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Lovely activity, Michelle. Dinosaurs never fail as a hook, and breaking the reading into short sections with the images alongside would make it so much more manageable for the pupil. Immersive Reader really earns its place here. A child who finds reading tiring or a bit frustrating can have the text read out to them, dip into the picture dictionary whenever they get stuck, and just work through it at their own speed. The multiple-choice questions are a smart call as well. You’re still checking if they’ve understood without asking them to create a big written answer. That last point about confidence and independence is the one that resonates with me. Often, it’s just a matter of giving a child a bit of breathing room, and then they can show you what they knew all along.
Welcome to the course, Sarah. As you say, Development Education often works best when it isn’t looked on as a separate add-on but is worked into everyday teaching in small, natural ways. The examples you gave are good ones. Geography, children’s rights, sustainability projects and current issues all give children a chance to think past their own classroom. The whole-school side matters too. When staff are sharing resources and planning things like Fairtrade activities or cultural awareness weeks together, the children get a far more consistent message out of it. One simple idea might be to create a shared folder of Development Education resources and lesson ideas that teachers add to as they try things out.
You’ve made a nicely balanced point here, Angela. The personalised learning side of AI is one of the more interesting possibilities, especially for children who don’t fit neatly into a one-size-fits-all approach. The examples you mentioned, Century AI and Squirrel AI, show how useful it could be if a programme can spot where a child is struggling and pitch the work at the right level. That could be a genuine help to teachers too, particularly when you’re trying to hold a wide range of needs together in the one room. I liked that you brought in the school examples from the module as well. It makes the whole thing feel more real when you can see schools already trying these tools out, rather than AI being talked about purely in theory. Your last point is the important one, though. AI might help create resources or lift the engagement in a lesson, but it still has to be handled with care; data protection, privacy, parental awareness, and the children’s well-being all have to come first.
This sounds like a really valuable support in the community, Mairéad. What I like is that the hub isn’t only about handing out practical items, important as that clearly is, but about helping families feel less isolated and a bit more connected. The translation support, the children’s activities, and the workshops must make a real difference to people trying to settle into a new place. It’s easy to forget how hard it must be to land somewhere new and have to figure out schools, doctors, work, language, and the everyday routines all at the one time. Your reference to keeping links with Ukrainian culture stood out to me as well. Integration was never meant to mean leaving your own culture at the door, and it sounds like the hub is helping people hold that balance.
This is a good example of where AI can save time, but the teacher still very much needs to be the one steering, David. Generating questions for Under the Hawthorn Tree is handy in itself, but the fact that you used ai to cater for a pupil with dyslexia and a visual impairment is the part that really matters. Your point about teaching in a rural school rings true too. Resources nearly always need a bit of tweaking to actually fit the children and their context, and AI won’t catch that unless we tell it to. The next step might be asking it to produce the same questions in a more accessible format, shorter sentences, extra spacing, or a version with fewer on the page. That could be handy for any pupil who needs less visual clutter to deal with.
The part about the children being shocked that women couldn’t study certain subjects or follow certain careers really stood out for me Anna. It shows how strange and unfair it seems to them now, which is a good sign in itself.
I also think you’re right that the bigger historical examples are easier for children to notice, but the smaller everyday comments can be harder to challenge. Phrases like “she’s actually good” can sound harmless, but they do say a lot about what children have picked up somewhere along the way.
Sport is definitely an area where these attitudes can still come through, even in schools where boys and girls mix well in lots of other ways. It’s a good reminder that we have to keep an eye on the little things, not just the obvious examples of inequality.I’m glad you found the module useful, David. As you say, the number of tools out there is a bit overwhelming, but it sounds like you’ve already picked out the ones that would actually suit your own planning and classroom work.
Magic School AI and Diffit are both very practical, especially for things like lesson hooks, differentiated resources, etc. Those are the kinds of jobs that can take up a lot of time, so even if the tool just gives you a starting point, it’s still a help.
Using AI as a “worktop” rather than letting it design the whole lesson is a sensible approach, David. That feels like the right balance. The teacher still knows the class, the levels, and what needs tweaking, but the tools can speed up the first draft or give a few ideas to build from.It’s good to tie climate change to something the children are actually living through in school, Rachel. Warm weather, hats, sun cream, shade and water are all very real to Senior Infants.
