Tag: Conference

AI risks and challenges

I once again had the opportunity to speak in relation to AI in education earlier in the week, this time at the Elementary Technology and ANME event in Leeds.   Now this time my presentation was very much focussed on the risks and challenges of AI in education rather than the benefits, leaving the benefits and some practical uses of AI to other presenters and to the workshop style sessions conducted in the afternoon.    This post marks the first post of two looking at the risks and challenges I discussed during my session.

Bias

The potential for Bias in AI models and in particular in the current raft of Generative AI solutions was the first of the challenges I discussed.   In order to illustrate the issue I made use of Midjourney asking it separately for a picture of a nurse in a hospital setting and then for a picture of a doctor, in both cases not stating the gender and allowing the AI to infer this.   Unsurprisingly the AI produced 4 images of a female nurse and 4 images of a male doctor easily demonstrating an obvious gender bias.   Now for me the bias here is obvious and therefore easily identified and corrected through an appropriate prompt asking for a mix of genders, but such bias are not always so identifiable.   What about the potential for bias in learning materials presented to a student via an AI enabled learning platform, or the choice of text returned to a student by a generative AI solution?   And if we cant identify the bias how are we to address it?    I will however note at this point we also have to consider human bias, as it is unfair to expect an AI solution to be without bias when we developed the solution, provided the training data, etc, and we are not without bias ourselves.

Data Privacy

Lots of individuals, including myself, are already providing data to AI solutions but do we truly know how this data will be used, who it might be shared with, what additional data might be inferred from it, etc, and we need to know this now as it is currently, but also the future intentions of those we provide data to.   The DfE makes clear that school personal data shouldn’t be provided to generative AI solutions however what if attempts are made to pseudonymize the data;  What level of pseudonymization is appropriate?   And then there is the issue of inferred data;  I recently heard the suggestion that, if we fed all of our AI prompts back into an AI solution and asked it to provide a profile for the user, it would do a reasonable job of the task possibly identifying age, work sector and more.    AI and generative AI offer a massive convenience, efficiency and speed gain however the trade off is giving more data away;  Is this a fair trade off and one which we are consciously accepting?

Hallucinations

The issue of AI presenting made up information was another one which I found easy to recreate.   I note this is often referred to a “hallucination” however I am not keen on the term as it anthropomorphises the current generative AI solutions we have when I still believe the solutions we currently have are still narrow in terms of their focus and therefore more akin to Machine Learning, a subset of the broader AI technologies.   To demonstrate this issue I used a solution we have been working on which helps teachers generate parental reports, putting a list of teacher provided strengths and areas for improvement into readable sentences which teachers can then review and update.    We simply failed to provide the AI with any strengths or areas for improvement.   The AI however still went on to produce a report however in the absence of any teacher provided strengths or areas for improvement, it simply made them up.    For me this highlights the fact that AI solutions cannot be considered as a replacement for humans, but instead are a tool or assistant to humans.

Cyber

The issue of cyber security or Information security and AI is quite a significant one from a variety of different perspectives.    First there is the potential use of AI in attacks against organisations including schools.   The existence of criminally focussed generative AI tools has already been reported in WormGPT and FraudGPT.    Generative AI makes it easy to quickly create believable emails or usable code, independent of whether the purpose of the code is benign or if it for a phishing email or malware.    Additionally there is the issue of AI as a new attack surface which cyber criminals might seek to leverage.   This might be through the use of prompt injection to manipulate the outputs from AI solutions, possibly providing fake links or validating organisations or posts which are malicious or fictious.   Attacks could also involve poisoning of the AI model itself, such that the models behaviour and responses are modified to suit the malicious ends of an attacker.   And these are only a couple of implications in relation to AI and cyber security.

Conclusion

I think it is important to acknowledge that my outlook on AI in general and in education is a largely positive one, however I think it is important that we are realistic and accept the existence of a balance; a balance between the benefits and the risks and challenges, where to make use of the benefits we need to be at least aware and consider the possible balancing drawbacks and risks. This post therefore is about making sure we are aware of the risks, with my next post digging into a few further risks and challenges.

