Experimental Blog

Learning Without Edges: My Takeaways from #ALTC26 in Cardiff

2026-10-28T11:14:44.869+00:00

I had luxury at ALTC this year to get into lots of sessions without worrying about what was happening back at my institution - now I am a free agent. All sessions I went along to were busy and highly relevant but with a range of parallel sessions I always have a bit of fear of missing out.

Great line up of exhibitors - as College body encouraged them to work with UFI Vocational Trust to find ways into the College and vocational landscape. Knowing the realitiies of College budgets, a lot of College focus will be on driving the most out of systems they have access to rather than buying in more technology.

Sure too as the PHP issue unfolded on Tuesday evening and Wednesday morning some folks would be going back to a firestorm of plugins to update. I am glad I missed that too.
This year’s overarching theme—"Learning without Edges" was particularly timely and tied in well too with pre-conference I attended. Life Long Learning is really back on the UK agenda.

We are all navigating a rapid shift across job markets, digital infrastructure, and student expectations, the focus wasn't just on shiny tech, but on how digital pedagogy can dissolve barriers and create adaptable, resilient learning ecosystems for all.

Here are my takeaways from two days in Wales.

1. Moving Beyond the AI Hype: Embedded Pedagogy & Integrity

Rather than isolating Artificial Intelligence into its own separate strand, #ALTC26 embedded AI throughout the entire program, focusing on practical application, academic integrity, and AI literacy. It is great that we have moved passed the AI right or wrong discussion.

The Sessions: Highlights included discussions around Agentic AI and the Student Experience 2026, which looked at how autonomous AI tutors are replacing basic chatbots, alongside sessions showing how conversational bots can support Universal Design for Learning (UDL) without overwhelming teaching staff.

Key Takeaway: AI is no longer a separate conversation; it should be part of every aspect of curriculum design and assessment strategy. ( this will take a while)

Reflections
I attended workshop with BlueTrain team from France it was an excellent workshop based game around changing assessment strategies to reflect the new world driven by AI and a presentation from ODEA who are rolling out a tool developed initially at Eindhoven University. Based initially on Gemini, now using Mistral, ( European Sovereign AI ) it is a local agent fed on an index of actual course materials designed to give learners individualised support. I also enjoyed session from Kortext again at a price mapping content to provide individualised support in a controlled way.

Lots of useful courses are appearing for staff development - and good use of Open Practice emerging in Ireland .

I am up to speed with Jisc work around Beyond Blended - really worth tuning into. I went along instead to workshops around the edges on Vibe Coding learning materials and around building AI agents. Jisc have been so key in supporting community in moving things forward. A really key ally of ALT.

I do wonder how well institutional IT teams are adjusting to this brave new world of AI agents - when will curriculum teams and students get access to these tools - or will it all be shadow IT. Think there is big bit of work needed here around managing cost of AI credits etc and building up IT teams confidence around using AI to support whole institution. There is some excellent work happening here from Jisc - both on ensuring harmony between IT and Learning Technology Teams and on not getting carried away by AI hype and making sensible procurement decisions around governance and cost cotrol of AI systems .

Within Canvas for instance on the knowledge base contained with a course a lot of this AI enablement is already possible.

2. Experiencing the Friction: Student Agency & Participatory Learning

One of the strongest recurring beats of the conference was making sure student voices sit at the center of digital transformation, not as passive end-users, but as co-designers.
The Sessions: Interactive workshops like "Be the Student for an Hour" put delegates directly into simulated digital learning environments to reveal hidden points of cognitive overload, accessibility gaps, and design friction.

Key Takeaway: Institutions scaling successful digital strategies actively involve students in tool procurement, interface testing, and learning space design. Think we all have a way to go here on Co-Design.

Reflections

These were great workshops but we have a long way to go here. Platforms tend to be selected on how they fit with existing institutional models, Students rarely have a voice. The opening session led by students highlighted how important truly flexible delivery is along with digital skills and simple pathways that allow learners to login and access all the right tools in the one place.

The right tool is single sign on, supports accessibility , learning design , microcredentials, eportfolio , offers AI support when needed - and can serve both learners within institution but can also open up content and learning experiences to those beyond the institution.

There was a session around how to bring learning design into making 2hr lectures more interactive - thought that highlighted how far we still have to travel. Brickfield Labs led a very simple session around challenges of accessibility of basic content. It is worth running this exercise ( and note to self check accessibility of this piece)

UCL demoed a simple co-pilot , .MD file driven tool that can provide better accessible descriptions of charts than for instance those automatically generated by Power Point.

I enjoyed session on slow learning that encouraged us to use tools and design learning not for efficiency but for flourishing

"where is technology enhancing, hindering, and transforming our experiences, and how can we take agency over the use of existing and emerging tools not for efficiency or automation alone, but for our own individual flourishing "

3. Accessibility as Core Culture, Not a Checklist

Digital accessibility remained a core pillar of the conversation, shifting from basic compliance toward embedded daily workflow habits.
The Sessions: Real-world case studies showcased institutional frameworks (such as Manchester's accessibility model) that empower educators to create accessible resources natively within their VLEs rather than retrofitting content later. Good use of Canvas as underlying platform.

Key Takeaway: Accessibility works best when it is automated, supported by institution-wide culture, and framed as essential universal design.

Reflections

There is a growing number of tools to make accessibility simply part of the workflow and to audit and upgrade existing content. I think challenge is still around staff skills and intent. It was good to here BrickField Labs updates in this area and see Manchester University's approach using Canvas.

4. Community, Connectivity & 20 Years of ALT Awards

Beyond the formal presentations, ALTC26 was a celebration of community connection. It marked the 20th anniversary of the ALT Awards, recognising individuals, teams, and projects that have driven meaningful digital innovation over the past two decades. It is great to catch up with the community.

What’s Next? Other useful bits

Leaving Cardiff, my key take aways are :Explore and add some of my publications to https://zenodo.org/ and see how Mistral AI stacks up against Claude, CoPilot and Gemini.
Really liked an example of using AI Co-Pilot to create a 360 degree image that was then used in Thinglink to create a learning exercise.
Refocus on Co-Pilot and Gemini - where Colleges are at - I have some workshops to deliver in that space.
Follow up and support some of great folks and organisations I engaged with.
Do a blog post reflecting on another great ALT conference - job done.

National Museum of Wales Education Leaders Summit Pre #ALTC26

2026-10-26T14:20:00.903+00:00

Last week I was invited to contribute to a discussion among UK education leaders in the splendid surroundings of the Welsh National Museum Cardiff. This was an event pre Association For Learning Technology Conference #ALTC26 gathering hosted by Instructure.

As we were in Wales the discussion was shaped by developments there, I was impressed by focus to push forward tertiary opportunities for all. In some respects they are ahead of Scotland in some other areas they are behind. I think difference may be that they do seem more prepared to make funding contingent on Universities and Colleges working more closely together. Check out MeDr developments and specifically current list of projects.

In Scotland I'd make all tertiary activity funded at the same level - that would correct the market and behaviours - and perhaps be much simpler than drip funding range of projects.

It's interesting the theme of Life Long Learning is back on everyone's radar.

Here is a summary of the five key takeaways for supporting lifelong learners: You can read things in full on the Instructure Website

Lifelong Learning as a Shared Societal Responsibility: Anchored in Wales’s Well-being of Future Generations Act, institutions and policymakers are encouraged to move past short-term priorities and collaborate on connected learning pathways. With AI reshaping the workforce, education must focus on long-term adaptability, creativity, and reducing inequality for underrepresented groups.
Removing Barriers to Inclusion: To reach non-traditional learners, institutions need to make opportunities more visible and approachable. Examples include bringing education directly into local communities, libraries, schools, and remote areas to engage individuals who might not otherwise consider life long learning opportunities. I think there is massive role that Open Educational policies could play in this space.
Rethinking Traditional Institutional Structures: Current university administrative systems (enrolment, student records, course approvals) are designed for traditional 18-year-old undergraduates. To compete with agile commercial learning providers and adapt to policy changes (like England's Lifelong Learning Entitlement), institutions must simplify processes and embrace flexible, modular, or asynchronous online learning. Colleges in Scotland are much more agile here but lack funding. They could be a true engine of change.
Prioritising Collaboration Over Competition: Despite financial pressures and internal siloes between academic departments, stronger partnerships—both internally and externally with colleges and employers are essential to address changing workforce skill requirements. This is still a live issue in Scotland. In Wales the approach seems to be to use funding to incentivise collaboration between Colleges and Universities - I think a blunter instrument is still required in Scotland.
Redefining Success Metrics: Beyond standard metrics like enrolment, completion rates, and revenue, institutions need to evaluate success based on learner-centric outcomes. This includes career transitions, gaining confidence, social mobility, and supporting learners who move in and out of formal education over time. This remains really hard to track in Scotland while Universities resist adoption of Scottish Candidate Number etc.

Where Scotland is Behind

Funding Unitised and Short-Course Learning: The biggest area where Scotland falls behind is modular/Unitised funding entitlement.
- England is rolling out the Lifelong Learning Entitlement (LLE), allowing adult learners to take out loan funding for individual modules (30+ credits) or short courses throughout their lives.
- Scotland’s non-tuition fee model relies heavily on full-time degree or full-award funding (via SAAS). It lacks a flexible, universal "credit bank" or modular loan system for adult upskilling, making it harder for mid-career adults to take single college or university courses without paying out-of-pocket.
Institutional Agility & Admin Bottlenecks: Much like the UK-wide challenges raised in Cardiff, Scottish universities remain constrained by traditional multi-year degree structures and lengthy course-approval processes. Commercial providers and short-course online platforms often outpace Scottish universities and Colleges in launching agile retraining programs. Though at least College and Training Provider provision is shaped around relevant occupational standards. SCQF Microcredentials have been a thing in Colleges since the last century - but things like part-time evening, saturday morning and or even flexible blended short course provision seem to lack support.

Where is space for Open Education ?

I rehearsed this in earlier posts - there is so much scope for collaboration around both course design and learning materials in Scotland. We need much more flexible models for all learners.

Do you have a platform that really supports Life Long Learning ?

Too many institutions , despite COVID are still overly focused on old models of course development and delivery. Perhaps as they are just easier to deliver ?

College Funding in Scotland Revisted.

2026-10-16T13:58:21.094+01:00

In 2024 I posted about the ongoing crisis around College funding. Things have not really got much better - so time for an update.

Despite delivering essential vocational training and community social mobility, Scotland’s Further Education (FE) college sector is still facing an unprecedented financial crisis. While recent targeted, short-term funding streams (such as the New Flexible Workforce Development Fund and Defence Technical Excellence Colleges) provide welcome project opportunities, they do not close the sector’s core operational funding gap. Baseline funding cuts threaten the structural viability of local colleges across Scotland. Urgent policy rebalancing across tertiary funding is required.

Key Financial Realities

7%+ Real-Terms Cut this year Audit Scotland reports that college sector funding has fallen by over 7% in real terms over the last five years. If you look over last 10 years there is a greater funding collapse. Audit Scotland's briefing paper, Scotland's Colleges 2025 shows that Scottish Government revenue funding for colleges decreased by 20 per cent in real terms over the five-year period from 2021/22 to 2025/26.
Widespread Operating Deficits: More than half of Scotland’s colleges operate in deficit, relying on emergency Scottish Funding Council (SFC) cash advances to maintain short-term liquidity. They can't plan ahead.
Diminishing Provision: Workforce contraction via voluntary severance has coincided with course credits and student headcounts dropping to 10-year lows. That basically means less places for prospective students. Part time learning numbers have plummeted. Evening provision for reskilling adults has almost entirely disappeared.

