Australia

How to Reduce Cognitive Load in Digital Lessons — from educationtechnologysolutions.com by etsmagazine

A digital lesson can be beautifully designed and still make learning unnecessarily hard.

Students may be asked to watch a video, remember an instruction, find a link, switch tabs, interpret unfamiliar icons and submit a response—all before they have dealt with the idea the lesson was meant to teach.

That friction is often mistaken for rigour. It is not. Productive difficulty comes from thinking about the content. Avoidable difficulty comes from navigating the lesson.

The goal is not to make learning effortless. It is to spend students’ limited attention on the knowledge and skill that matter.

The above article links to:

Managing cognitive load optimises learning — from edresearch.edu.au
Implications for policymakers

Escaping The Backrooms Of Workforce Development — by Ryan Craig

Which makes sense. Because far too many find themselves in a liminal space, neither in school nor a career. Needing to make a living in an era of digital transformation and AI, they’re having a horrific time finding their way into and around work. So it’s not just education and training wonks who think workforce is the defining issue of our time. The success of Backrooms demonstrates Gen Z thinks so, too.

It’s happening everywhere. Young people around the world are angry at how hard it’s become to launch careers. This summer an entire protest movement arose in India – the world’s largest Gen Z population – around entrance exams for medical school, one of the few remaining sure bets. In the UK, youth unemployment is over 16%; it’s 15% across the EU and over 25% in Sweden. Back home, nearly 400,000 young Americans stopped looking for work in June alone. So it’s urgent that we identify what actually works to help young people get good first jobs.

The answer lies between apprenticeship perfection and train-and-pray scale. We desperately need a scalable training-first model that’s as proximate as possible to employment opportunities, employers, and actual employment. That can only mean work-based learning: real work experience completed during or connected with a training, certificate, or degree program. Work-based learning can take many forms: rotations, clinics, co-ops, internships, short projects. It can be integrated into coursework or independent. But what all forms require are bona fide employers, which regulate scale. Such programs can enroll only as many as can fit within the constraint of available work-based learning opportunities.

Also see:

Is Your College A Zombie? — from forbes.com by Ann Kirschner; via Ryan Craig

I want to be careful here, because this is not an argument that universities are doing nothing. They are doing an enormous amount. New programs, AI task forces, employability frameworks, microcredentials, and shifts in how they enable lifelong learning.

Activity is not the problem; what has not changed is the machinery that decides what counts. Too many institutions move in herds rather than forging an independent path. When one college launches a new program, say, data science and AI, fifty will follow without asking whether their version serves their students or simply checks a competitive box.

Meanwhile, 88% of American professionals believe colleges and universities should be the ones providing AI training, and nearly half say their employers have offered no AI resources whatsoever.¹

Important insights from this PwC global jobs report — from linkedin.com by Ross Dawson & PwC

GenAI practice blossoms through the open exchange of insights — from timeshighereducation.com by Samuel Doherty, who is the education and innovation coordinator at the University of Newcastle in Australia
How a structured GenAI professional development series, built around practice, peer voices and multiple entry points, fosters open exchange among colleagues, universities and industry

Connect internal practice to sector-wide thinking
Whatever is happening within any single institution is only part of the picture. Effective GenAI practice grows through open exchange of insights among colleagues, universities, professional bodies and industry, and a development programme that is entirely inward-looking risks missing both useful knowledge and important shifts in expectation.

Our AI sector voices sessions aim to bring external contributors into the programme: researchers, practitioners and sector representatives working at the intersection of GenAI and higher education. The aim is to situate institutional practice within the wider conversation and to signal to staff that the institution is genuinely engaged with that conversation, not just managing it internally.

In the Australian context, the Tertiary Education Quality and Standards Agency (Teqsa) people pillar positions staff as drivers, enablers, users and innovators of GenAI practice, and identifies a lack of information or understanding as one of the primary barriers to ethical and effective engagement. That framing is useful regardless of regulatory context: institutions that treat their people as active participants in shaping practice, rather than recipients of policy, are likely to develop more durable capability.

Regular, lightweight communications, a weekly community of practice update and a monthly all-staff digest can maintain momentum between sessions without adding significantly to anyone’s workload.

