AI in schools: tips from the chalkface
Emma Darcy Q+A, Estonia takes a big AI leap, better AI images, online harms, media literacy, a directory of social media, ASMR videos, is AGI coming, and much more...
What’s happening
With serendipitous timing, the Guardian yesterday published a story looking at how AI is being used with students in schools in England in creative and exciting ways, from recreating Charles Darwin talking about evolution to reimagining Luton as a car. The piece featured Emma Darcy, director of technology for learning at Denbigh High School, talking about their weekly ‘digital character’ classes for year 7 pupils in the school, the student AI steering group and the school’s use of Canva.
We’re delighted that Emma Darcy is the focus of this week’s Connected Learning Q+A – read on to discover the digital developments she’s excited and concerned about, the tools she’s using, how AI has changed her work, and her must-follows in the field of digital education.
The usual roundup of AI and digital links, reads and resources follows the Q+A. Over to Emma!
The Connected Learning Q+A: Emma Darcy, director of technology for learning at Denbigh High School in Luton
“AI has hugely changed how I work, through both personal use and the wider conversations that I have on a daily basis around policy, pedagogy and practice.”
Emma also works as a Technology for Learning Consultant, supporting schools and multi academy trusts with digital strategy and AI. She is a Workstream Lead for the AI in Education initiative, a trustee for Apps For Good and a member of the Digital Futures Group.
What does your role involve?
My roles involve a range of responsibilities from both an individual school and wider trust perspective. Every day is different, but my time regularly involves overseeing digital strategy to ensure equitable access to technology for all students, regardless of their backgrounds. It also includes the careful integration of artificial intelligence into learning environments and school and trust improvement plans, alongside providing ongoing professional development for staff to enhance their teaching practices. Additionally, I work with others to place a strong emphasis on cultivating digital character and responsible technology use among students and staff, continuously measuring the impact of these technologies on teaching and learning outcomes, and adapting tools and approaches to support broader access and inclusion.
What developments in digital education are you excited about?
I am excited about the potential that AI and technology for learning has to transform education and provide genuinely personalised learning. While AI is not a magic bullet in itself, I believe that, when used effectively as part of a carefully considered digital strategy, it can enhance learning and engagement, improving not just outcomes but life chances for learners. There are so many positives to this technology, but we have to address the challenges head-on if we are really going to maximise the benefits.
What developments in digital education concern you?
The rapid pace of technological change and addressing scepticism around AI, both within and outside of the school environment, presents challenges. People often respond negatively to AI as it pushes them so far outside of their personal experience and comfort zones with regards to what traditional teaching, learning and schools should look like.
It is so important that we prioritise teaching digital literacy and character, as so many tools are already being used by both staff and students with or without our guidance and support.
There are also obviously ongoing concerns around misinformation and bias and the fact that digital divides may exacerbate inequalities for learners rather than level the playing field. My main concern is that, if we turn a blind eye to what is happening and try to dismiss it as just another education technology fad, we may not only continue to disengage students from learning, but we will also be storing up the same sort of societal challenges for ourselves that we are now seeing with social media.
What new digital tools or apps are you finding useful or appealing?
I have very much enjoyed learning how to use Gemini and NotebookLM and seeing the innovative and impactful ways staff have employed both tools as part of their teaching practice. I also think that Canva is one of the most exciting and accessible tools to facilitate both limitless creativity and a purposeful introduction to AI for learners. Quizizz is another favourite for me, as I love how the nature of assessment can be both transformed and deeply personalised to individual student needs. Likewise, the accessibility tools provided by Everway (formerly Texthelp) are game changers.
When it comes to choosing or using technology for learning, other than budget, what principles or philosophies guide your decision-making process?
Lots of principles guide my decision-making process:
Ensuring technology integration aligns with a school or trust’s goals and values.
Asking how technology can complement existing strategies to achieve goals. (If it brings nothing to the table, don’t use it!!)
