June #Edu resources - part 2??

Happy Saturday, folks, and welcome to the second edition of June! Wow, nearly halfway through the year already. An even bigger surprise was that i started doing this newsletter at the start of July last year, so there are only a few weeks to go until it's been a year of weekly sharing. That's been a lot of brain food to consume and an absolute pleasure to share and learn from so many amazing folks....and, of course, to introduce you to my wellbeing assistant, Ferdi.

I usually like to share a brief summary of my week, so as usual, here is a quick highlight from the last few days alongside my NetSupport activities, it's been a really busy one for me so it's meant a bit less reading and spotting of articles, so this is a slightly more focused edition (sorry).

I did manage to catch up with Austin Earl from techUK planning for a fab #Edtech day during London Tech Week with British Educational Suppliers Association (BESA) where i'll be speaking, I met the lovely folks Scott Hesketh and Ashley Cartwright MCIPS at YPO to talk all things #Edu and their great solutions, I went to a student awards evening as a guest of Inspire Education Group (IEG) which was a fab evening of celebration. Wednesday I headed down to London for the Infosecurity Europe conference, and the more we innovate the more we need to be educated on security and data privacy, so it was a really useful #CPD session. I had a board meeting with the Oxford to Cambridge Pan-Regional Partnership focusing on growth across our region, caught up with Nicola Allen from Educake to talk assessments and progress, and then had a fab webinar on Human Flourishing in Education with Patrick McGrath and Mark Anderson FCCT . I wrapped the week off speaking at the Association of Secondary Headteachers in Essex ASHE conference yesterday (all things #Ai) and catching up with Mark Farmer . Vic Goddard , watched a great presentation on Assessment from the super insightful Daisy Christodoulou and then even squeezed in a meet up and brew with the top man that is Daren White afterwards. Next week is a bonkers schedule, so goodness knows when i'll get to stop and read my newsfeeds.

That will do for my musings; plenty of more interesting things to cover below.

Anyway, you are here for the news, so let's dip our toes into this week's fountain of knowledge. ??

#Edu

?? Well I was pleased to see this share from Sofia Fenichell of an article from 麦肯锡 "A new future of work: The race to deploy AI and raise skills in Europe and beyond" highlighting for us "To gain the full productivity benefits of generative AI and other technologies, Europe and the United States will need to focus both on improving human capital and accelerating technology adoption." As Sofia summarises, "STEM is not dead. Higher order thinking skills will be in significant demand." citing data in the report forecasting that demand for occupations such as health professionals and other STEM-related professionals would grow by 17 to 30 percent between 2022 and 2030.

I'm going to be direct here: the more Ai and technology infuse the workplace, the higher the value will be on those core Human skills we all bring to the table, #Ai will be an amplifier for human #PowerSkills, not a replacement. Anyway, back off my soapbox, have a read of the article here .

?? Top man Matt Jessop has been speaking his mind recently, highlighting, "So: Education is screwed" his words, not mine, but his points raised are hard to challenge. This was his original post on the topic, but building on that, last week, he shared an article from The Guardian: "How can a child in care cost ￡281,000 a year? Ask the wealth funds that have councils over a barrel", highlighting Children crying out for stability are paying the highest price for Britain’s chaotic and exploitative residential care. It's a shocking read, and does reinforce Matt's argument. Have a sobering read here.

?? I always have time for the lovely Brett Salakas so was great to spot the "Just Thinking" podcast episode he joined with Kevin Dougherty talking about Love, Empathy, AI enhancing humanity, Boomerangs and much more. It's hosted on facebook, but you should be able to watch it here.

?? I missed this by about 30 minutes for last weekend's newsletter, but Dr Pooky Knightsmith pulled together a very handy flyer listing all of her popular webinars by theme. If you have seen all the resources I have shared from Pooky over the last year, you will want to dip in here .

?? Cristóbal Cobo shared some handy resources on "Incorporating Evidence Into Your EdTech Decisions" courtesy of Instructure , highlighting "Running Rapid-cycle Evaluations to Improve Instructional, Operational, and Financial Outcomes. It provides a method called?rapid-cycle evaluation (RCE)?that education organizations can use to evaluate edtech tools and make data-informed decisions." Have a read here .