As Darren White put it in his presentation at the Embracing AI event, “Be bold but be responsible”

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.   

If… The ISA/ISC Conference

I was involved in the ISA/ISC Digital Conference a couple of weeks back and thought I would share some of my headline thoughts following the event.    I note it was a busy day, including actually being involved in leading a couple of the sessions, so the below represent the standout points for me based on the sessions I managed to see.

For me there were three main themes which stuck out for me:

  1. Challenge the status quo and overly simplistic language and imagery
  2. Awareness of reductive reasoning and binary arguments
  3. A focus on humanity and wellbeing in a world of increasing technology use.

Challenge the status quo.

There is a clear need to challenge the status quo and particularly some of the language and visuals used when discussing technology.     Laura Knight did a good job of drawing attention to this, and I will admit I have been as guilty as many others of using some of the loose, simplistic language and visuals to which she referred.   The picture of the smiling student wearing a VR headset, the use of The Matrix style graphics in relation to AI ( Note: definitely guilty of this! ) and the discussion of the printing press as an analogy of the change now presented by AI, among others. All simplistic and not really representative of the situation we now find ourselves in due to AI.    These simplistic images and equally simplistic language only go to strengthen false perceptions about technology.   One of my favourites is the use of the dark hooded, and normally male, figure when discussing cyber crime;  Not exactly representative of the organised cyber crime we see today. We need to do better.

Reductive reasoning and binary arguments       

I have long argued about binary arguments and how the world is seldom simple enough to be modelled with a black and white, good and bad, right and wrong argument.  The world is inherently messy and operates in many shares of grey, existing between the black and white of any two extreme positions.  The issue here is that extreme positions are suited to the world of social media where the content has to be short and anything which stimulates a response is a good thing.    The message and medium are entangled.   This is something we need to be aware of especially as it continues to encourage echo chambers and division rather than the critical discussion and reasoning we really need. 

As to reductive reasoning, I get that we often want to simplify things for people.   This might be through presenting a simple model or presenting a “50 ways” or “5 ways”, such as 50 prompts for use of AI or 5 basic cyber security basics.   And again, I am guilty of this, creating a framework of basics in relation to cyber security.   But again the world is seldom that simple, and although the model or list of ways, makes things easier for the reader or audience, it all too often over simplifies the issue being discussed.   Cyber security is more nuanced than 5 basic mitigation measures and AI prompt craft is way more nuanced than 50 prompts.   The challenge here is the balance between convenience and ease of use, and mirroring the complexity of the world we live in.   Too basic makes things seem too easy and therefore not representative of our world, where trying to model the real world will likely result in a model too complex for people to understand or to be useful.   The balance lies somewhere in between these points.

Wellbeing and Humanity

As technology plays an increasing part in our lives then it is likely that wellbeing will become more important.   Being human and the traits of being human will become more important.   We will need to consider how we support wellbeing in the face of the tsunami of digital content, both positive and negative;   how we will manage the uncertainty of cyber risk, how we will best use the AI solutions which could provide support and counselling however might also be designed to influence, manipulate and deceive.   The question of what it means to be human and how human intelligences differ from synthetic intelligences will become all the more important.    We need to make use of AI to do the tasks which it is good at, while identifying what it is that human intelligence is better at and is suited for.   Ethical use of AI also plays a part here as will we want to know when we are dealing with an AI rather than a human, and are we happy for AI to play a part in key life decisions such as those related to health and finance.   In the face of upsetting online content, are we happy with AI making the decisions to filter content on the grounds of wellbeing, where we know this might lead to bias in the content which we are provided, or where such a solution might be controlled by an outside agency to their own ends?

Conclusion

The conferences title was “if” and this is rather apt as I feel we find ourselves at a junction.   We had the catalyst which was the pandemic that propelled us forward in relation to technology use in schools, plus we are now presented with AI, potentially an even more significant catalyst.   What might the future hold?     The key in my view is that we need to consider this, we need to consider how the next 5 or more years might look, and how we might shape this future to be the positive outcome we would like, or even need, it to be.    How things might look in future will be directly influenced by the decisions we take now.   If we do X then this may lead to Y.    We need to grab hold of technology and seek to shape its use and through doing so shape our futures.