The Policy Disparity: Colleges vs. Universities

Fiscal Control & Governance: Colleges operate as direct instruments of government policy under SFC control. Unlike universities—which enjoy greater fiscal freedom and research autonomy college boards and leadership face direct Scottish Government intervention during fiscal distress.

Targeted Grants vs. Baseline Stability: Short-term, ring-fenced initiatives (e.g., £10m New FWDF or £20m DTECs) enable rapid, employer-led upskilling, but cannot cover permanent staff costs, rising energy bills, or essential campus maintenance.

Equitable Distribution: The commitment to "free" higher education has created an unintended structural imbalance, diverting core tertiary resources away from lifelong vocational learning and local college pathways.

Key Action Recommendations for Policy Makers

Equalise Core Tertiary Funding Rates : Establish rate parity per candidate across Further Education, Higher Education, and work-based learning to ensure public funds follow the learner fairly and make the system make full use of SCQF. Track learners across life long learning by full adoption of the Scottish Candidate Number SCN.

Re-evaluate Regional Governance & Autonomy : Re-evaluate Regional Governance & Learn from Glasgow’s De-regionalisation. The dissolution of the Glasgow Colleges Regional Board (GCRB) proved that adding an administrative "middle tier" above colleges creates unnecessary overhead without protecting frontline budgets. Remaining regional structures across Scotland must either be given genuine, ring-fenced budget autonomy to serve their local economies, or be streamlined to allow direct SFC funding to frontline college delivery.

Align University Funding to National Standards: Differentiate public university subsidies by tying funding formulas to national occupational standards and articulation pathways from regional colleges. Academic autonomy should not extend to ignoring national occupational standards and SCQF.

Mandate FE Inclusion in National Capital & Innovation Projects : Ensure major economic and innovation investments (e.g., NMIS, Data Lab, DTECs) structurally embed regional colleges as core funded partners, not secondary outputs

Expand Open Educational Resources (OER): Drive cross-sector adoption of UNESCO open education principles to widen access across regional communities. Ensure that all Colleges and Universities share all learning materials through open respositories and practice. To foster mutual support and collaboration and ultimately to support learners and teachers - wherever they are.

Stop the pretence that the patient(s) can heal itself : There are currently two projects going on in Scotland, both sponsored by the Scottish Govt - The College Sector of the Future ( for Colleges) and for Universities the Future Framework for the Sustainability and Success of Scotland's Universities. In isolation neither of the sectors can find a solution on their own. As they are both in the new tertiary system scope here for one project.

Joe Wilson has 40 years experience of the College sector and among other roles spent 15 years serving on three different College Boards of management.

Reflections on 25 Years of the SCQF #scqf25years

2026-09-24T15:04:57.547+01:00

In 2001, I was leading a range of sector-wide projects across Scottish Further Education for the Scottish Further Education Unit (SFEU). Across colleges, there was a buzz surrounding the arrival of the Scottish Credit and Qualifications Framework (SCQF). For those of us working on the ground, news of a unified national framework was warmly welcomed.

Before joining SFEU, I had spent 15 years as a Course Team Leader in the college sector. My colleagues and I hit the same wall: a system of fragmented, siloed qualifications that created friction for learners trying to progress. We watched capable students pass college units linked to occupational standards with distinction, only to be told by universities or by professional bodies that their learning "didn't count" or that they had to start from scratch. The lack of proper, systemic recognition was frustrating and unfair. It wasn't just administrative red tape; it was actively hampering human potential.

One year we lost an established articulation route simply as the academic course team leader who was the gatekeeper at a local university changed and their successor decided to block the articulation pathway. It could be a real lottery.

So, when the SCQF Arrived in 2001 promising a single, common language for all learning built on the sensible view that a unit of effort in a college held equal weight to one in a university it felt like a long-overdue revolution.

By 2003, my perspective shifted from curriculum support to national delivery when I moved to the Scottish Qualifications Authority (SQA), looking after half of all vocational awards in Scotland. The nascent SCQF team were along the corridor from me.

Sitting at the SQA during those formative years was exhilarating we were doing the heavy lifting to make the SCQF work. We undertook the massive task of updating, reviewing, leveling, and credit-rating thousands of vocational awards, Higher National Certificates (HNCs), Higher National Diplomas (HNDs), and SVQs. We were creating the architecture for true "parity of esteem."

Since then, I have worked closely with the SCQF team members over the years (always a pleasure), spent time on the board of SCQF partnership and worked as an auditor for credit and levellng organisations.

Looking back now, over two decades later, I ask myself: Did the SCQF live up to the promise we felt in 2001?

The answer is a nuanced yes, but.

Where it succeeded:

The SCQF created a transparent, world-leading infrastructure. It allowed colleges to build direct articulation routes into modern universities, saving thousands of students time and money. It gave non-traditional learners a way to see their worth, and it allows workplace learning to be formally valued alongside traditional academic degrees. It's been great to see professional bodies, community learning and other public bodies coming on board.

Where the battle continues:

The friction I fought as a Course Team Leader in the 1990s hasn't disappeared. While the framework provided the language for seamless progression, it couldn't forcibly dismantle institutional culture. We still see universities guarding their gates, forcing HND graduates to repeat learning levels, and public perception clinging to traditional school-exam "gold standards."

The funding system I think is the only lever left and that should be used very bluntly, to change some behaviours here. Public money should mean national standards.

It's been a bumpy ride, during College restructuring a lot of experienced credit and levellers left the sector, though capacity is building up again. Universities tend to only credit and level their own provision, and there can still be some confusion in the system around the value of credit and levelling an award and or an awarding body seeking accreditation from the SQA.

In 2001, we really hoped the SCQF would be a silver bullet. Today, I see it as an essential foundation. It didn't instantly solve every barrier to progression, but it gave us the blueprint to keep fighting for a fairer, more open education system in Scotland. #OpenScot

In the School sector many of the benefits have still to be cultivated where - academic subjects, vocational learning, and personal achievements could form an SCQF-levelled profile. We could eliminate the high-stakes exam treadmill in favor of a balanced, credit-based portrait of a young person’s capabilitities - but that still seems out of reach.

It is a key part of the Scottish educational landscape that needs to be better understood by everyone across the system. It is still the envy of many global education systems.

Collectively we can all do more to make the SCQF Framework work for all.

Happy Birthday SCQF and team members past and present.

Generative AI and the Changing Nature of Assessment for DataLab Education Community

2026-09-20T19:24:30.829+01:00

I enjoyed co presenting with Daire Maria Ni Uanachain . Daire's presentation and recording of session is now available on the Data Lab Education Community Page

If you are not a member of this community you should join. ( probably most relevant to folks in Scotland) My own presentation is at foot of this blog post and I think complemented Daire's approach.

I don't think we are at an inflection point yet. Changes to learning and assessment should have arrived when the internet and search engines became ubiquitous.

Generative AI poses less of a threat to vocational training than to traditional academic sectors because vocational education relies on authentic assessment where learners must physically demonstrate practical capabilities rather than simply writing essays for these areas. Digital evidence capture, such as video recording practical assessments (e.g. solar panel installation or working at height), work really well for verification and quality sampling. Alternative assessments work in every other subject area too.

To be clear, educational AI isn't about experimental frontier systems, it's about the accessible, everyday tools already at our students' fingertips. Keeping our focus on practical applications helps demystify the technology and prevents unnecessary anxiety from stalling essential digital skills development (though the danger of armageddon will be this year's excuse for avoidance of any digital skills development)

The truth is getting teaching staff to change assessments rather than rely on 'AI Detection Engines' which don't work, is massively challenging. Bad practice is deeply entrenched. We still have academic staff who ask generations of students the same questions and that should have changed long before the advent of AI.

Overcoming resistance to change is all about having the right governance, time and support in place.

Unlocking the potential of these tools locally hinges on closer collaboration between IT departments, academic and support staff. Building trust and dialogue between teams ensures we fully leverage the native AI features already sitting in our VLEs (like Canvas) and the enterprise platforms Microsoft or Google accounts.

This is essential to prevent growth of shadow IT etc.

There is useful support from Qualifications Scotland and a host of other sources. I've listed some current ones in slide deck.

Hot of the press Glasgow Universities Toolkit for Reflecting on the Use of Digital and Artificial Intelligence (AI) Technologies in Learning and Teaching is included on this list.

Launch of Toolkit for reflecting on the use of Digital and AI Technologies in Learning and Teaching

2026-09-19T17:47:25.956+01:00

Last Monday, before heading up to Dundee University to move my son into student halls, I had the opportunity to attend the launch of an excellent new resource at the University of Glasgow.

The team at the School of Education has developed the Toolkit for Reflecting on the Use of Digital and Artificial Intelligence (AI) Technologies in Learning and Teaching. Rather than promoting specific tools or offering a rigid compliance checklist, the toolkit encourages structured reflection, professional dialogue, and active enquiry through self-assessment activities, real-world case studies, and guided reflective frameworks. It supports reflection across various dimensions of technology use and can be used individually or collaboratively, with the flexibility to adapt to different educational settings.

It is structured into four parts that move from examining personal pedagogical assumptions to analyzing mock case studies and planning future lessons. By utilising established academic frameworks like SAMR, TPACK, and the Conversational Framework, the resource encourages a shift from mere technology adoption to evidence-informed reflection.

The materials also highlight ethical considerations, such as data privacy and accessibility, ensuring that tools serve human-centered learning goals.

Ultimately, the toolkit provides a staged scaffold for practitioner enquiry, helping teachers sustain a reflective digital practice as technology evolves.

It was good to meet some Education Scotland colleagues along at the launch and hear that they had been supportive in the development of this resource.

The toolkit has several clear strengths:

Sensible progression: It thoughtfully steps staff through selecting suitable technology based on actual learning needs, asking grounded questions about tech and AI along the way.

Solid pedagogical focus: It grounds learning design effectively, with a particularly useful focus on the ABC model.

Open access: It is published as an Open Educational Resource (OER), making it widely accessible. #OpenScot

The overall approach is remarkably sound, and it is worth planning to use some of the slides and exercises with staff to help shape their approach to learning technology and AI. That said, to make the absolute most of it in practice, there are a few tweaks I'd make:

Streamlining the activities: I’d likely cut down on some of the exercises. A few sections feel slightly wordy, and it can take a bit long to reach the practical next steps of selecting the right technology.

Localising to institutional context: In an institutional setting, you need to explicitly point staff toward the specific tools supported by their institution. The toolkit omits this local layer to remain universally applicable, so I’d add that context back in.

Critiquing misuse: It also presents a good opportunity to explore what might be missing, or address where educational technology and AI are being used inappropriately. Example I often use - a poor set of engineering lecturers being driven to distraction by an edtech trying to get them to adopt Powtoons of cuddily toys with powertools.

Expanding case study scope: The team is currently expanding the case studies at the back. Right now, they are heavily focused on primary schools, which opens up a great opportunity for colleges and HE institutions to collaborate with the university to develop further sector-specific examples.

