Google Summit - Keynote - Chris Harte

 The speed of change is quick - always has been - is it getting faster?

AI - always revisit the purpose above all else!

Fragile world currently - teacher shortage, wars, global warming - extreme events all impacting children's education.

How do we connect ākonga to learning?

How do we get ākonga to connect with the world without overloading them or their teachers? How do you keep people positive and avoid a "world is ending" spin?

In many ways, nothing changes for teachers with AI

• Relational Connection & Empathy: AI cannot build trust, offer genuine empathy, or understand the complex emotional, home, or social factors impacting ākonga. The human bond remains the primary driver of student engagement and safety.
• What can AI do to support the teacher in this area? - AI handles time-consuming administrative tasks—such as drafting initial emails, organising schedules, or marking routine quizzes—freeing up hours each week. Teachers can reinvest that time in one-on-one check-ins, restorative conversations, and building authentic relationships with ākonga.

• Core Purpose & Pedagogical Intent: The "why" of education—fostering critical thinking, curiosity, character, and citizenship—remains identical. AI changes how tasks are done, but not the ultimate goal of learning.
• What can AI do to support the teacher in this area? - Teachers can use AI to brainstorm innovative lesson ideas, rich inquiry questions, or real-world problem scenarios aligned with their core learning goals. The AI acts as a thought partner, while the teacher shapes the pedagogy to ensure it fosters genuine critical thinking and curiosity.

• Understanding the Learner: Knowing a student's unique strengths, struggles, culture, and readiness requires human observation, active listening, and relationship-building that no algorithm can replicate.
• What can AI do to support the teacher in this area? - AI can rapidly differentiate learning materials. A teacher can take a single complex text or task and ask AI to generate versions at multiple reading levels, translate it into different home languages, or adapt it for neurodivergent learners—ensuring every student can access the curriculum at their readiness level.

• Ethical Guidance & Role Modelling: Teachers remain the essential moral compass in the classroom, modelling integrity, cultural responsiveness (such as Tikanga and Te Ao Māori values), resilience, and respectful discourse.
• What can AI do to support the teacher in this area? - AI provides a live, authentic "teaching moment" for the classroom. Teachers can bring AI outputs into lessons and invite students to evaluate them for bias, factual inaccuracies, or lack of cultural perspective—modelling critical thinking, digital citizenship, and ethical awareness in real time.

• Professional Judgment & Critical Evaluation: Teachers must still curate, evaluate, and adapt learning experiences. Whether content comes from a textbook, a website, or AI, human expertise is required to determine its quality, relevance, and appropriateness.
• What can AI do to support the teacher in this area? - AI serves as a draft generator rather than a final product. Teachers use their professional judgment to refine AI-suggested lesson plans or rubrics, tailoring the content to integrate local contexts, cultural values (such as Tikanga and Te Ao Māori), and the specific interests of their cohort.

• Creating a Supportive Community: Classrooms are social environments where teachers cultivate collaboration, conflict resolution, and collective belonging by managing the room's physical and social dynamics.
• What can AI do to support the teacher in this area? - AI can assist in designing collaborative group activities, icebreakers, and role-playing scenarios tailored to class interests. This allows the teacher to focus on facilitating group dynamics, resolving peer conflicts, and cultivating a safe, inclusive classroom environment.

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