What's in this episode? This episode of the VocTech Podcast was hosted live as part of Ufi VocTech Trust's 'Week of VocTech'. We are chatting with our guests to discuss the near and long-term future for vocational technology and further education. How can the crisis be a pivot point for lifelong learning? What practical examples are there for how industry and F.E are using technology now to set them up for a changed world of employment and skills development? You'll hear the different perspectives and demands on our guests plus questions and comments from our live audience. Enjoy and follow the conversation using #VocTechPodcast and #WeekOfVocTech. People  Eglė Vinauskaitė, Director, Skillbright Labs | Twitter: @ThisIsEgle  Dr. Maren Deepwell, CEO of the Association for Learning Technology (ALT), an independent charity and the leading professional body for Learning Technology in the UK on Amplify FE | Twitter: @MarenDeepwell Chantal Wilson, People Director, Honest Burgers | Twitter: @honestburgers Shane Guildford, a FE Hospitality Chef/Lecturer and PEARSONS Silver Award Winner, TES Finalist, EdTech Innovator and MIE Expert from Cheshire College South and West | Twitter: @shanelegend23 Sophie Bailey, Founder and Presenter of The Edtech Podcast | Twitter: @podcastedtech    Show Notes and References   Check out https://theedtechpodcast.com/edtechpodcast for the full show notes.  Tell us your story We'd love to hear your thoughts. Record a quick free voicemail via speakpipe for inclusion in the next episode. Or you can post your thoughts or follow-on links via. twitter @podcastedtech or via The Edtech Podcast Facebook page or Instagram.

#214 - What is next for VocTech and FE?

The mission of The Edtech Podcast is to improve the dialogue between ‘ed’ and ‘tech’ through storytelling, for better innovation and impact. Hosted by Rose Luckin, Professor of Learner-Centred Design at UCL and Founder and CEO of EDUCATE Ventures Research, using AI to measure the unmeasurable in education.  

The Edtech Podcast audience consists of education leaders from around the world, plus startups, learning and development specialists, bluechips, investors, Government and media. The Edtech Podcast is downloaded 2000+ each week from 145 countries in total, with UK, US & Australia the top 3 downloading countries. Podcast series have included Future Tech for Education, Education 4.0, and The Voctech Podcast, Learning Continued, Evidence-Based EdTech, and the upcoming AI in Ed: Our Data-Driven Future series on AI. 

Send your qs and comments to @PodcastEdtech, @knowldgillusion, theedtechpodcast@gmail.com, hello@educateventures.com or https://theedtechpodcast.com/ or leave a voicemail for the show at https://www.speakpipe.com/theedtechpodcast

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Continuing our miniseries on AI in education with the fourth episode centred around a AI's potential for equity of learning, host Professor Rose Luckin is joined by Richard Culatta of ISTE, Professor Sugata Mitra, and Emily Murphy of Nord Anglia Education.  This episode and our series are generously sponsored by Nord Anglia Education. In our fourth instalment of this valuable series, we look at AI’s potential to address various challenges and bridge the educational gaps that exist among different groups of students around the world.  AI can analyse vast amounts of data, provide early interventions, and enhance accessibility, and as long as the deployment of the technology is appropriate to the unique context of the school, the learners, the location, and the access to devices, AI can transform education for those who need the most support. Guests:  Professor Sugata Mitra, Author/Professor of Educational Technology, Newcastle University Emily Murphy, Senior PD Lead, DNA Metacognition Project, Nord Anglia Education Richard Culatta, CEO, ISTE  Talking points and questions include:   What do we mean by equity of learning, and how can we understand context?  Is there a danger that AI will simply be used to reinforce or replace existing conventional methods of assessing learning, despite what it's great potential? What needs to fall into place for AI to be the promise for education we know it could be? What needs to happen to have AI be the magic bullet for equity of learning from a teacher and headteacher perspective?  If the technology is there, and it has the potential it has, how can teachers build on that?  How have different practices and innovations in the classroom been adopted and rejected… is AI going to succeed where other initiatives and technologies have either failed to be adopted, or plateaued and fallen by the wayside?  How is AI different? How do we talk about getting school infrastructure in place to use AI? How we do we convince educationalists, and the budget holders and local governance that AI and other emerging technologies are worth their investment? There is some understandable fear about revolutionary technology disrupting existing practice in the classroom, but are we underestimating our students and teachers? 

