Back when OpenAI launched ChatGPT at the tail end of 2022, it was introduced as a conversational interface fine-tuned from a model in the GPT-3.5 series. Teachers, being teachers, quickly took to it as a means to help, mostly at that point with things like lesson plans, adaptive resources and the day-to-day admin that teachers have to do. In many ways it was like the wild west, and it was adopted so quickly.

Last week I said I'd say more on the day. Today is the day. When I started this six weeks ago, I wasn't sure how it would go. The idea was simple enough: take the areas of teaching and learning that matter most, retrieval, formative assessment, feedback, questioning, explanations and modelling, metacognition, ground each one properly in the research rather than in whatever happens to be trending, come up with 24 ways each can help, consider how and where technology could assist, and see if people found it useful.

Today, I'm sharing the final infographic in what has become for me a real passion project. This week, the last of six, it's 24 ways to embed metacognition and self-regulation in your classroom. Metacognition and self-regulation get cited a lot as the best bang for your buck in education, the highest impact for the lowest cost, largely off the back of the…

We're on to week 5 already, and this one is close to my heart. Explanations and modelling are something I've spent a lot of my time on with schools and trusts over the years, and it featured heavily in mine and Olly Lewis' book The EdTech Playbook, so it was a genuine pleasure (and if I'm honest, a bit easier) to pull the research together for this one.

This week's share is one I'd been looking forward to, as questioning is one of those things we all do hundreds of times a day, often without thinking too hard about it, and yet the research on how we do it well is fascinating. Grounded in the likes of Robin Alexander's dialogic teaching, Neil Mercer on exploratory talk, Rowe on wait time, and Anderson and Krathwohl (though hopefully not in the way Bloom usually gets misread), I hope it goes a bit beyond 'hands up if you know the answer' for you!

This week's share was one I very nearly didn't do, as I shared 5 cards thinking about feedback in last week's formative assessment resource, but as I was working through the papers, reading up again on Kluger and DeNisi's work reminded me that more than a third of feedback interventions we give actually make performance worse; therefore, I thought it worthwhile to share a few ideas on how we can make feedback better.

This is week two of the Pedagogy First series. If you saw last week's one on retrieval, you know the idea: take a core area of teaching and learning, ground it in research, and make it as useful as possible in one place, or at least that's what I've tried to do. This week, I looked at formative assessment. Formative assessment is a cornerstone of teaching and learning, but sometimes it just gets conflated into "checking." Mini whiteboards, exit tickets, quiz apps.

Some of you will have seen my 24 Ways posters before: Windows shortcuts, AI tools, formative assessment. This series goes deeper. Pedagogy First is six resources grounded in the cognitive science of teaching and learning, each one built around what the research actually says rather than what's currently trending. I've spent the better part of my career saying the same thing: pedagogy first, technology second.

If someone asked you, right now, what AI is doing for education, what would you say? I'd put money on at least one of these: saving teacher time, reducing workload, improving outcomes. These things get repeated so often wherever I look, it's like they have become the manuscript for every conversation around EdTech. It's laudable, but the problem is that many schools I visit or hear about are still some distance from that.

Over the past few weeks, I've been refining, checking, and double-checking my latest periodic table, this time, the Periodic Table of Canva in Education. It isn't exhaustive. It isn't perfect. It isn't meant to be. What I've tried to do is map the breadth of what's possible with Canva for teachers – showing how its tools, features, and activities can enhance teaching, support learning, and reduce workload.

Want to know your MCP from your RAG to your LLM, ML, NLP and CLT? If not, you need the 2026 AI Almanac for Educators. AI and EdTech are at the forefront of thinking in most schools now. It shapes how we teach, lead, safeguard and operate, yet the language can sometimes make it daunting. That's why I've updated my AI Almanac for 2026 - to cut through the jargon so you can have informed conversations.

YouTube video by NetSupport

So here we are, day 24, the final day of the 2025 #24DaysOfAI Appvent Calendar. Where did that time go?! And as the door swings open, I wanted to focus as I’ve done every year on the calendar, it’s not a tool, app or technology I want to focus on, it's you. Quelle surprise, but for me, it’s such an important share, particularly in this AI-infused world we find ourselves in now.  