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!

TEISS European Information Security Summit

I try to step outside education at least once each year, looking at the bigger technology world by attending an industry event.  The most recent of these ways the TEISS European Information Security Summit on 23rd Feb in London.    I feel it is important to keep up to date with the wider technology world to sense check my thoughts and ideas and to benchmark technology in education against technology in other sectors.    During the course of the event it was interesting to have discussions from a diverse range of industries including highly regulated industries like banking.   Hearing that they suffer similar issues to education, such as shadow IT or issues identifying responsibility for data, but at a much larger scale was reassuring.

Given below are some of my takeaways and thoughts from the various sessions and discussions I had throughout the course of the conference.

Budgets and Cyber

One of the first takeaways from the event related to cyber security and budgets.    It was presented that cyber budgets and cyber spending has been on the increase for a number of years.   It was also however indicated that the volume of attacks and the size of attacks continue to increase.    For me this suggests that more budget, including more staffing associated with additional budget, does not necessarily solve or improve the situation in relation to cyber.   From the point of view of schools and colleges this is important given the limited budgets available.    I think this highlights the need to start approaching cyber and cyber risk a little differently including possibly being more accepting of the fact we will never reach 100% secure and therefore accepting cyber as a journey and simply trying to focus on our key “business” assets and on continual improvement in relation to cyber security in whatever form this may take, including where this may be simple and small improvements.

Gamification

User awareness and cyber security culture was one of the three main streams offered at the conference with one session looking specifically at the potential use of gamification in relation to cyber security awarenss training.   It is true that often cyber security and other online training can be a boring process of reading a screen of text and clicking next repeatedly before completing a test at the end.   Clearly not an engaging experience and therefore possibly an experience  where little long term or deep learning takes place;  We may remember for long enough to answer the test at the end, but ask the same questions a week later and I suspect the retention of the content will have dropped to very low indeed.   So this is where gamification comes in.    The presenters identified two types of gamification, being content or structure based.   In content based gamification the content is presented as a game.  In structured based gamification the content is the same but includes some sort of leader board, prize of other enticement to engage users.   As the session was presented I was thinking of the potential of doing a Kahoot quiz with heads of department where they need to identify whether emails are trustworthy or not for example.     I also thought about some sort of competition between departments so maybe a quiz or phishing test which results in a cyber score which can be reported and compared with other departments.   This is one area I will certainly be looking into in the short term to see how I can try to gamify user awareness materials and processes, and to see what impact that has.

Civic duty rather than organisational cyber security awareness

Another point that was made during the conference was to engage people on security awareness beyond simply keep the organisations data secure but to accept that we can also deliver a civic benefit in making users more secure, both personally and also professionally.   Where we seek to do this we are more likely to engage users and have them learn from awareness programmes plus additionally we address the risk of a personal cyber incident potentially impacting on the school or other organisation anyway.  Take for example the compromised personal mobile phone:  It may have organisational email on it or info about the individual which could be used in crafting attack against them in their professional context, among other data which could pose a risk to the organisation.

Regulation as a change agent

One of the panel sessions I attended involved discussion of change and of compliance with security standards, change processes, etc.     From a school and college point of view this can be difficult as although policies are in place sometimes these will be overlooked and busy staff, both teachers and support staff, as well as students, may fail to engage with requirements or training around cyber security.    One of the panellists in the session highlighted that this wasn’t an issue in financial technology (FinTech) due to the nature of the business being heavily regulated meaning the penalties for non-compliance, for both the individual and the organisation, can be quite extreme.   Taking this insight and applying it to education got me thinking of the potential for the DfE to set requirements and of ISI and Ofsted to then include this within the inspection requirements.   Now the release of the DfE standards is a small step towards this however I suspect that is about as far as things will progress, which without any monitoring or penalties for non-compliance, is very limited in terms of impact.

