Old Experiment with Manus AI https://manus.im/app

Tidying up desktop and found this deck created last year in a workshop with lecturing staff. Using tools they may not have encountered yet. In this case Manus a useful tool with some strengths over ChatGPT and Co-Pilot etc.

Prompt was simple, to create an outline presentation on  "Using AI Ethically in Education: A Guide for Students."

Led to some really useful discussions around AI use by teaching staff and students.

If used in real world I would have added references to institutional policy and would have sourced better graphics and as I have done in header I would have acknowledged use of AI in creation of this deck and would have made it much more accessible in terms of colour , text and labelling etc. 

But useful as illustration of what AI can do - in seconds.  

And information on the engine - 

Manus AI was developed and trained by the Chinese startup Monica.im, which has since rebranded and is now known as Butterfly Effect Pte. Ltd. The company was founded by entrepreneurs Xiao Hong (also known as "Red") and Yichao "Peak" Ji.

The development team was a relatively small group within the parent company, which moved its headquarters from China to Singapore in 2025.

Underlying models: Manus operates as a multi-agent system built on and fine-tuned from existing large language models. It uses Anthropic's Claude and Alibaba's Qwen models as a core part of its architecture. This distinguishes Manus from companies that develop their own base model from scratch.

Manus is an autonomous AI agent designed to perform complex, real-world tasks with minimal human guidance, as opposed to simply generating text like a chatbot.

Reflections on AI, Open Policy, and Educational Practice #oer25

An AI Created Logo

  

I had an opportunity to revisit my keynote from June in this online conference. Rather than repeating my presentation from the #OER25 conference, I’m provided a link to it in the session. My aim was to highlight my ongoing concern that our current focus on artificial intelligence may overshadow more meaningful discussions about collaboration, open policy and practice.

Great as ever to interact with passionate folks across UK education. 

Recent Developments Since OER 25

Since the OER 25 conference, there have been several notable updates:

• The Jisc Centre for Artificial Intelligence has continued to release valuable resources for the sector.
• However, recent data from Jisc and other surveys reveal worrying trends, including a lack of formal digital skills training for learners and persistent fatigue among academic staff regarding the rapid changes in the digital landscape.
• Possible game changer in Really Simple Licensing – see deck and news about substantial settlements for copyright breaches.
• I’ve highlighted what I think are useful updates from across the education sector in slides.

Perspectives on AI Use in Education

I recognised during my last session that not everyone shared my optimism about the role of AI. However, I do not believe that the use of AI results in catastrophic cognitive offloading. I do believe we need to navigate it to get the best for learners, teachers and our institutions, 

I strongly support the need to guide learners in the responsible and ethical adoption of AI tools. From Jisc surveys it looks as though this is still not happening.

Looking Ahead: A Challenge

Here is one challenge I want to leave you with—not focused on AI, but on the importance of ensuring that your institution has both a policy and a platform that actively supports open practice, as well as the creation and sharing of open educational resources.

I covered this at end of last keynote – we need to refocus on how we open up , how our institutions open and how we support our colleagues to work in the open.

It seems crazy that UK is now recognised in top 5 countries for adoption of AI when the educational establishment has hardly moved on adoption of UN principles around open practice and open educational practice.  Though I  know what a struggle it was latterly within an institution to get systems and people to support open practice. Closed mindsets are not conducive to learning, sharing and collaborating.  

How do we open up

•  Ensure your institution has a clear policy supporting open practice and use and sharing of open educational  resources. Including clear guidelines on creative commons and open licence.
• Resist AI hysteria and manage your way through this. 
• Make sure staff at all levels and all students are digitally literate and can manage their digital footprints.
• Ensure that your institution has an open repository , that your virtual learning environment supports  the open sharing of courses, that staff and students have a publishing space to share their reflections and academic practice.
• For learners that should be a place of their own, a blog or similar – not simply an institutional e-portfolio. The best place that will support them professionally and as lifelong learners.
• Model these behaviours be an open practitioner

Last goodie arrived as I was writing this up here is feedback from from UK Department of Business and Trade who trialled Co-Pilot across the department. 

