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Being of Service and the Need for Self-Care

In the latest post, Neil writes about the opportunity to work with Crisis Text Line and reflects on the concept of being of service to others, and how it requires self-care and self-awareness to avoid creation of unhealthy co-dependencies. Drawing on insights from his book ‘Encounters with Life and Death,’ he explores how true education transformation should begin with creating space for self-care and fostering working conditions that enable people to show up and be of genuine service every day.

Join Neil in this exploration of how prioritizing self-care is essential for providing meaningful service to others.

Navigating government channels: Our path to piloting a programme with the Gauteng Department of Education

In our recent blog series, we've delved into Kids Collab's journey towards understanding open educational resources (OER), followed by our transition into the social impact space alongside NBA. These significant milestones paved the way for an exciting new chapter: our collaboration on a six-month pilot project with the Gauteng Department of Education (GDE). Today, we're thrilled to share the extraordinary story behind this venture—an unconventional journey that we love to share.

The Diverse, Integrated Beauty of Human Intelligence

👉 Read Neil’s full blog here.

Encounters with Life and Death Personal reflections on a journey through manipulations and attachments

Book annoucement! Encounters with Life and Death

We are excited to announce that Neil's new book, Encounters with Life and Death, is now available for free download.
In this book, Neil takes us on a journey through various experiences from his life, both personal and professional, and shares how they have influenced his perspective on what it means to be human. He reflects on the importance of these experiences and how they have helped him deepen his relationship with his own humanity. 🔗 Look out for his first post and join the conversation #NeilButcher #PersonalReflections #Attachments #SelfAwareness #PhysicalWellbeing #EducationReform #SelfLove #SpiritualJourney

OER Policy Case Studies: The Seychelles

National Open Educational Resource (OER) policies – or other national policies that contain OER provisions – are an increasingly popular tool being used to mainstream OER development and use. This case study outlines the OER policy development process for the Seychelles’ Information Communications Technology (ICT) in Education and Training Policy (2014-2019) and the subsequent ICT in Education and Training Policy (2022-2027).

The Diverse, Integrated Beauty of Human Intelligence

In his newest blog post entitled ‘The Diverse, Integrated Beauty of Human Intelligence’, Neil proposes that we need to embrace and nurture our full human capability, which is distributed throughout our whole body, and rethink the purpose of education accordingly. He often likes to reflect on the diverse and integrated nature of human intelligence, and how it is often misunderstood or neglected by education systems. He recently drew inspiration from a science-fiction novel that proposes the quantum level of brain activity, and looked at some recent studies that explore this possibility. These illustrate the aspects of human intelligence that go beyond the conscious and rational mind, such as the sub-conscious, the gut microbiome, and the epigenetic memories.

The Ghost Town of San Jose

In his latest blog post, 'The Ghost Town of San Jose,' Neil shares poignant observations from his recent visit to the heart of Silicon Valley. Despite its status as a tech hub, Neil describes a city that seems to have lost its soul amidst visible neglect and growing homelessness—issues that starkly contrast with the immense wealth generated in the area.

👉 Read Neil’s full insights and explore how we can better humanize our systems of learning.

The Ghost Town of San Jose

The lyrics of the Specials reverberated through my mind as I went for my first exploratory run around San Jose, and not just because the hotel where I am staying feels like an extra from Ghostbusters. Described on its website as the heart of Silicon Valley, San Jose is also one of the most expensive metro areas in the USA. But, having travelled extensively, I feel I can pick up the ‘energy’ of places quite quickly and what struck me forcefully since my arrival yesterday morning is the absence of humanity: shops in downtown San Jose boarded up; my hotel unable to find a vendor to restart its restaurant after the COVID-19 lockdowns; and a city showing physical signs of neglect everywhere. I have also seen how homelessness has become a reality for so many people in the richest country in the world.

False promises about AI in education

Neil Butcher offers a thought-provoking perspective on the hype around AI transforming education. In this post, he reflects on using AI writing tools and their productivity benefits. However, he's sceptical of bold claims that AI will radically overhaul learning systems. This insightful critique challenges conventional thinking on EdTech.

👉 Read Neil's full post and join the conversation join the conversation #EducationReform #AI #EdTech #DeepLearning #LearningExperience

People standing on a beach watching the eclipse

False promises about ‘AI’ in education

My personal experiences in using AI tools have shown me clearly that, in the right hands, these will enable extraordinary improvements in individual productivity. I’m less persuaded, though, that all the hype and promises about how these same tools are going to transform education systems is warranted, especially given the poor track record of previous technologies in delivering on promises, at least on a large scale, that were made equally enthusiastically when they first came into use. In this blog, I reflect on the phenomenon of AI hype in education and why I think it might be a distraction from what is needed for serious transformation of education systems.