Category: AI

In the AI pioneers project we are frequently asked for examples of the use of AI in vocational education and training. Good case studies are not easy to come from. But Bolton College, a further education institution in the UK, has run a series of projects around using chatbots. They are currently beta-testing a platform that empowers teachers, students, and administrators to create and share generative AI chatbots tailored to their academic and operational needs. The project is funded by the UK UFI Voc Tech Trust. This project not only highlights the practical applications of AI in education but also […]

The recently published2025 Student Generative AI Survey, conducted by the Higher Education Policy Institute in the UK and authored by Josh Freeman, reveals interesting trends in how undergraduate students are using AI tools in their studies. Building on the 2024 survey, this year’s report highlights a significant surge in AI adoption, with 92% of students now using AI in some form – up from 66% a year ago. The findings offer insights for educators, policymakers, and institutions in navigating the rapidly evolving landscape of AI in higher education. AI Adoption Soars, But Challenges Remain The survey, which polled 1,041 full-time […]

An article in the Financial Times by Carnegie Mellon University Professors Laurence Ales and Christophe Combemale says Generative AI is different from past automation and requires a shift from what AI can do to what it should do. They put forward four pivotal questions for organisations when contemplating automation with Generative AI. First, how complex is the task? Second, how frequent is the task? Third, how interconnected are the tasks? Fourth, when executing a task, what is the cost of failure? These questions, they say, should guide companies considering automation and help explain why GenAI affects certain occupations more than […]

One fear from researcher in educational technology and AI is lock in. It happened before. Companies compete in giving a good deal for applications and services but lack of interoperability leaves educational organisation stuck if they want to get out or change providers. It was big news at one time with Learning Management Systems (LMS) but slowly the movement towards standards largely overcame that issue. But with the big tech AI companies still searching for convincing real world use cases and turning their eyes on education it seems it may be happening again. OpenAI have said it will roll out […]

I picked up this from a blog by Doug Belshaw. It is from a report by Anthropic, the AI company behind Claude.ai. Doug points out that that its not been published in an academic journal and therefore not peer-reviewed, but, he says, they’ve open-sourced the dataset used for the analysis. And it certainly is interesting. Source: The Anthropic Economic Index About the image This artwork captures humanity’s collective endeavour in building artificial intelligence, drawing inspiration from Persian Negargari (miniature painting). It emphasises that AI is not the result of sudden breakthroughs but centuries of collaboration among minds, cultures, and technologies. […]

This week has seen extensive press coverage of the AI summit held in Paris with attendees from 60 countries. Despite the noise, not much seems to have happened. The summit revealed disagreements over regulation, particularly between the USA where the tech companies are lobbying to have none or the minimum regulation and Europe which is continuing to develop a regulatory framework. The issue of regulation is important for AI in Education and the Council of Europe has published a roadmap for for Responsible AI in Education. ✅ 2025: European Year of Education for Digital Citizenship – Raising awareness & strengthening […]

As I have noted before LinkedIn has emerged as the clearing house for exchanging research and commentary of AI in education. And in this forum, the AI skeptics seem to be winning. Of course the doubts have always been there: hallucinations, bias. lack of agency, impact on creativity and so on. There are also increasing concerns over the environmental impact of Large Language Models. But the big one is the emerging research into the effectiveness of Generative AI for learning. This week a new study from Microsoft and Carnegie Mellon University found that increased reliance on GenAI in the workplace […]

I recently went along to a University of Liverpool symposium showcasing case studies of generative AI in teaching, learning and assessment. The presenters and audience were predominantly from an HE background but the content, augmented by the suggestions from other educators in the chat provided some great transferable ideas. The focus was on multimodal learning, which is academic speak for multimedia, apparently multimodal has more emphasis on the design and process (but when has a good educator ever really preferred style over substance!?)  The big timesavers with the most impact were in using generative AI tools to speed up creating […]