?? Do you read International Teacher Magazine ? Well you should ;) The June issue was a bumper one with loads of resources from the likes of Darren Coxon Andy Homden Harry Hoodless Malcolm Greenhalgh Dave Jereb and many more. I'm more than happy to do a shout-out for resources I enjoy, so check it out here .

?? A lovely read from Clara Lin Hawking about "Outdoor Learning and the Journey" with Globeducate , he advice she would give to a younger self was "Go outside!" Climb trees, build a dam out of mud, construct a bridge from twigs and stones, create art with leaves, swim in a lake or the ocean, hike up a hill - engage in outdoor learning." Have a read of her post here .

?? A great #AertsAlert share from superstar Carla Aerts that i missed last week, with the article "Do Kids Benefit from making Art in nature" asking "Could combining nature with art improve children’s wellbeing and help them manage climate anxiety?" I think I could have answered this without reading, but it's certainly worth dipping in here.

?? The wonderful SJ White shared a lovely and very personal reflection on #Communication last week. As she explained "Feedback is a gift no matter the wrapping paper. But it is also a gift people might not want to accept. Clarity, facts and evidence help but may not win them over. How to give and receive feedback is a whole other LinkedIn post not for today. This post is about being brave and clear with feedback as an initial step." Have a read of her lovely post here .

?? Neil Mosley commented on an article in Education Next titled "Two-Sigma Tutoring: Separating Science Fiction from Science Fact" asking "how realistic is it to expect any kind of tutoring—human or AI—to improve student achievement by two standard deviations? Two sigmas are an enormous effect size...Two sigmas also represents an enormous amount of learning", You can read the very detailed article from here . Certainly interesting by the conclusion, the steps are measured in 1/3 of a deviation potential.

?? A great article (as always) from Brian Host , "Leading Quietly! - The Powerhouse of an Introvert in Education". In this excellent article, Brian shares how Introverts excel as Educational Leaders. Exploring the power of introversion in leadership, leveraging strengths like deep thinking, strategic planning, and meaningful connections to drive innovation and positive change. Well worth a read here .

Interestingly, contra to the perception Extrovert = loud and confident, Introvert = quiet and considered, it was shared with me recently that a better measure is if you feed on the energy of social situations (Extrovert) or are drained by them (Intovert), albeit the external persona might be the same. This is something Brian covers under his section "The Recharge button".

?? Are you a fan of #PBL (Project Based Learning), I am excited to see that it is a key strand at ISTE this year, and have been following an excellent series of articles around this by Phillip Alcock on his "AixPBL" newsletter each week. He's on his 3rd of 10 articles on this topic. Take a look here and subscribe for weekly insights.

?? Andy Parkin shared that he had just finished reading the Tes "School Wellbeing Report 2024: International" commenting that one statement that stood out was from the COBIS - Council of British International Schools stating "A recent survey found that nine out of 10 schools are struggling to recruit the required quality of teaching staff." Which really resonated with him, and I suspect many of us. You can find their report here , it doesn't paint the most positive picture in terms of teachers feeling hampered by autonomy issues, find their roles less fulfilling, ineffective communication, and feeling undervalued and under-supported.

?? Dr. Rachelle Dené Poth shared a great article she wrote for Edutopia - George Lucas Educational Foundation "6 Ways to Unplug From Classroom Technology in Our Digital Age", as Rachelle says "There are a lot of great ways to use tech in the classroom, but challenging students to sometimes work without it has benefits for creativity, critical thinking, and engagement. " Have a look here .

?? I spotted a great new blog post from the British Educational Research Association (BERA) "The future of AI in English language teaching and learning" by Dr Adam Edmett , Neenaz Ichaporia , Helen Crompton and Ross Crichton which you can read here .

"while AI currently offers affordances and potential for ELT/L, integration requires careful consideration of various factors."

