Things that we learned from

It was quite a four days for this year’s INTERACEXpo. We travelled the length of the country, supported by 22 sponsors. We couldn’t host the event without them but, just as importantly, we couldn’t do it without you. More than 600 educators joined us to talk tech and make digital decisions. Here are just a few of the things you told us.

What’s currently on your digital radar?

When people registered to attend INTERFACE Xpo, we asked them to identify what digital technologies issues were uppermost on their minds. The answers we received covered a range of topics, with finding new tools/resources for the classroom and upskilling both featuring prominently, followed by cybersecurity, updating devices and generally integrating DT into the curriculum.

“I want to continue to familiarise myself with new online tools and to become more confident in the regular use of online tools in education.”

“Finding ways to continue to embed good teaching and learning into classrooms and keep upskilling teachers.”

“Learning about new digital tools available for teaching.”

“Integration of the updated curriculum and using digital technology to support these updates and ensure we are covering the technology progress outcomes. Seamless transitions between year groups with using IT.”

“I’m in charge of our school TV channel. So, I am always looking for ways to add to our skill set and incorporate these skills into our episodes. My team teacher and I are also always looking for interesting digital resources to incorporating into our planning and how we deliver learning experiences.”

“Making effective use of digital tools available in the school and support other teachers to confidently incorporate digital technology in their everyday teaching.”

“There has been much interest and debate at our school over the impact of AI technology like ChatGPT, especially concerns around the authenticity of student work. Already there has been a range of opinion from complete catastrophe to extreme excitement at the potential the technology offers.”

“Cybersafety and as always interactive and engaging tools for students.”

“Cybersecurity is one of our biggest challenges, our school would like to make our network as safe as possible and to educate our students as much as we can for outside of school and for when they move onto college.”

“AI and negative impacts on academic honesty.”

“Use of AI in the classroom. How can we embrace this tool that is changing the face of education?”

“ChatGPT and its role in assessment practice in secondary schools.”

What are the biggest challenges?

It was probably no surprise that lack of ‘time’ and ‘money’ appeared most. But other topics that featured widely in people’s responses were teacher upskilling, cybersecurity and equitable access.

“Ensuring that all students have equitable access to modern and fit-for-purpose e-learning tools both a school and at home.”

Another challenge facing teachers is simply identifying the right tools for the job and separating the digital wheat from the chaff.

“Continuing to find ways to enable teachers to be confident and capable users of technology, so thatdigital learning becomes seamlessly incorporated into everyday learning.”

“Choosing which tools to focus on when there are so many to choose from and using those tools well, not just for the sake of it.”

“The budget! The lack of budget for the e-learning/digital tech is very small and isn’t flexible enough.”

“Getting teachers on board and actively living and breathing the Digital Technologies Curriculum as an integrated part of their day-to-day teaching.”

“We’re working through what’s good and will work effectively in the class, and what’s just ‘pretty’.”

“Currently, upskilling staff. We have the knowledge and motivation in our team but haven’t got a solid solution how to upskill staff within our school.”

“Avoiding the wave of new gizmos and gadgets that flash by with lots of enthusiasm and little substance.”

“Getting teachers to understand the benefits of using digital technology in their classrooms - not just using it to let students publish their work.”

Telling us what you thought of the event

“The gap in digital skills among teachers. Some are highly fluent with a disposition towards trying new things, others seldom engage with digital tools and a small number are resistant altogether.”

“Being able to maintain focus and not fall down a digital rabbit hole and also to be able to weed out fact from fake.”

When the event was done and dusted, we asked for delegates’ feedback (everyone who did, went into the draw to win a drone). We wanted people to be honest and we received a range of views and opinions. A few new things had been tried this year, so it was great to get everyone’s thoughts.

On the whole, it seems that delegates were pleased with how the days went, enjoying the atmosphere, speaking with sponsors, and taking away with them insights, inspiration and new information.

“It was a great day with excellent experts and workshops available, and good exhibits as well. Really enjoyed the range of options and expertise on offer.”

“The workshops I chose were great and so were the other speakers. It was good to hear someone talk about generative AI as I’ve read a little but it’s so confusing. They gave some simpler ways to think about it.”

“Excellent presenters. Good range of exhibits, lovely freebies, well organised.”

