Technology & Innovation - Issue 12

When putting together this edition of Technology & Innovation , throughout the research process, conversations with contributors and general taking of the profession’s temperature, one area of edtech development seemed to dwarf all the others in terms of attention and mindshare. Inevitably, it was AI. Over the past couple of years, we’ve progressed rapidly beyond those initial tinkerings with a new app or website that tends to be most people’s first encounter with a major new technology these days. We’re long past the ‘ Hang on, there might be some issues and problems with this thing ’ phase. The flurries of headlines announcing how the big tech players will be capitalising on this exciting new field of development are old news. Microsoft’s Copilot, Apple Intelligence, Meta AI and Google’s Gemini already feel like well-worn parts of the modern online ecosystem. We’ve seen this process play out before – first with social media, and then with smartphones and tablets. The broader tech industry is keen for AI to be seen as on a par with those developments in terms of its societal impact (rather than be compared to, say, 3DTV, cryptocurrencies, VR, AR and NFTs). Considerable resources have been staked by some of the most well-resourced organisations in human history on making AI a successful and transformative technology. As educators, you’ll have seen some of the AI-powered assessment solutions, lesson-authoring tools and anti-plagiarismmeasures for yourself by now. Youmight even be making daily use of them, and we may yet see evenmore impressive implementations of the technology sooner rather than later. Which is why, if you haven’t already, you need to devise an AI policy that all staff can get on board with (see page 26), and be clear in your ownmind, and among your colleagues, as to what the place of AI should be at your school, and what it should and shouldn’t be used for (see page 30). Given the speed with which technology now advances, and the almost unseemly haste with which it can now be incorporated into established workflows, we need to have our eyes open and be fully cognisant of the changes taking place. AI use in education settings certainly has its limitations (see page 14), but also the potential for driving home to us the most important aspects of education itself – and even what it means to be human (see page 18). It all sounds like heady stuff, but then we live in heady times. Your students will experience futures the rest of us can scarcely imagine. But you can still give them valuable maps, drawn with wisdom and compassion, for when they get there. Enjoy the issue, CallumFauser, editor callum.fauser@theteachco.com ON BOARD THIS ISSUE Welcome… Anthony David is an executive headteacher and author Visit teachwire. net/edtech for more information and great ideas Kirsty Treherne is a former headteacher and education lead at iAM Compliant Elliot Lewis is chief information security officer at ParentPay Group Laura Knight is founder and CEO of education consultancy Sapio James Saunders is the headteacher at Honywood School, Coggeshall, Essex HelenWickens is Programme Manager (Careers) at the Science Museum 3 teachwire.net C O N T E N T S