Really what it says in the heading. I will play with this from time to time. A mixture of education and domestic observations.
A blog about living and working around the creative edge of education
I enjoy catching sessions from Once for Scotland on the first Thursday of each month. It is great to hear about all of the joined-up digital initiatives in the national pipeline. I do think many of these initiatives need more public awareness. There are a lot of potentially really good things happening. If you work across the public sector in Scotland you really should sign up for Once for Scotland.
The initiative does not have a brand or logo, so I got AI to make one up.
This month we got updates on
Scottish Government Digital Mailbox
The Scottish Government Digital Mailbox is a national digital communication platform designed to provide the people of Scotland with a single, secure location for receiving correspondence from public sector organisations. Following a successful CivTech challenge, and based on the Danish Digital Post system used population wide, the Scottish Government invested in the core infrastructure through Netcompany's AMI platform, integrating it with ScotAccount for trusted identity verification and the Scottish Government Cloud Platform to establish a scalable national service. The platform is now operational and forms part of key strategic programmes including the Digital Front Door (MyCare), providing a foundation for secure digital communications across health and wider public services in Scotland. The focus has now shifted from building the platform to driving adoption, onboarding public bodies, and realising the benefits of a shared national service. This supports the ambitions of the Sustainable Digital Public Services Delivery Plan, which aims to move 25% of public sector correspondence to digital channels by 2030 and deliver potential savings of more than £100 million per year through reduced printing, postage and administration costs.
I can see this as a great tool if adopted by organisations like Qualifications Scotland.
ScotPayments –
ScotPayments the payment service designed by and built for government, including background information, progress to date, what the programme is working towards and opportunities to become involved.
Local Government Architecture Model
The Local Government Architecture Model (LGAM) is an evolving shared framework for describing the technology councils need to deliver local public services. Creating a common language across local government to support collaboration, technology planning and the adoption of reusable solutions across the sector.
ScotAccount v MyGovscot Accounts
Many citizens will be trying to understand the difference between their ScotAccount and their Mygovscot account, if they have set one or both up. Here is a quick table guide.
All the very best to all who are back for a new session.
I had a busy end to my part-time consulting year! And then a useful chance to simply potter about and reflect. Had great fun watching World Cup too in Scotland and France.
I am a few blog posts behind.
Here is a quick look at what I’ve been up to:
Holyrood Communications: I had the privilege of speaking on the transformative role of AI in Education, exploring both the opportunities and challenges it brings for learners and teachers. Mainly how assessment needs to change. But have a close look at the presentation on skills you and learners need to develop to make the most of AI tools.
#OER26: Connected with the open education community to share ideas and insights on the future of open educational resources. I focused on the practical things that open education advocates and their organisations should be doing to be open. Extended blog to follow.
Very timely as the Scottish Government has finally got behind Open Practice. Caught up too over the summer with the team leading on this work. Worth a read - if I was still working at a public body or at an institutional level I'd be figuring out how we start the journey towards sharing more resources publicly with an appropriate open licence and discussing this with all stakeholders.
The #openscot community and Association for Learning Technology have lots of experts on hand who could help.
Quality Systems: Delivered a session for Northampton College on familiar territory of quality systems internal and external quality assurance for their engineering academic team.
Île de Ré: Balanced the busy schedule with a fantastic summer break on the French coast, enjoying the quiet beaches, cycling routes, food, wine, and plenty of sunshine (perhaps too hot this year).
Glasgow Commonwealth Games: Spent an unforgettable time volunteering on the ground, soaking in the vibrant energy of the events. Some memorable moments: the Ugandan team (on a rainy day) telling me how beautiful Scotland was in the autumn and being surprised it was summer. The Cook Islands team singing and playing their music on their hotel balcony each evening. Above all, working with a great set of volunteers and welcoming so many different people into the City of Glasgow.
RSA Scotland: Supported the Commonwealth Reception in Trades House of Glasgow, engaging in fantastic conversations with fellows and partners celebrating regional and international connections and handing the baton on to the Indian delegation.
Mentoring: Continued supporting senior leaders on driving change, leveraging digital tools while staying human, and leading authentically. If you role-play being a rotter, you risk getting stuck in that mode, and we have more than enough angry leaders in the world right now!