Ultimately, I’d take the core slides and checklists and adapt them to fit a specific institutional context. Overall, the resources in this pack are a valuable addition to the toolkit of both Learning Technology teams and staff developer leads.

There are a lot of resources appearing in this space. (digital learning support with a focus on AI) I didn't ask but was not sure where this resource fitted along side Glasgow University's lead on the Centre for Teaching Excellence and or work around digital learning appearing from the digital hub at Edinburgh University.

Event was timely as I was doing a sector wide presentation later in the week with an AI focus and I was able to include this resource in references.

There was a plug too for an 'International Symposium' on AI in summer 2027

If you work in Learning Technology or a Learning and Teaching Academy worth downloading the PDF - and with proper attribution for orginal underpinning work perhaps running your own local AI model to repurpose some of the slides and resources in this pack. My preferred model for this at moment is giving Notebook LM the PDF and asking it to create presentation slides that I can then edit.

Here is a first pass at creating presentation from the PDF using Notebook LM - it is far too 'glossy' I would never use a deck like this - but great indication of what Notebook LM can do in under a minute. Please note proper attribution.

Get Involved

Download: Access the full Toolkit PDF on Glasgow ePrints.

Contribute Case Studies: If your college or university wants to contribute sector case studies, reach out to Dr. Mark Peart at the University of Glasgow School of Education.

Once for Scotland Catch Up

2026-09-04T13:19:36.577+01:00

I enjoy catching sessions from Once for Scotland on the first Thursday of each month. It is great to hear about all of the joined-up digital initiatives in the national pipeline. I do think many of these initiatives need more public awareness. There are a lot of potentially really good things happening. If you work across the public sector in Scotland you really should sign up for Once for Scotland.

The initiative does not have a brand or logo, so I got AI to make one up.

This month we got updates on

Scottish Government Digital Mailbox

The Scottish Government Digital Mailbox is a national digital communication platform designed to provide the people of Scotland with a single, secure location for receiving correspondence from public sector organisations. Following a successful CivTech challenge, and based on the Danish Digital Post system used population wide, the Scottish Government invested in the core infrastructure through Netcompany's AMI platform, integrating it with ScotAccount for trusted identity verification and the Scottish Government Cloud Platform to establish a scalable national service. The platform is now operational and forms part of key strategic programmes including the Digital Front Door (MyCare), providing a foundation for secure digital communications across health and wider public services in Scotland. The focus has now shifted from building the platform to driving adoption, onboarding public bodies, and realising the benefits of a shared national service. This supports the ambitions of the Sustainable Digital Public Services Delivery Plan, which aims to move 25% of public sector correspondence to digital channels by 2030 and deliver potential savings of more than £100 million per year through reduced printing, postage and administration costs.

I can see this as a great tool if adopted by organisations like Qualifications Scotland.

ScotPayments –

ScotPayments the payment service designed by and built for government, including background information, progress to date, what the programme is working towards and opportunities to become involved.

Local Government Architecture Model

The Local Government Architecture Model (LGAM) is an evolving shared framework for describing the technology councils need to deliver local public services. Creating a common language across local government to support collaboration, technology planning and the adoption of reusable solutions across the sector.

ScotAccount v MyGovscot Accounts

Many citizens will be trying to understand the difference between their ScotAccount and their Mygovscot account, if they have set one or both up. Here is a quick table guide.

Feature	ScotAccount	mygovscot myaccount
Who runs it	Scottish Government	Local councils / Improvement Service
Purpose	National digital identity	Local council service login
Identity verification	Yes (photo ID or security questions)	No
Typical use	PVG, disclosures, MyCare.scot, Redress, DAS	Council tax, bins, schools, benefits
2FA	Yes	Sometimes
Reuse across services	Yes (national)	Yes (local authority only)
Interoperability	Separate from myaccount	Separate from ScotAccount

Year Two over the Top : Post Summer Blog Catch Up #OER26

2026-08-25T12:50:04.666+01:00

I am still pinching myself that I'm not back in the trenches for a fraught start of term.

I've moved on a lot since last year, and the work keeps evolving.

All the very best to all who are back for a new session.

I had a busy end to my part-time consulting year! And then a useful chance to simply potter about and reflect. Had great fun watching World Cup too in Scotland and France.

I am a few blog posts behind.

Here is a quick look at what I’ve been up to:

Holyrood Communications: I had the privilege of speaking on the transformative role of AI in Education, exploring both the opportunities and challenges it brings for learners and teachers. Mainly how assessment needs to change. But have a close look at the presentation on skills you and learners need to develop to make the most of AI tools.
#OER26: Connected with the open education community to share ideas and insights on the future of open educational resources. I focused on the practical things that open education advocates and their organisations should be doing to be open. Extended blog to follow.

Very timely as the Scottish Government has finally got behind Open Practice. Caught up too over the summer with the team leading on this work. Worth a read - if I was still working at a public body or at an institutional level I'd be figuring out how we start the journey towards sharing more resources publicly with an appropriate open licence and discussing this with all stakeholders.

The #openscot community and Association for Learning Technology have lots of experts on hand who could help.

Quality Systems: Delivered a session for Northampton College on familiar territory of quality systems internal and external quality assurance for their engineering academic team.

Île de Ré: Balanced the busy schedule with a fantastic summer break on the French coast, enjoying the quiet beaches, cycling routes, food, wine, and plenty of sunshine (perhaps too hot this year).

Glasgow Commonwealth Games: Spent an unforgettable time volunteering on the ground, soaking in the vibrant energy of the events. Some memorable moments: the Ugandan team (on a rainy day) telling me how beautiful Scotland was in the autumn and being surprised it was summer. The Cook Islands team singing and playing their music on their hotel balcony each evening. Above all, working with a great set of volunteers and welcoming so many different people into the City of Glasgow.

RSA Scotland: Supported the Commonwealth Reception in Trades House of Glasgow, engaging in fantastic conversations with fellows and partners celebrating regional and international connections and handing the baton on to the Indian delegation.

Mentoring: Continued supporting senior leaders on driving change, leveraging digital tools while staying human, and leading authentically. If you role-play being a rotter, you risk getting stuck in that mode, and we have more than enough angry leaders in the world right now!

Looking forward to ALTC in Cardiff, meeting new ALT Scotland Exec members, and supporting Instructure Canvas (including Canvas Con in November) and moving on a few other projects that will keep me occupied into the new year.

Learning Technology – The State of the Nation ALT ( Association for Learning Technology) Scottish Regional Special Interest Group

2026-06-19T14:16:00.076+01:00

This is a part report on proceedings at Stirling and an annual report from the special interest group. The hybrid gathering at Stirling was our 2nd event of the academic year.

In early May, we held an online 'Two Stars and a Wish' event looking at the broad trends within the Scottish learning technology landscape.

At Stirling, we focused on public bodies, policy, and sector initiatives related to learning technology.

The agenda and links to presentations are on the agenda and in the event Padlet. Special thanks to all who joined us at Stirling and or online.

My own short takes on items.

Forgive any of my own bias and dig into the links and notes for your own take on proceedings.

Jisc Innovation Hub is a great central venue - many thanks, Jason Miles-Campbell, for hosting us.
ALT - Looking forward to seeing the new version of CMALT, OER26, and ALTC in Cardiff. Great to have Susan Martin, CEO, along virtually and look forward to seeing her in Scotland at future events.
Education Scotland: Great updates on guidance and support going into schools to support digital learning and AI guardrails - learners will be arriving at Colleges and universities with ever-heightened expectations. Still a challenge: national policy implemented with 32 different local authority flavours.
College Development Network - some really good work is going on developing staff skills around AI - overall sense that students, particularly, have been terrified by some institutional messaging and that AI use has not perhaps moved on from the assumption that it allows more than sophisticated web searches.
Jisc has so much great support, which is too often not being used or overlooked by the sector. I particularly like the digital benchmarking surveys of institutional digital transformation.
Some great updates from Scotland's Tertiary Enhancement Projects delivered in conjunction by QAA and CDN. My view would be useful with a bit more focus on digital.
Lee Dunn, Head of Scottish Digital Academy, laid out Scotland's Digital strategy and the critical role that Colleges, Universities, and learning technologists have in delivering this. They are, among other things, advocating an open educational approach to developing and sharing resources. There was also an open invitation

"Anyone wishing to get involved in the discovery work and planning for OER and the Model of Professional Learning can email digitalacademy@gov.scot, and we will note their interest, reaching out to them once we’re ready to engage."

Theo from QS (Qualifications Scotland ). The consensus Policy needs to move fast, but it must remain equitable and grounded in what educators and learners actually experience. Guidance is basically sound, but still misinterpreted by teaching staff. Qualifications Scotland cannot change the assessment landscape on its own.
Rosemarie gave a good update on SCAITEN - still looking for some institutional reps with focus on taking an ethical tertiary approach to AI .
Caroline brought it back to practical application, showcasing "The Stirling Approach" to blended learning. Seeing how Stirling intentionally weaves these digital tools into curriculum design and delivery created a useful debate.

Finally, my thanks to the ALT Scotland steering group. We have been following a similar schedule for the last five years; steering group meetings in autumn and spring, with events scheduled around March/ April and one in June. I've got some new volunteers for the steering group who I will introduce at first meeting in the autumn.

ALT Scotland Update – May 2026 Two Stars and a Wish.

2026-05-19T13:25:14.796+01:00

In early May, we convened an online 2 Stars and a Wish Session with members of the Association for Learning Technology across Scotland. We had an active and useful discussion around themes and burning issues - and mostly our hopes for the future.

Scotland’s digital learning landscape is shifting in ways that matter deeply for ALT members. Across AI, open practice, digital capability, and national reform, the sector is innovating, but unevenly; collaboration is strengthening, but still fragile; and the gap between policy ambition and operational reality remains stubborn.

Our next gathering will be hybrid, with both face-to-face and online options. Hosted at Jisc Innovation Hub at the University of Stirling on 12th of June - book here.

And our wishes -

Better Assessment Design: A hope that AI disruption finally forces institutions to rethink outdated, surface‑level assessment practices.

Broader ALT Scotland Engagement: A desire to bring more colleagues into the ALT Scotland community, too many are still missing out on the support, camaraderie, and shared expertise.

More Thoughtful Use of AI vs OER: A call for educators to recognise when AI is helpful — and when a well‑chosen OER or public‑domain resource is the better, safer, or more transparent choice.

A More Open System: A strong plea to move beyond “It’s all on SharePoint, unfortunately.” Members want institutions to enable external sharing, embrace open platforms, and reduce unnecessary barriers to collaboration.

And a quick personal summary reflection on initial provocations - any omissions are my own. See Padlet for all links. (Both Padlets are now frozen)

1. Digital Capability: Progress, but still too slow

The Digital Skills Development Scoping Report (2025) continues to shape conversations about workforce readiness across colleges. It highlights what many ALT members already know: capability is improving, but the system lacks coherence, shared frameworks, and visible institutional and national leadership.

The ongoing Tertiary System workstream has real potential to address this, but only if outputs are openly published and actively used. Transparency here would make a tangible difference to practitioners.

Meanwhile, The Data Lab’s Education Community is emerging as a valuable cross‑sector space for data and AI practice. It’s early, but it could become a key partner for ALT Scotland.

