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.

Smart Technologies: Calgary, Edmonton, Banff, March 2025

 

It was a great opportunity to be a guest, enjoy Canadian hospitality and share insights on blended learning and active classrooms with Smart Technologies. It was good too to share the experience and learn from an informed squad of Scottish Educators.  This post will reflect on what I learned from Smart and what I learned from my colleagues and some things I will follow up on.

It was a privilege to meet the Smart Technologies team and tour their operations in Calgary. The term “smart board” has become synonymous with interactive panels globally and in terms of product development they are still top of the class and deserve to be the generic name for interactive panels. 

However, in large tech exhibitions like BETT, where many screens and competitors are showcased, this can be lost and there still can be a general scepticism from the educational technology community about interactive boards and their impact on learning and teaching. This scepticism is often related to whether such panels support outdated models of learning if all learners and teachers have individual devices.

It's important to reassess this role, as interactive panels are crucial in learning spaces, facilitating blended learning and fostering collaboration and new approaches to learning and teaching. It was good to hear how the panels are used in new ways across schools in Scotland from the delegates and great too to visit the Edmonton School district to hear how smart boards are deployed and used across the district. It was great to meet and hear from real teachers on how they used their smartboards and associated software. It was interesting too to hear they had moved to Smart Boards from Epson data projectors.

Key takeaways include:

• Smart Technologies demonstrates a profound understanding of pedagogy and the role of their interactive panels in supporting active and blended learning.
• Their products are sustainable, reliable, and robust, as observed in the product development process.
• The software notebook is easy to use and Lumio supports a range of interactive activities.
•  It is easy for teachers to have multiple windows and applications open and to move across these and autosave they or the students’ annotations with smart ink
• Lumio offers great tools for whole class activities that learners can engage with from their own devices and/or on the smartboard.
• Credit to Smart they do a lot to track globally the digital landscape in education. It is worth accessing their free bench marking tool. (See how our group did below)
• They do some exemplary work too around neurodiversity and learning. 
• IT teams will like new easier ways to manage an estate of SmartBoards. 

I had several questions and challenges, which were all addressed. 

Smart Technologies excels in sustainability and performance metrics, and they now offer plugins like the AM60 to update older panels and give them longer operational lives. The panels integrate well with OneDrive, Google Apps, and virtual learning environments like Canvas , D2L and Moodle.

With multi-point touch capabilities, learners can engage in collaborative activities, making it easy and accessible for both teachers and students.

Hearing about the impact of Smart Boards in Midlothian, combined with the rollout of Chromebooks to all learners, was impressive and very similar to what we saw in action in Edmonton schools.

Unlike other panels that require being on the same network for full feature use, Smart Technologies has solved this securely. They demonstrated effective screen sharing and shared activities, allowing users to bring their own devices. I’ve battled that challenge in the past, for lots of security reasons IT teams don’t like unmanaged devices coming on to their networks.

While I initially thought from a college perspective, innovations like pre-programmed MFC chipped objects showed clear applications for primary and secondary classrooms. These could also fit into college delivery with some adjustments.

Their new interactive podium is ideal for lecture theatres or hybrid teaching, and the range of upcoming developments embracing Android 15, were very impressive and if I was still in a College I would be getting colleagues to check out Lumio as a potential improvement on Kahoot and some of the other solutions we have in the class activity space. I’d be exploring  purchase of an interactive podium for our theatre too.

My takeaways from Scottish presenters: Meeting the next generation of educational innovators was inspiring. Mid Lothian shared a story on inclusive digital transformation using Chromebooks and smartboards, while others discussed Smartboards with learner’s own devices, open learning initiatives, curriculum innovations for all school years, and VR headsets to understand neurodiversity. Collectively they are seeking solutions for digital credentials and better community support in educational technology and curriculum development. These concerns echo current uncertainties at Education Scotland and SQA.

The Gangs All Here

I plan to introduce them to the Association of Learning Technology. This post can't reflect all the fun we had in what is an anxious time in Canada. Perhaps never a better time to do business there. Smartboards and their associated product range are all available on relevant Scottish procurement frameworks and there are experienced channel partners and installers available. 

I have to include one image of the breath taking Rockies. Last time I was in Canada was 30 years ago on the east coast on a Rugby Tour - so first time seeing the mountains - truly awesome. 

Talking about how we use range of Jisc Survey Tools at Jisc Building Digital Capability and Digital Experiences Insights Conference

Great to have an opportunity to share way we use a range of Jisc survey tools to inform our approach to digital learning and bench mark our journey with institutions across the UK 

Great learning too to attend event and hear how other institutions use these tools.

You can get a glimpse here too of what we have learned and the tools we are using with staff and students to digitally transform. 

Talking about digital learning with QAA Scotland

Here is video and  summary transcript of video I was asked to share with QAA Scotland for recent conference. 

What is your role at City of Glasgow College?

I am head of digital skills - but what it means is that I look after College learning technology and push out models for blended learning. 

Biggest task in the last 2 years has been taking College from self hosted Moodle on to Canvas by Instructure. 

We do everything in the open - so most of this is reflected in learning and teaching academy website - along with staff and student support materials. 

What is some recent work that you have been working on regarding blended?

Simply encouraging staff to use full range of tools available to them appropriately. 

Using Jisc survey feedback from staff and students to shape our offer.

Learners want a more standard blended learning experience. 

Staff want more training and support - and time. We can offer the first two.

How does City of Glasgow College approach blended?

We work from a model based on UCL ABC model at City of Glasgow College we call this Active, Blended and Connected. 

Boring but necessary things like consulting on , creating and promoting a standard Canvas template. Students want basic elements in any online course. 

What course is about , a sensible order of course materials , a introduction to teaching staff and  information on how to contact them.

On course materials been encouraging more use of quizzes and different forms of assessment and more use of pre-recorded video ( short 8 minutes) 

Post pandemic courses are delivered in mixed mode some on site and some online.

We have some rooms set up for hybrid teaching - but most staff simply cannot cope with this - it is very difficult to give face to face and online learners a positive experience synchronously. 

What are you hoping for in the future?

My hopes haven't really changed since late 1990's when as a lecturer all my materials were on the internet and available for all my students and for any colleagues that wanted to augment these or adopt them. I think we still have a long way to go before staff and students are confident open practitioners and collaborators around learning and assessment. 

We can see AI arriving and we have a policy in place - but the next thing is really training AI on our own data sets. 

I can see role too for more intermediate tools like Teachermatic .

VR/AR still had enormous potential but challenge is using these tools in a cost effective and sustainable way - tools like ThingLink will open door here.

The CDN/GTCS digital standard for lecturers will become a great driver in terms of professional review. I don't think staff are really aware that they now have a benchmark to meet. 

We are working to a set of College attributes for all learners - remember core skills and meta skills are a thing in College landscape - these attributes will help us move on digital skills. 

We work within a lifelong learning - national system - Colleges can play their part - it would be good to see more examples of resource sharing both across the College landscape and between University system and College system. Colleges should be doing a lot more for schools too. 

We will do more with Canvas commons, Canvas credentials, Canvas Folio  - Commons to share whole courses with other Colleges and internationally. Credentials to support initially our College attributes and then to offer certification for some open less formal provision - open to all.  Canvas Folio to give learners a folio of their own work to take with them when they leave college. 

I'd still like to see more lecturers and managers across Colleges in Scotland maintain reflective blogs or journals. Social media and networking is driven by activities like this - too much practice is siloed across the school , college and university system.