
Could Social Enterprises fix the Childcare System?
Why the social enterprise model could be the solution to fixing England’s broken childcare system by expanding access to the communities that need it most. England is…
January 15th 2025
The impact of AI on Early Years education is a compelling topic, especially as 2025 is shaping up to be the year when AI becomes increasingly integrated into various sectors. The exploration of this topic over the coming months will include both the positives and negatives, with a particular focus on clarifying misconceptions about AI, especially generative AI. Let’s start building an AI jigsaw by getting to know the key terms first.
‘AI’ stands for Artificial Intelligence which is a general term for anything that allows computers to carry out human like behaviours, including rule-based programmes. Put simply, AI enables machines to perform tasks that mimic human intelligence, such as thinking critically and acquiring knowledge. AI is a powerful tool that enables us to do deep research across a range of areas and get answers to many questions faster.
Generative AI, also called ‘Gen AI’ is a smart computer that can make new pictures and music all by itself! It is a form of AI that can understand text, code, images, sound and video and use these inputs to generate or synthesise new content. Generative AI can generally be used across almost any field or industry.
Gemini is a subset of Gen AI. It is an app which is the interface to Google’s multimodal system such as Maps, Gmail, Docs and YouTube. It allows people to supercharge their creativity and productivity by handling text, audio, photos and images. For example, ask Gemini to help you write a letter to parents about an upcoming event, categorise your emails around a specific subject or create a marvellous image to illustrate and idea in seconds! There are many other AI apps.
Machine learning is a subset of AI where machines do not need to be explicitly programmed. They use algorithms to identify and learn patterns in data, apply what they have learned, and improve themselves to make better decisions.
Deep Learning is a subset of machine learning, where computers learn in a way that mimics the human brain and are typically trained on specific datasets for use within a given field or industry.
A lot of people are worried about how we are protected by AI because of the risk of increased cyber-attacks as well as AI providing bad, biased or dangerous advice especially when dealing with competing or contentious subjects. We must find the sweet spot between safety and freedom to innovate which may require extra levels of trust.
However, there is a law, the European Artificial Intelligent Act which is the world’s first comprehensive regulation on AI. This place demands on policymakers to focus on the implementation and enforcement of policies that can foster scientific breakthroughs, innovation with digital tech across all sectors by organisations large and small.
There is no doubt that AI will drive change, and we may need to revise our mindsets, so we approach AI with some level of curiosity and willingness to investigate it. Working with children means we need to understand AI as it will inevitably play a part in shaping their future.
Why the social enterprise model could be the solution to fixing England’s broken childcare system by expanding access to the communities that need it most. England is…
Continuing with the Christmas Advent tradition, on day eleven of Christmas Advent 2019 let’s reflect on what the pedagogy looks like in practice? Read my recent post reflecting on pedagogy…
I operate in two worlds; Early Years and Social Enterprise. Every now and then they converge, and I find myself invited to a most unusual or unexpected event. That happened…