2. AI in Education: Between grassroots realism and global critique

AI remains the dominant theme, but the conversation is maturing.

The Scottish AI in Tertiary Education Network (SCAITEN) making great progress in providing an informed position on AI for Colleges and Universities across Scotland.
AICE.scot, led by Stuart Caddell, is one of the most grounded, practitioner‑led initiatives in Scotland. It’s pragmatic, classroom‑focused, and aligned with the realities of Scottish schools. FE/HE should be paying attention.
Helen Beetham’s “AI Can Fail You” is resonating strongly with ALT members — a reminder that criticality must sit alongside innovation.
Timnit Gebru’s work at DAIR continues to expose the structural risks in the global AI ecosystem. For a sector dependent on vendor tools, this critique is not optional reading.
Jisc’s National Centre for AI remains a key source of guidance, though institutions are still wrestling with implementation.

The overall picture: There is some confident experimenting happening, but the ethical and infrastructural questions are getting louder. There are challenges to the best use of local AI solutions that need to be overcome in partnership with IT colleagues and with students.

3. Academic Integrity & Assessment: Normalisation underway

Across universities, AI‑supported academic work is becoming normalised rather than feared.
Northampton’s GenAI assessment guidance
Edinburgh’s subject‑level guidance
A growing set of open resources on copyright, public‑domain images, and AI‑generated media

These are practical, aligned, open, and increasingly shareable, exactly the kind of cross‑institutional consistency ALT Scotland has long advocated for.

4. Open Education: A renewed moment for Scotland

Open practice is gaining momentum again, and ALT members are at the centre of it.

Edinburgh’s TILT toolkit is a strong, interdisciplinary OER contribution.
Jisc’s Open Policy Finder is becoming essential for policy alignment.
UCL’s ABC Learning Design resources remain widely adopted across FE and HE.
Edinburgh’s Open Education Week shows what a mature institutional open culture looks like.
If you are doing work in the open follow #openscot example and get your work on the OERWorldMap.

With Creative Commons celebrating 25 years, it’s a timely reminder that open licensing underpins everything from AI training to resource reuse.

We had a good discussion around 'sharepoint', it can enable external sharing, but this is normally disabled.

5. AI for OER Discovery: A promising pilot

The Jisc–Sylla pilot exploring AI‑driven OER discovery is one to watch. If it can deliver transparent, licence‑accurate search, it could transform how materials are found and reused. But the risks, hallucinated attributions, opaque sourcing, remain real.

6. ALT Developments: A more integrated ecosystem

ALT itself is evolving in ways that matter for Scotland:
OER26 is approaching
ALT and DLI have announced a strategic partnership
AmplifyFE is now an ALT Special Interest Group
The arrival of a refreshed CMALT is imminent

These shifts strengthen ALT’s FE presence and create clearer pathways for professional recognition.

7. Wider Sector Signals

A few additional developments shaping the landscape:

Jisc Connect More (12–13 May) – free, online, and increasingly influential
SFC’s College Sector of the Future – early but important
Jisc’s Manifesto for Tertiary Education in Scotland – a bold attempt to shape national direction
UCISA’s VLE Review Toolkit – outputs will be essential for procurement cycles
DataFest – expensive, but consistently strong, some great global speakers.
We Are Open Co‑op – closing after years of thoughtful sector support. Worth having a look and their fantastic legacy.

What this means for ALT Scotland

Across all these threads, a few strategic implications stand out:

ALT Scotland is uniquely placed to convene the cross‑sector conversations others aren’t hosting.
Grassroots innovation (AICE.scot, open practice communities, practitioner networks) is outpacing national strategy.
AI is both enabling and destabilising — and the sector needs a shared, critical, Scottish voice.
Open practice is becoming the backbone of responsible digital education.
The tertiary reform agenda needs more visibility and more practitioner input.

ALT Scotland’s role is clear: connect, challenge, and amplify — ensuring Scotland’s digital learning community shapes the future rather than reacts to it.

Recording of Session Here

TECHday Glasgow 2026: What Colleges Can Learn from the Latest AV and AI Innovations

2026-05-14T22:49:38.261+01:00

With colleges wrestling with hybrid delivery, estate pressures, and the rapid rise of AI, this year’s TECHday event felt less like a tech showcase and more like a snapshot of where FE learning spaces could be heading, if we have the investment to support the closure of the digital divide.

Mediascape’s annual gathering may be compact, but it continues to offer one of the clearest windows into the technologies that will shape teaching and learning over the next few years.

It's great to meet and see all the suppliers who all use MediaScape to install and service their systems.

It was great to catch up with lots of old friends and make some new ones. I still really like SmartBoard Mini.

What stood out this time was the shift from speculative AI conversations to practical, deployable solutions, tools that can make a difference in classrooms tomorrow, not in some distant future.

AI‑Ready Classrooms Are Becoming the New Standard

Across the exhibitor stands, the strongest theme was the shift toward AI‑enhanced teaching environments. Not abstract AI, not hype, but practical tools that make hybrid delivery smoother and reduce staff workload.

I saw intelligent camera and microphone arrays that automatically track speakers, built‑in AI captioning and transcription that actually works in real time, and Teams/Zoom‑certified room kits designed for reliability rather than complexity.

Wireless presentation systems rounded out the picture, supporting flexible, device‑agnostic teaching. For colleges still juggling inconsistent hybrid setups, these solutions felt mature, stable, and ready to deploy. I can be a sucker for gadgets, and I really liked the handy cam that was being used to capture the proceedings.

Immersive Learning Is Moving Into the Mainstream

Another standout trend was the rise of immersive and simulation‑based learning. Large LED walls, interactive displays, and projection systems are becoming more affordable and more adaptable to vocational contexts.

For construction, engineering, and health programmes, simulation environments now offer realistic, safe spaces for learners to practise skills before stepping into real‑world placements. These tools aren’t just visually impressive; they support deeper engagement, repetition, and confidence‑building, especially in sectors where placement capacity is tight, or learners need more time to develop practical competence - you can wander around in spaces that you cannot access in real life.

And the simple set of wireless headsets that can turn a noisy atrium or busy exhibition space into a viable space for focused presentations could be used for a silent disco, too.

Smart‑Campus Tech Is Quietly Transforming Estates Planning

I was lucky latterly to be on a smart campus. Though I was never sure where the data actually went.

An increasingly important strand of the event focused on smart‑building technologies. These systems can monitor occupancy, automate environmental controls, and feed real‑time data into estate dashboards. For colleges managing ageing estates, fluctuating timetables, and ambitious carbon‑reduction targets, this kind of intelligence is becoming essential. The shift toward data‑driven estates planning was clear: institutions will soon expect their buildings to tell them how they’re being used, where energy is being wasted, and how learning spaces can be optimised. Well, I would expect that data as a board member.

A Chance to Reconnect — and a Reminder of Sector Realities

One of the unexpected highlights of the day was catching up with colleagues from my own FE past — including an early‑career IT technician I once knew who’s now the head of technology at a major Glasgow college. It was a reminder of how much the sector evolves, and yet how many of the challenges stubbornly stay the same.

We ended up swapping stories that felt painfully familiar: significant investment in hybrid classrooms, but far less investment in the staff development needed to make that technology work. The result is predictable: frustration, wasted money, and teaching staff who, through no fault of their own, end up dismantling or bypassing equipment simply because they don’t know what it does. Every college seems to have its own horror stories. The shared wisdom was simple: if in doubt, ask a tech, and always check the room is working before you start teaching. It’s not glamorous advice, but it’s the difference between a smooth session and a chaotic one, and pulling all the wires out will never make a system work.

Had a good chat too about how easy it is to open up SharePoint to share learning materials beyond the organisation and around, no-cost solutions to allow staff to create local agents in Microsoft Co-Pilot. But I fear we are still some way off from that being normal practice.

Cybersecurity and AI Governance Are Rising Priorities

As AI becomes more embedded in teaching spaces and campus systems, cybersecurity is moving rapidly up the agenda. Several sessions highlighted the risks associated with AI‑enabled devices, from data capture to network vulnerabilities and the need for robust governance frameworks. For colleges, this reinforces a simple truth: adopting AI isn’t just about innovation. It’s about ensuring that the systems supporting learners and staff are secure, compliant, and aligned with institutional policies. You don't get any shadow IT when IT is innovative and aligned with learning and teaching.

So What Does TECHday Tell Us About the Future of FE?

For me, the event reinforced a few key points:

The future of FE learning is hybrid, flexible, and AI‑supported
Teaching spaces need to be AI‑ready, not just AV‑equipped
Immersive and simulation technologies are becoming core to vocational delivery
Estates teams will increasingly rely on data‑driven decision‑making
AI governance and cybersecurity must evolve alongside innovation
Staff do need time, support, and training to make the best use of what is available.
We need open platforms. Was interesting to hear how easy it would be to make SharePoint open - and how resistant techs are to opening the platform up and or allowing staff access to tools to build their own AI agents.

TECHday Glasgow didn’t offer speculative visions of the future. It offered practical, deployable technologies that colleges can adopt right now to improve teaching, learning, and campus operations.

And in a sector where time, budgets, and staff capacity are always tight, that’s exactly what we need.

The Silent Crisis: Why Your Vote in May 2026 Matters for Scotland’s Colleges

2026-04-23T12:54:14.997+01:00

Scotland’s funding system prioritises where you study over what you learn. This has left college students chronically underfunded compared to their university peers, even when they are studying for the exact same level of qualification.

As we approach the Scottish Parliament election on May 7th, the survival of the college sector is no longer a "future" problem; it is a present-day emergency. I have looked beyond the campaign slogans to ask: which policies will finally align our education system with the occupational competencies the modern world actually demands?

The "Data Gap": Why Universities Resist the SCN

A major hurdle to fairness is the lack of transparency. Most people don't realise that while work-based learning, schools and colleges use the Scottish Candidate Number (SCN) to track a learner’s journey from age five, the university system has largely resisted adopting it.

By using their own internal IDs instead of the SCN, universities make it nearly impossible to track a student’s progress through the entire system. This "data silo" hides a multitude of sins, including potential double-funding and an inability to prove if "widening access" programs are actually working. Without a single ID, we are essentially trying to run a national education system where the biggest players speak different languages.

The "Missing Link" Between Degrees and Competencies

The core of the problem is a fundamental divide in how courses are built. Universities enjoy "Academic Autonomy," meaning they create their own curriculum based on theoretical research. In contrast, colleges deliver a curriculum mapped to National Occupational Standards (NOS).

If a degree claims to be vocational but isn't tied to these competencies, should it be funded at the same rate as a course that is?

Qualification Type	Primary Driver	Linked to Occupational Competency?
College HNC/D	Industry Standards (NOS)	Directly. Required for professional registration.
Modern Apprenticeship	Employer Demand and (NOS)	Directly. Based on "doing" the job.
Traditional BA/BSc	Academic Research	Rarely. Designed for "critical thinking," not a specific job.
Graduate Apprenticeship	Co-designed (Uni + Employer)	Directly. The "Gold Standard"—should embed HN and SVQ levels based on (NOS)

Where the Parties Stand (May 2026)

I believe all the current manifestos fall short of delivering a truly equitable settlement for vocational education, but here is how the "Big Three" are pitching their solutions:

1. The Scottish National Party (SNP)

The SNP is betting on the Tertiary Education and Training (TET) Act 2026. Their plan is to merge college and university funding into a "single bucket" to ensure money follows the learner.