?? The lovely Melissa McBride ?? shared some very interesting research from Educators for Excellence titled "Voices from the Classroom 2024, a survey of America's educators." As Melissa commented "This survey provides a fascinating snapshot of the views of educators in the US. One wonders what results we would see if a similar survey were conducted amongst teachers here in the UK. Would British teachers share the same concerns and aspirations as their American counterparts? Such insights could prove invaluable for shaping the future of education on this side of the pond." You can read the full report here .

?? mauro bordignon has been busy, publishing the third instalment of his articles inspired by Simon Sinek 's "The infinite game", this article is titled "The Infinite Game in Education: two different perspectives". Another thought provoking read that you can find here .

?? Something that is not unique to the UK, was an article shared by Emma Shorrock from the BBC News "Move to home education biggest since pandemic". Councils received almost 50,000 notifications in the last academic year from families wanting to take their children out of school. This does not include children already being home educated. The latest government figures suggest mental health is the biggest reason for the rise. Have a read here .

?? Are you ready for ISTE Live in Denver? Only a couple of weeks to go, and I was able to join a pre-show conversation with event coordinators Camilla Gagliolo and Brandon Petersen as well as fellow event speaker Abid Patel for a roundtable hosted by Maggie Layfield . We had a great discussion, and it gave a real sense of what to expect this year, key themes and some laughs too. You can watch the discussion here . Enjoy!

?? Neil Mosley asked the question "Have we lost our sense of purpose with blended learning?" saying "I don’t think the sector ever really meant a fundamentally different modality by blended learning. In many cases, I don’t think it knew what it meant other than more digital technology to make things better than they are at the moment please." We might have a different perspective on our definitions of Blended Learning, but as always, it is a good read you can find here .

?? I am a big fan of Jonathan C. and Lucy Coy and the brilliant HeadteacherChat community. They share so many great resources and are an excellent support network for school leaders. If you haven't discovered them yet, head over to https://headteacherchat.com/ and join them. (they do some handy planners too)

?? Bridget Pearce shared a great interview with Zak Stein titled "Values, Education, AI and the Metacrisis" providing what she called "rich provocations about where education models are, how they got here, and where they could be headed." It's a really interesting listen, even if I didn't fully align with it all. Watch here .

?? Another lovely #AertsAlert from Carla Aerts sharing an article from BOLD "Why aren’t students curious in the classroom?", it's not a new article, but in our current discussions around the power of tech, it's important to focus too on those most human of skills.

As Carla commented "Curiosity. The holy grail or the axis in the complex wheel of learning? Enhanced curiosity and a curious mind learn better and curiosity in the classroom leads to better learning outcomes. Yet education has been rather good at banning it from the classroom. Time for change and bringing curiosity to the centre of the classroom and learning for life." Have a look here .

SPECIAL REQUEST

The fab team at the British Educational Suppliers Association (BESA) have their Summer Insights Day at the Oval cricket ground in London on 4th July. They are seeking teachers/leaders with subject or aspect leadership responsibility from primary and secondary schools with good discussion facilitation skills to host 60 minute ‘table talk’ roundtables at the event. They are particularly interested in hearing from leaders who are at the forefront of purchasing and implementing resources in schools.?? They are keen to get insights into resource buying habits, issues currently being faced in schools, solutions, and ideas for what is still needed, what works in terms of marketing, and where school leaders find their inspiration for new products and services across subjects and aspects.

Reach out the the BESA events team using this email address to find out more: [email protected] or message Dave Smith .

#Events

?? One to keep on the radar and worth a booking (open to anyone) hosted at (Wyboston, Bedfordshire) is from the folks at HFL Education with their "EdTech Impact: Evidence, Equity and Efficient Funding (Tech in Schools Conference)" on 9th July. Find out more here . You'll find Dr Fiona Aubrey-Smith sharing insights and that lovely chap Al Kingsley , yup me, I've been invited to speak at the conference too. (good chance to learn more from Fiona so a double bonus).

?? Amanda Uffendell shared details of Whole Education 's Summer Conference on the 8th July. Caught my eye as well because the lovely Ben Whitaker will be there too (always good value). To find out more and book your ticket, head over here .

