Not So Fast on AI Tutors
There is a lot of money going into AI in education at the moment. Despite a series of research reports questioning the effectiveness of AI-driven systems, and the insistence of international organisations such as UNESCO – and increasingly of national governments – on keeping a human in the loop, the big software companies are still pursuing their dream of AI teachers. OpenAI, Anthropic, Google and others continue to present education as the next great opportunity for large language models. This may be partly because AI adoption in industry has been less straightforward than the early hype suggested. Education, by contrast, […]
AI for Good (for a Change)
it is hard to enthusiastic about AI at the moment and the daily utterances leaders of the big software companies hardly inspire confidence. Remember in days gone by how AI proponents used to enthuse about how AI would extend access to everyone to education. Well a Google press release brings good news. Google DeepMind has shipped shipped SL2T, a sign-language-to-text model, into Gboard and Live Transcribe on the Pixel 1, starting with ASL to English. It works like voice dictation, but instead of speaking, you sign to the phone’s camera and it turns your signing into text in real time, anywhere […]
Congratulations to Thuy Cae
Many of those colleagues involved in the Erasmus+ AI pioneers project may remember the visit by Thuy Cat to Europe in summer 2025. In an all too short visit, Thuy met managers and practitioners from vocational schools in Germany and Italy as well as making a presentation at an AI Pioneers project meeting. This was part of her work for her Fellowship report: AI Integration for Student Engagement for the Australian International Specialised Skills Institute. Thuy’s Fellowship report has recently been published. The report explores how artificial intelligence (AI) can be integrated into vocational education and training (VET) to enhance […]
AI Adoption by Occupational Category
Google’s ATLAS, Google say, is an expansive look at […]
Shaping the Future of Education: The EU’s Call for Evidence on AI and Basic Skills
The European Commission has recently announced an ambitious initiative […]
Navigating the AI Hype: A Sceptic’s Look at Practical Uses for Teachers
I admit that I am somewhat sceptical about the […]
The Dual Face of Workplace AI: Implications for the Future of Work and Vocational Learning
Discussions surrounding artificial intelligence in the workplace often treat […]
AI Readiness and VET Pedagogy
The European Commission’s Joint Research Centre recently published a […]
Making AI Make Sense: Why Google’s Open Knowledge Format Matters for Education
Anyone who has experimented with artificial intelligence in an educational setting has likely encountered the “context problem.” A foundation model might be highly capable of generating text or writing code, but when asked a specific question about an institution’s curriculum, a departmental policy, or the nuances of a specific vocational training module, it often falls flat. The AI lacks the internal context that human educators and administrators rely on every day. To address this, organisations have spent the last year building bespoke “knowledge bases” to feed their AI agents, resulting in a fragmented landscape of incompatible formats, proprietary systems, and […]
August 2 Deadline: What the New EU AI Act Transparency Guidelines Mean for Education
The regulatory landscape for artificial intelligence in Europe is shifting rapidly, and a significant milestone is approaching. While much of the discussion around the EU AI Act has focused on the delayed deadlines for “high-risk” systems, the transparency obligations outlined in Article 50 remain firmly on schedule. As of August 2, 2026, new rules will apply to how institutions and providers use and disclose AI-generated content and interactive systems. To assist with compliance, the European Commission recently published comprehensive guidelines clarifying these requirements. For those working in Vocational Education and Training (VET), understanding these distinctions is no longer a future […]