Cyber insurance

There was a good session discussing cyber insurance with a very clear take away.  The session talked about how the cyber insurance market has seen policy costs increase along with greater requirements to get insured.   The questionnaires which you need to complete were a particular focus of discussion in that some of the questions are not easy to answer or not appropriate in a given context.   I have never really thought about this however the panel highlighted that the purpose of these questionnaires is for the underwriters to get a view of the risk in order to provide their proposal.   As such if the questions don’t make sense, it is the underwriters which we need to discuss this with to find out what it was they were hoping to find out from a given question.   Apparently the underwriters often don’t have access to client information, with this handled by the broker, so it is for the client, the school or college, to request a discussion with the underwriter and to initiate dialogue.

Conclusion

Cyber security seems to me to very much be a business risk, including where that business is the education of students.    As such it impacts all organisations albeit the scope of impact and the scope of risk varies.    This means there is a lot to gain from sharing experiences and ideas across sectors rather than just within sectors.    Having attended this industry focused information security event, where I think I may have been one of very few from the education sector, I came away with a fairly long list of ideas and things to try.    

But if I am to leave this post with one thought it is that maybe we need to get past the doom and gloom of cyber and become more accepting of doing what we reasonably can and of seeking to constantly improve, even where these improvements might only be small and minor;   It is about risk management.Any progress in the right direction is progress after all.

LGfL, Lets Assemble

Friday 24th Feb marked the Lets Assemble event, the first time I had been to this event.   I was ill prepared for the high energy start to the day with the Rock Kidz team getting things off to a flying start before John Jackson took to the stage to the Rocky theme tune.    This was certainly far from the industry information security event I had attended in the same venue the day before.

Networking

As with most events of this type the key for me was the opportunity to network and catch up with people.   I managed to have a chat with Mark Anderson, Al Kingsley, Olly Lewis, Emma Darcy, Ian Phillips, as well as Tim and Terry from the ANME, among many others.   Somehow, despite repeatedly seeing him and also seeing his excellent cyber security session, I didn’t manage to stop and catch up with Abid Patel;  we seem to be making a habit of missing each other at events!

AI and ChatGPT

One of the topics which appeared within a couple of the presentations was that of Artificial Intelligence and in particular the recent interest in Chat-GPT.    Dan Fitzpatrick delivered a great session highlighting that the current iteration of AI, such as that in ChatGPT will only get better with time.    So, where some see potential and some see challenges in relation to AI impact on education and on learning, the situation is only going to accelerate.   He also highlighted how AI technologies enable creativity showing an example of using a variety of AI tools to create a short, animated video which apparently only took him 10 minutes to produce.   Rachel Arthur, who also presented on AI suggested power in the ability to “outsource” teacher administrative tasks allowing teachers to focus on relationships. This potential reduction in administrative tasks could certainly help towards workload challenges however she also highlighted some of the potential risks in terms of bias in AI solutions and also data protection related risks where personal data is provided to an AI solution.   My view is very much that AI is here to stay and like Dan suggested, their capabilities will only improve with further and ongoing development.   And it is clear that this development will be ongoing as Microsoft have invested in OpenAI, who produced ChatGPT, while Google are introducing their own solution, Bard, and I believe Amazon may be creating their own solution, while many others will likely be putting efforts into this area and bringing solutions to market in the coming months and years.    It was good to hear from educators on this however I would be very interested in hearing what the likes of the DfE, OFSTED and the examining bodies view is, however as yet they have remained reasonably silent.

Digital Headaches

It was good to hear Ian Phillips discussing Digital Headaches and highlighting the various issues and challenges around technology adoption, implementation, change, etc.    Using technology isnt without its problems and challenges and I think the encouragement and promotion of the need to share and discuss these issues, to try and seek solutions which are then shared, is an important message.   I believe conference events, including the networking and the sessions, are key to this as are groups such as the ANME.    Its interesting that digital technologies aid communication and collaboration, yet it is communication and collaboration we likely need to do more of if we are to seek to better handle the various digital headaches which exist.

