Cameron Paterson
@cpaterso
Playing in the gap between learning and schooling. Less us, more them. 🎓💡📚✍️🌎🌱
*Dirtbag Billionaire* by David Gelles. 🌍 Patagonia prioritises lasting products over fast fashion. ⚖️ They confront sustainability’s contradictions. 🛑 Their “Don’t Buy This Jacket” campaign urged reflection. Organisations grounded in strong values can resist extractive systems.
“More than half of government secondary students miss a month of school a year, with many claiming it is because what they’re being taught is not relevant.”
"If teachers are controlled, they control. If teachers are empowered to inquire and innovate, they do the same for students." — Gill & Gagliano 📖 Cultivating Cultures of Thinking in Australian Schools — out now. Stay tuned for a 2026 launch! ✦ www.routledge.com/Cultivating-...
“Every time I teach , I feel joy. I feel satisfaction at seeing someone understand something that I care about. I’ve just been in awe of the teachers around me, like, how masterfully they take control of their classes and how they explain concepts. They’re just so skilled.”
“This absurd system we still subject our young people to. All the HSC is teaching is how to memorize information and then regurgitate it to answer exam questions.”
This is no longer just a matter of educational policy, but one of national survival… proposed dismantling the current “analogue structure” of university degrees, replacing it with faster learning pathways to address skill shortages.
“A large Brisbane school is crediting dramatic improvements in its year 12 students’ English marks to a customised AI chatbot that provides instant feedback on student essays…. A qualitative shift in student engagement and motivation resulting from the dramatic reduction in feedback delivery time.”
“So far, universities have no good answers to the existential questions posed by AI. What is needed from academic leaders is a full-throated explanation of what universities are, why they exist, and what it means to get a real education.”
“With a heavy emphasis on a highly top-down model of schooling with scripted direct instruction, the current Australian education model offers little flexibility.”
“What is the value of the university in the age of AI? Ideally, university should be a place where people are not taught what to think but how to think. AI chatbots have taken hold of universities. We have an academic workforce that doesn’t know what it doesn’t know.”
Less concern about children using AI to fake their homework than about whether their best friends are chat bots. “Increasingly, young people are forming close bonds not just with their peers, but with artificial intelligence companions - digital chat bots designed to talk like humans.”
“What should we be doing now to ensure that future generations of Australians have the best chance of thriving in an initially growing, and then shrinking world? We must build a community that embraces long-term visioning, that trusts its institutions, that has as its foundation the family…”
“To be successful in managing agentic AI, the skills necessary need to be framed differently. The role the humanities play will be vitally important. We don’t want disincentives. We need curriculum reform that enables more crossover fertilisation between the humanities and sciences.”
An arts or humanities degree will become even more important. One tech industry guy who studied arts in the 1990s told me that the degree gave him skills and cognitive capacity to learn, to intelligently supervise agentic AI and knowledgeable communication and problem-solving.”
“Unless you’re in the top 0.1 per cent, you’re a peasant… there is no middle class in an AI future. I find it incredibly hard to know what to tell my 17-year-old son about the study choices he should make to prepare for this disruption, and finding economy-wide solutions is more complex.”
“About 50% of Melbourne students in years 7-9 are disengaged at school. Many students believe school content fails to address real-world issues. We need to hear from teachers, not well-meaning bureaucrats.”
“AI agents will completely transform how humans work. The real change isn’t what AI agents will do, it’s how humans will evolve. We’ll become orchestrators rather than executors of work.” @mesterman.bsky.social @pipcleaves.bsky.social @vincewall.bsky.social
“The problem with many of the methods workplaces used to navigate change is that they assume that major change is an occasional event, not a constant state…. In reality, today’s disruptions often arrive unannounced, overlap unpredictably and ripple through organisations in unpredictable ways.”
“Teachers of heart-cracking generosity who inspire their young students, who give their charges the greatest gift of all - confidence.”
Visited the Treaty exhibition at the State Library and learned about Australia’s first treaty attempt.
Between 2014–2023, Australian media shaped debates on democratic education, from equity and civics to politics in schools. Themes ranged from control over curricula to rising activism, exposing tensions in inclusivity, funding, & civic readiness. @jorgeous24.bsky.social @janehunter2025.bsky.social
Project Zero Australia offers free professional learning to disseminate powerful educational concepts. Today we hosted Ben Mardell to share ideas about making learning visible, playful learning, and empowering young children to learn about nature/climate change.
Western Academy of Beijing was an incredible host for #FOEN25. Amazing student leadership - MCing, leading in workshops, TEDx event.