Looking forward to ALTC in Cardiff, meeting new ALT Scotland Exec members, and supporting Instructure Canvas (including Canvas Con in November) and moving on a few other projects that will keep me occupied into the new year.
In early May, we held an online 'Two Stars and a Wish' event looking at the broad trends within the Scottish learning technology landscape.
At Stirling, we focused on public bodies, policy, and sector initiatives related to learning technology.
The agenda and links to presentations are on the agenda and in the event Padlet. Special thanks to all who joined us at Stirling and or online.
My own short takes on items.
Forgive any of my own bias and dig into the links and notes for your own take on proceedings.
Jisc Innovation Hub is a great central venue - many thanks, Jason Miles-Campbell, for hosting us.
ALT - Looking forward to seeing the new version of CMALT, OER26, and ALTC in Cardiff. Great to have Susan Martin, CEO, along virtually and look forward to seeing her in Scotland at future events.
Education Scotland: Great updates on guidance and support going into schools to support digital learning and AI guardrails - learners will be arriving at Colleges and universities with ever-heightened expectations. Still a challenge: national policy implemented with 32 different local authority flavours.
College Development Network - some really good work is going on developing staff skills around AI - overall sense that students, particularly, have been terrified by some institutional messaging and that AI use has not perhaps moved on from the assumption that it allows more than sophisticated web searches.
Jisc has so much great support, which is too often not being used or overlooked by the sector. I particularly like the digital benchmarking surveys of institutional digital transformation.
Some great updates from Scotland's Tertiary Enhancement Projects delivered in conjunction by QAA and CDN. My view would be useful with a bit more focus on digital.
Lee Dunn, Head of Scottish Digital Academy, laid out Scotland's Digital strategy and the critical role that Colleges, Universities, and learning technologists have in delivering this. They are, among other things, advocating an open educational approach to developing and sharing resources. There was also an open invitation
"Anyone wishing to get involved in the discovery work and planning for OER and the Model of Professional Learning can email digitalacademy@gov.scot, and we will note their interest, reaching out to them once we’re ready to engage."
Theo from QS (Qualifications Scotland ). The consensus Policy needs to move fast, but it must remain equitable and grounded in what educators and learners actually experience. Guidance is basically sound, but still misinterpreted by teaching staff. Qualifications Scotland cannot change the assessment landscape on its own.
Rosemarie gave a good update on SCAITEN - still looking for some institutional reps with focus on taking an ethical tertiary approach to AI .
Caroline brought it back to practical application, showcasing "The Stirling Approach" to blended learning. Seeing how Stirling intentionally weaves these digital tools into curriculum design and delivery created a useful debate.
Finally, my thanks to the ALT Scotland steering group. We have been following a similar schedule for the last five years; steering group meetings in autumn and spring, with events scheduled around March/ April and one in June. I've got some new volunteers for the steering group who I will introduce at first meeting in the autumn.
In early May, we convened an online 2 Stars and a Wish Session with members of the Association for Learning Technology across Scotland. We had an active and useful discussion around themes and burning issues - and mostly our hopes for the future.
Scotland’s digital learning landscape is shifting in ways that matter deeply for ALT members. Across AI, open practice, digital capability, and national reform, the sector is innovating, but unevenly; collaboration is strengthening, but still fragile; and the gap between policy ambition and operational reality remains stubborn.
Better Assessment Design:
A hope that AI disruption finally forces institutions to rethink outdated, surface‑level assessment practices.
Broader ALT Scotland Engagement:
A desire to bring more colleagues into the ALT Scotland community, too many are still missing out on the support, camaraderie, and shared expertise.
More Thoughtful Use of AI vs OER:
A call for educators to recognise when AI is helpful — and when a well‑chosen OER or public‑domain resource is the better, safer, or more transparent choice.
A More Open System:
A strong plea to move beyond “It’s all on SharePoint, unfortunately.”
Members want institutions to enable external sharing, embrace open platforms, and reduce unnecessary barriers to collaboration.
And a quick personal summary reflection on initial provocations - any omissions are my own. See Padlet for all links. (Both Padlets are now frozen)
1. Digital Capability: Progress, but still too slow
The Digital Skills Development Scoping Report (2025) continues to shape conversations about workforce readiness across colleges. It highlights what many ALT members already know: capability is improving, but the system lacks coherence, shared frameworks, and visible institutional and national leadership.