?? The lovely folks at Bromcom have their annual "Shard 2024: MAT & LA event" on the 12th June at.....well the Shard of course ;) It's one to get on your radar, not least, I'll be speaking there in the afternoon. have a look here .

?? Have you got your June diary booked already for ISTE #ISTELive2024 in Denver? I'll be wearing a few hats for this one, speaking and with NetSupport on booth #1613 doing loads of interviews and insights recordings. I am really looking forward to coming and joining the conversation, and do please reach out if you want to come over for a chat, or book a time here to do a recording with me on any interesting topic. Get your ticket from here .

?? Anna Artemyeva shared that the 谷歌 for Education "Leaders Series" is coming to Birmingham on the 4th July. You can find out more here .

?? Jo Malone, FRSA and the team at The Foundation for Education Development have a free online event "Unlock the power of Oracy in Education" on Tuesday 25th 4-5pm GMT with guest Geoff Barton, Chair of the Oracy Commission. Sign up here .

#Ai

?? This one remains top of my #Ai section, an excellent newsletter, "Perpelexing Tech" ??that covers the world of #Ai through a wider lens. It is written by Niamh Kingsley my daughter, a product innovation and #Ai specialist in #FinTech. Please take a look and subscribe here ? Great new episode this week too.

?? I always try and be agnostic in what I share, but I'm equally happy to share recommendations from other trusted voices. I most definitely put Darren Coxon into that category, and he has always been a lovely chap to me. So last week he recommended a platform for any of you folks who fancy creating your own Ai bots, courses and more. The platform he shared is Pmfm.ai which stands for "Pay Me For My Ai". You can find Darren's recommendation here , or visit their website here .

?? The lovely Leon Furze shared a post "Open Access book: Teaching AI Ethics" highlighting that his 2023 collection of articles 'Teaching AI Ethics' has been published as an open access book and is now available online, courtesy of the folks at LibreTexts . All of his excellent resources are free to access and use under a CC BY NC-4.0 license for remixing and sharing with attribution. Leon has shared some brilliant resources so I encourage you to grab them from here .

?? Cristóbal Cobo shared an article from The Wall Street Journal titled "The AI Revolution Is Already Losing Steam" saying that "The pace of innovation in AI is slowing, its usefulness is limited,?and the cost of running it remains exorbitant." Much of this argument is based on the effectiveness of Large Language models based on training data, and all the available data has now been used, so it will slow its pace of development now.

"These models work by digesting huge volumes of text, and it’s undeniable that up to now, simply adding more has led to better capabilities. But a major barrier to continuing down this path is that companies have already trained their AIs on more or less the entire internet, and are running out of additional data to hoover up. There aren’t 10 more internets’ worth of human-generated content for today’s AIs to inhale."

It's an interesting perspective and well worth a read here .

?? Top man Dan Fitzpatrick shares some juicy #EduAi insights every week on Forbes , this week it was "3 Ways ChatGPT Is Enabling Innovative Educators With Free GPTs" featuring Antti Leppilampi , Andrew Spiece , Sue Cluck , Jess Barron , Jack Dougall , Michael Fricano II and the fab Louise Jones . Have a read of the article here .

?? Hamza Aoun shared a very handy 15 page document covering the "Components of AI Data Privacy and Protection: Potential Biases and Their Dangers" which he produced in collaboration with Aboud Khederchah , covering the different types and dangers of #BIAS at each step. It's simple but a handy read that you can find here .

?? Dr Will Van Reyk highlighted there were some fantastic insights on #Ai in the latest edition of the Journal of Applied Learning & Teaching , in particular an interview with the fab Rose Luckin (not a surprise, she is a font of knowledge). William shared that "Throughout the interview, Rose suggests AI in education is best thought of as a partnership between humans and AI - a ‘copilot’ not ‘autopilot’ relationship." - that's bang on. Have a read of the journal edition here .

?? Another one from Leon Furze in his “free stuff” collection. Links to his free "Ai Assessment Scale" eBook, "Rethinking Assessments for GenAi" and "GenAi Strategy for Faculty leaders" eBooks. You can grab them all from here .