“The ability to talk with vendors and use their resources to check them out before we make purchasing decisions. It can be difficult to get this opportunity outside of a very expensive conference so it was great to have multiple vendors in one place that we could talk to and test out their resources.”

“It had everything I was hoping for, and I came away with a couple of gems I could immediately share with staff.”.

Where are we going next year?

Find out on page 19.

And the not so good

Of course, some things didn’t go quite so well for everyone, either on the day or in our planning. We’ll be taking stock of these comments, so we can improve and continue to bring you the best event possible.

“I felt like there were fewer vendors than in the past.”

“Often these expos are rushed, and I did feel that to be able to get to all the stands I had to skip a demo. I also feel that demos weren’t very interesting as to be either too basic or either rushing through various digital tools to be used.”

How was the half day format?

“I didn’t like it that we couldn’t hear well and some of the presentations had small print. That was a huge disappointment.”

“There’s a really good feel to the event but I wasn’t inspired by the lead speakers, or perhaps am just a bit ‘been there, done that’ on some topics, which is hard for you to do anything about.”

“Lots of information, but not enough time.”

“We were frustrated that we couldn’t hear all of the presenters.”

“Not being able to get around all the sponsors – I was talking too long to each.”

In 2022, with the restrictions and limitations of COVID, we introduced half-day events, so we could bring delegates through in smaller groups. It worked fairly well, and we decided to try half-day events again this year. We ran two, which allowed us to visit an extra location, making it four in total, instead of three. The thinking behind this was that it would take the event to more places and made it accessible to more people – but still keep and offer the overall Xpo feel and experience. The feedback was mixed, the jury out. Some of you like the shorter days, some of you don’t.

“I felt it was a bit rushed. Perhaps after the last speaker there could have been more time for exploring the booths and networking.”

“I didn’t feel like I got enough time to process the workshops and/or the stands as the timing was quite tight. It would have been great to be able to ask more questions and get deeper into ideas.”

Ideas, information and inspiration

“I think it would have been better in a full day! More time to process and interact, and more time to engage with workshop presenters.”

“The half day format was great. Just enough time to listen to speakers and look at expo items.”

“Loved the half day format. Short but intense was great.”

“I like the half day format. With two hours travel both ways it makes it a doable day trip.”

Lastly, we asked what people took away with them from the day. What had they learned? What were they thinking?

“Just when you think you get a handle on technology something else comes along and the learning begins again!”

“Cybersecurity and the need to be vigilant is something I will take back to my school.”

“AI and the need need to stay up to date with the rapid pace of change – and how it can be used for education.”

“There were many impressions made. Overall, I was inspired to explore some of the products for the school. I am looking into the digital classroom as a transformational area and how to inspire non-digiteachers to take up some skills.”

“The opportunities of AI in the classroom, the amazing range of tools that Google has to offer, the challenges of security for schools, and the ability of us as teachers to use digital tools in ways we haven’t thought of.”

“I came away feeling inspired to learn more and, I have to say, that’s a hard thing for anyone to gift to me as I’m in my 34th year of teaching, moved out of leadership and into Y7-8 Tech and almost left the profession. Am I getting a new lease on teaching life?”

Thank you to everyone who shared their thoughts and experiences with us. We’re busy planning for next year. We will use your feedback to help make our decisions and bring you best even we can.

Compiled by the INTERFACE Team

Auckland Trusts Arena, Henderson

Friday 31 May

What

Lincoln

Lincoln Event Centre

Thursday 23 May

Rotorua Novotel Lakeside

Tuesday 28 May

Images

Choose from more than 20,000 stock photos and images at Burst ( burst. shopify.com). Created by Shopify, the site’s impressive library offers highresolution and royalty-free images free for almost any use. Search by keyword or browse the categories, like animals, fashion, fitness, and seasons.

Around The World

Explore places worldwide with GeoNames (geonames.org). The database contains more than 25 million geographical names and 11 million unique features. Search by keyword or browse by section, such as countries, postal codes and country statistics

History

Elcano (lab.rtve.es/elcano/en/) is an engaging interactive describing the voyage of Portuguese explorer Ferdinand Magellan, who’s credited with masterminding the first circumnavigation of the world. Follow the route around the globe and explore what life was like on board one of his ships.

