AI is no longer a technology schools need to prepare for in the distant future—it is already active in our classrooms. Research shows that 87% of young people aged 11 to 24 (and 90% of 13- to 14-year-olds) have already used AI tools. Furthermore, 47% of young people trust AI to check whether something is true, compared to just 21% who trust another person. This community exists to transform how education responds to this shift. Rather than relying on AI detection software or debating whether pupils should access AI, we address a far more essential question: How do we prepare teachers and pupils to use AI intelligently, safely, and critically? We place teacher development at the very center of our mission, providing educators with the practical literacy, critical thinking tools, and professional judgment needed to lead in the AI era. Community Overview: What You’ll Gain - Practical Teacher AI Literacy: Moving far beyond basic prompt writing to understand how generative AI works, where it fails, how to manage privacy and data protection, and how to harness AI for lesson development and workload reduction. Crucially, members learn to identify when not to use AI. - Pupil Critical Thinking & Information Literacy: Shifting pupil instruction from basic tool usage to questioning outputs—evaluating evidence, identifying hallucinations and bias, and checking alternative sources. - Modernised Assessment Strategies: Moving away from traditional homework vulnerabilities and AI detection tools toward methods that measure true understanding, including oral questioning, work development tracking, and defending conclusions. - Strategic AI Leadership: Empowering educators and leaders to build actionable AI strategies that build confidence across whole school communities. - Who This Community Is For - Classroom Teachers & Educators seeking practical, workload-reducing AI tools and pedagogical strategies. - School Leaders & Administrators creating school-wide AI strategies centered on staff capability. - Curriculum & Assessment Leads modernising evaluation methods for an AI-accessible world

The Practical Guide to ChatGPT Work for Teachers I’m developing a course for secondary teachers who already use basic prompts and want to take the next step. You’ll learn to: • Create lesson resources and curriculum plans. • Use Plugins, Skills, Sites and Library. • Set up repeat tasks. • Check outputs and protect pupil data. Six short modules, around three hours in total, with video guides, practical tasks, downloadable prompts and a CPD completion certificate. 💬 Comment “Interested” for updates as the course takes shape.

Welcome to your news digest on the latest developments in AI and education as of April 2026. This year marks a significant shift from "experimental" AI to system-wide integration and legal standardisation. 🏛️ Policy & Legislation: The New Standard Governments are moving rapidly to move AI from a classroom "novelty" to a regulated core competency. • Mandatory AI Literacy: Boston Public Schools recently became the first major US district to mandate AI fluency as a graduation requirement, starting in September 2026. Similar legislation is being tracked across 25 states (notably California and New Jersey) to embed AI ethics into the K-12 curriculum. • The "Human-in-the-Loop" Mandate: New regulations in Maryland and Oklahoma now strictly prohibit AI from making "high-stakes" decisions—such as final grading or student placement—without documented human oversight. • Data Privacy Cracks Down: California’s AB 1159 has officially banned the use of student data to train commercial AI models, forcing ed-tech companies to pivot to "closed-loop" educational systems. 🎓 Higher Education: The Persistence of Use Despite institutional hesitation, the latest data shows that AI has become an "invisible" part of the university experience. • Routine Adoption: A recent Gallup study (April 2026) found that over 60% of college students use AI weekly for coursework help, even though roughly half of their institutions officially discourage or prohibit its use. • The "Calculator" Debate: At Idaho State University, recent public forums have seen a shift in rhetoric, with student leaders successfully arguing that "banning AI is the 2020s version of banning the calculator," urging universities to focus on "responsible use" over restriction. 🚀 Tech Trends: Beyond the Chatbot We are seeing a move away from generic chatbots (like early ChatGPT) toward Education-Specific AI Platforms. • Hyper-Personalization at Scale: New "Socratic" AI tutors are now capable of real-time dialogue that doesn't just give answers but uses guided inquiry to help students find the logic themselves.