Evaluating technology continuously and being flexible and adaptable. Technology is going to evolve fast and, in the field of education, we aren’t always good at doing that ourselves, so we need to update our mindset.
Ensuring technology is accessible and inclusive for all and underpins and enhances pedagogy, rather than being a direct replacement.
What’s a problem you are trying to solve?
A key challenge is always how do you develop a technology for learning strategy that caters to the needs of all learners, regardless of their background. Ensuring digital poverty does not affect some of our most disadvantaged students is incredibly important and very challenging. I also think that the nature of working at the cutting edge of technology means that you must ensure that your own knowledge stays up to date. This can be easier said than done, but if you are tasked with the responsibility of advising and guiding others you must make sure that you keep an open mind and your thinking is unbiased.
How have your views on the role of technology in education evolved over the course of your career so far?
I have always been passionate about how technology can improve young people's life chances. For ten years I was manager of a City Learning Centre in Luton. During that time we were lucky enough to have the opportunity to trial a wide range of cutting-edge hardware and software, giving schools access to tools that they may not have had in their own environments. While that was undoubtedly exciting and innovative, my own thinking has moved on and I much prefer now to prioritise the really effective use of a smaller number of cross-curricular and, in many cases, lower-cost tools that can be used with far greater impact by both staff and students.
Has AI changed how you work yet and, if so, how?
AI has hugely changed how I work, through both personal use and the wider conversations that I have on a daily basis around policy, pedagogy and practice.
I am a firm believer that you cannot learn about AI and its benefits and limitations, without actually using it yourself.
I feel really lucky to have an incredible professional support network and I learn so much from conversations with friends and colleagues where we challenge each other’s thinking. I am constantly evolving my own perception of the role AI has to play in my daily life and how to get the balance right between effective use and over-reliance.
Apart from AI, what do you see as the most significant technological trend/s impacting education in the next couple of years?
Considering the environmental impact of technology use. We don’t talk nearly enough about how climate change is linked to our increasing use of digital and we need to make sure we are having these sorts of conversations on an ongoing basis. I also think that discussions around hybrid learning are going to become more prominent. With so many challenges around both teacher recruitment and students experiencing emotionally based school avoidance, the potential role technology has to play is undoubtedly going to provoke some very lively debates!
What have you read or listened to (about education and technology) recently which you would recommend to other educators?
I learn so much on an ongoing basis from others that it is hard to know where to start! As a result, I will just look at what I have engaged with over the past week… Al Kingsley has an exceptional weekly blog on LinkedIn which brings together in one place all of the latest news and guidance on AI and technology for learning from thought leaders across the world. I’ve been reading Dan Fitzpatrick’s book, Infinite Education – The Four-Step Strategy for Leading Change in the Age of Artificial Intelligence, and nodding in agreement throughout! I started off the half term at Matthew Wemyss’s AIDUCATION25 event in Bucharest, which was a treasure trove of innovative thinking and ideas, and I’ve also spent some time reading Mark Anderson’s updated AI Policy Template which is so useful. I chat on an almost daily basis with my Digital Futures Group colleagues whose thought leadership is shared widely online and I have absolutely loved speaking to numerous women in tech and AI as part of Denbigh’s International Women’s Day project with Daubeney Academy, Kempston Academy and LEO Academy Trust.
Would you like to share any links or resources?
I would recommend connecting on LinkedIn with as many educators as you can who are working in the field of technology for learning and AI. I would also like to share the following links:
Apps For Good - www.appsforgood.org
AI in Education - www.ai-in-education.co.uk
The Digital Futures Group - digitalfuturesgroup.org
AI roundup
AI Leap 2025 Estonia
Estonia is set to become the first country to integrate AI into its national education system. AI Leap 2025 is a comprehensive national initiative that will provide access to ChatGPT Edu, a version of ChatGPT customised for education to students and teachers across Estonia, building on the country's legacy of digital innovation in education.