 

 

OER25 Reflections: Open Practice and AI 

Since 2010, I’ve only missed a handful of the #OER conferences. Over the years, I’ve chaired, curated, and presented, but this year was different. I had the privilege of delivering a keynote, and with it, the chance to speak up for the vocational college sector. It’s a world of practical solutions, limited resources, and a different focus on learning. Perhaps a world less threatened by AI - we do things, demonstrate skills and create things - we don't write essays about how we might do things. 

A Keynote in Good Company

It was great to share the keynote stage with my friend and colleague Helen Beetham. Helen’s keynote was a masterclass in critical thinking, measured, cautious, and deeply principled. Her stance on AI in education was almost a full rejection, grounded in ethical concerns, systemic critique, and a call to resist the current trajectory of big tech. Focusing on the darker undercurrents of AI: copyright violations, exploitative labour practices, environmental degradation, and surveillance. 

Her outrage over AI systems targeting Wikipedia contributors was particularly horrifying. She advocates a boycott of current AI models and recommends the AI Now Institute’s 2025 Landscape Report as a roadmap for resistance.

Helen’s own writing, especially her piece on “Marking the Government’s Homework,” is essential reading for anyone grappling with the ethics of AI in public services. Her Substack is loaded with thoughtful critique.

You can explore both of our jumping off points  here. 

I hope I offered a useful counterpoint: someone who’s on the AI train, but still mindful of the price of the ticket. I really think we still have a lot more to do around equity, sharing and empowering learners. 

My slides including additional support materials are included at end of this blog post. I really don't think AI will damage the human brain - but it was interesting that someone suggested that untested and unsound it could create a scandal on scale of  thalidomide. I remember being told that too much TV would rot my brain too. 

That is the level of contention around adoption of AI in education. At least there is discussion and policy movement here. My presentation reflects a lack of movement around Open Education policies in Scotland specifically but around the UK too.  

Missing My Sense Filter

I have to mention the absence of my Open Scotland co-founder, Lorna Campbell. Lorna is a fixture at these events and serves as my sense filter. She was unfortunately laid low this year, but her blog post, “Stepping Back and Speaking Truth to Power,” offers a moving reflection on the conference and her own journey. 

AI: The New Scary Kid on the Block

Artificial Intelligence is undeniably the new disruptive force in education. But there’s a real danger that open education and open practice will be bullied further into the margins. We  across the UK lag behind global peers in adopting coherent policies around open educational resources (OER) and open practice.

The challenge is that AI’s shiny allure and/or toxicity distracts us from the deficits in our current system. 

In higher education, the model was broken long ago. I had hoped that the arrival of the internet and search engines would revolutionise assessment and pedagogy. Instead, we’re still clinging to outdated frameworks while fearing that AI might “eat our content.”

Here is a summary of other sessions I got along to

One of the most inspiring initiatives I encountered was the Learning with AI PressBook project, where students create resources to help peers and faculty navigate AI tools. It’s a brilliant example of co-creation and learner-led innovation.

Meanwhile, the Netherlands continues to lead the way in open education. The NPULS platform encourages content sharing across tertiary institutions, a model that Scottish agencies like the SFC and QAA Scotland are only beginning to consider. We’re still stuck at shared services, never mind shared learning content.

The Open Textbook Library workshop was another highlight. Years ago, we worked to ingest open textbooks into our college library catalogue, and it’s heartening to see that momentum continue. The emerging Community of Practice for the UK and Ireland is a promising space for collaboration.

A standout session from Catherine Cronin, Louise Drumm, and Helen Beetham explored alternatives to AI through their “Generating AI Alternatives” workshop. It is a thoughtful and provocative way to spark debate around AI and OER. As is the  Scottish Tertiary Education statement on the use of generative artificial intelligence

David Callaghan's illustration summed up nicely some of audiences fears around AI 

Kate Molloy and Claire Thompson ran a super session on Adapt/Resist and Go Rogue Out on the edge demoed https://www.napkin.ai/ and other tools to help us reimagine the future. 

