From Ideas to Apps: Rediscovering Creativity Through AI and Vibe Coding

For most of my working life, I’ve been fascinated by how ideas become real. In the last century, when I taught mass communications and videography, the creative process was equal part excitement and endurance. We storyboarded ambitious scenes, imagined sweeping camera moves, and dreamed in colour. We then we spent hours in the editing suite wrestling with sync, sound, and timing. The gap between what we envisioned and what we produced was often wide, and closing it required patience, skill, and a fair bit of stubbornness. That has since changed.

I followed a similar path with early computing. Tools like WordStar, HyperCard, and QuarkXPress opened new creative possibilities, but they also demanded a working knowledge of code. When the web arrived in the 1990s, I used those skills to build simple pages for students. But as blogging platforms and user‑friendly tools emerged, the need to hand‑craft everything faded. Even when I later managed large coding projects, I left the actual code to the coders.

Today, that landscape around coding has shifted again and dramatically.

The Rise of Vibe Coding

We are now in an era where AI allows us to be more ambitious than ever. “Vibe coding” ,using natural language to shape an application into existence, it represents a genuine paradigm shift. Instead of wrestling with boilerplate or scaffolding, we can focus on the logic, the user experience, and the problem we’re trying to solve. The AI does the magic and handles the heavy lifting.

Whether you’re automating a manual workflow, prototyping a weekend idea, or simply tidying up a webpage, vibe coding lets you move from concept to working prototype with astonishing speed. It’s powerful even if you never intend to write a line of code yourself. You can test ideas, explore possibilities, and hand a validated proof‑of‑concept to professional developers when you’re ready.

I’ve been experimenting with this through the Glasgow No Code Initiative, which has taken me “back to college” in the best possible way. While the classes use Replit, I’ve tried a range of tools, and the experience has been both a refresher and a revelation. It's been good too to catch up with some fellow like minds from Glasgow's digital community who have signed up for the course.

I’ve even built a simple app that checks a community hall’s availability via Google Calendar and allows users to make a booking, something that would once have required a small team, a long timeline and/or would have cost money if we'd bought an off the shelve tool.

The Golden Rules of Prompting

Regardless of the tool, your results depend on the clarity of your instructions. There are four principles that consistently produce better outputs from large language models like Replit , Claude or ChatGPT:

1. Be Clear and Concise

Avoid unnecessary detail. Tell the model exactly what it needs to know.

2. Prioritise Requirements

Put the most important constraints at the top of your prompt. Structure matters.

3. Frame Requests Positively

Tell the AI what to do, not just what to avoid. Positive instructions reduce ambiguity.

4. Use Precise Language

Specificity narrows the “hallucination gap” and leads to more reliable results.

And if the model gets it wrong? Refine your prompt. Iteration is part of the process — just as it always was in the editing suite.

A New Creative Cycle

What excites me most is how familiar this all feels. The tools have changed, but the creative impulse hasn’t. We’re once again at a moment where imagination leads, and technology follows. The difference now is the speed: the distance between idea and prototype has collapsed.

If I was back in the classroom I'd be showing all learners how to use these tools to develop apps for themselves.

For educators, community builders, and anyone with a spark of curiosity, this is an extraordinary opportunity. If you have an idea, even a small one, give it a go. You might be surprised by how quickly it becomes something real.

And if the Glasgow No Code Initiative runs again, it’s well worth signing up.

TeachmeetBETT26: Twenty Years On and Still the Best Thing in the Room #TeachmeetBett26 #BettUK2026 #ALT #OpenEducation #openscot

Twenty years. That's how long the Teachmeet movement has been rattling around in classrooms, conference halls, and the odd beermeet event and it shows absolutely no signs of slowing down.

The Teachmeet movement started in Scotland in 2006. A group of  Scottish teachers who wanted to share practice without the formality and expense of traditional CPD. No budgets, no keynotes charging four figures, no hotel conference suites. Just people who cared about learning, talking to other people who cared about learning. 

It spawned from a community around early Scottish Educational bloggers - Scotedublogs ( still going strong).  Over years  I offered sponsorship and venues when I could - though I did speak at a few and the teachmeet format moved around the world. 

But I do think we have stalled a bit in Scotland would be good to see much more grass roots activity. 

At the time and now,  it is refreshing to hear - fresh voices sharing their challenges and solutions.

 
For anyone who hasn't come across Teachmeet before, where have you been? The concept is beautifully simple.

• Practitioners suggest they will  share something useful, interesting or half-baked in two minutes or seven minutes. 
• These are added to the pot and then selected at random.
• No PowerPoint decks full of bullet points. 
• Perhaps an illustration or something to demo.
• They stand up and use their allotted time.
• Generally a safe space not usually live streaming.
• If you take too long you get a cuddly toy hurled at you. 
• Audience gets a useful link or idea to take away and look at later. 