All photos on Kaboompics ( kaboompics. com) can be used and modified for free. As well as keyword and category searches, you can filter and choose images by colour. Behind every photo is also an entire photoshoot to peruse. Plus join the site’s club and get access to free mock-ups and stock videos.

The National Environmental Satellite, Data, and Information Service (nesdis. noaa.gov) – or NESDIS for short –provides access to global environmental data and information from satellites and other sources. Use the imagery and interactive maps for learning about changes in climate, weather, oceans, and coasts.

Created by Harvard University, The Giza Project (giza.fas.harvard.edu) gives access to a large collection of information, media, and research materials about the Pyramids and related sites on Egypt’s Giza Plateau. Guided tours and stories feature artifacts, maps, photographs, and more.

Life of Pix (lifeofpix.com) offers a selection of high-resolution photos, with no copyright restrictions for personal and educational use. New images are added regularly and are organised in galleries. Create your own portfolio to manage and personalise images, and follow your favourite photographers.

For up-to-date economic and social data about countries go to IMF Country Information (imf.org/en/Countries)

Compiled by the International Monetary Fund, review the latest analysis, statistics and reports on 190 countries, which are listed

Learn history visually with History Maps (history-maps.com). Choose a category – like ‘History of Japan’, ‘Inca Empire’ or ‘Anglo-Saxons’ – and click through for maps, videos and information. There’s also a timeline game, a ‘Today in History’ section, and a ‘Ask Herodotus’, where you can ask questions about history.

Kide Science (kidescience.com) is a library of play and story-based lesson plans and PD materials for teachers of young learners. Resources include a hands-on component and are highly visual, including pictures of materials and intriguingly wordless videos of the experiments. The free plan unlocks a new lesson each week.

Learn about some of our planet’s most pressing environmental challenges to ecosystems at bioGraphic (biographic. com). Explore articles, images, videos and other resources across several categories, including wildlife, systems, people, places, discoveries, and solutions.

Authors

She might have completed just six works during her lifetime but there’s tonnes to learn at Jane Austen (janeausten.org) Find out about her life, death, and major events in between. There’s a timeline, links to ebooks, discussions, letters, and quotes, information about her museum, and even a Regency Period fashion section.

Frontiers for Young Minds (kids. frontiersin.org) is a collaborative, online science journal where kids review articles alongside adult scientists, with the aim of converting complex scientific topics into kid-friendly language. Check out the latest content or browse by article topic and collections.

For engaging video clips on topics such as DNA and evolution, try Learn.Genetics (learn.genetics.utah.edu). The site also has articles, activities, simulations, and animations. A companion site Teach. Genetics (teach.genetics.utah.edu) offers advice and lesson plans for educators.

If you’re hungry for all things Eric Carle, check out The Official Eric Carle Website (eric-carle.com). Here you’ll find a media gallery with photos, videos and audio recordings, a biography, book list, activity sheets, and a Q&A with Eric. There’s also a description of his creative process with painted tissues.

Xplorlabs (xplorlabs.org) is an educational platform designed to encourage students to ‘solve through science’. From e-waste extraction to fire forensics, there’s an engaging range of online interactive activities, videos, instructional experiences, and hands-on classroom investigations and challenges.

How easy is it to tell gender? Find out at BioMotion Lab’s Guess the Sex (biomotionlab.ca/Experiments/ BMLmdsex/). Begin by filling out a simple form, then hit ‘start’, view the animation, and guess the gender by the movement. After several goes you can end and view your score. It’s only a male/female choice but the motion is interesting.

From giant peaches to chocolate, a friendly giant to Matilda, learn about them all and more at Roald Dahl (roalddahl.com). There’s background about the author, news about the stories, and information about the Dahl Family’s charity work, as well as lesson plans to download based on several of his books.

Cool Gizmos

Create step-by-step, interactive ‘walkthroughs’ in minutes with Tango (tango.us). As you create, the site automatically documents any process. Simply click through your steps and it will format screenshots, write descriptions, and create a shareable link to your new guide.

Slideator (slideator.com) can record, manage and share video presentations and tutorials. The desktop recorder allows you to narrate and annotate your slides offline, and synchronise a variety of visual media, including camera and whiteboard, as well as combine video with scrollable slide thumbnails.