The Catch: While they talk about "parity," college funding has dropped by 20% in real terms, leaving campuses in an "emergency" state.

2. Scottish Labour

Labour is positioning itself as the party of the workforce, promising multi-year funding settlements. This would allow colleges to stop living hand-to-mouth and actually plan for the long term.

The Catch: They have been vague on whether the current "no-fee" model is sustainable without a massive injection of cash they haven't yet found.

3. Scottish Conservatives

The Tories are focusing on the physical decay of the sector, proposing a Capital Investment Fund for "wind and watertight" repairs. They also want more "college autonomy" to let institutions keep the money they earn from business partnerships.

The Catch: Their wider plans to cut government spending could leave little room for the revenue increases the sector desperately needs.

The Verdict

If we want a fair system, we must "cut our cloth" accordingly. A truly learner-friendly policy wouldn't just promise more cash; it would mandate that any vocational degree must be mapped to National Occupational Competencies and funded at the same rate as a college HND.

Until we close the "Missing Link" and adopt a single tracking number (SCN) for every student, the "parity of esteem" between colleges and universities will remain a myth.

Many of these issues are very long-standing, and no administration has really been prepared to tackle them. The system should be about learners, not institutions. I reflected on a similar theme in 2024.

Transparency Note: To help navigate the dense landscape of 2026 election manifestos, budget reports, and legislation like the Tertiary Education and Training (TET) Act, I used AI as a research collaborator to pull this data together. All policy comparisons and insights were cross-referenced against official party platforms and sector reports from Colleges Scotland and Audit Scotland to ensure accuracy.

Teachermatic and Jisc : AI and Assessment project Webinar - worth digging into

2026-04-15T14:57:00.004+01:00

I don’t usually devote a full post to a single webinar, but this one genuinely merited it. The session offered one of the clearest, most practice‑grounded explorations of how AI is reshaping assessment and feedback across FE and HE.

Teachermatic is an award-winning platform now with over 300 centres across the UK. Originally aimed at reducing the need for staff to learn prompt engineering. Developed by a team from across FE and HE. So staff did not need to learn how to set up all of this in Chat GPT, Co-Pilot, Gemini, etc and it still offers these distinct benefits.

I've been a fan since the project was piloted and then gained UFI seed funding.

In the Glasgow Region, some great work from Clyde College and Kelvin College around deploying and using Teachermatic. I hope someone from City of Glasgow College is reading this.

The system has now moved from an initial focus on creating learning materials and assessments to looking at how AI can support the actual assessment and feedback process. The new assessment tools aim to save staff time and improve the overall learning experience for students - a lot of good evidence that this is the case.

The platform is secure and works to make ethical and sustainable choices. AI in Assessment - is being used a great deal in formative assessment and feedback. Interesting - needs assent by students - workload reduction is a priority only for staff. Students are suspicious of AI being used for marking and feedback - they need reassured that AI improves the volume of feedback, consistency, and timelines and that the human element has not disappeared.

The assessment and feedback tool was originally set up to mark one piece of work at a time, but can now mark whole cohorts' submissions. The teacher still has a lot of agency. Teachermatic has had useful feedback from awarding bodies and regulators. AI can be used to support feedback. AI tools are there to speed up and enrich the feedback process. Ultimately, decisions and feedback come from the teacher. So support does not replace human marking.

Evidence that school teachers mark up to 8 hours, FE up to 10 hours, HE up to 8 hours per week on marking and feedback. Reminded that more timely feedback supports better learning. The Forgetting curve is real, and speed matters - the old two-week rule is too long. When that works, reminded that lots of academic teams miss even that two-week turnaround target.

The assessment feedback tool looks excellent and comes with national levels across the UK, including Scotland. Can cope with a rubric, even a simple unit description, and a range of student inputs, from graphical to handwritten and digital text. Comes with a whole range of different marking schemes - copes with up to 250 assessments at a time. Was particularly impressed by the ability of the system to cope with the grading of drawings and diagrams and handwritten submissions. Creates an annotated PDF with comments on work for tutor review - they can accept, delete, change, and add comments. Provides very rich feedback and consistency of grading. When complete, you download and share with the student.

Have developed a specialist platform for BTechs that gives feedback against the performance criteria in the unit standard.

The balance of workload now looks around 80% AI and 20% teacher

Saves around 144 hours of work per year

Cost is £30 per year, perhaps the actual input cost of one hour of marking.

Strong endorsement from staff on time saving, accuracy of grading, and richness of feedback, and positive feedback from students. Has gone a long way in improving work-life balance and improving learner satisfaction.

UK-based Azure servers do not train any LLM, retain all IP rights, and all submitted work is deleted, not retained. Jisc is a reseller and has done all due diligence. In the background on general AI, they work hard to remove risk and bias from the overall system, but on actual grading and feedback, the AI is calling on the rubric, etc, that the centre provides.

Reduces bias, improves the validity and reliability of grading

Works best up to HNC/D year one and two of degree provision, but is getting better at grading very extended writing that features in the final years of University learning. Introducing pre-marking - so students get feedback before final submission - and integrations with VLE platforms.

If you want to adopt, then lots of advance planning makes this a game-changer; staff and students need to be engaged from the start.

The SAFE Framework

One of the most valuable outputs of the wider project is the emerging SAFE framework, designed to help institutions that currently lack clear policy or guidance around AI in assessment.

SAFE emphasises:

Safeguarding: data protection and privacy
Augmenting: human judgement remains central
Fairness: reducing conscious and unconscious bias
Ethical practice: transparency and student understanding

It covers governance, consent, and procedures for both staff and students—practical scaffolding for institutions that want to move forward responsibly..

It is really worth reaching out to Peter and the team at Teachermatic and getting a free test account to try these tools out .

From Ideas to Apps: Rediscovering Creativity Through AI and Vibe Coding

2026-02-24T16:22:00.001+00:00

For most of my working life, I’ve been fascinated by how ideas become real. In the last century, when I taught mass communications and videography, the creative process was equal part excitement and endurance. We storyboarded ambitious scenes, imagined sweeping camera moves, and dreamed complex scenes. But we then we spent hours in the editing suite wrestling with sync, sound, and timing. The gap between what we envisioned and what we produced was often wide, and closing it required patience, skill, and a fair bit of stubbornness. That has since changed has technology moved on.

I followed a similar path with early computing. Tools like WordStar, HyperCard, and QuarkXPress opened new creative possibilities, but they also demanded a working knowledge of code. I spent a lot of time getting to a working if not optimum solution.

When the web arrived in the 1990s, I used those skills to build simple pages for students. But as blogging platforms and user‑friendly tools emerged, the need to hand‑craft everything faded. Even when I later managed large coding projects, I left the actual code to the coders.

Today, that landscape around coding has shifted again and dramatically.

The Rise of Vibe Coding

We are now in an era where AI allows us to be more ambitious than ever. “Vibe coding”, using natural language to shape an application into existence, it represents a genuine paradigm shift. Instead of wrestling with boilerplate or scaffolding, we can focus on the logic, the user experience, and the problem we’re trying to solve. The AI does a lot of the magic and handles the heavy lifting.

If you are automating a manual workflow, prototyping a weekend idea, or simply tidying up a webpage, vibe coding lets you move from concept to working prototype with unbelievable speed. It’s powerful even if you never intend to write a line of code yourself. You can test ideas, explore possibilities, and hand a validated proof‑of‑concept to professional developers when you’re ready. Anyone really can have a go at this.

I’ve been experimenting with this through the Glasgow No Code Initiative, which has taken me “back to college” in the best possible way. While the classes use Replit, I’ve tried a range of tools, and the experience has been both a refresher and a revelation. It's been good too to catch up with some fellow like minds from Glasgow's digital community who have signed up for the course.

Interesting that course has been bought in by Glasgow region - I hope lots of academic and support staff have signed up and are able to deliver future iterations.

I’ve built a simple app that checks a community hall’s availability via Google Calendar and allows users to make a booking, something that would once have required a small team, a long timeline and/or would have cost money if we'd bought an off the shelf tool.

The Golden Rules of Prompting

Regardless of the tool, your results depend on the clarity of your instructions. There are four principles that consistently produce better outputs from tools like Replit , Claude or ChatGPT:

1. Be Clear and Concise

Avoid unnecessary detail. Tell the model exactly what it needs to know.

2. Prioritise Requirements

Put the most important constraints at the top of your prompt. Structure matters.

3. Frame Requests Positively

Tell the AI what to do, not just what to avoid. Positive instructions reduce ambiguity.

4. Use Precise Language

Specificity narrows the “hallucination gap” and leads to more reliable results.

And if the model gets it wrong? Refine your prompt. Iteration is part of the process, just as it always was in the editing suite.

A New Creative Cycle

What excites me most is how familiar this all feels. The tools have changed, but the creative impulse hasn’t. We’re once again at a moment where the imagination leads, and technology follows. The difference now is the speed: the distance between idea and prototype has collapsed.

If I was back in the classroom I'd be showing all learners how to use these tools to develop apps for themselves.

At a very simple level it quickly unpacks how a full stack app is built and how the different files and folders interact. I'd use it as a way to get learners to start understanding coding.

For educators, community builders, and anyone with a spark of curiosity, this is an extraordinary opportunity. If you have an idea, even a small one, give it a go. You might be surprised by how quickly it becomes something real.

And if the Glasgow No Code Initiative runs again, it’s well worth signing up.

TeachmeetBETT26: Twenty Years On and Still the Best Thing in the Room #TeachmeetBett26 #BettUK2026 #ALT #OpenEducation #openscot

2026-02-10T13:43:00.011+00:00

Twenty years. That's how long the Teachmeet movement has been rattling around in classrooms, conference halls, and the odd beermeet event and it shows absolutely no signs of slowing down.

The Teachmeet movement started in Scotland in 2006. A group of Scottish teachers who wanted to share practice without the formality and expense of traditional CPD. No budgets, no keynotes charging four figures, no hotel conference suites. Just people who cared about learning, talking to other people who cared about learning.

It spawned from a community around early Scottish Educational bloggers - Scotedublogs ( still going strong). Over years I offered sponsorship and venues when I could - though I did speak at a few and the teachmeet format moved around the world.

But I do think we have stalled a bit in Scotland would be good to see much more grass roots activity.

At the time and now, it is refreshing to hear - fresh voices sharing their challenges and solutions.

For anyone who hasn't come across Teachmeet before, where have you been? The concept is beautifully simple.

Practitioners suggest they will share something useful, interesting or half-baked in two minutes or seven minutes.
These are added to the pot and then selected at random.
No PowerPoint decks full of bullet points.
Perhaps an illustration or something to demo.
They stand up and use their allotted time.
Generally a safe space not usually live streaming.
If you take too long you get a cuddly toy hurled at you.
Audience gets a useful link or idea to take away and look at later.

No consultants selling you something. Just real people doing real things in real classrooms and colleagues, sharing what works and what doesn't.

It's bottom-up professional development at its very best, and in an age where we are drowning in AI-generated content and slick vendor presentations, that authenticity matters more than ever.