No consultants selling you something. Just real people doing real things in real classrooms and colleagues, sharing what works and what doesn't. 

It's bottom-up professional development at its very best, and in an age where we are drowning in AI-generated content and slick vendor presentations, that authenticity matters more than ever.

What genuinely lifted my spirits at Teachmeet Bett 2026 was seeing new faces embracing the Teachmeet methodology. The audience was a good mix ; teachers, lecturers, learning technologists, people from schools, colleges and universities and the energy in the room was real. That's the thing about Teachmeet. You can't manufacture that energy. It either happens or it doesn't, and on that  Wednesday night it absolutely did.

It is simply great staff development. 
The presentations are all available here and there's also a lovely tribute to Teachmeet's twenty-year history worth exploring if you want to understand just how far this grassroots movement has come.

I used my two minutes to plug learning design, Open Education #openscot , and membership of ALT. I make no apologies for that. These are things I genuinely believe every college professional working with technology should know about. CMALT in particular remains one of the most underused professional development tools in Scottish further education, and events like Teachmeet are exactly the right place to spread the word.

A challenge 

• At the end of the night, the challenge went out: organise one. Your college, your school, your academic team , your local authority, your professional network. It doesn't have to be big. It doesn't have to be slick. It just has to happen. 

• I genuinely believe every college in Scotland — every college anywhere — should be running at least one Teachmeet a year. The cost is minimal it can be zero . The return in terms of practitioner confidence, professional community and shared ideas is enormous.

• To Scottish teachers and lecturers it is hard making your voices heard but you need to be brave for your learners. Teachmeets and Scotedublogs are great vehicles to share open practice. There is a community you can be part of.   

In the background there is some work underway to restate some Teachmeet assets like original wiki to help keep global momentum going.

Hat doffed to all teachmeeters past and present. I am looking forward to meeting future generations. 

Twenty years of Teachmeet. Here's to twenty more. Hope to see you at #teachmeetBett27 #tmbett2027

Shaking Up the System: Reflections on the #Edufuturists Roadshow February 2026

It was fantastic to finally meet the Edufuturists team in person during their UK Roadshow stop in Glasgow on February 2, 2026. The event was held in the pleasant, local surroundings of the Everyman Cinema , it's an excellent, intimate venue for conferences and discussions.

I've followed Edufuturists' rise from afar, and it's genuinely refreshing to see a fresh team challenging the status quo in UK education. Co-hosted by Ben Whitaker (former teacher, IDEAS Guy, podcast host) and Steve Hope (former PE teacher and EdTech CEO), the group is pushing for real revolution in how we support learners and society. Always nice to see some bottom up change makers - we seem to be in a period when we have run out of these in Scotland.
The Highlight: "The Real" David CameronThe standout moment was hearing from "The Real" David Cameron, In my view, still the most realistic and inspirational voice on the state of school education in Scotland. His provocation drew striking parallels between schools and colleges: an ongoing obsession with data measurement at the expense of genuine human relationships and connections at all levels.
I am sure he has done a few, but would be a great speaker for a College Learning and Teaching conference.

The Reality CheckWhile David's analysis of the system's struggles is compelling, it's also deeply depressing. The core message is one of bureaucracy over people, metrics trumping relationships and it's just got worse over my 39 years in education. We know the problems well, yet we're still circling the same discussions.

Networking & TakeawaysThe audience was a fascinating mix of change-makers from public and private sectors, including at least one former HMIE inspector. This created excellent networking opportunities and rich conversations. Great to catch up with some old friends like David and make many new ones.
My key takeaways: Even though Scotland's school system is far less fractured than England's, the deep-rooted challenges remain depressingly similar; the profound impact of poverty and persistently stalling learner satisfaction/engagement while teaching staff increasingly feel under siege.
Rehashed statistics everyone should know - lots of teachers being trained in Scotland but few full time jobs - at same time lots of current teachers and schools leaders want to leave the profession.
Overall, events like this Roadshow (themed "Funding & Efficiency," with free tickets thanks to sponsors like ParentPay Group) are a welcome spark for disruption.
But the persistence of these systemic issues after so many years leaves a sobering reminder that meaningful change is still elusive. Perhaps new agencies etc in Scotland will swiftly solve all of our challenges ? It would be great to see some clearer agendas for actual change.
Cross political parties politicians still really don't get learning and or are unwilling to really change up the offer available in schools and colleges and or in David's thesis empower schools to make more local decisions.
I did a bit to promote CMALT and ALT generally. Teachers need to know that there are structured ways to develop their professional recognition in the learning technology space.
Would be good too to welcome more of these folks in to the ALT community.
For more on the series: Get along to one of their next stops !

• Edufuturists Roadshow page (Glasgow details and upcoming stops like Belfast, Cardiff, etc.)
• Get an entry in to competition and/or get along to Uprising Conference in Liverpool.