Meet the speaker
Sarah Horrocks has significant experience of leading powerful professional development for teachers, supporting schools in using digital technologies and working with school and other education leaders to develop their digital strategies.
She has a proven track record of delivering successful and impactful large-scale education projects, including the Learning Bridges remote learning technology solution for UNICEF in Jordan, TechPathways London for the London Mayor's Digital Talent programme, BlendEd, a blended learning pedagogy professional development programme commissioned by IBM, and leading the Connected Learning Centre as its director for 16 years. She has worked with municipalities across Northern Europe devising and delivering a range of digital learning-themed EU award winning Erasmus projects including AI and personalised learning, computational thinking and blended learning pedagogy. She has led the delivery of multi-award-winning curriculum and technical services for schools. She is an experienced public speaker on digital learning and presents regularly at the BETT show.
Sarah has authored several research papers including educational blogs and their effects on pupils' writing and technology-supported professional development for teachers: lessons from developing countries. Sarah is also a guest lecturer at UCL, Institute of Education.
Read on to hear more about what you can expect from Sarah's talk at the Hackney Headteachers' conference.
Q&A with Sarah Horrocks
Q: What can we look forward to from your speech at the Headteachers' Conference?
- I will explore ways to navigate the evolving landscape of generative AI in education and foster collaborative approaches to digital innovation within schools.
- I will discuss how generative AI has and will continue to transform the way we work in schools, emphasising its potential to enhance efficiency and effectiveness for teachers, school leaders, and administrative staff and to support teaching and learning
- I will highlight the importance for school leaders to be discerning and critical when evaluating digital products and the importance of understanding how the Edtech industry works.
- I will look at safeguarding and ethical issues related to AI implementation in schools, underlining the necessity of addressing these concerns proactively.
- I will stress the significance of AI Literacy for students, educating young people about AI and machine learning, and advocating for the development of essential AI literacy and critical thinking skills for young people.
- I will provide examples of how schools are incorporating AI into their teaching practices, both as a tool for instruction and as a means to streamline workload management.
- I will facilitate discussions among headteachers to encourage the sharing of experiences and best practices across various themes related to the use of generative AI, digital strategy and transformation in schools.
Q: How does your background as a former primary teacher and deputy headteacher influence your approach to supporting schools and educators in effectively integrating digital technology for learning?
Having been a primary school teacher and deputy headteacher, means I understand the unique contexts of different schools, classrooms, and student needs. When I'm working with schools or groups of schools on digital strategy, I try to make digital change relevant and practical, sharing examples of what has worked for other teachers in similar contexts.
I also understand how complex schools can be as organisations, especially with the enormous demands they face. Digital goes across every area of school life from financial and data systems to teaching and learning, communication with families and well-being and inclusion, so understanding these aspects from different perspectives helps me support schools in approaches which will work for them.
Q: With your significant role in supporting UK schools through transitions in learning modalities, how do you anticipate the evolution of education in the digital age?
This is a big question! I think there are some clear trends. I think national assessment systems will have to adapt in the age of generative AI. If the AI can answer an exam question better than a student then maybe we aren't asking the right questions.
In the next few years, I anticipate increased tension between the importance of ensuring that children and young people are highly digitally literate and have really good critical skills when evaluating information and a pullback from emphasising digital in schools. I think that the business models for social media and AI tools will continue to be a concern for teachers and parents regarding young people's mental health, well-being and extremist views. I think we will see more personalised independent learning, perhaps shorter online courses instead of traditional university degrees.
I also see the digital platform landscape for schools becoming more and more complex as schools have to navigate different tools and products and try to make them work together. What I'd like to see is more opportunities for students to use digital technology more creatively and for the curriculum to link better to real-world contexts and the skills and values young people will need for their futures.
Want to hear more from Sarah?
Learn more about Sarah's work at our Hackney Headteachers’ Conference on 22 March 2024.