a chance to chat with Rick Cowell, Jase Caul and Terry Dignam.      I am so thankfully for such a wonderful group of people who are so keen to share their thoughts and wisdom.   Every time I meet up with these people I come away feeling more optimistic as to EdTech in schools, plus more developed in my thinking. The smartest person in the room is the room, so I am gratefully to be in the same room as all these great people.

So this years event had a fair amount of Gemma keeping me on the straight and narrow, including guiding me through Birmingham airport buildings to our chosen hotel, where I suspect had I been doing this on my own I would have got badly lost. My geographical and directional skills are not very reliable and I am convinced the Google Maps app is bent on sending me in the wrong direction.

As I write this blog, and seek to share some thoughts, I must note my Schools and Academies badge as supplied by Rick and ANME.    The notable thing about it was that it didn’t list me as a visitor, a speaker (I wasn’t speaking) but as “Press”.    Now sadly I suspect this was an administrative error rather than this blog now reaching sufficient people that I can now be considered a member of the associated press.    But who knows what the future holds 😉  Maybe next year I need to walk around with a microphone and see what reaction that gets?

So what were my main takeaways from the event?     As mentioned above I think a key takeaway of this and other conferences and events is simply the need to network and share.  Technology moves fast, and all schools differ in context so no-one in schools is in a position to resolve the resultant challenges on their own, so our best chance is simply to approach the problems and challenges collectively, to share and work together.    The ANME, the ISC Digital Advisory Group and the Digital Futures Group (DFG) are all key to me in this, plus events like the schools and academic show provide opportunities to meet further people.

A second take away relates to AI.   This continues to be a hot topic in educational circles but I sometimes feel this is a small number of individuals and schools rather than the masses.   AI has such potential but we need to be pragmatic about it and how we encourage people to try and to experiment but to be safe.    To this end I liked Chris Goodalls presentation where we talked about the low barrier to entry in relation to staff using AI;   It is simply about getting people trying it, typing in the text box and submitting their prompt.    He also pointed to the possibly unnecessary language used making AI sound difficult, such as “prompt engineering”;   If we look at generative AI as a chat bot and as involving a dialogue, then isn’t it something that everyone can do, assuming we can simply convince them to give it a try.   And as to remaining safe, we proposed the need for a DBS, or the need to consider Data privacy, Bias and Safety;   Such a simple acronym.

My third take away related to strategy and a few discussions on AI.   AI may be great thing to consider and maybe something which is a hot topic, but you cant experiment with AI without infrastructure, bandwidth, devices, training and more.    There needs to be a plan, a strategy, and only once you have this and seek to implement it can you then potentially look at using AI.     Related to this I also had a number of discussions on digital divides where the existence of a strategy, the availability of reliable infrastructure, and of client devices for staff and students, plus now, engagement in AI, all represent different divides which can impact on schools, teachers and students.  

Now I was only going to list three takeaways but as I sit on this train there was one other takeaway I need to share and it came from the drinks reception which occurred prior to the SAAS event.    Schools and teachers now have such a list of things that need to be done, so many compliance and other required tasks which are done because we have to.   I have commented on this in the past.    But what about doing the things we want, or even love to do?    Don’t we want teachers that love to teach, and student that as a result love to come to school and engage.    Is the increasing requirements, tasks, compliance and workload eroding the love for teaching and love for learning?   I suspect it is but how can we redress this balance.    This isn’t an easy question, and relates to some of my previous posts on focussing on what matters.   I suspect this will continue to grow as something which schools, school leaders, governments, inspection regimes and other education related organisations need to stop and think about, and hopefully sooner rather than later.

So that’s the Schools and Academic 2024, Birmingham show finished for another year.   The next significant event on the calendar is BETT and I must say, after last year I am so looking forward to it.   I will note that I didn’t do a great job of planning my visit to the schools and academies show, so this is something I will need to make sure and correct for BETT.   And also, maybe this year I may finally heed the common advice regarding comfy shoes.   Or maybe Ill rock up in a suit as normal!