Cyber Security

Cyber security in education is such an important topic and obviously therefore had its own session delivered by Abid Patel.   I must admit to being very much on the same page as Abid in terms of his thoughts regarding the risks and also regarding the measures schools can take in relation to cyber security.   The cyber discussion in education does feel all “doom and gloom” although I note that in the industry InfoSec conference I went to the previous day it was equally bleak yet the resources at hand for organisations, such as banks, is way beyond that which schools have at their disposal.    So, more resources, more money and more technology doesn’t seem to be the answer or the silver bullet to the problem of cybercrime.  I suspect this is something we will need to consider going forward.     Abid closed his presentation with some recommendations and it was great to hear him highlighting the need to train all staff as his first recommendation, and the need to have an incident plan in place as his second.    Cyber isnt an IT issue, it’s a whole school issue so everyone’s responsibility plus like fire safety, we need to prepare for the eventuality and have a relevant plan in place.   He then went on to raise the need to minimise data which I think is an often overlooked point.  The more data, systems, etc we have the bigger the risk so if we don’t need it we should be looking to delete or remove it.   He finished on the need to avoid complacency, where I think this is the balance we need to, but are yet to find, between doom and gloom, and complacency.

EdTech on a Budget

Emma Darcys presentation on embedding technology on a budget was really interesting indeed and I loved her focus on the need to be the change in your school and to be “highly aspirational for your students” yet also to not expect it to be perfect overnight.    It was the fact she focussed very much on the students and on learning rather than on the specific technology or platform which came out most from the session.    I also liked her advice regarding the need to pilot new ideas which aligned with the fact that things may not work as you planned or may go wrong, so piloting allows you to hopefully identify the speed bumps ahead of rolling out any technology solution widely.     Her advice to get out and visit other schools was also useful as I have done this in the past however in the last few years havent been out to other schools with quite the same frequency;   something I maybe need to seek to address.

Conclusion

As a first experience of this LGfL event, it was certainly a positive one.   I would have loved to actually stay behind and network further with people at the end however had to rush to catch my train and, if you read my blog occasionally, you will know my poor track record with trains.    There were lots of great sessions and in fact a number of presenters who I was unable to see due to other sessions, including sessions by Mark and Olly, which only goes to show the quality of the sessions on offer.    The close of the event marked the end of a tiring couple of days but all in all it was worth it and this is definitely an event I would look to attend again. So with that its back to my email inbox and the 300+ emails which have landed in the two days I have been out of school!

ANME and Microsoft Event

So, Friday morning was an early start, up at 5:20am for a 6:20am train heading to Reading and an ANME and Microsoft event at Microsoft’s offices.   As always, I had my concerns regarding potential travel mishaps as often happens with me.   I was however prepared with multiple cans of “the Bru” to keep me going throughout the day;  I suspect Microsoft arent yet forward thinking enough to supply the Bru.   As it was, it turned out my expectations were correct;  Many less acceptable brands, such as Coke, were available but not a single Bru in site, so that’s the event marked down not long after it had even started!

It promised to be a busy but good day, with this event originally having been planned for late in 2022 with it cancelled at the last minute due to adverse weather conditions.   It was a shame this happened, albeit understandable.

Networking with the IT network folk.

So, like a lot of events one of the key features was catching up with quite so many great people all contributing to the use of technology in education.   The ANME’s Rick Cowell introduced the ANME and Microsoft even before others such as Alan Crawford and Kevin Sait presented on various topics.    Then there were the ANME ambassadors, Peter Othen and Ian Stockbridge to but name a few (and apologies to those I have missed off).  

Ian interestingly enough was wearing a T-Shirt which relates to a little project we have both been working on during Jan; Further info on this to be shared soon.

Every event I attend continues to emphasise the fact the “the smartest person in the room, is the room” and therefore the more people we share, interact and collaborate with, the better, with this being one of the key purposes of the ANME.

