Moots, mum and mutts.

                Meeting other mums at baby groups is wonderful, and sometimes, some of the women you meet change your life for the better. This is exactly where seventeen years ago, I met Alex Clarke. We both had an infant daughter, we were both teachers, and we both felt that familiar sense of being completely overwhelmed by motherhood. The connection was strong, and we kept in touch for many years. Then, during one of our reunions, Alex mentioned that she was working for the best organisation she had ever worked for: Adult Learning Wales. At the time, I was teaching in secondary school and looking for something different. After toying with the idea for months, I finally decided to take the plunge and apply. And that was the beginning of my Adult Learning Wales adventure. Everything about it was positive. I enjoyed the subject I was teaching, counselling, and loved the interaction with adult learners. I met wonderful staff who were always he...

                                                         It was only by chance that, as part of the staff team at Adult Learning Wales, I was given the opportunity to attend the prestigious Inspire! Adult Learning Awards, held at the beautiful Coal Exchange in Cardiff on Wednesday evening. From the confirmation emails, I gathered that this was going to be an evening where a gown would be required and my best manners needed to be firmly in place. What I certainly did not expect was to feel such a rush of emotion during the awards. I had worked all day as a secondary school teacher, rushed home, put on my best long black dress with a black lace bolero, made a last-minute dash to the pound shop for a brighter lipstick than my usual, and hitched a lift in my daughter’s C5. By the time I arrived at the Coal Exchange Hotel, I...

  After a full year of researching the implications of AI in teaching and learning in the context of my counselling class, it was finally time to present my findings during Adult Learning Wales’ PD Week. I was admittedly nervous. Even though I had done it last year, the prospect of being judged on this year-long project was nerve-racking. But I could not have been more wrong about the reception it received from my colleagues. For a start, I had a very good turnout, which in itself showed the level of interest in the topic I had tackled. AI is on everyone’s lips. Is it good? Is it bad? Are we cheating? Are we dumbing ourselves down? And while I spent time looking at ways to move with the times, I found myself thinking that the evolution of IT has been much more dramatic than the influence of AI we are experiencing now. I remember a time when you did it all by hand. You spent hours looking for the right books. You held a tangible copy in your hands and searched for knowledge within...

  As the new school term starts, the new university cycle begins, and my new learners get closer to their first session in counselling skills, I am preparing myself to deliver my final research presentation to colleagues at Adult Learning Wales. This research has taken a year to conduct, but the subject has been on my mind for as long as AI has been so readily available to us all. And by all , I mean pupils, students and learners of every age. Because who wouldn’t be interested in a little cheating? A little help from an invisible friend that can enhance your academic writing, help you focus your ideas, organise your thoughts, point out your errors and help you correct them? But is this really cheating? Or is it simply the natural evolution of the tools we use to support human intelligence? I wouldn’t think twice about using an electric screwdriver to help me hang a picture frame on my wall. In fact, it would seem rather ludicrous to insist on doing the job with the most basic tool...