A wonderful over view of EDM122: Digital Literacies and Open Practice an open course. For teachers to reflect on their practice and become open practitioners https://blogs.city.ac.uk/dilop/sample-page/  

Amazing and a very practical workshop from Tim Fransen looking at how much energy and what the processes are that Stable Diffusion uses to generate an image output and tips for teachers and students on how to use these tools efficiently.

To quote Tim ' the workshop invites educators to move beyond binary narratives of ‘AI as threat’ or ‘AI as saviour’ and toward a more nuanced, informed, and open educational approach to understanding and engaging with these technologies responsibly' 

Really gave an accessible and reflective entry point into the inner workings of generative AI systems and how it works to create images not just text. I can see graphics , gaming and even computer lecturers interested in this deep dive.  Also great use of https://mmm.page/ a useful tool for OER creation. 

Reminded again of all the great work that Global OER Graduate Network does https://go-gn.net/

Attended two thought provoking sessions from Dominik Luks - one around how AI is supporting minority languages around the world and one seriously debunking some of the AI myths around its use of energy and water.  He even quickly used AI to create a more flexible programme App for #oer25 on the fly. 

An amazing Ukrainian librarian Dr Tetiana Kolesnykova spoke from the Scientific Library and the network supporting the University libraries of Ukraine with OER.  The University library has been bombed flat but learning carries on. Truly humbling. If you have a moment send Tetiana a message of support. Slava Ukraine !

Gratitude and Grounding

As ever, there were too many great sessions, great chats  and too little time. Hats off to co-chairs Sheila MacNeil and Louise Drumm and the entire organising committee for curating such a rich programme.  Well done too to ALT for continuing to keep the fires of open education burning in the UK. This community of change makers remains one of the most inspiring in UK around innovation in learning and teaching.  

Someone called me a “legend” on social media, caused much hilarity at home, but for now, I’m just grateful to have shared space, ideas, and optimism with so many passionate advocates for openness.

Looking Ahead

I’ll post my slides here , and I hope others will share theirs too. The conversations we started at OER25 need to continue, especially as AI reshapes the landscape of education. We must ensure that open practice doesn’t get pushed into the shadows. Instead, let’s use this moment to reimagine what openness can mean in an AI-driven world. I am looking forward to pushing the discussion on later in September and at OERGlobal Camp in November.

There are some other great blogs from #oer25 that capture much more than I can here. Love to all old friends and new.

We do really need to take back the commons we are missing better use of social media all round. To change things and have a common front we need better solidarity. 

It is the start of session. How will your institution lead out an open educational initiative this year ? and how will you support and encourage teaching staff to become open practitioners ?   

https://catherinecronin.net/conferences/oer25-speaking-truth-to-power/

https://howsheilaseesit.net/oer/oer25-our-silence-will-not-save-us/

One Year Over the Top ; Reflections. The Joy of Not Being There: A September Without the Start of Term

I've been feeling a bit guilty. I've done a bit of work over summer but mainly I've just chilled.  It was strange coming back from a foreign holiday and not having to check lots of work emails - but it is a really nice sensation. 

This September, for the first time in thirty nine years , I am not preparing for the start of term. No staff briefings. No last-minute system tweaks. No wondering whether staff will be more engaged, more challenging, more everything - and what budget cuts are coming down the line etc and mainly wondering if the students will cope and will staff actually step them through induction or leave them to sink or swim. And or the dreaded moment when we discover that something promised to support induction hasn't actually happened - but it's included in all our start of session materials. 

As I push on I am bringing opportunities back to the College sector and the folks I know will be receptive to new ideas.  

Time to for a quick reflection on what I said I would do and what I've actually achieved and what I have to catch up on - I am due a post both on ALT Scotland SIG meeting at end of June and on #OER25 which I keynoted at before heading off on leave. That will be my next tasks.