The presentations

In terms of the presentations and the event itself there were some techie discussions looking at Intune, a really useful session exploring Microsoft licensing as well as more strategic sessions looking a school 1:1 journey and the benefits of the MIEE (Microsoft Innovative Educator Expert) and Microsoft Showcase School programmes.   From my point of view, I took quite a bit away from a number of the sessions particularly in relation to Microsoft licensing and the use of Intune.   The use of Intune is definitely something I think we need to build on.   Additionally I noted references to the importance of having a plan regarding infrastructure including ongoing replacement, and the need to consider cyber security/resilience;  Both these issues are key and should be part of initial planning ahead of tech deployment, particularly in relation to mobile devices or 1:1 programmes.   They also need to be continually reviewed in relation to changes in technology usage and changes in the available technologies themselves.

On the way out

Upon the conclusion of the event and after a nice group photo, which hopefully will be shared in the near future, I arrived at the train station a little early.   I therefore availed myself of a bar next to the station for a quick pint.  There I ended up chatting with a stranger also waiting for a train.    This highlighted to me the continuing importance of social contact and the totally random interactions which technology doesn’t tend to currently provide.   Technology continues to be a tool but we need to use it to support and enhance our lives, where our lives are that of social animals who crave interactions and especially those which are outside the norm.  It was very nice to share a pint and a chat while waiting for a train.

Conclusion

It was great to visit the Microsoft offices, to catch up with so many people I already know and a few new people along the way, while listening to some technical tips and some more strategic insights.   This was my first in-person event of 2023 and I can only hope that the events later in 2023 will only build and enhance on this.    Onwards to the rest of 2023………

EdTech beyond the lockdowns

I thought, following my recent panel discussion at the Schools an Academies Show in London I would write a short post on my thoughts on the 3 key questions posed as part of the session.

Delivering the curriculum beyond the physical classroom: how can schools effectively implement hybrid learning plans?

Some schools have been doing this for some time, using the flipped classroom for example.    The issue is it needs to work for your school, your context, staff, and students.   It needs to work for your hardware and infrastructure, etc, so just because an approach worked in other schools doesn’t mean you can simply pick up that solution and replicate it in your school.    So, for me it’s about experimenting a little, and taking it slow.   A large part of effective hybrid learning, is the same as traditional face to face learning, and about building up effective learning habits and routines, but this takes time;  We need to allow for this time.   Use what has been learnt over lockdown as to what worked and didn’t work in your school and go from there.   But yes, look at other schools and what appears to work, but pick carefully at the elements of their practice that you wish to implement, and then give these approaches time to embed before seeking to advance further.   And make sure to engage the teachers, students and parents in planning.

Do we finally have enough proof of the pedagogical efficacy of EdTech?

Given the variety of uses of edtech, edtech products, planned outcomes (e.g. academic, or soft skills, global awareness, etc), staff skills, equipment level, student tech skills, etc it is difficult to assess general efficacy accurately.   As I wrote in my last post, it is a bit like assessing the efficacy of a bunch of hand tools, including some hammers, screwdrivers, hand drills and saws.   Their efficacy depends very much on what they are being used for (e.g., using a screwdriver to hammer in a nail) and the skill level of the user, that of a DIY’er or an expert craftsperson.  As such I am not sure what value there is in the question, given the large number of variables involved.   I also note that the more variables involved the greater the likelihood of high levels of variation in results from different research studies plus a tendency for the generalised results to regress towards the mean, and a likely insignificant impact being suggested.   I therefore believe we need to look at a different question, and whether EdTech has the potential to bring about positive improvements or impact in teaching and learning.   Her I believe we already have proof that when used well, it can have a positive impact.   We also have proof that without it learning during a pandemic wouldn’t have been possible, or not to the extent that was achieved.   And we can see we now live in an increasing technological world.   So, if the core of the original question is do we have evidence to support the continued use and required investment in Edtech, I would say yes.

How can leaders empower educators to discover the potential of technology in teaching?