Today's a bit different. On this, the penultimate day of the 2025 24DaysOfAI Appvent Calendar, I wanted to, instead of highlighting a tool, share five brilliant people you should be following as we move into 2026. These are educators and innovators who consistently deliver value, challenge thinking, and most importantly, keep students at the heart of everything they do in the world of technology and AI.

As we move into the final stretch of this year’s Appvent Calendar, I wanted to do something slightly different. Today’s tool has been chosen by Dougie, my son, and his reasoning for picking it is refreshingly simple and deeply telling. It helps make lessons more engaging. Writing lyrics helps others, just like himself learn. It lets people make music even if they cannot play an instrument.

Most educators juggle a dozen different tools daily. One for creating presentations, another for editing images, a third for removing backgrounds, something else for generating worksheets. Add in the copyright minefield of finding classroom-appropriate images and you've lost hours before you've even started teaching. Then there's the accessibility challenge - that perfect resource you've created is useless if half your class can't access it in their home language.

As is the case each year, whilst I call this the 'Appvent' calendar, I don't always follow the rules and share an app. As would be the case, the disruptor that he is, today's guest contributor, Al Kingsley, has kept the tradition of doing things a bit differently, and so expect some great shares in today's post as Al reveals his entry for today's Appvent calendar.

Learn how to use technology tools in practical ways to support explanations and modelling in your maths lessons, with Mark Anderson.

YouTube video by NetSupport

We may say that children say the darndest things but what about teachers? Read this article for ten of Kat Cauchi and Mark Anderson’s favourite ‘teacher

Welcome to Day 19 of the #24DaysOfAI Appvent Calendar! I simply cannot believe we're on the 19th December already, with only 5 more entries left to go on the calendar, where has this month gone?! Today's recommendation comes from Joe Arday, a passionate advocate for diversity in EdTech, who suggested we explore the popular Google NotebookLM tool. Most AI tools know a bit about everything and hallucinate the rest.

Day 18 of the #24DaysOfAI Appvent Calendar comes from guest contributor Kieran Buckley, who brings a brilliantly practical classroom lens to today’s tool. This one tackles a familiar teaching moment many of us recognise instantly and offers a simple, effective way to improve clarity, explanation and pupil understanding without adding workload. We’ve all been there. You are in full flow explaining a concept, you grab the interactive whiteboard pen to sketch a quick diagram, and by the time you have finished your jittery, caffeine-fuelled attempt, half the class is more confused than when you started.

Helping students learn is a core part of a teacher's daily life. Many students, though, struggle to capture information accurately in class, organise it in a meaningful way or build the assurance needed to communicate their ideas clearly. Today’s Appvent entry explores a platform designed to strengthen these core learning skills through a structured, evidence-informed approach. AI Tool of the Day: Genio…

Today’s Appvent entry comes from Jérôme Nogues, a respected educator and EdTech consultant who brings both classroom credibility and pedagogical clarity to his work with AI. Jérôme is the founder of the Poésíæ and Poésíært international language learning competitions, a Global EdTech Awards judge, and a regular contributor to professional dialogue through his YouTube channel and conference work. He shares generously, challenges assumptions thoughtfully and always keeps learning front and centre.

Welcome to Day 15 of the #24DaysOfAI Appvent Calendar! A lot of tools in the AI space are broad-stroke tools, ones that can have use across a broad range of subjects. From the likes of Gemini or Copilot, NotebookLM or Brisk. As tools and edupreneurs start to consider AI and how to focus on pedagogy first thinking when it comes to developing solutions, so more mature, considered tools appear.

As Artificial Intelligence becomes more present in the lives of young people, one of the greatest challenges schools face is helping pupils understand it well. Not just what it does, but how it works, how it affects their lives and how they can engage with it thoughtfully and responsibly. That challenge sits at the heart of today’s Appvent entry. The…

As AI becomes increasingly present in schools, one of the biggest challenges for leaders and teachers is not access to tools, but confidence. Confidence in understanding what AI is, how it works, where the risks sit and how to talk about it with pupils, parents and colleagues. That is why today’s Appvent entry focuses not on a single product, but on a body of work that supports informed, responsible decision making.