When I said my farewells I promised I would keep pushing on a number of fronts.  Here is a potted update and a report card. 

• UNESCO - Continue shaping bid for project around better understanding of the open source code available for creation and management of Open Badges in support of Micro credentials. Bid completed and I anticipate publication appearing before Christmas.  This from work in Bilbao 
• Continue work with UK Digital Badging Commission - input completed and work now published. Tied in well with UNESCO work and my fellowship with RSA. Led to some comms and  work with 1Edtech.  Scottish education seems miles away from adopting these approaches. 
• Hopefully continue to support work of QAA around Scottish Tertiary Quality framework. Delighted to say I now have a part-time role as a Quality Assurance Specialist for QAA.
• Champion Teachermatic and other AI approaches to changing learning paradigm. This is still work in progress have delivered a number of sessions and keynotes.
• Champion Canvas by Instructure . I am still due to do a bigger deeper blog on Canvas and why it should be platform of choice. But enjoyed working with Martin Bean in Scotland and enjoyed my time in Barcelona at #CanvasCon 
• Continue to support Open Scotland following Dubai Summit to encourage more Open practice in Scotland. I keynoted #oer25 in London in June ( post to follow) I've presented to Once for Scotland to see if we can re-engage policy makers across Scotland and hoping to pick up conversation with Lee Dunn in the current administration. I am presenting OERGlobal25 in November. 
• Encourage better understanding of Adaptive Comparative Judgement - this probably one area where I haven't really pushed on. 
• Offer informed input on shape and future of tertiary sector in Scotland.  I keep knocking on relevant doors. There really needs to be a wholesale change in approach. 
• Continue as Chair of Association of Learning Technology special interest group in Scotland and do a bit more community building for ALT. Held two meetings this year. Summary of online conference April  - report on June Stirling Conference to come and I am co-chair of UK ALTC Conference coming to Glasgow for first time in October. 
• Continue to offer support to  suppliers , institutions and staff who want to digitally transform their practice and the experience of learners. Some notable successes with Smart Technologies really down to quality of product and support available in Scotland and in dialogue with a number of other suppliers. I continue to work with lots of old friends from @Bett Conferences  and my network. 
•  I've run a couple of College sessions but sector could do with a few more - still not really seeing blended learning to the fore.  I think I could do more on that front. (if anyone wants a short workshop on digital transformation for managers or teaching staff - please just reach out) 
• FRSA - Support Glasgow branch around organising a series of events this and next year. Making progress civic reception at City Chambers and event at Citizens Theatre in planning - reaching out to Education contacts for RSA.
• Continue as Chair of IWasGonnae and Old Hall Scout Group. - both organisations thriving - really down to the energy and skills of the teams there. 

I've done lots of travelling over the year for business and fun and hosted some guests in Glasgow. 

Here are two happy snaps of 

Kim William Gordon, PhD from EdTech Research Labs St Louis USA

Maria Soledad Ramirez Montoya, UNESCO Chair Open Educational Movement for Latin America

A short history of the development of a College based AI policy

A colleague got in touch with me to ask. 

" When the college was creating the guidance for GenAI use what informed this? I’m trying to collect some policy documents for my dissertation on GenAI policy and wondered if you might have any suggestions. I assume SQAs policy was considered but did you use any policies from the Scottish Government, EU, other governing bodies etc "

I thought it was worth sharing the response. I am still watching education asking some of the correct questions but still mainly circling the wagons. 

This story starts in April 2021 pre Chat GPT and being asked to respond and shape a College response to the assumed incidence of the rise of contract cheating across the College. At the time we knew and worked with colleagues in Scottish HE where contract cheating was a thing and we knew how it generally manifested itself.

In short what prompted the initial guidance on artificial intelligence - the first College in the UK to offer some,  was in part some frustration with a new member of SMT from HE who was insistent  that a large number of students at City of Glasgow College were buying essays from essay mills at £50 and more a pop. While we had the knowledge that something else was actually going on. The College at this point kept no central records on instances of academic misconduct. 