?? A frightening and concerning reality shared by Barbara Anna Zielonka from The Wall Street Journal "AI Fake Nudes Are Now a Frightening Reality for Teens" highlighting Girls portrayed in AI-generated nude images can still face bullying and judgment, even when everyone knows the pics are fake. You can read the article here .

?? An interesting share from Ethan Mollick highlighting an experiment from 谷歌 that creates a Public Radio like discussion about any academic paper. Ethan said "It definitely suggests some cool possibilities for science communication. And the voices, pauses, and breaths really scream public radio." You can read "Learning, your way - turn academic papers into Ai-generated audio discussions" from here.

?? Talia Vilaire asked, "Should AI grade student essays?" commenting on an article in EdSurge "Is It Fair and Accurate for AI to Grade Standardized Tests?". Schools in Texas are starting to use AI to grade essays on standardized tests. The AI grading software leverages embedded rubrics and a natural language processing program trained on 3000 written essays from past tests. Given the high-stakes nature of these tests, this shift has naturally caused concerns about equity among parents. Take a look here .

?? Ben Whitaker (The ideas Guy) shared an article from the Harvard Business Review titled "4 Types of Gen AI Risk and How to Mitigate Them". Focusing around Bias and Fairness, Security and Privacy, Intellectual Property (IP) and Ownership and lastly, Accountability and Transparency. Ben provided a very helpful and succinct summary of the article which you can find here . You can find the HBR article here too .

?? Tim Evans shared a great resource from Coby Reynolds , as Coby explained "When integrating technology teachers often need the most support when they are in the planning process. Welcome - The iPad Sidekick!" This GPT, which is now free to all OpenAI users, is crafted to provide targeted content and ideas on integration of iPad into your classroom." It's a work in progress but well worth a look here .

?? Another one from Barbara Anna Zielonka on the regulation of Ai use, featuring an article "California teachers are using AI to grade papers. Who’s grading the AI?", this concluding quote certainly resonated with me "It used to be you weren’t allowed to bring a calculator into the SATs and now you’re supposed to bring your calculator so things change,” she said. “It’s just moral panic. Things change and people freak out and that’s what’s happening." Take a look here .

?? Another great #Edu voice is Tai Paschall who has started sharing excerpts from his upcoming book "When Ai goes to School" (love the title). You can find part one of "The Teacher's Role in an AI-Integrated Classroom" from here .

?? Christopher Nesi chatted with Tom Mullaney about the potential harms of generative AI in education on his House of #EdTech Podcast . (It's an excellent channel b.t.w and well worth a subscribe). Have a listen to this episode here .

?? One quick extra recommendation from me, do subscribe to the excellent "Educate on Purpose Weekly" newsletter from Bonnie Nieves , always lots of handy resources to discover. Check it out here .

?? Tony Parkin shared a reminder of a great Ai newsletter "Ai in Education" by Ray Fleming , i'm already a subscriber, but if you aren't then check it out here . Great to see Tony "lighting other candles" with his shares.

?? Tony also shared a very different read from TechCrunch "AI models have favourite numbers, because they think they’re people", An interesting new behaviour is both superficial and revealing about these systems: They pick random numbers as if they’re human beings, which is to say, badly. Sounds like it's time to finally change my PIN codes ;) Have a read here .

?? One from the lovely folks at the Chartered College of Teaching "AI and assessment: Rethinking assessment strategies and supporting students in appropriate use of Ai". The article provides a brief explanation of what generative artificial intelligence is, and considers what types of assessment it can support and where it can hinder assessment. Take a look here.

?? Tom Bolton shared a blog post titled "Education needs more of the one thing AI lacks: feeling" suggesting "if you are going to use AI for education, why not ask it to have empathy with how your learners are going to feel during the learning experience" Have a read here .

?? Jeremie Rostan shared a good read on Substack titled "How Can We Ensure AI Integration Supports and Enhances Learning?" where he reflects on "The paradox of learning is that we learn by doing what we can’t do yet. AI integration helps solve this paradox through scaffolding/extending by acting as a “more knowledgeable assistant”, or rather as a “flexible thought partner” - Have a read here . He also subsequently shared an article "Solving the AI Integration Dilemma" which is also worth a look here .