#278 - AI as a Tool for Equity of Learning

Continuing our miniseries on AI in education with the third episode centred around a global perspective on AI, host Professor Rose Luckin is joined by Andreas Schleicher of the OECD, Dr Elise Ecoff of Nord Anglia Education, and Dan Worth of Tes.  This episode and our series are generously sponsored by Nord Anglia Education. In our third instalment of this valuable series, we head out beyond the UK and the English-speaking world to get a global perspective on AI, and ask how educators and developers around the world build and engage with AI, and what users, teachers and learners want from the technology that might tell people back home a thing or two. We examine how international use of AI might change the way we engage with AI, and we also ask why they might be doing things differently. Guests:  Dr Andreas Schleicher, Director for the Directorate of Education & Skills,  OECD Dr Elise Ecoff, Chief Education Officer, Nord Anglia Education Dan Worth, Senior Editor, Tes  Talking points and questions include:   What are other countries tech and education ecosystems doing to develop and implement AI?  International considerations of ethics and regulation Is the first world imposing a way of looking at technology and its innovation on the third world? What assumptions are we making, and are we mindful of the context? Is the first world restricting innovation through specific regulation to change what technology is being built and how, and who might it benefit? Skills and competencies development can be driven by the needs of business - what priorities for AI education exhibited by international models could the UK adopt or consider? 

#277 - AI from a Global Perspective

                     What's in this episode? Continuing our new 5-episode miniseries on AI in education with the second episode on AI's relationship to neuroscience and metacognition, host Professor Rose Luckin is joined by Dr Steve Fleming, Professor of Cognitive Neuroscience at UCL, UK, and Jessica Schultz, Academic & Curriculum Director at the San Roberto International School in Monterrey, Mexico.  This episode and our series are generously sponsored by Nord Anglia Education. Metacognition, neuroscience and AI aren’t just buzzwords but areas of intense research and innovation that will help learners in ways that until now have been unavailable to the vast majority of people. The technologies and approaches that study in these domains unlocks, however, must not be siloed or made inaccessible to public understanding. Real work must be done to bring these areas together and we are tremendously excited that this podcast will present a great opportunity to showcase what inroads have been made, where, why, and how. Guests:  Dr Steve Fleming, Professor of Cognitive Neuroscience, UCL Jessica Schultz, Academic & Curriculum Director, San Roberto International School  Talking points and questions include:    Neuroscience and AI are well-respected fields with a massive amount of research underpinning their investigation and practices, but they are also two very shiny buzzwords that the public likely only understands in the abstract (and the words may even be misapplied to things that aren't based in neuroscience or AI). Can you tell our listeners what they are, how they intersect with one another, and what benefits their crossover can provide in the realms of skills and knowledge?   Can we use one field, AI, or Neuroscience, to talk about the other, to better 'sell' the idea of the other field of study, and in this way, drastically raise the bar of what is possible to detect, uncover and assess, in education, using these domains?   In practical terms, how do we use AI and neuroscience to measure what might be considered 'unmeasurable' in learning? What data is required, what expertise in the team, or in a partner organisation, can be leveraged, who can be responsible for doing this in an educational or training institution?  What data or competencies or human resource do they need access to?   Sponsorship Thank you so much to this series' sponsor: Nord Anglia Education, the world’s leading premium international schools organisation.  They make every moment of your child’s education count.  Their strong academic foundations combine world-class teaching and curricula with cutting-edge technology and facilities, to create learning experiences like no other.  Inside and outside of the classroom, Nord Anglia Education inspires their students to achieve more than they ever thought possible. "Along with great academic results, a Nord Anglia education means having the confidence, resilience and creativity to succeed at whatever you choose to do or be in life." - Dr Elise Ecoff, Chief Education Officer, Nord Anglia Education 