Global AI Diffusion — Q1 2026 Trends and Insights [Microsoft]

On 05/21/2026, in 21st century, Africa, Artificial Intelligence/Agents/LLMs/and Related, Asia, Australia, Canada, emerging technologies, Europe, game-changing environment, global / globalization, human-computer interaction (HCI), India, innovation, Microsoft, platforms, trends, UK, United States, by Daniel Christian

Global AI Diffusion Q1 2026 Trends and Insights — from Microsoft

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“The sad fact is that we don’t teach learners how to be good at learning. Whether K12, higher ed, or organizations, it’s just not there.”

— from Clark Quinn’s posting entitled, Thoughts on meta-coaching!

From DSC:
I agree. We could do a much better job at this.

A New Era of Security: Frontier AI Defense — from paloaltonetworks.com by Sam Rubin

For the last several months, we have had early, unbounded access to the latest frontier AI models. What we’ve seen from that vantage point has made it clear that the window for organizations to get ahead of what’s coming is shorter than most leaders realize.

We have moved past the era of incremental AI improvements into a threat landscape shift. Our testing has revealed a step-change in capability that demonstrates an intuitive understanding of software vulnerabilities. This is more than faster code generation, it is a shift from AI as an assistant to AI as an autonomous agent capable of discovering and chaining flaws at a scale that most defenders aren’t prepared for.

These capabilities will not stay confined to controlled environments for long. When Mythos first launched, we predicted a six-month window before attackers gained access. We now believe that timeline has accelerated significantly.

Across the divide: reimagining faculty-staff collaboration in higher education — from timeshighereducation.com by Saskia van de Gevel
Academic units do best when they harness different viewpoints – from field scientists and curriculum designers to extension professionals – to drive innovation and relevance. Saskia van de Gevel offers proactive advice

Universities are not sustained by individual leaders or isolated units. They are sustained by teams of people who bring different kinds of expertise to a shared mission. When faculty and professional staff collaborate as genuine partners – aligned around outcomes, clear about roles and committed to mutual respect – institutions become more resilient, innovative and effective.

Also from timeshighereducation.com, see:

The five levels of learning designer support — from timeshighereducation.com by Daniel Searson
Learning designers and academics may have different expectations when it comes to collaborating on course design. Here’s how a five-point scale can help
Harness the power of your university librarian in the age of information chaos — from timeshighereducation.com by Ben Meunier
Find out how to tap the mine of knowledge your university library has, for trustworthy research sources, data expertise and information literacy advice
How employability teams can strengthen academic programmes — from timeshighereducation.com by Hanene Duprat
Working like recruitment partners, rather than just career advisers, can help align teaching with industry needs, writes Hanene Duprat
Excerpts:

Again, we don’t send them 200 CVs. We might send 20, but they’re meticulously shortlisted. The employer saves time, the student feels they are being taken seriously and trust builds quickly on both sides.

And because we work closely with employers, we learn something universities often struggle to find out early enough: what the market is asking for now.

What academics need to know: we can’t do this without you
If I could say one thing to academic colleagues anywhere, it’s that employability can’t sit next to the curriculum. It has to live with it.

The benefits of engaging third space practitioners in curriculum development — from timeshighereducation.com by Steve Briggs
Third space practitioners are often overlooked in the curriculum development process, to everyone’s detriment. Here’s a look at the viewpoints they can offer and how to engage them better
Teaching deaf, deafblind and hard-of-hearing students: practical steps that benefit everyone — from timeshighereducation.com by Annelies Kusters
When educators design communication to work across multiple modes from the outset, classrooms become more accessible – and more effective – for everyone, says Annelies Kusters

Dueling Hares and Leaping Toads Top the 2026 British Wildlife Photography Awards

On 03/12/2026, in Australia, digital photography, photography, UK, by Daniel Christian

Dueling Hares and Leaping Toads Top the 2026 British Wildlife Photography Awards — from thisiscolossal.com by Kate Mothes & various photographers

Also see:

Spectral Birds Endemic to New Zealand Find New Life in Fiona Pardington’s Portraits — from thisiscolossal.com by Kate Mothes and Fiona Pardington

