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Welcome to the AI in Education podcast With Dan Bowen from Microsoft Australia and Ray Fleming from InnovateGPT It's a weekly chat about Artificial Intelligence in Education - what it is, how it works, and the different ways it is being used. It's not too serious, or too technical, and is intended to be a good conversation of background information. Of course, as well as getting it here on the website, you can also just subscribe to your normal podcast service:      “This podcast is produced by a Microsoft Australia & New Zealand employee, alongside an employee from InnovateGPT. The views and opinions expressed on this podcast are our own.”
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  2. AI Excellence: A Conversation with Katie Ford

AI Excellence: A Conversation with Katie Ford

Feb 6, 2025

This week we get to catch up with Katie Ford of Microsoft Australia, who tells us about the projects that have been happening in AI in Education around Australia, and shares some of the lessons learnt from the projects as well as what she is learning through her own research focus.

The examples Katie discusses are:

  • Tasmania Department of Education: Collaborated with Microsoft to enhance their data estate and prepare for AI applications aimed at identifying vulnerable children during COVID, helping to reveal overlooked demographics and improve interventions.

  • University of New South Wales (UNSW): Engaged in multiple initiatives including embedding AI intelligence into complex institutional systems and processes, and developing the Academic Success Monitor to predict and intervene early with students disengaging from education. This proactive outreach is personalised and has shown positive impacts on student success rates.

  • South Australia Department of Education: Pioneered the use of generative AI in classrooms, equipping educators with AI tools to enhance teaching and learning, making it one of the first in the world to adopt such technology at this scale.

  • New South Wales Department of Education: Implemented AI thoughtfully to support educators, focusing on significant time savings and improved experiences in the classroom, with a commitment to reducing teacher workloads by five hours weekly. NSWEduChat

  • Brisbane Catholic Education: Conducted a successful pilot with Microsoft Copilot, saving educators an average of 9.3 hours per week, which led to a wider rollout across the board to boost productivity and support staff well-being.  Brisbane Catholic Education to deploy Microsoft 365 Copilot to 12,500 educators and support staff, in largest rollout for K-12 globally - Microsoft Australia News Centre

  • University of Sydney: Developed Cogniti to enable academics to control generative AI usage within their courses, facilitating the creation and monitoring of AI agents to enhance educational delivery and student monitoring.

  • Torrens University: Used Azure OpenAI to overhaul their Learning Management System, addressing user experience feedback, enhancing accessibility, and saving both cost and labour significantly.

Of course, we get diverted off course along the way, with a mention of platypus spotting, and Ray's visceral hatred of automated supermarket tills gets ha mention