This is about sharing and the organisational culture in my view.  Establishing opportunities for people to share ideas and what worked as well as seeking support on what didn’t.   It is also about encouraging sharing beyond the school using the various sources out there such as Apple Distinguished educators or Microsoft innovative educator experts.   For me twitter is often the go to place and I have heard it described as “the best staffroom in the world”.    So the sharing gets the ideas as to things to try, and then they need to be put into practice and this is where culture and climate come into play.   The climate of the school has to be warm and supportive, and the culture open, thereby empowering people to try things in the knowledge that, they may not work as planned, but where they don’t this simply serves as a learning experience to be shared to help the collective teaching and student body move forward.   In all my years working in education, and using EdTech, or simply technology in education, I have tried lots of different approaches, apps and other tools, with some working well and some not so well.  The key has been I have been lucky to work in schools and colleges which were supportive of these attempts, the potential for them to bring about improvements, but also the acceptance that some might not work.    Now obviously this isnt about throwing out a new app for all students in a school to use and running the risk of a negative experience for all students, but more about piloting and trialling with small groups where, should things don’t work, it is easy to discontinue the trial and recovery or address any negative impact.    Looking back to the question, the key words are discovery and empower;   This requires experimentation, people to feel valued and supported to innovate, the need to share so experiences are collective across staff/students rather than limited to a given teacher or class, plus there needs to be acceptance that the discovery made might simply be that a given tool or approach doesn’t work for your students.

Conclusion

I think the pandemic has both shown the importance of technology in education, plus has helped move schools and colleges forward, driven by the immediate need of the pandemic.    Now the pandemic is (hopefully) receding, we now need to build the intrinsic need and want to continue the development of the use of technology in schools.    It also needs to be something not just put in place now, but something sustainable in the longer term, so a simple purchase of infrastructure and devices in the coming months or year is insufficient if it isnt backed up with a plan for ongoing upgrade and replacement into the future.     I suspect we now stand at the point where the rubber band may be stretched, encouraging a tendency for us to start to rebound back to the “way things were before the pandemic”, so it is now, more than ever, important that we push forward.

Schools and academies Show, London

Am attending the School and Academies show in London this week including being part of a panel session discussing “EdTech Beyond the Lockdowns: Reaching a Long-Term Balance Between Distance and In-Person Learning”.    Firstly, I have my fingers crossed that I can manage to get to London and the event without any of my usual travel mishaps, and if any travel mishaps have to happen the happen after I have finished the panel session.

As always, one of the big benefits to these events is simply the networking side of things and getting to meet and discuss various educational issues with colleagues from schools and colleges from across the UK and beyond.    I note that the Association of Network Managers in Education (ANME), of which I am an ambassador, have a stand (D34) at the event, so it is likely I will spend some of my time there catching up with other ANME members.   Hopefully, I can get a few more selfies at this event, than I did at Bett earlier in the year.

In terms of the panel session, one of the questions posed relates to the efficacy of EdTech and this has got me thinking.    EdTech covers such a broad range of tools, from visualisers to bits of software, AR/VR headsets, the dreaded interactive whiteboard, and many other technologies.  In addition, each technology may be used in different ways dependent on the students, the curriculum content being covered, the access to equipment, etc, plus the impact of EdTech will depend on what impact is being sought, the skill level in tech use of the teachers and the students, the organisational culture of the school plus its climate, along with a multitude of other factors.    In seeking an analogy, I wonder if seeking to access the efficacy of EdTech is much akin to seeking to assess the efficacy of hand tools such as hammers, screwdrivers, saws, etc.    It depends on user skill level, with a skilled tradesperson more likely to get positive outcomes than your average DIY’er.    It also depends on purpose, with a hammer used to nail together your shed seen as more positive, than a hammer being mis-used as a weapon of violence.     As such seeking the general efficacy of EdTech seems a little difficult, or possibly even a little meaningless. 

Maybe we need to change the question and focus on the potential for positive impact.  On this front I think there is plenty of evidence of specific technologies being used in schools and colleges to positive effect.   From this I think it is also possible to identify some of the features which support technology to have a positive impact in schools, such as appropriate staff training, an open and supportive climate which supports innovation and experimentation, collaboration between staff as to successes and challenges plus students and staff who are engaged in what and how technology is used.  

I am looking forward to being part of the School and Academies Show event and to sharing my thoughts, to seeing what exhibitors are there, to networking with peers and hopefully to NOT getting lost, on the wrong train or a similar travel mishap.