The ongoing Tertiary System workstream has real potential to address this, but only if outputs are openly published and actively used. Transparency here would make a tangible difference to practitioners.
Meanwhile, The Data Lab’s Education Community is emerging as a valuable cross‑sector space for data and AI practice. It’s early, but it could become a key partner for ALT Scotland.
2. AI in Education: Between grassroots realism and global critique
AI remains the dominant theme, but the conversation is maturing.
The Scottish AI in Tertiary Education Network (SCAITEN) making great progress in providing an informed position on AI for Colleges and Universities across Scotland.
AICE.scot, led by Stuart Caddell, is one of the most grounded, practitioner‑led initiatives in Scotland. It’s pragmatic, classroom‑focused, and aligned with the realities of Scottish schools. FE/HE should be paying attention.
Helen Beetham’s “AI Can Fail You” is resonating strongly with ALT members — a reminder that criticality must sit alongside innovation.
Timnit Gebru’s work at DAIR continues to expose the structural risks in the global AI ecosystem. For a sector dependent on vendor tools, this critique is not optional reading.
Jisc’s National Centre for AI remains a key source of guidance, though institutions are still wrestling with implementation.
The overall picture: There is some confident experimenting happening, but the ethical and infrastructural questions are getting louder. There are challenges to the best use of local AI solutions that need to be overcome in partnership with IT colleagues and with students. 3. Academic Integrity & Assessment: Normalisation underway
Across universities, AI‑supported academic work is becoming normalised rather than feared.
Northampton’s GenAI assessment guidance
Edinburgh’s subject‑level guidance
A growing set of open resources on copyright, public‑domain images, and AI‑generated media
These are practical, aligned, open, and increasingly shareable, exactly the kind of cross‑institutional consistency ALT Scotland has long advocated for.
4. Open Education: A renewed moment for Scotland
Open practice is gaining momentum again, and ALT members are at the centre of it.
Edinburgh’s TILT toolkit is a strong, interdisciplinary OER contribution.
Jisc’s Open Policy Finder is becoming essential for policy alignment.
UCL’s ABC Learning Design resources remain widely adopted across FE and HE.
Edinburgh’s Open Education Week shows what a mature institutional open culture looks like.
If you are doing work in the open follow #openscot example and get your work on the OERWorldMap.
With Creative Commons celebrating 25 years, it’s a timely reminder that open licensing underpins everything from AI training to resource reuse.
We had a good discussion around 'sharepoint', it can enable external sharing, but this is normally disabled.
5. AI for OER Discovery: A promising pilot
The Jisc–Sylla pilot exploring AI‑driven OER discovery is one to watch. If it can deliver transparent, licence‑accurate search, it could transform how materials are found and reused. But the risks, hallucinated attributions, opaque sourcing, remain real.
6. ALT Developments: A more integrated ecosystem
ALT itself is evolving in ways that matter for Scotland:
OER26 is approaching
ALT and DLI have announced a strategic partnership
AmplifyFE is now an ALT Special Interest Group
The arrival of a refreshed CMALT is imminent
These shifts strengthen ALT’s FE presence and create clearer pathways for professional recognition.
7. Wider Sector Signals
A few additional developments shaping the landscape:
Jisc Connect More (12–13 May) – free, online, and increasingly influential
SFC’s College Sector of the Future – early but important
Jisc’s Manifesto for Tertiary Education in Scotland – a bold attempt to shape national direction
UCISA’s VLE Review Toolkit – outputs will be essential for procurement cycles
DataFest – expensive, but consistently strong, some great global speakers.
We Are Open Co‑op – closing after years of thoughtful sector support. Worth having a look and their fantastic legacy.
What this means for ALT Scotland
Across all these threads, a few strategic implications stand out:
ALT Scotland is uniquely placed to convene the cross‑sector conversations others aren’t hosting.
Grassroots innovation (AICE.scot, open practice communities, practitioner networks) is outpacing national strategy.
AI is both enabling and destabilising — and the sector needs a shared, critical, Scottish voice.
Open practice is becoming the backbone of responsible digital education.
The tertiary reform agenda needs more visibility and more practitioner input.
ALT Scotland’s role is clear: connect, challenge, and amplify — ensuring Scotland’s digital learning community shapes the future rather than reacts to it.