Music

Tap a rhythm to match a Beethoven piano sonata with Beethoven Beats (bit.ly/lvbbeats). You have four seconds to tap out a rhythm. The site will find a piece of music written by the German composer that best matches it – and plays it, along with providing information about the composition and a link to explore more.

Create a range of charts and graphs with Graphy (graphy.app). Add your data and then select the type (bar, line, pie chart, donut, etc.). Customise the image with a choice of colours, backgrounds, theme, and details. When you’re happy, share the result or download as a png file.

Easily run an online poll with Swallow Poll (app.swallowpoll.com). Enter your question and an additional description if needed, add the answer options and choose whether multiple answers are allowed and voting results are shown, and a link to the poll will be created. You can require names of participants.

It’s simple to make music with Strofe (strofe.com/create). Select a mood for your track – spooky, sad, chilled, happy or spirited. Customise the style and tempo, like pop, hip-hop or jazz, or let the site pick for you. Then ‘create’. You can edit and tweak what the site comes up with, then save and share.

Edit images online with Image Candy (imgcandy.com). It’s easy to use and offers all the editing tool functions you’d expect – convert, resize, compress, crop, remove background, add text and watermark, flip, and so on. Upload image, edit as required, and save or share.

Walling (walling.app) is a visual, flexible virtual space to manage information. Collect, organise, store and share all your ideas, tasks, notes, links, images, files, and other information on an online page, called a ‘wall’. You can also use it to present work and resources or collaborate on a project.

Groove Pizza (apps.musedlab.org/ groovepizza/) is a drum sequencer app that offers the chance to experiment with drum sounds, rhythms and tempo. Choose one of the ‘Specials’ and ‘Shapes’ to begin with a premade pattern then alter various features to create a new drum sound experience.

Copyleaks’ AI Content Detector (ai-content-detector) is easy to use. Just paste content in the box provide, and, within a few seconds, it’ll give a probability score of content being generated by AI or a human. Signing up for a free account opens additional functionality, like languages and extra scans.

Educational Games

How many cities can you name? Test students’ geography knowledge with City Quiz (cityquiz.io). Choose from 14 different quiz locations, including North America, Africa and Worldwide. Enter a place name. If it’s correctly situated in the specified area, the game will show its location on the map.

Doodlocracy (doodlocracy.com) is a Pictionary-like game. There are three options. ‘Daily’ lets you pick a description to draw and in ‘Free Draw’ you get to choose. ‘Classic’ lets you set up your own game. From the player’s simple doodle, the game’s AI renders it into an artistic image.

Not to be confused with GPTZero, ZeroGPT (zerogpt.com) is fast and handily highlights any text suspected of being AI-generated. Paste the content – or upload a file – and click on the ‘Detect Text’ button. It works in several languages and offers a human or AI opinion for content, with a percentage that’s AI.

Hone your flying skills with The Accessible Flight Simulator (geo-fs.com). It’s a free, web-based, multiplayer flying app. Full instructions are provided. Simply hit ‘Fly!’ and away you go, using the keyboard or mouse. There’s a dashboard with controls, sound effects, flight plans, and pretty good graphics.

iThrive Sim: Follow the Facts (ithrivegames.org/ithrive-sim/ follow-the-facts/) is a role-playing simulation scenario. Students play as journalists reporting on breaking news. To reach the truth, they must find credible sources and collaborate to get the story out with accuracy and without bias.

The main purpose of Undetectable AI (undetectable.ai) is editing AI-flagged content into a writing style that’s more like human-created text. However, its stand-alone AI detection system is free and accurate, and also shows how multiple AI detectors rate the piece of text.

smokeSCREEN (smokescreengame.org) tackles a range of challenges that young teens face, with a focus on youth decisionmaking about smoking and vaping. The game includes strategies for preventing and stopping smoking. Players are the ‘new kid’ in school and asked to make friends and build a support network.

Taboo.AI (taboo-ai.vercel.app) shows a word and challenges players to write a question or prompt that will get the AI-powered game to come up with that word in its answer. Take the daily challenge or pick a topic – like extreme weather, solar system or tech giants –and get started. There’s a web and app version.