We had data to show that this was not happening. We knew from HE that most of the bought in essays raised at least a few flags in plagiarism detection. We knew too that staff teaching generally smaller classes in FE were reasonably vigilant and knew their students.

However, we did know learners were starting to use Microsoft, Google , Grammarly and other tools to ‘improve’ their essay writing. We wanted to do some work around this to support teachers and students. 

For students this would be around when and how to acknowledge that they had used tools to support their essay writing. For teaching staff to raise staff awareness that these tools were in use, it was manageable, permissible and actually supported learners' accessibility needs. We were rolling out Canvas a new VLE in this time frame too and we were very focused on accessibility. 

We spoke to students through the students' association who confirmed that students used a range of tools. There was actually a very low awareness of essay farms. The students highlighted that while there were free tools they were very unlikely to pay for essay creation. They had legitimate fears too that the existing plagiarism software would catch out learners who commissioned essays in this way. 

But more concerningly they were worried about using some of the assistive tools to support their additional learning needs. 

It was clear that the institution and the staff were being blind sided by some of these developments. 

We wanted to change the focus from simply tackling 

'academic misconduct' to one where we could promote academic integrity through changing learner and lecturers' practice. I think we achieved this in the end, but only to some degree. In medium term this will only come with improved digital skills for lecturers and students and fundamental changes in the overall approach to assessment. 

At that point Chat GPT appeared, things accelerated, and a form of hysteria started. 

UCL in London had early guidance on using and referencing AI but it was framed in very Higher Education, University language. It has been refined but still on their website. We took this and clarified it for College staff and students, discussing this with learners, as we moved along, giving UCL due attribution. 

We then shared this internally and externally on the Learning and Teaching Academy website.  The LTA website has since been updated and the supporting documents have disappeared onto the College intranet. I hope they have been refined to support this ever dynamic landscape. 

The original guidance for students that was created with input from staff and students based on the UCL model is linked here. 

In the background we met some turbulence. A small but vocal number of staff wanted the college to ban any use of AI tools and or wished for a fool proof AI detection engine. 

We spent a year testing the Turnitin AI detection tool and found it to be generating too many false positives and switched it off before Turnitin came back asking for another fee for this 'service'. We also highlighted that on occasions when Turnitin 'failed' it was indicating that the same assessment had been used for more than five years and required updating.

On occasion we were asked to investigate a claim by academic staff that AI had been used in the creation of some work and not attributed. In some cases we were able to show an academic how the history and tracking of changes works in word. It was all the learner's own work and/or whoever spent several days and hours authoring. 

We worked with Jisc and were the only College to run a Jisc focus group with students around their use of AI.  This helped further refine our guidance. The stats in the slide deck below reflect what students said they were already using in September 2023. It went through a number of iterations and versions but sums up the College's overall approach at the time. 

 

This led to our materials being shared more widely and I was involved with helping SQA create their initial policy and guidance. We shared our work too with the QAA , at the BETT Conference,  EdTech Europe and at other conferences. We were indebted to colleagues in these organisations and to Donald Clark who appreciated what we were doing and who we were doing it for - the learners.

We led  'delivery not delay', was a College mantra. We ran lots of workshops for staff and students around digital skills and literacy including the use of AI, these supported by the LT and Library teams. 

At the time of creation of this guidance, while UAL had some guidance, the work of SQA , Scottish Govt was just starting and in many cases we were involved in shaping policy there. 

The approach was informed by the work of Jisc and the research coming out of the Association of Learning Technology and from European policy documents. The EU work on AI is relatively new. At the time it was around making our AI work align with European Digital Literacy standards for education. Through the LTA teams work on Open Educational Resources we also had the opportunity to see drafts of UNESCO work in the AI space and that helped inform what we were doing. 