What genuinely lifted my spirits at Teachmeet Bett 2026 was seeing new faces embracing the Teachmeet methodology. The audience was a good mix ; teachers, lecturers, learning technologists, people from schools, colleges and universities and the energy in the room was real. That's the thing about Teachmeet. You can't manufacture that energy. It either happens or it doesn't, and on that Wednesday night it absolutely did.

It is simply great staff development.
The presentations are all available here and there's also a lovely tribute to Teachmeet's twenty-year history worth exploring if you want to understand just how far this grassroots movement has come.

I used my two minutes to plug learning design, Open Education #openscot , and membership of ALT. I make no apologies for that. These are things I genuinely believe every college professional working with technology should know about. CMALT in particular remains one of the most underused professional development tools in Scottish further education, and events like Teachmeet are exactly the right place to spread the word.

A challenge

At the end of the night, the challenge went out: organise one. Your college, your school, your academic team , your local authority, your professional network. It doesn't have to be big. It doesn't have to be slick. It just has to happen.

I genuinely believe every college in Scotland — every college anywhere — should be running at least one Teachmeet a year. The cost is minimal it can be zero . The return in terms of practitioner confidence, professional community and shared ideas is enormous.

To Scottish teachers and lecturers it is hard making your voices heard but you need to be brave for your learners. Teachmeets and Scotedublogs are great vehicles to share open practice. There is a community you can be part of.

In the background there is some work underway to restate some Teachmeet assets like original wiki to help keep global momentum going.

Hat doffed to all teachmeeters past and present. I am looking forward to meeting future generations.

Twenty years of Teachmeet. Here's to twenty more. Hope to see you at #teachmeetBett27 #tmbett2027

Shaking Up the System: Reflections on the #Edufuturists Roadshow February 2026

2026-02-03T18:41:00.004+00:00

It was fantastic to finally meet the Edufuturists team in person during their UK Roadshow stop in Glasgow on February 2, 2026. The event was held in the pleasant, local surroundings of the Everyman Cinema , it's an excellent, intimate venue for conferences and discussions.

I've followed Edufuturists' rise from afar, and it's genuinely refreshing to see a fresh team challenging the status quo in UK education. Co-hosted by Ben Whitaker (former teacher, IDEAS Guy, podcast host) and Steve Hope (former PE teacher and EdTech CEO), the group is pushing for real revolution in how we support learners and society. Always nice to see some bottom up change makers - we seem to be in a period when we have run out of these in Scotland.
The Highlight: "The Real" David CameronThe standout moment was hearing from "The Real" David Cameron, In my view, still the most realistic and inspirational voice on the state of school education in Scotland. His provocation drew striking parallels between schools and colleges: an ongoing obsession with data measurement at the expense of genuine human relationships and connections at all levels.
I am sure he has done a few, but would be a great speaker for a College Learning and Teaching conference.

The Reality CheckWhile David's analysis of the system's struggles is compelling, it's also deeply depressing. The core message is one of bureaucracy over people, metrics trumping relationships and it's just got worse over my 39 years in education. We know the problems well, yet we're still circling the same discussions.

Networking & TakeawaysThe audience was a fascinating mix of change-makers from public and private sectors, including at least one former HMIE inspector. This created excellent networking opportunities and rich conversations. Great to catch up with some old friends like David and make many new ones.
My key takeaways: Even though Scotland's school system is far less fractured than England's, the deep-rooted challenges remain depressingly similar; the profound impact of poverty and persistently stalling learner satisfaction/engagement while teaching staff increasingly feel under siege.
Rehashed statistics everyone should know - lots of teachers being trained in Scotland but few full time jobs - at same time lots of current teachers and schools leaders want to leave the profession.
Overall, events like this Roadshow (themed "Funding & Efficiency," with free tickets thanks to sponsors like ParentPay Group) are a welcome spark for disruption.
But the persistence of these systemic issues after so many years leaves a sobering reminder that meaningful change is still elusive. Perhaps new agencies etc in Scotland will swiftly solve all of our challenges ? It would be great to see some clearer agendas for actual change.
Cross political parties politicians still really don't get learning and or are unwilling to really change up the offer available in schools and colleges and or in David's thesis empower schools to make more local decisions.
I did a bit to promote CMALT and ALT generally. Teachers need to know that there are structured ways to develop their professional recognition in the learning technology space.
Would be good too to welcome more of these folks in to the ALT community.
For more on the series: Get along to one of their next stops !

Edufuturists Roadshow page (Glasgow details and upcoming stops like Belfast, Cardiff, etc.)
Get an entry in to competition and/or get along to Uprising Conference in Liverpool.

A Week in London #bettuk2026 #bett26 Part Three BETT

2026-01-27T00:25:00.018+00:00

#Bettuk2026 Wed -Friday 21st-23rd January 2026

Here is my usual summary and observations

2nd year at BETT when there were no feet on the ground from Education Scotland. A travel ban apparently. Shame when the biggest educational technology event in the UK is on and senior folks from all major IT companies are in London and not least the UK and international educational community.

It is a bit of a scandal really. Scotland should be on the map at this event. I spotted Wales and Northern Ireland on the UK stands. Great to see EdTech's from schools, colleges, universities and local authorities found the ways and means to get down from Scotland. Education Scotland's sponsoring department please note.

Queen Elizabeth line to Excel continues to be a revelation for travelling to and from venue and opens up possibility of accommodation across London. I stayed initially with my daughter in her student flat over in Deptford and then moved for two nights to an amazing hotel hostel in Rotherhithe. Really brilliant value and proof that you can do BETT on a budget. Made for an interesting free short ferry commute in morning.

It was very much AI every where - some pretty random and some very focused on the challenges discussed over the previous two days. AI can write your essay and mark it. Message really is that assessment has to change and that centres really need to learn about CASE and MCP servers to make most of their data and content.

Bridget Phillipson Secretary of State for Education's address picked up on much I had heard on the two preceding days with OECD and 1Edtech. Good to see her back ( see last year's BETT post) . Highlighting the transformative potential of AI and EdTech to make learning more inclusive, support teachers, and improve outcomes for all learners. Announces new safety standards, new digital skills pathways for teacher training, and a £23 million expansion of the EdTech Testbeds programme to build a strong evidence base for effective tools.

I achieved everything in my original plan and then some.

Squeezed into a smaller area of Excel this year but having spoken to the organisers, more exhibitors and certainly high footfall. Great to have themed stages with keynotes distributed around exhibitors. I spent most of my time in and around FE/HE zone. Still think could do with a bit more from ALT, Jisc , QAA and perhaps some more focus on Colleges and vocational learning.

Great to see many of the Scots who made it down at the Scottish gathering kindly supported by SmartBoards. Good too to get great update on their products. The training and support they give users is first class- liked new mike through smartboard- and still like smartboard mini.

Nice to see more thought on design and layout of the start up zone. Though apologies nothing really fired me up this year.

TeachmeetBett26 on Teachmeet's 20th Anniversary. Many thanks to BETT organisers for super on site support.

I did a two minute plug for learning design , Open Education and for membership of ALT. Thanks too Everway/Texthelp for sponsoring cracking social at 02 Battle Bar and for old pal Dawn Holly-Bone from 2Simple for chairing so well. Was great to see new faces embracing Teachmeet methodology. Presentations here and tribute to Teachmeet history. Every College should hold one at least once a year. Challenge is out to all attendees to organise one.

Here is very quick run down of what caught my eye and attention and some of my chats .

Microsoft - sat through a few sessions to be up to speed with their new roll outs. I didn't go to all of their sessions mainly the What is new session. But you can get all of their sessions here.
Google - Similarly spent some time getting on inside track . Some great sessions on using Notebook LM for research.

I am still really amazed that every College does not have tenancies on both Microsoft and Google platforms. It can be done at no cost, if you know how. Both are promoting a range of new tools within existing licensing costs and the best way to prevent any shadow IT developing.

In main auditorium, teaching and learning theatre and Higher Education theatre - some practical workshops particularly around how AI is changing up operational areas of Colleges and Universities - from data to track skills and employment opportunities , answering phones and even students using vibe coding to create their own booking systems. Had quick coffee and catch up with Paul Mckean and Sue Attewell on Jisc AI work.

Lots of AI with everything sat through presentations and visited some of these stands. Last year Teachermatic was out in the lead for teacher content creation, now everyone is at that game , including Microsoft and Google. More significantly emergence of tools using CASE and MCP.

Many amazing stands - big budget items. The Egyptian Education Authority had built a pyramid.

Lots too on esports - which I still don't quite get. I do get it as a gateway to games development and programming.

VR and AR it is still ClassVR leader of pack and interesting new tools for simulating interviews. Metaverse learning and Body Swaps territory . Think every College should have a class set of VR head sets for appropriate activities.

Liked this juice bar vending machine as an alternative to fizzy drinks.

A few stands that I thought were selling Vapes - were really selling Vape detector systems. A sign of the times.

Great conversations with ClickView , Cisco Training Academies and BodySwaps - it is great to hear they are going from strength to strength. Met some old Spanish friends who do lot around improving data and learning material flows for Colleges and Universities. I spent some time too revisiting C-Learning and their Merlyn Mind product.

Useful conversation with Newcastle College group who are doing the right thing and rolling out CMALT to all of their educational technologists. Follow up conversation with their Rob Wraith on how they manage access and costs around tokenisation in Microsoft Co-Pilot. Basically how they set up permissions and controls so that the institution does not get additional bills. ( this is issue for many institutions moving ahead into this space) So critical that learning technologists and IT work together around this.

Only spotted one awarding body - which may also be sign of times - assessment and certification really need to change.

But back to my theme of week it was really AI with everything - have a look at BrainFreeze stand useful to see they are explaining how their tool uses CASE and MCP.

Sorry to miss a sit down and proper catch up with Vic Boyd and Scott Renton from City of Glasgow College who were around too and many more colleagues from across vocational learning. We will catch up soon.

On way down I spotted a very negative post about BETT from a 'leading' Scottish educational academic who I think has attended one BETT in the past- it was very down on the technological hegemony - but on all technology really.

Yes, lots of selling of fantasies but some really useful learning for all. People make BETT not the technology. Everyone working in learning really needs an understanding of technologies - it is the only way to actually move classroom, institutional and global learning forward. We all need a bit more #openscot.

And a final big thanks for all the hospitality and good company I enjoyed.

My week in London Reports

I miss Wakelet as my tool of choice for summarising events like this.

A Week in London #bettuk2026 #bett26 Part Two 1Edtech Why AI in Learning Needs Standards: Shared Context, Shared Trust , Westminster Hall.

2026-01-26T13:47:00.003+00:00

Tuesday 20th January

1Edtech Why AI in Learning Needs Standards: Shared Context, Shared Trust , Westminster Hall.

It was really useful to get high level OECD view on Monday and technical deep dive from 1Edtech on following day. Open technical standards still drive most of the global developments in technology and learning.

I was a guest of 1Edtech last year too. The event last year had a specific focus on the open badge and other relevant standards. This year the focus was on AI and the place of open standards in the technical stack. I've a book chapter just published on this area. ( more in a later post)

Great presentations and discussion showing how AI can bridge different educational lexicons when it has been trained. The challenge is being confident enough to start this process.

Japan, Korea and France identified as world leaders in adoption of open standards - in terms of national data.
Korea - using AI already to map national competency standards to national qualifications. ( accelerates development process)
Japan - Using the one roster standard to streamline the exchange of educational data between School Information Systems (SIS) and Learning Management Systems (LMS) across the country.
France - Whole sale adoption of open standards to improve learning and data flows across their educational system.

