Academics, Government, Big Tech - I’m calling you all out!

I've read a bunch of posts recently by people who should know much, much better.

Arch academic discourse with the kind of condescending tone that I'm hearing at the minute sets my teeth on edge.

I get it, we all get it. Some of you don't like AI. You don't like the corporate Big Tech oligarch structure that sits behind it. You don't like the propensity the algorithms have to make sweeping generalisations about social groups, replicating out and amplifying the cultural biases embedded in the training data. Nor do I.

In Defence of Teachers' Professional Judgment

But guess what - your average classroom teacher isn't an idiot and they know this. They won't just blindly accept AI outputs and shove them under the noses of kids. We're not going to just accept that 'oh maybe nothing happened in Tiananmen Square' just because DeepSeek goes all quiet on the subject. We're not just going to shove ChatGPT under kids' noses and say 'have at it kids - just prompt your essay into existence and hand it into auto mark while I take a nap...'.

Stop treating classroom teachers like we're inveterate idiots or just plain lazy.

The Reality Check: A Day in a Teacher's Life

Oh, and under no circumstances, ever and I mean ever, tell me what will work in my classroom until you've gotten of your backsides and spent at least a year with your sleeves rolled up in front of a classroom full of kids, where over a quarter of them have a diagnosed need of some description and you have to get them through an exam that doesn't speak to their experience and convince them that this is what really matters to them.

Don't ever, ever tell me what will save me time when I'm writing 50+ reports to a two week deadline whilst marking the same number of mock exams in half that time, running staff training, going to staff training, attending a parents' evening and still somehow managing to teach a full timetable.

Oh yeah, and being a parent and a partner too. And whatever other commitments the vast majority of teachers have beyond the four walls of their schools.

No - you absolutely don't get to tell me what will and won't save a teacher time.

I appreciate the defence of the education system against the intrusion of predatory big tech. I appreciate the fact that there are fellow educators calling out weak and half arse government initiatives to 'inject AI into the veins of the economy' or whatever other meaningless soundbite is doing the rounds. I appreciate that there are people who can see that giving us pointless cookie cutter lesson planning tools with a baffling array of drop down menus and the end goal of producing homogenised and branded educational pap, isn't helping.

But again, guess what - we aren't fooled by this either.

Government Guidance: Less Talk, More Action

And Government (specifically the one in the UK)… sigh…

We know you’re in a tight spot - caught between economic hard places and regulatory rocks, but for pity’s sake, you need to do better. And a handful of bland ‘AI’ initiatives given out to trusted providers without actually talking to teachers really doesn’t count. We don’t need another robotised lesson plan maker - this doesn’t save time! What do you imagine goes on in classrooms??

Not that we don’t appreciate the sentiment, but AI alone is not going to make the difference after years of rampant underfunding.?

Oh, and whilst we’re on the subject. If you could do something as useful as perhaps put together a list of platforms that are compliant at each key stage, that would be great!?

Don’t just give out vague ‘schools must be free to make their own choices’ statements and then follow that up with labyrinthine ‘guidance’ and policy documents that exist in at least three different departments and across over half a dozen papers and publications. This is less than helpful and frankly complete BS of the worst kind.

What you are actually doing is saying you don’t want to take a decision, but if anything goes wrong then the can is carried by the school so we can all have someone to blame. This is weak ‘policy’ making at best, at worst, typical political doublespeak.

Big Tech: We See Right Through You

And big tech - yes you. I can see you there, hiding in the shadows. Don't think we don't know what you're up to. Not that you care what we think.

Let's be clear on this, we know you don't really care about education, so we're going to cherry pick the best bits, teach our kids about what you're really up to and do our best to get something out of you without getting our eyeballs plucked out and selling all of our data.

Partners in Education: The Companies That Get It

Those tech companies who are really invested in education and actually work closely with teachers and educators of all stripes - thank you. Thank you for actually listening. We know you are listening because you respond and actually frequently employ teachers and former teachers. These are the companies who are doing good work - these are the ones who will be our go to.

I'm lucky enough to have been in contact with some great people working in the EdTech industry who are actually interested in developing platforms that actually help move the dial in the classroom.

What Teachers Actually Need

I am also painfully aware of those who offer up magic solutions at the press of a button and the allure that these shiny and seemingly one shot solutions offer.?

What we don’t need is branded merchandise, water marked slide decks and cookie cutter, stamp out-a-lesson? platforms.?

If super processed food is bad, how bad is super processed education??

This stuff should come with a health warning!?

I know you think we want something to plan our lessons for us, but we don’t! We like things that help us plan and deliver engaging content. We don’t need an automatic regurgitate-the-National-Curriculum machine - we could do this ourselves. The National Curriculum hasn’t been fit for purpose for years (if it ever was) - that’s what we’re pulling our hair out about.?

What we need are tools that help us make what we have to cover both engaging and relevant; standardised lesson generators are absolutely not it.

And please, pretty please with sugar on top - don’t go all hard sell on educators. First, we haven’t got any money, second, we really don’t respond well to aggressive sales pitches.

A Call for Meaningful Dialogue

Much of the debate around AI in education seems to be framed in increasingly polarised and siloed ways. Whilst I welcome anything that challenges my assumptions it is really helpful to the process if the tone is moderated in a way which recognises the complexity of the situation.

The gap between the academics and ideologues who are resisting AI in education, with albeit well meaning intent, the Governments who are walking the line between innovation and safety and the tech firms who want to push the boundaries of what is possible, seems to be widening. Whilst these forces pull in different directions schools are stuck in the middle. If we are going to make progress we need to calm the rhetoric, tone down the hype and hard sell and make some hard choices on governance, not just yell at each other or mumble ineffectually about how nice it would be to have safe AI.

And please, if we're going to have a debate about what will really help in teaching, could we make an effort to involve the teachers? You never know, we may just surprise you.