AI in Schools
EDUtech opens Wednesday with three keynote reads on AI
Digital Attitudes, 2 June 2026
The Tuesday read is the floor map. EDUtech opens at the ICC tomorrow morning, the three keynotes that bookend the first three hours frame three different reads of the AI conversation, and the procurement teams on the floor are filing two consultation responses to Canberra by Friday close.
Three keynote reads bookend the first three hours of EDUtech tomorrow morning
The Darling Harbour Theatre opens at 9:30am Wednesday with NSW Minister for Innovation, Science and Technology Anoulack Chanthivong MP and ABC Head of Education Annabel Astbury, then runs three keynote sets in the next 100 minutes: Andy Hargreaves on "Teaching to Repair the World" at 9:50am, Jason Reynolds on literacy for the TikTok generation at 10:30am, and Rose Luckin on "An Education Ecosystem Vision for 2030" at 11:30am. On the Innovation Stage at 11:00am, an "Assessment in an AI World" panel runs with Jason Lodge (UQ, cognitive offloading paper author), Sandra Milligan (Melbourne), Monica O'Brien (Catholic Schools NSW) and David Linke (EduGrowth). The EDUtech 2026 speaker line-up at the Terrapinn site, and the ICC Sydney listing for the event.
Why this matters: For state Department of Education CIOs and independent school heads on the floor, the three keynotes set the rhetorical frame for the two days. Hargreaves brings the teacher retention crisis into the same hall as the AI procurement decisions, which is the conversation the AITSL Teacher Standards review (announced Friday last) and the ACT 11 June strike both already require. Luckin sets the 2030 timeline the Queensland Corella rollout and the Newcastle Cogniti deployment will be measured against. The 11am Lodge panel on the Innovation Stage is the academic baseline every assessment integrity conversation at the vendor booths will run through, and putting Sandra Milligan and Monica O'Brien on the same stage means the Melbourne research line and the Catholic Schools NSW operational line are stress-tested together rather than separately.
NSWEduChat and Cogniti take the same hall as the commercial vendor booths
NSW Department of Education's Dale White and Kate Jones (Digital Learning Advisors) run a NSWEduChat demo at 9:30am Wednesday at the NSW Government Theatre, while Don Perna (Head of ICT at St Gregory's College) opens the Google Teaching Theatre at the same hour with "The New Pedagogy: Architecting the AI-Powered Classroom." Mona Sidhu (Cyber Education and Awareness Manager at the NSW Department of Education) runs Cybermarvel at 9:30am at the Technology in NSW Public Schools Theatre. On Day 2 at 11:30am, Danny Liu (University of Sydney, Cogniti) joins Rose Luckin and Sue Keay on a human-centred AI panel moderated by Tom Worthington. The NSWEduChat Department page, and the Danny Liu speaker page at Terrapinn.
Why this matters: For independent and Catholic school heads logged into a commercial AI seat licence on the bus this morning, the NSW Government Theatre is the room that will show what the free department-built alternative looks like in 2026, which is the same procurement question the Queensland Corella rollout (Year 7 to 10 access by Friday) and the Newcastle Cogniti deployment (Trimester 2 started Monday) put on the desk. For state Department of Education CIOs and ICT leads, the operational signal that NSW has staffed the cyber-awareness and AI-tool roles as separate people is the staffing shape the Canvas breach in May and the AISNSW Catholic-side procurement conversations have both been asking for. For ed-tech vendors at the booth, the cost line on every slide deck will be read against a free Department of Education product available to every government school student from Year 5 up.
Three working days to file the OAIC code and the Senate failed promise submission
The OAIC Children's Online Privacy Code consultation closes at 5pm on Friday 5 June, and the Senate Education and Employment References Committee's "Australian university graduates" inquiry (the one Senator Fatima Payman tabled in March under the failed-promise framing) closes for submissions the same Friday at 5pm. The OAIC code names schools and online education platforms as in scope, with the code taking effect 10 December. The Senate inquiry's terms of reference name AI's effect on entry-level work and the alignment of degree content with employer skill needs, with the final report due 20 November. The OAIC Children's Online Privacy Code page, and the Future Skills Organisation summary of the Australian university graduates inquiry.
Why this matters: For school business managers and university CISOs filing the OAIC submission this week, the operational question is whether the school's current vendor stack (Compass, Sentral, Schoolbox, Canvas, Microsoft 365, Google Workspace, ChatGPT Edu, Copilot for Education) can demonstrate compliance with the under-18 data handling requirements the code will impose from December. For vice-chancellors and deputy vice-chancellors (academic) deciding what their institution puts on the Senate inquiry record, the AI line in the terms of reference is the one that will set the rhetorical baseline against which the Higher Education Standards Framework and the TEQSA 2026 regulatory-led framework are read for the next six months. For ed-tech vendors at the booth, the operational read is that the two submissions the procurement team is drafting on Thursday and Friday will be checked against the vendor's data residency claims and AI policy disclosures, which means every booth pitch this week needs to answer both consultations before the floor closes.
The thread this morning is the procurement floor opens tomorrow with the regulatory submissions still on the desk. Hargreaves opens the hall on the teacher retention crisis the AITSL review will codify, Luckin sets the 2030 timeline the Corella and Cogniti rollouts will be measured against, and the Lodge panel on assessment integrity runs in the next room as the NSWEduChat stand opens its doors. More on the operational read at digitalattitudes.com.au.