The three actions are lovely and simple as well. Recycling, getting to school in a more sustainable way, and planting flowers or trees are all things young children can take part in without it tipping into something heavy or frightening.
Stories and outdoor observations would work well at that age too. Even noticing where the shade is, where things are growing, or where the rubbish ends up could open up a good little discussion.Welcome to the course Melissa. I’m glad that you found that this module really shows how useful assistive technology can be, especially in an SEN setting. Something like a C-Pen could make a big difference for a pupil who is able to understand the content but is being held back by the reading.
You make a good point too about pupils who are struggling but haven’t been identified yet. It can be very frustrating for them, and sometimes the behaviour we see is really coming from that frustration or from not being able to access the work in the same way as others.
I liked that you mentioned that schools are still doing their best even when they don’t have access to expensive tools. Low-tech supports, good planning, and knowing the pupils well still matter a lot. At the same time, you’re right that there does come a point where schools need proper support and funding too.I think you’ve summed up the SETT model really well here, Dolores. The big strength of it is that it makes you stop and look at the child first, rather than jumping straight to a piece of technology and hoping it works. I like your point about looking at the whole context too. A tool might be great in theory, but if it doesn’t suit the classroom setup, the task, or the child’s own confidence and needs, it probably won’t be used properly. The collaboration piece is really important as well. Parents, SET, class teachers and the pupil themselves can all give a different part of the picture, and that makes the decision much more useful.
I can see why Diffit stood out Mary. For SET or small group work, anything that speeds up levelled texts or differentiated activities is going to earn its keep, so a tool like that could take real pressure off. I know what you mean about the Microsoft side too. If your school is fully Google-based, it’s hard to see where some of those tools would slot in, especially if you’re not working with them day to day. Opening an account might be worth it just to have a look around. There are so many AI tools now that it gets overwhelming fairly quickly. Your point about cost is a realistic one as well. Schools would want to choose carefully and think about what would actually get used across the staff, rather than paying for something a few people try once and forget about. Starting with one free or already-available tool like Diffit or something inside Google Classroom might be the most manageable way in. You’d get a sense of what genuinely helps before putting much time or money into it.
You make some important points, Mairead. Children are seeing so much online now, and not all of it is balanced or age-appropriate. Some of the messages around boys, girls, behavior, and “how you should be” can be very strong, especially when they are coming from people with huge followings. I agree that we have a role in helping children question what they see online, not just absorb it. It definitely links with home as well, because so much of that content is being viewed outside of school.
I agree with this Eimear. It starts so early, doesn’t it? Even the colours, toys and comments children hear when they are very young can quietly shape what they think is “for boys” or “for girls”. Science Week and Engineering Week are great chances to challenge that a bit. I like your idea of bringing in examples of famous female engineers, because children need to actually see those role models and not just hear that “anyone can do it”.
This strikes me as a very sensible way of looking at assistive technology Shelly. The SETT framework slows the process down a bit and stops us picking a tool just because it looks the part or happens to be sitting there.
Starting with the School Support File makes sense to me. It gives you the whole picture of the child rather than the difficulty as it shows up in one lesson or one task.
Your point about beginning low-tech is an important one too. Often a small change, a visual checklist, or just a different way into the task does the job before you’d need anything more complicated at all.
And the line about the technology meeting the student’s needs rather than the other way round is probably the heart of it. The tool only earns its place if the child can actually get at the learning more independently because of it.This is a good example, Siobhán, and I’d say it happens in plenty of schools without anyone catching it straight away. A line like “girls are no good at sport” might be thrown out casually, but it can stick with a child and shape whether they feel able to join in at all. What I like is that you’re not just going down the road of telling them it’s wrong; you’re giving them room to talk it through and work out for themselves why it’s unfair. A discussion or a bit of role play would work well there, especially if the children had to think about how being left out actually feels. Mixed teams and agreed rules around passing and including everyone is very practical too. Children often need those structures in place before the habit shifts at all. Bringing in female athletes is a great call as well. It gives them something real to hold up against the stereotype rather than it just being the teacher saying “that’s not true”.