L&D Global Sentiment Survey 2026 [Taylor]

On 02/25/2026, in 21st century, 24x7x365 access, adult learning, Africa, analytics, Artificial Intelligence/Agents/LLMs/and Related, Asia, Augmented Reality (AR), Australia, bots, business, Canada, career development, change, changing business models, cloud-based computing / apps / other cloud-related, collaboration, communities of practice, content development, aggregation, repositories, corporate / business world, corporate universities / corporate training, digital learning, emerging technologies, experimentation, future, game-changing environment, generational differences, global / globalization, human-computer interaction (HCI), India, innovation, instructional design, intelligent systems, intelligent tutoring, learner profiles, learning agents, learning ecosystem, Learning Experience Design, lifelong learning, microlearning, personalized/customized learning, skills, social learning / networks, strategy, tools, training / L&D, trends, UK, United States, vendors, Virtual Reality (VR) / worlds / learning, workplace, XR - extended reality, by Daniel Christian

L&D Global Sentiment Survey 2026 — from linkedin.com by Donald H. Taylor

AI working competency is now a graduation requirement at Purdue [Pacton] + other items re: AI in our learning ecosystems

On 12/16/2025, in 21st century, 24x7x365 access, adjunct faculty, adult learning, Alternatives, Artificial Intelligence/Agents/LLMs/and Related, Asia, Australia, bots, career development, change, changing business models, cloud-based computing / apps / other cloud-related, CMS/LMS, collaboration, colleges, communities of practice, community colleges, computer science, content development, aggregation, repositories, corporate / business world, corporate universities / corporate training, digital learning, education technology, experimentation, faculty/staff, future of higher education, game-changing environment, generational differences, higher education, human-computer interaction (HCI), India, innovation, instructional design, intelligent systems, intelligent tutoring, IT in HE, K-12 related, law schools, learning, learning agents, learning ecosystem, Learning Experience Design, Learning from the Living [Class] Room, learning hubs & pods & microschooling, learning preferences, learning spaces, liberal arts, library / librarians, lifelong learning, microlearning, online media, personalized/customized learning, platforms, productivity / tips and tricks, student-related, teachers, teaching & learning, technologies for your home, the downsides of how people use tech, tools, training / L&D, trends, UK, United States, universities, vendors, vision/possibilities, youth, by Daniel Christian

AI Has Landed in Education: Now What? — from learningfuturesdigest.substack.com by Dr. Philippa Hardman

Here’s what’s shaped the AI-education landscape in the last month:

The AI Speed Trap is [still] here: AI adoption in L&D is basically won (87%)—but it’s being used to ship faster, not learn better (84% prioritising speed), scaling “more of the same” at pace.
AI tutors risk a “pedagogy of passivity”: emerging evidence suggests tutoring bots can reduce cognitive friction and pull learners down the ICAP spectrum—away from interactive/constructive learning toward efficient consumption.
Singapore + India are building what the West lacks: they’re treating AI as national learning infrastructure—for resilience (Singapore) and access + language inclusion (India)—while Western systems remain fragmented and reactive.
Agentic AI is the next pivot: early signs show a shift from AI as a content engine to AI as a learning partner—with UConn using agents to remove barriers so learners can participate more fully in shared learning.
Moodle’s AI stance sends two big signals: the traditional learning ecosystem in fragmenting, and the concept of “user sovereignty” over by AI is emerging.

Four strategies for implementing custom AIs that help students learn, not outsource — from educational-innovation.sydney.edu.au by Kria Coleman, Matthew Clemson, Laura Crocco and Samantha Clarke; via Derek Bruff

For Cogniti to be taken seriously, it needs to be woven into the structure of your unit and its delivery, both in class and on Canvas, rather than left on the side. This article shares practical strategies for implementing Cogniti in your teaching so that students:

understand the context and purpose of the agent,
know how to interact with it effectively,
perceive its value as a learning tool over any other available AI chatbots, and
engage in reflection and feedback.

In this post, we discuss how to introduce and integrate Cogniti agents into the learning environment so students understand their context, interact effectively, and see their value as customised learning companions.