The discussion and debate was unavoidably technical. A lot focussing on what needs to be done to pre-existing content and data to give it context to work well with AI systems.

Useful metaphor - example - the same ingredients can make a Pancake or a Yorkshire pudding. Currently a large language model with no context would not know which one you want.

When you have context. You can do more

You can use an MCP Server - MCP servers are essential for building AI agents that can actually "do" things, rather than just talk about them. It allows multi agentic workflows. MCP is a protocol and a standard , it acts as a "USB-C" connector for AI, allowing models to securely access local files, databases, and third-party services without requiring custom, one-off integrations.

These systems use CASE

A data standard that allows educational institutions, employers, and edtech platforms to exchange competency data in machine-readable formats (JSON).
Purpose: It replaces static, inefficient documents like PDFs or spreadsheets with standardized, digital frameworks that can be easily mapped, searched, and updated.

Key Components:

Frameworks: Digital versions of academic standards or professional competencies.
Items: Machine-readable statements of what a learner should know or be able to do.
GUIDs (Globally Unique Identifiers):Every standard, skill, or competency is given a unique identifier, ensuring it can be recognized globally across different systems.
Associations: Links that define how competencies relate to each other, such as aligning a local school curriculum with national or international standard.

Why is this useful

In the context of global learning (interconnected education,, sustainability, and international skills), CASE serves several critical functions:
Interoperability for Global Education: As educational institutions operate internationally, CASE allows them to map their curricula, learning outcomes, and assessment rubrics to common global frameworks, facilitating easier student transfer and recognition of skills.
Workforce Competency Mapping: CASE helps define and exchange skills needed for the global economy. It is used in higher education and corporate training to ensure that digital credentials and competency-based learning modules are recognized across different borders and platforms.
Digital Credentialing: It enables the alignment of learning outcomes with micro-credentials and digital badges, allowing a skill earned in one country to be verified and understood by an employer in another.
Reducing Inefficiency: By providing a common, machine-readable language, CASE eliminates the need for manual, error-prone, or time-consuming mapping of learning standards across different systems.

Example used Campus Mind - system can identify where student potentially needs some additional support and can build a personalised course from materials that institution already has across range of repositories including the virtual learning environment.

Microsoft and Google are both building integrations. Jisc standards group moving ahead in UK.

Some examples

Otus - taking data and learning materials from multiple sources.
French Teacher training Moodle platform - AI was used to - re-engineered with standards and context to allow individual training pathways - personalised for teachers. The MCP server can now be used with any learner management system.

Overall and ties in well with OECD work.

Call to move away from general models of AI to local models of AI that capture context etc ( what OECD said)
To move forward all players need increased awareness of the open standards that are already available and ones in development.

To move forward here data needs context added ( AI could help with that). It was great to catch up with Dominik Lukes and a number of like minded old friends.

So what does all this mean at national level.

We really need SQA - Qualifications Scotland to get a move on here. This is much more than end of paper based certification.
More Scottish organisations should have appropriate membership of 1Edtech and I am going to see if I can help with that.
And a final plug anyone interested in these open standards should get along and or get a paper into their upcoming European Conference in Salonika.

At institutional level

AI and MCP services can start bringing your data together securely. You will be using local engine rather than opening up anything. Get a move on.
Make sure you and or any suppliers you use are making most of open standards. Some of this should be hard wired into procurement guidance.

All of the above set up BETT Conference very well, Part 3 to follow.

A Week in London #bettuk2026 #bett26 Part One Pre Bett OECD Digital Education Outlook 2026

2026-01-26T12:55:00.005+00:00

As ever, a very busy week, as the world's clans of educational technologists gather in London in and around BETT.

What was one post has become three posts as each event I attended really worth digging into.

Monday

OECD Digital Education Outlook 2026: Exploring Effective Uses of Generative AI in Education , The Law Society Hall Chancery Lane

The event was to launch the OECD recent research paper. It was good to meet some old chums from the European policy landscape.

It was great too to have an update from the Education Department's Susan Acland-Hood, who was confident and on the ball , reporting on the AI test beds happening in English schools that are all exploring the possible.

This including a content store, a repository of documents, such as curriculum guidance and anonymized pupil assessments, to train AI models for better educational outputs.

The key bit of all of this is criticality of developing local models

"Launched in May 2025 with £3 million in funding, pools and encodes curriculum guidance, lesson plans and anonymised pupil work, to train AI tools that generate accurate, high quality educational content. Training on the content store increases accuracy of feedback on students’ work to 92%, up from 67%, meaning safer and more reliable use of AI in the classroom"

She also pointed out the refreshed English standards launched to coincide with BETT week. She also keyed up well the Education ministers speech on day one of BETT.

Key messages are much more than cautious optimism and much more than a narrow focus on teaching and learning.

There is always a danger that the AI industry like IT industry before sells education fantasies and that is why it is so critical that education takes technology and uses it to build it's own closed models.

Education needs to develop specialist tools to amplify learning. We do need to redesign practice in ways that continues to support teacher agency.

Other work highlighted over day

The work of Harvard's Bok Centre
Open AI work around AI Schema to improve reliability of services for education and other areas. Would allow education to customise their own models.
The emergence of Gemini for Education and Co-Pilot tools that can match and create content against available competency frameworks.

This was a useful paper to take to my second meeting of the week which was more technical about the standards needed to support ethical application of AI.

Pre conference I caught up with Joseph Jones CEO Saige Qualifications an Ofqual approved awarding body in England rolling out AI awards and training for pupils and teachers.

Main takeaways -

Education needs to start making more use of AI in a customised way to support learning and operations.
At a national level this means system change as well as policy and guidance. I think we have latter but not former in Scotland.
At institutional level requires operations , IT , learning technology and whole community to work more effectively together. Start building local agents now.
As an institution you need that local data store and you need to start making effective use of your data
For schools in Scotland - local authorities need switched on to this and there is probably a role for Education Scotland but certainly Scottish Education Department in creating something similar to English content store.

Part Two to follow -

Visiting #BettUK2026 #Bett2026 #tmBett26 #teachmeet20

2026-01-14T15:35:00.006+00:00

It's that time again and I'm packing bags this weekend for a series of meetings in London while in and around #BettUK2026 #Bett2026

Monday I am with OECD Exploring Effective Uses of Generative AI in Education.
Tuesday I am with 1Edtech Why AI in Learning Needs Standards: Shared Context, Shared Trust.
Wednesday I am @Bett - if you are down from Scotland please sign up for Scottish Clan gathering at 2pm . Many thanks to Smart Technologies for facilitating this - click logo for signup

Thursday I am @Bett and attending Bett Teachmeet which is also a celebration of 20 years of teachmeets - Click Logo for signup - you don't have to present you can just come along.

Friday - I am trying to keep free for a general prowl around the exhibition area.

Over days at Bett I will catch up with latest developments from Microsoft , Google and the other big players and attend sessions around digital transformation in further and higher education. I'm not presenting this year.

If you are about and fancy a chat about UK educational market place then please get in touch. I am looking forward to catching up with old friends and new.

You can catch up with my previous BETT adventures here.

As ever, I will summarise any useful leads here and I will bring opportunities back to relevant colleagues in colleges and Scottish education.

A look back at 2025

2026-01-02T17:23:00.004+00:00

It's been a busy 2025. I keep pinching myself . I am so lucky to have escaped the trenches of 9-5 and I am so enjoying the move back to interesting consultancy work. I did a bit of a reflective piece at one year out mark.

Mindful too that my freedom gives me scope and responsibility to flag up many of the challenges still facing great colleagues in Scottish College landscape - still under siege. There are a few more folks who have escaped and know exactly what is happening would be great to see them chipping in to discussions too rather than simply watching the sector being stifled.

I started 2025 with a post about sectoral challenges - I think things have got worse over the past year. I also framed my resolutions for year - which mostly I've achieved.

Quite a year. Started 2025 in a new TQER role at QAA and it's been busy since ,#bett25 , supporting open badges ( new book chapter about to arrive ) - keynoting at #oer25, visiting schools across Calgary and Edmonton for the #ScotlandEducationSummit, and co-chairing #ALTC25 in Glasgow and hosting many international visitors and supporting Royal Society of Arts in Glasgow.

Some highlights that mattered:

The #oer25 keynote was a real privilege - had a great day exploring the intersection of Open Education and AI. Open education is so much more than free resources - it's about systems, approaches, and making practice sustainable. Slides with extras here: https://lnkd.in/eASCiSqp

The week in Canada with SMART Technologies was amazing - super to spend time with innovative Scottish education colleagues visiting schools and building connections between our systems. Report here: https://lnkd.in/emiwjpCW

Refreshingly joined up - Edinburgh University's openly licensed AI advice for Scottish teachers, co-created with multiple national agencies. This is what good collaboration looks like: https://lnkd.in/eMNcYgCY

Co-chairing #ALTC25 in October was a real pleasure - fantastic to have the learning technology clans gathering in Glasgow for the first time: https://lnkd.in/eYNTsP9d and a privilege to launch #AmplifyFE impact report https://lnkd.in/ePuBWn86

Supported RSA in Glasgow helping with both a Civic Reception at Glasgow City
Chambers and a fun event at newly refurbished Citizens Theatre.

Found time for some great travel adventures to Morocco, Italy, France and Jordan.

Enjoying popping in and out of London to see our daughter too and we had a great family wedding in Leeds.

What struck me across 2025: we're adopting AI faster than we're adopting open licences. Still a long journey in Scotland to achieve a place where Open Educational Practice is standard. But there's momentum - and the new Scottish Govt Digital Strategy gives room for optimism.

Grateful to everyone who engaged in conversations this year - at conferences, online, and over coffee in Glasgow. Love to all !

Looking forward to continuing the push in 2026. If your institution is experimenting with open badges or local LLMs I'd love to hear about it.

I'll be around #Bett26 and heading down for a pre conference session with 1EdTech - If you are in London let me know and we can catch up.

This year I am looking forward to joining in 20th anniversary celebration of #Teachmeet #Teachmeet26 on the Thursday evening. You can sign up and run a session here https://lnkd.in/e6YRAiM5

If you are Scottish based and not coming down for #Bett check out City of Glasgow College's Learning and Teaching Conference - open to all https://lnkd.in/e-W3ArfT . Great to see a former Cardonald College student keynoting.

As always you can follow my journey on my blog https://lnkd.in/eDP_bMsu
I've some more big news to come.

Next a post on what I'm looking forward too in 2026

#openscot #OpenEducation #OER #AIinEducation #ALTC25

Old Experiment with Manus AI https://manus.im/app

2025-10-29T15:23:00.007+00:00

Tidying up desktop and found this deck created last year in a workshop with lecturing staff. Using tools they may not have encountered yet. In this case Manus a useful tool with some strengths over ChatGPT and Co-Pilot etc.

Prompt was simple, to create an outline presentation on "Using AI Ethically in Education: A Guide for Students."

Led to some really useful discussions around AI use by teaching staff and students.

If used in real world I would have added references to institutional policy and would have sourced better graphics and as I have done in header I would have acknowledged use of AI in creation of this deck and would have made it much more accessible in terms of colour , text and labelling etc.

But useful as illustration of what AI can do - in seconds.