Good questions sit at the heart of effective teaching because they help us check understanding, surface misconceptions and build retrieval into routines. Yet designing them well and doing so consistently is demanding. That workload challenge is exactly why I wanted to include QuestionWell in this year’s Appvent Calendar. AI Tool of the Day: QuestionWell QuestionWell focuses on one thing and does it well.

Day 11 of the #24DaysOfAI Appvent Calendar features a contribution from someone I respect hugely. Well worth connecting with on LinkedIn, Julie Carson, Director of Education at Woodland Academy Trust and this year’s ICT Evangelist Digital Leader award winner, has a gift for cutting through noise and focusing on what genuinely helps teachers think well. Her entry today does exactly that.

Research-informed teaching and learning should be de-rigeur nowadays. It's been great seeing the shift towards this in British Education over the last three decades of my career; it simply wasn't a thing when I trained to be a teacher. For me, working from a point of knowing 'what works' is essential for thoughtful teaching and leadership, yet it remains one of the most demanding things you can do.

One of the most joyful aspects of working with young learners is watching their imagination take shape in unexpected ways. Whether sketching characters, inventing creatures or building stories from the world around them, children show us daily how naturally they think in three dimensions. As immersive tools develop, there are growing opportunities to extend that creativity into digital spaces in ways that feel meaningful rather than gimmicky.

Introduction Engaging with research is an essential part of our profession. Whether shaping curriculum, refining pedagogy or making strategic decisions, teachers and leaders rely on evidence to guide thoughtful practice. Yet many academic papers can feel dense, technical and time-consuming to interpret, especially during a busy school week. Today’s Appvent reveal focuses on a tool that supports colleagues to navigate complex research without losing the depth and nuance that make it valuable…

Day 7 of the #24DaysOfAI Appvent Calendar brings another thoughtful contribution from Teresa Menton. Teresa has chosen a tool that sits firmly within the day-to-day reality of classroom life and one that continues to gain momentum among teachers looking for practical, time-saving support with core tasks. Her post explores how this tool is evolving in response to the pressures teachers face around planning, feedback, differentiation and academic integrity, and why it has resonated so strongly with colleagues internationally.

Thank goodness it's Saturday and what a week it's been here on the 24DaysOfAI Appvent calendar! On Monday, we introduced the calendar with Consensus. Then on Tuesday we had Intelligent Evidence. Wednesday saw Emma Darcy introduce Gemini from Google with me taking over Thursday's mantle with Seesaw. Yesterday's brilliant AI tool was the highly popular Goblin Tools…

Welcome to Day 5 of the 2025 #24DaysOfAI Appvent Calendar! It is fair to say that today's tool is one that I have mentioned in almost all of my 85 keynotes, inset days and workshops across 2025 and shared even more widely in conversations on social media and with educators in online places and spaces. I simply love it, and had today's choice not been taken by the guest author today, I would have included it myself.

Welcome to Day 4 of the #24DaysOfAI Appvent Calendar. Today’s focus is Seesaw, a platform already familiar to many primary schools for the way it connects pupils, teachers and families. What stands out this year is how Seesaw is beginning to weave AI into the routines teachers already use, supporting workload without adding complexity or creating yet another separate tool to manage.

In education, when it comes to your ecosystem, the productivity suite and core tools that frame most of your use, you normally sit in one of two camps. For the most part, you can often undertake similar activities when it comes to things like word processing, presentations, working with numbers etc. But in recent times, one of those two seem to have pulled away a bit; not just in terms of the opportunities provided from their AI tools, but in how they link so closely to education.

Inspection preparation is a familiar pressure for school and trust leaders. The expectations of the new Ofsted framework require clarity, alignment and well-structured evidence, yet you rarely have the time you need to bring everything together in a coherent way. What should be a professional conversation often becomes a last-minute scramble to gather documents, cross-check information and second-guess what might be asked on the day.

Consensus: Evidence at Your Fingertips The first day of this year’s Appvent Calendar sets the tone for the month ahead. With so much attention on rapid advances in AI, it feels right to begin with a tool that brings us back to what matters most in education: clear thinking, sound evidence, and informed professional judgement. Before we dive into that, though, a moment about this year's calendar.

Ever wonder why some schools thrive with new tech while others drown in apps? We sit down with Mark Anderson—educator, author, and longtime edtech leader—to unpack what actually moves the needle: stud...