In this post, we share four strategies to help introduce and integrate Cogniti in your teaching so that students understand their context, interact effectively, and see their value as customised learning companions.

Collection: Teaching with Custom AI Chatbots — from teaching.virginia.edu; via Derek Bruff
The default behaviors of popular AI chatbots don’t always align with our teaching goals. This collection explores approaches to designing AI chatbots for particular pedagogical purposes.

Example/excerpt:

Not Your Default Chatbot: Five Teaching Applications of Custom AI Bots
Agile Learning
derekbruff.org/2025/10/01/five-teaching-applications-of-custom-ai-chatbots/

7 Legal Tech Trends That Will Reshape Every Business In 2026 — from forbes.com by Bernard Marr

Here are the trends that will matter most.

AI Agents As Legal Assistants
AI As A Driver Of Business Strategy
Automation In Judicial Administration
Always-On Compliance Monitoring
Cybersecurity As An Essential Survival Tool
Predictive Litigation
Compliance As Part Of The Everyday Automation Fabric

According to the Thomson Reuters Future Of Professionals report, most experts already expect AI to transform their work within five years, with many viewing it as a positive force. The challenge now is clear: legal and compliance leaders must understand the tools reshaping their field and prepare their teams for a very different way of working in 2026.

Addendum on 12/17/25:

Top 10 legal tech episodes in 2025 — from lawyersweekly.com.au
With AI and legal technology at the forefront of the profession’s mind now more than ever, The Lawyers Weekly Show and our special series LawTech Talks delivered in-depth explorations of these game-changing topics. Now, we’re highlighting the 10 most downloaded episodes that sparked conversation across the legal tech community.
eCourtDate Winner Of “LegalOps Platform of the Year” In 2025 LegalTech Breakthrough Awards Program — from globenewswire.com
Prestigious Annual Awards Program Recognizes Companies and Products Driving Innovation in the Global Legal Industry

2. Concern and excitement about AI — from pewresearch.org by Jacob Poushter,Moira Faganand Manolo Corichi

Key findings

A median of 34% of adults across 25 countries are more concerned than excited about the increased use of artificial intelligence in daily life. A median of 42% are equally concerned and excited, and 16% are more excited than concerned.
Older adults, women, people with less education and those who use the internet less often are particularly likely to be more concerned than excited.

Also relevant here:

The U.S. Public Wants Regulation (or Prohibition) of Expert-Level and Superhuman AI — from futureoflife.org
Three?quarters of U.S. adults want strong regulations on AI development, preferring oversight akin to pharmaceuticals rather than industry “self?regulation.”

AI Video Wars include Veo 3.1, Sora 2, Ray3, Kling 2.5 + Wan 2.5 — from heatherbcooper.substack.com by Heather Cooper
House of David Season 2 is here!

In today’s edition:

Veo 3.1 brings richer audio and object-level editing to Google Flow
Sora 2 is here with Cameo self-insertion and collaborative Remix features
Ray3 brings world-first reasoning and HDR to video generation
Kling 2.5 Turbo delivers faster, cheaper, more consistent results
WAN 2.5 revolutionizes talking head creation with perfect audio sync
House of David Season 2 Trailer
HeyGen Agent, Hailuo Agent, Topaz Astra, and Lovable Cloud updates
Image & Video Prompts

From DSC:
By the way, the House of David (which Heather referred to) is very well done! I enjoyed watching Season 1. Like The Chosen, it brings the Bible to life in excellent, impactful ways! Both series convey the context and cultural tensions at the time. Both series are an answer to prayer for me and many others — as they are professionally-done. Both series match anything that comes out of Hollywood in terms of the acting, script writing, music, the sets, etc. Both are very well done.
.

An item re: Sora:

Association of Talent Agents, United Talent Agency, Creative Artists Agency also Join to Protect Performers. — from sagaftra.org

Other items re: Open AI’s new Atlas browser:

Introducing ChatGPT Atlas — from openai.com
The browser with ChatGPT built in.

[On 10/21/25] we’re introducing ChatGPT Atlas, a new web browser built with ChatGPT at its core.