And information on the engine -

Manus AI was developed and trained by the Chinese startup Monica.im, which has since rebranded and is now known as Butterfly Effect Pte. Ltd. The company was founded by entrepreneurs Xiao Hong (also known as "Red") and Yichao "Peak" Ji.

The development team was a relatively small group within the parent company, which moved its headquarters from China to Singapore in 2025.

Underlying models: Manus operates as a multi-agent system built on and fine-tuned from existing large language models. It uses Anthropic's Claude and Alibaba's Qwen models as a core part of its architecture. This distinguishes Manus from companies that develop their own base model from scratch.

Manus is an autonomous AI agent designed to perform complex, real-world tasks with minimal human guidance, as opposed to simply generating text like a chatbot.

#altc25 Glasgow Conference Reflections

2025-10-27T17:14:00.002+00:00

Decompressing from some excellent days at the Association for Learning Technology's annual conference in Glasgow. Here are some quick reflections on what I picked up. Programme was great (as co-chair some bias in that) and I probably missed many other useful nuggets. Thought venue and catering etc all excellent. Company as ever was splendid. I even managed to appear on ALTC Radio.

Great to work with team at ALT and my co chairs to pull things together. I hope everyone had a great time

Preconference Evening in NQ64

Looked inspired had a previous engagement but what a fun place. Made me think about Reclaim Hosting folks and other edtechs I know who collect, repair and build gaming machines as a hobby.

Day One

Charles Knight

Great keynote and call to action. Learning Technologists do , do magic - but they do need the right context. Good institutions succeed by giving staff and students agency and confidence and this is still possible in period of massive change. Good advice too though if magic is not achievable where you are move on to the next gig and light up another room.

Publication of New Jisc Beyond Blended Report and Assets

An open set of resources and report to improve learning design across the sector. These can be repurposed and made your own. So well done on creative commons licence. Would be great to see QAA, SFC , HMIE were directing centres to resources like this. Blended is about taking a whole institutional approach including working on co-creation with learners to improve the learning experience. All directors of teaching and learning, faculty heads and quality managers etc should know their way around this.

Mark Bush - Inspera

Mainly a session around how to trust suppliers. An old chestnut. But sensing a market maturity in lots of discussions with suppliers and exhibitors over the two days of the conference. New entrants need to have a better solution to displace incumbents. As there is less money about, the sector generally tends to be much more risk adverse and not as willing to pilot new things and there is a constant concern about lock in (once you are on board, will tolls , licence fees simply climb with no clear escape route) or perhaps this is just a timely awareness.

Where in Scotland APUC, in UK UCISA and organisations like ALT come in. We do all talk to each other about suppliers and possible technical solutions.

Online assessment systems like Inspera now handling 18.2 million submissions a year and operating in 26 countries globally.

Student Panel

Was interesting as ever to hear level headed students taking a measured approach to AI adoption and mainly asking for more support around academic writing. And not really having clear answer on what is best way to communicate with them.

Edgehill University

Attended interesting sessions on blended learning and costings. The current ABC model struggles with spiral curriculums that exist in medicine and some other disciplines so does need different approach while keeping a laser like focus on not overloading students with content. Edge Hill University has some useful resources to support collaborative development.

University of Southampton

The University of Southampton have created a useful tool for helping with very vague faculty requests to create digital learning materials. Looks great it creates resource allocations. costs and realistic delivery timelines. I do hope academics take time to fill in the forms in properly.

University of Leeds

Good story where learning technology was pulled back from faculties to become more centralised service- became design led strategic partners with much better focus on educational enhancement framework using institutional data to target academic teams that needed support.

Did a quick change and had great fun at dinner, awards ceremony and Ceilidh - band were great and still home by 11pm. Congratulations to all winners and nominees.

Day Two

Launch of AmplifyFE Impact Report

It was a privilege to get to say a few words and launch the #AmplifyFE impact report. Led in partnership with ALT and the UFI Vocational Trust it now embraces a community of around 3700 practitioners from across the UK. A few more FE folks in Scotland should tune into this network.

Gabbi Witthaus

So grounded and so human. I do wonder that system still can seem so rigid, remote and hostile to learners. Four dimensions work is really useful way to help teachers and students manage life and learning loads. Gabbi has kindly shared her keynote.

Edinburgh Napier and Sciaten Partners

Great work around ethical use of AI with academics and students. Great too to see Open Scotland referenced in influences here. Some really useful resources to open up discussions about AI in curriculum and assessment here.

Would be good to see more Scottish Colleges visible in supporting this work.

Paul Basich

Great session focussing on efficient ways of delivering blended learning. It is mostly common sense - but staggering to hear that some large institutions are just beginning to think about institutional templates in virtual learning environments etc. In some respects HE has a lot to learn about course design, teaching and learning from Colleges. In feedback highlighted that West Lancashire College has delivered to 10,000 online learners in last 5 years - part of Newcastle College Group.

ALT Strategy Session

Sort of what it said on the tin - in a world where everyone is now an 'expert on digital learning' ALT needs to keep ahead of the pack.

University of Glasgow - Jenny Crow

A nice bit of work echoing the mornings keynote and some of the themes from the student panel around experiments using whatsapp and other platforms to give learners a solid sense of belonging

Manchester Met - Andrew Larner

Great tool for suggesting new assessment designs using generative AI from Manchester Metropolitan University. Really worth exploring.

Exhibitors etc

Great to see many established players and a number of new potential suppliers for Education sector - I did get around and say hello.

Good to have lots of proper dialogues around sectoral challenges that were way beyond the 'sales patter' of old. Among the VLE suppliers still some frustration that institutions are not 'sweating' the assets and doing more with the great platforms that are available.

Good to meet the team from Brickfield and hear about their tools for monitoring the accessibility of learning content.

Interested in Edina's new walled garden for trying out AI tools.

A shout out to Vevox their polling solution worked very well throughout the conference.

Nice to meet Estendio, Eduface, and Study Stash all harnessing AI to improve teaching and learning.

Endnotes

It was great to have a number of colleagues along from City of Glasgow College but I do think Colleges generally should be more engaged with ALT and communities of practice. I'll keep pushing through ALT Scotland , CDN and the work with Jisc that is already in place.

I miss social media Discord was ok but needs everyone on board. Remember you are all agents of change. Find each other on social media @joecar80.bsky.social

I listed seven things for delegates

(Beyond) Blended Learning is the future !
Is your own practice open ? (Discover Open Scotland )
I hope you are all blogging and aggregating (ScotEdublogs)
It ain’t a microcredential without a digital badge ( using 1Edtech open standards) and a platform that supports these.
Hope you have figured out how to allow learners and staff to use AI ethically. Local models are the way ahead for many.
In a world where everyone is now an expert on educational technology – ALT continues to be beacon in the darkness.
I hope you enjoyed Glasgow and haste ye back.

An Unofficial Glance at things to get up to in Glasgow #ALTC25

2025-10-16T13:41:00.008+01:00

I am co-chairing ALTC25. Conference for UK Association for Learning Technology. I promised a Glasgow post on other attractions.

There are loads of ways you can find out what is on in Glasgow while you are about for the ALTC Conference. But I thought I'd add my own wee list of places that I like. Remember I am now a 60 something Glaswegian but I think the fun here can be pretty intergenerational. Whatever your thing is, you will find it in Glasgow.

Here is a wee very Glasgow playlist of Glaswegian musicians over the years to speed you on way.

I do hope if you are arriving early on Wednesday you are coming along to Riverside Campus of City of Glasgow College. To see the ships simulators.

I am big into cultural activities art, theatre and drinking coffee etc too, but you will get these from the internet. I do recommend the hop on hop off Glasgow City Tour bus as a way to get your bearings. If you are about on Saturday have a look around the Barrows Market in Glasgow's east end.

Here are a list of eating and drinking spots that I think are really worth finding and all within range of the conference hotel. You can look them up. I'd catch the subway if going to west end , get on in city centre and get off at Hillhead. You can't get lost, one big circle.

You can combine visits to these places with more cultural activities.

City Centre Drinks

Sloans - Old coaching house - old intercity coach terminal.

Mono and Stereo - Two related bars Vegan and Good music

Potstill - Best Whisky Bar

Horseshoe Bar - Authentic Victorian Glasgow Bar

Lauriston Bar - Just across the river - best Guiness and frequented by Indie bands.

McChuills - live music

Clutha Vaults - live music

Scotia Bar - live music

Del Monicas - live music and dancing

Buff Club - dancing and new Jazz club

City Centre Eats

Brutti Compadres - a bit of eats and drinks in nice old courtyard

Cafe Gandolfi - Up market Glasgow classic for arty folks

Pisano - best pizza in town and great value

Sugo - great pasta dishes and great value

Margot - up market posh nosh

Dhabba and Dhakin - North and South Indian restaurants near each other

Finnieston and Around - lots of wee bars mainly great eats

Craab Shakk - tiny atmospheric fish and sea food straight from west highlands.

Mother India and Mother India Cafe - best Currys in Glasgow - second one is tapas style.

Ox and Finch - very posh nosh and hard to get booking

The Gannet - posh michelin type but good food.

West End/ Byres Road - near Glasgow University so loads of places to eat and drink

Oran Mhor - old converted church always lots going on

Tennents Bar - classic Glasgow bar

Ubiquitous Chip - nice bar and posh nosh

Craab Shakk West End - larger sister restaurant of Finnieston one

There are lots of great places South Side Glasgow too - you can discover them next trip

#Scotedublogs #openscot - Why you should blog and Why you should join this Aggregator

2025-10-16T12:37:00.002+01:00

If you dig back in this blog you will see that one way or another I have been blogging since the turn of the century. It's never without its challenges but for me it is a key part of open practice. It is a positive way of moving things forward.

There was a sudden flowering of the Scottish Educational Blogosphere around 2005. In this context mainly school based folks. One of the great platforms that emerged from that period was and is #Scotedublogs a simple aggregator of Scottish Educational blogs.

As an educational blogger it was great to have some company along the way, at least for a short for a while.

At one point I even managed find some sponsorship to help it grow.

Championed by John Johnston one of the many unsung heroes in Scottish Education.

It is probably needed again more than ever. In time of enshittification etc It is good to have something that anchors the disparate but very authentic voices of those working across or around Scottish Education. We are doing a wee bit of a push to re-build this 'community' of Scottish Edubloggers.

This sits well with lots of other things I support around Open Education. #openscot

All you need is a blog or similar with an RSS feed.

And then all you need to do is make sure your blog is listed.

Here are some suggestions.

I could go on a bit of a rant

If you work in and or around Scottish Education you should have a blog or similar. A critical part of professional development review in my view.
If you train teachers or have a role in developing staff - you should be showing students and staff all how to blog and or create a shareable professional journal.
If you work for General Teaching Council in Scotland you should have made this part of registration a very long time ago.
I am an old hand and still use Blogger - it serves it's purpose. But if I was to start again I would start by using free wordpress and then migrate to A domain of my own from Reclaim Hosting. ( I have my own domain already).
Colleges and College staff have been particularly absent from the blogosphere. This currently means the sector is pretty much stifled as there are very few established voices talking about current College challenges in a sensible extended way.

All I do is publish this blog - as it is listed in Scotedublogs it will appear on feed and be syndicated to Mastodon and Bluesky.