I think around this time, the College worked out that we knew what we were doing and we ran a workshop for the College Board around defining an appropriate risk for the College risk register. This in turn led to some workshops and specific support for the Colleges professional services staff. 

The guidance was also shaped by a concern to make sure that learners and teaching staff followed college guidance around using tools that were accessible and met GDPR standards. 

One regret, is that while we were the  first college to pilot Teachermatic I could not get the internal support to roll it out across the College, as for instance Clyde College did later. 

There is still heavier lifting required. The advent of AI needs some deeper changes to assessment. If anything it highlights that assessment of competence should be a more practical demonstration of a particular skill and not judged on a candidate's essay writing skill. 

This not to demean the skill of communication. The system simply needs to rethink the context in which it values and supports effective communication. Learners still need to learn to craft communications for a variety of audiences, including academic writing. 

Where are things now - with focus on AI and education. 

There is some quite mature guidance recently published by Edinburgh University shaped with Education Scotland and SQA guidance.

Jisc continues to offer excellent support through AI  

There are some excellent policy papers from Europe around AI literacy

UNESCO has a growing set of policy and guidance on AI and teachers

The College Learning and Teaching Academy website on AI has some further links.  

From the ALT Scotland latest gathering in April 2025  some useful links too. Specifically on AI and ethical use.

The College Development Network are running practical rather than policy workshops in May and June 25. 

Talking about Artificial Intelligence @Edutech23 #Edutech23 Amsterdam

I was very fortunate to be a guest speaker at EduTech23 in Amsterdam earlier this month. Candidly without sponsorship I'd have been unable to attend.  Colleges in Scotland are in a precarious financial position currently and staff from vocational colleges don't normally have funding to engage in forums like this. But it is critical that we have a voice - so special thanks to the organisers. 

Artificial Intelligence is not as big a threat to vocational education as perhaps it is to the school and university system. 

Why ?  because in the main we offer authentic assessments.  Learners have to demonstrate they can do something not simply write an essay about how they might do it. That is not to downplay any ethical or other issues.

I really enjoyed #Edutech23 and my session attracted a standing room only audience and some very positive feedback on the day and online following the conference. Links to the session slides and what we are actually doing at the College are below.  I was suited a booted most of time but kilt and creative commons t-shirt on for day of session. 

I plugged too all the good work that is happening across the sector in Scotland and from UK in the AI space. 

The conference was well organised and well curated with an excellent set of sessions and was at a scale that encouraged attendees , exhibitors and presenters to engage.  I made some really good new contacts and reconnected with some colleagues from other roles I have held.  

I am just about to follow up with the useful contacts I made over the two days on the conference. Having returned to busy day job. 

Just to reiterate and before my new contacts flood my inbox with requests for sales meetings  at the moment I am always open to ideas and partnerships but we don't have resources to buy new services now or into the near future. I lead a resourceful team and there is a lot we can achieve without hard cash. We are well equipped for blended learning. Probably worth resharing how to work with Colleges in Scotland too,

We have suite that we are content with comprising at it's heart the tools listed below. These provide a sound platform for staff and students to enjoy a blended learning experience. 

• Canvas by Instructure , Canvas Credentials and Canvas Folio
• Microsoft Teams etc
• Click-View
• Panopto
• Turnitin
• Blackboard Ally 
• Padlet 
• Thinglink 
• OneFile portfolio for apprenticeships

1. Most immediately I am interested in any European College interested in working around with  Canvas Commons sharing vocational learning materials. 
2. Projects around staff and student digital teaching skills and digital literacy.
3. Policy around open educational resources at College level and the use of Artificial Intelligence in learning, teaching and assessment.

I'll follow up with post on some of the great folks I met and what we will follow up on. 

AI in world of presentations Try out Gamma App

 

This not my presentation for Edutech 2023 - rather me testing out some of the tools I will include in my session.

If  you haven't discovered https://gamma.app/ you should have a look a serviceable and downloadable presentation in under 5 minutes . Quicker than building a Sandcastle - unless of course you use Bing Image Creator