AI gives us a rare moment to rethink what it means to use the web. Last year, we added search in ChatGPT so you could instantly find timely information from across the internet—and it quickly became one of our most-used features. But your browser is where all of your work, tools, and context come together. A browser built with ChatGPT takes us closer to a true super-assistant that understands your world and helps you achieve your goals.

With Atlas, ChatGPT can come with you anywhere across the web—helping you in the window right where you are, understanding what you’re trying to do, and completing tasks for you, all without copying and pasting or leaving the page. Your ChatGPT memory is built in, so conversations can draw on past chats and details to help you get new things done.

ChatGPT Atlas: the AI browser test — from getsuperintel.com by Kim “Chubby” Isenberg
Chat GPT Atlas aims to transform web browsing into a conversational, AI-native experience, but early reviews are mixed

OpenAI’s new ChatGPT Atlas promises to merge web browsing, search, and automation into a single interface — an “AI-native browser” meant to make the web conversational. After testing it myself, though, I’m still trying to see the real breakthrough. It feels familiar: summaries, follow-ups, and even the Agent’s task handling all mirror what I already do inside ChatGPT.

OpenAI’s new Atlas browser remembers everything — from theneurondaily.com by Grant Harvey
PLUS: Our AIs are getting brain rot?!

Here’s how it works: Atlas can see what you’re looking at on any webpage and instantly help without you needing to copy/paste or switch tabs. Researching hotels? Ask ChatGPT to compare prices right there. Reading a dense article? Get a summary on the spot. The AI lives in the browser itself.

OpenAI’s new product — from bensbites.com

The latest entry in AI browsers is Atlas – A new browser from OpenAI. Atlas would feel similar to Dia or Comet if you’ve used them. It has an “Ask ChatGPT” sidebar that has the context of your page, and choose “Agent” to work on that tab. Right now, Agent is limited to a single tab, and it is way too slow to delegate anything for real to it. Click accuracy for Agent is alright on normal web pages, but it will definitely trip up if you ask it to use something like Google Sheets.

One ambient feature that I think many people will like is “select to rewrite” – You can select any text in Atlas, hover/click on the blue dot in the top right corner to rewrite it using AI.

Your AI Resume Hacks Probably Won’t Fool Hiring Algorithms — from builtin.com by Jeff Rumage
Recruiters say those viral hidden prompt for resumes don’t work — and might cost you interviews.

Summary: Job seekers are using “prompt hacking” — embedding hidden AI commands in white font on resumes — to try to trick applicant tracking systems. While some report success, recruiters warn the tactic could backfire and eliminate the candidate from consideration.

The Job Market Might Be a Mess, But Don’t Blame AI Just Yet — from builtin.com by Matthew Urwin
A new study by Yale University and the Brookings Institution says the panic around artificial intelligence stealing jobs is overblown. But that might not be the case for long.

Summary: A Yale and Brookings study finds generative AI has had little impact on U.S. jobs so far, with tariffs, immigration policies and the number of college grads potentially playing a larger role. Still, AI could disrupt the workforce in the not-so-distant future.

International AI Safety Report

On 10/21/2025, in 21st century, Africa, Artificial Intelligence/Agents/LLMs/and Related, Asia, Australia, Canada, ethics, Europe, human-computer interaction (HCI), India, intelligent systems, legislatures / government / legal, mathematics, platforms, programming, science, society, surviving, UK, United States, by Daniel Christian

International AI Safety Report — from internationalaisafetyreport.org

About the International AI Safety Report
The International AI Safety Report is the world’s first comprehensive review of the latest science on the capabilities and risks of general-purpose AI systems. Written by over 100 independent experts and led by Turing Award winner Yoshua Bengio, it represents the largest international collaboration on AI safety research to date. The Report gives decision-makers a shared global picture of AI’s risks and impacts, serving as the authoritative reference for governments and organisations developing AI policies worldwide. It is already shaping debates and informing evidence-based decisions across research and policy communities.

Learning Ecosystems

Across the divide: reimagining faculty-staff collaboration in higher education [van de Gevel]; plus several other items from timeshighereducation.com

Dueling Hares and Leaping Toads Top the 2026 British Wildlife Photography Awards

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