?? Smarty Pants Leon Furze shared one of his most commonly used automations, sharing it's so simple it’s barely worthy of the title. This is a really simple but potentially huge time saver, using the replacement text feature on his iPhone, and well worth a look. Imagine just typing "/Transcribe", and instead, it adds your fully crafted prompt for maximum results. Have a read here .

?? I'm cracking out the top tips this week, after seeing Melissa McBride ?? sharing the use of Perplexity "Pages" at Sophia High School , I then spotted a great example and share by Darren Coxon , citing they have the potential to replace the bog standard textbook. Have a read of his post here .

?? The always insightful Rose Luckin shared a summary about the "A.H.E.A.D. Framework: A Purpose-Driven Approach to AI in Education" recommended as a guiding principle for the development and implementation of Purpose-driven AI (PAI) in education. Have a read here . Short and succinct.

?? Matthew Wemyss has been busy crafting his own GPT for educators "ClassAI - Bringing Generative AI into the Classroom" Have a read of his summary and link to the GPT to try from here .

?? Following the theme, Tim Evans has done his own #ChatBot specifically for Secondary Math students, this time crafted with Writesonic . You can find his "AISG Math bot" from this link .

?? We have had loads of really helpful resources and "Bots" to mitigate that key aspect of effective prompting, or prompt engineering, so looking to the future, this article from Fortune shared by Barbara Anna Zielonka caught my quizzical eye "Microsoft’s chief scientist: Step aside, prompt engineers—AI will start prompting you instead" citing "My prediction for the next big AI-driven change: Our computers are going to start asking us questions! This will help us prompt better, articulate our thoughts more clearly, and even open new perspectives to explore." You can read the article here .

?? Another share from Sofia Fenichell signposting some "Truly innovator thinking in this blog post by Mike Kentz with a new assessment design framework", saying "I love how this approach focused on close reading and getting students to develop metacognition and critical thinking without ever using those words. The idea that you are graded on your efforts and outputs with AI reframes everything beautifully." You can find Mike's article "A New Assessment Design Framework for the AI Era: Reflections Part 1" from this link .

?? I just spotted a post from Chris Goodall an hour ago, sharing his excellent discussion on the AI in Education Podcast with Dan Bowen ?? covering "Assessment, personalisation and chainsaws". Have a listen from here (and subscribe to the excellent Ai in Education podcast).

?? I also saw a handy and really interesting share from Dan Fitzpatrick of a post by the excellent Ethan Mollick about a publication "Large Language Models as Moral Experts? GPT-4o Outperforms Expert Ethicist in Providing Moral Guidance", with Ethan commenting "Alignment, of a sort: this paper conducts what they call a “moral Turing Test,” asking people to compare GPT-4o to humans on ethical questions. Here we find that LLMs appear to have a strong aptitude for moral reasoning on par with expert ethicists.” It's really interesting and (for me at least) a surprising outcome. For balance, it also highlighted "Although GPT’s advice was rated as more thoughtful, trustworthy, moral, and correct than the Ethicist’s, participants identified GPT’s advice as AI - generated more than the Ethicist’s advice.", Have a read here .

?? We need to always keep an eye on balance in our considerations, with Ai more than ever, so John Dolman 's latest article "AI Bits – Episode 3: Parasite or Symbiote?" asks a really important question "Are AI companies parasites feeding off open sources of data?" after all, we all should have learnt, nothing really is free. It's short and concise and the conclusion is hard to argue against. Have a read here .

If there is someone you think I should be following, who is sharing great content that I could help share, please tag them in a comment so I can connect with them.

#Books

?? Don't forget you can find all of the books I cover on my Amazon bookshelf, You can find my curated list here .

?? One from the #MammothLearning stable is a new book "The Best Way to Learn is to Make: Creativity in a Gen AI World" by Tim Kitchen , it will be released very soon, so connect/follow Brett Salakas in the meantime for news on the release alongside a few other pending titles from #MammothLearning.