Better AI images
The issues around the anthropomorphication of AI is an area we’re increasingly interested in, thanks to the work of Jane Waite, and we’re intending to explore it further in a newsletter later this term. In the meantime, check out these Better images of AI, which seek to move away from misleading abstract, futuristic or science-fiction-inspired images of AI and instead offers an alternative repository of stock images, available for anyone to use for free under CC licences. (Via Cliff Manning’s latest More than Robots)
Remember your pleases and thank yous?
Does being polite to AI give worse or better results? Ethan Mollick reports on the Generative AI Lab at Wharton releasing its first Prompt Engineering Report, empirically testing prompting approaches.
Quick links
Ofcom is inviting feedback on its draft guidance on the actions tech firms should take to tackle online harms against women and girls. The guidance promotes a safety-by-design approach and identifies nine areas where technology firms should do more to improve women and girls’ online safety by taking responsibility, designing their services to prevent harm and supporting their users. Responses must be submitted by 23 May 2025.
Last month on BBC Radio 5 Nicky Campbell hosted a live audience debate on online abuse and the safety of women. Including a panel of guests featuring Ofcom, BBC Technology Editor Zoe Kleinman, the National Police Chiefs' Council and safeguarding minister Jess Phillips.
More from Ofcom – A teachable moment: opportunities, gaps and next steps comes from Ofcom’s review of media literacy training for teachers.
Through hybrid art workshops with more than 250 children, this Digital Good Research Fund project worked with children to imagine and shape a possible digital future where technology use is ethical, responsible and inclusive. Download the visual prompts to use with children in school.
Solen Feyissa flickr Useful A-Z directory of social media apps with description of each, including history, size, age recommendations and any controversies.
The chair of Denmark’s wellbeing commission has urged the whole of Europe to follow his country’s example and ban mobile phones in schools. He argues that phone-free schools give children a ‘pause’ from online life.
The latest Jisc Digital Sustainability newsletter is out and it’s full of insightful and useful links for anyone interested in the intersection of technology and environmental sustainability. It also highlights Jisc’s FE & Skills Digital Sustainability Community, an open network connecting FE and Skills staff, ICT professionals, and sustainability advocates to share best practices, insights, and resources.
So long, farewell – it’s bye-bye to Skype and its evocative ringtone as Microsoft shutters the classic video calling service.
The UK needs to attend to its information supply chains to ensure ‘epistemic security’ and tackle the democratic emergency, argues a Demos paper.
We’re reading, listening…
Soothing and comforting or weird and baffling? Apparently it depends which side of 35 you fall when it comes to ASMR videos. This multimedia Revealing Reality report explores a phenomenon that is massively popular (ASMR was the most searched term on YouTube in 2023) and yet so little commented on.
‘I want him to be prepared’: this article sets out some of the thoughtful and creative ways parents are introducing primary school-aged children to ChatGPT and other generative AI tools.
Is artificial general intelligence (AGI) coming? In this New York Times podcast Ezra Klein explains why he thinks so, but Gary Marcus in his newsletter isn’t so sure.
The man who predicted the downfall of thinking: this Center for Humane Technology podcast episode explores the work of the late Neil Postman, author of Teaching as a Subversive Activity, who warned about all the ways modern communication technology was fragmenting our attention, overwhelming us into apathy and creating a society obsessed with image. The discussion unpacks how our media environments fundamentally reshape how we think, relate and participate in democracy – from the attention-fragmenting effects of social media to the looming transformations promised by AI.
Give it a try
AutoDraw
This Google Experiment – a “collaboration between machine learning and the artist community” – seeks to make drawing more accessible for everyone. Doodle the start of a sketch, however rudimentary or plain terrible, and AutoDraw will try to guess what on earth your sketch might be and offer an alternative vision.
Connected Learning is by Sarah Horrocks and Michelle Pauli