#276 - AI, Metacognition, and Neuroscience

What's in this episode? Delighted to launch this new 5-episode miniseries on AI in education, sponsored by Nord Anglia Education, host Professor Rose Luckin kicks things off for the Edtech Podcast by examining how we keep education as the centre of gravity for AI.  AI has exploded in the public consciousness with innovative large language models writing our correspondence and helping with our essays, and sophisticated images, music, impersonations and video generated on-demand from prompts.  Whilst big companies proclaim what this technology can achieve and how it will affect work, life, play and learning, the consumer and user on the ground and in our schools likely has little idea how it works or why, and it seems like a lot of loud voices are telling us only half the story.  What's the truth behind AI's power?  How do we know it works, and what are we using to measure its successes or failures?  What are our young people getting out of the interaction with this sophisticated, scaled technology, and who can we trust to inject some integrity into the discourse?  We're thrilled to have three guests in the Zoom studio with Rose this week:  Dr Paul LeBlanc, President,  Southern New Hampshire University Dr Kate Erricker, Assistant Director of Curriculum,  Nord Anglia Education Julie Henry, Freelance Education Correspondent  Talking points and questions include:    We often ask of technology in the classroom 'does it work'?  But when it comes to AI, preparing people to work, live, and play with it will be more than just whether or not it does what the developers want it to.  We need to start educating those same people HOW it works, because that will not only protect us as consumers out in the world, as owners of our own data, but help build a more responsible and 'intelligent' society that is learning all of the time, and better able to support those who need it most.  So if we want that 'intelligence infrastructure', how do we build it?  What examples of AI in education have we got so far, what areas have been penetrated and has anything radically changed for the better?  Can assessment, grading, wellbeing, personalisation, tutoring, be improved with AI enhancements, and is there the structural will for this to happen in schools?  The ‘white noise’ surrounding AI discourse: we know the conversation is being dominated by larger-than-life personalities and championed by global companies who have their own technologies and interests that they're trying to glamourise and market. What pushbacks, what reputable sources of information, layman's explanations, experts and opinions should we be listening to to get the real skinny on AI, especially for education?  Sponsorship Thank you so much to this series' sponsor: Nord Anglia Education, the world’s leading premium international schools organisation.  They make every moment of your child’s education count.  Their strong academic foundations combine world-class teaching and curricula with cutting-edge technology and facilities, to create learning experiences like no other.  Inside and outside of the classroom, Nord Anglia Education inspires their students to achieve more than they ever thought possible. "Along with great academic results, a Nord Anglia education means having the confidence, resilience and creativity to succeed at whatever you choose to do or be in life." - Dr Elise Ecoff, Chief Education Officer, Nord Anglia Education  

#275 - Preparing Young People for their Future with AI

Digital Transformation!  Digital Strategy!  Professional Education!  What do they mean, and how do we implement them in a school?  In today's episode we’re very lucky to have on three wonderful guests who operate at the intersection of educational practice and the leveraging of technology for a better learning experience.  They are:     James Symons, CEO, LocknCharge   Katie Novak, Education Strategist, Smart Technologies   Associate Professor Jane Hunter, School of International Studies and Education, University of Technology, Sydney   Each of these guests has a long history of working within the education space, from engineering and installing the hardware and catering to the evolving demands of schools, to leveraging the technology as a communal bridge between parents, teachers and students, and finally to researching and understanding the added value such technologies provide for teachers and learners and how they might successfully incorporate their use into daily practice.  Talking points and questions include:    The evolving demands of the classroom – what futureproofing and future planning exists in each of your spaces to accommodate new trends and developments?  For those catering to the hardware, does the school or college determine what you make, or are they, and the ways their teachers and learners perform, conditioned by you?  What space is there for reciprocity between the EdTech maker and the EdTech user?     Teacher professional education – how important is this?  Surely a learning tool lives and dies by the amount of training and ‘after-sales support’ is provided to practitioners?  What is the extent of the refusal by a teacher or department to adopt the technology and how is this overcome?  Is it just waving statistics about time-saving and cost-saving in their faces or is there a form of trust that must be engendered?     Digital strategy – this means different things to different stakeholders.  What are the commonalities that should be agreed upon for successful rollout of technology?  Obviously contextual factors are key to each school, but what are the non-negotiables?  And with regard to developments like generative AI and other future trends we can’t even predict yet, what kinds of guardrails need to be in place with teachers, leaders, and the developers of the tech to ensure ongoing supportive relationships with stakeholders.  What foundations should be in place to support digital transformation no matter the bumps in the road ahead?   Material discussed in today's episode includes:  LocknCharge classroom solutions to facilite mobile device workflow and management   Improving Access & Outcomes Through Student & Teaching Voice: EdTech Assessment in the Cherry Hill Public Schools Australia and the Digital Education Revolution Jane Hunter: High Possibility STEM Classrooms and Technology Integration and High Possibility Classrooms Smart Technology:  EdTech Assessment Tool Uruguay and Ceibal Project 

#214 - What is next for VocTech and FE?

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