?? Phillip Alcock shared that the book "Modern PBL: Project-Based Learning in the Digital Age" by Dan Jones was released this week. A great topic to be sharing about, so grab a copy here . You can even find out more and watch a really insightful book Launch discussion and find out more here .

?? Well I had to include this one, courtesy of a very kind share by Sally Hodgson after a recommendation by Donna Shah so here is "My School Governance Handbook" by me, Al Kingsley ...so yay and of course, grab a big orange copy from here . Perfect to support your governors and trustees so they are ready for the new academic year.

?? I saw a post pop up from Dr Shyam Barr with his new book "Educate to Self-Regulate: Empowering Learners for Lifelong Success" which is due for release in a week's time. You can pre-order it from here .

"Dive into the definitive guide to nurturing self-regulated learners with Educate to Self-Regulate. Drawing from extensive teaching experience, research studies and school partnerships, Dr Shyam Barr presents evidence-informed strategies to empower both educators and students on the path to lifelong success."

?? Great news from Carl Hooker his book "Learning Evolution - The New Era of AI in the Classroom" is now available as an audiobook on Audible . You can find it here . (Likely to be a great listen while you are chilling this summer on a beach somewhere).

?? This one came from a share by Dr Will Van Reyk who started by saying "It had never occurred to me before that if a person has ‘grit’ they are likely to be a better teacher, but it makes a lot of sense." He shared he was a bit late to the party to "Grit: why passion and resilience are the secrets to success." by Anglea Duckworth but was a fan. You can read his comments here , and then grab a copy yourself from here .

?? Well this one is a cracker from Clara Lin Hawking with her article "Summer Reads: Elevate Your AI Knowledge, Strategy, and Leadership," featuring the 13 books I read this school year", i've added them all to my Bookshelf above, but read her great summary and feedback on each from here . Excellent resource.

?? If you fancy an easy read on #EdTech and the evolution of Educational Technology, then you might well enjoy ?? "My Secret #Edtech Diary" based on my 30 years of experience. It's not meant to be a technical overload, but very much a narrative as if we sat down in a coffee shop and talked it through together. You can find it here .

#CandleClub

Let's wrap up with my weekly Candle Club. Hopefully, you will know what this section is for, built on the message that "a Candle never Loses any of its Light while Lighting up another candle" - it costs nothing to help support and highlight others in our space, so here a re few more good people to connect with and follow ??

Ian Phillips Kai Vacher Mark Steed Philippa Wraithmell Olly Lewis Tai Paschall Linda Scaife Anthony Copeland Baz Nijjar Evo Hannan Dr. Rachelle Dené Poth Monica Burns, Ed.D Stephanie Howell Nicola Allen Craig McKee (FCCT) Jacob Kantor Holly O'Brien ?? Efraim Lerner Abdelkhalig MOHAMED Samuel Mormando Duncan Verry Emma Vandore Dave Crane Jad Barakat

Ok, that's it for this week's highlights. As always, a big thanks to all of you, whom I was able to curate into another episode (and apologies if I couldn't). Good luck to all those UK educators due back at school next week.

My one ask >> Please don't forget to give this edition a share ;) ????

Have a lovely weekend, enjoy the sunshine if it's with you (it's still very damp here), share the love, and I'll see you again soon. Next week is a bonkers week for me, so expect at best, a very concise summary next Saturday :)

Al (and Ferdi ?? )

You can book me to come and cause some fun and disruption at your event via Katie Cavill and The Learning Line via this link . Please also reflect on the diversity and representation of your speakers and panels at your events when reaching out.

??2023 EduFuturist of the Year.

??2023 Outstanding Achievement winner - Educational Resources Awards (ERA) Awards.

??2023 Inspiring Leader winner - British Educational Suppliers Association (BESA) Awards.

?? 2023 Education CEO winner - EdTech Chronicle.

?? 2024 Top 100 Influencers in Education - District Administrator.

?? 2024 Top 25 Education Technology Influencers - Feedspot.