Episode 17 with Bianca Farthing

🎙️ Joining the Dots: Challenging the Rhetoric of AI in Education with Bianca Farthing

In this thought-provoking episode of Joining the Dots, Al and Matt are joined by Bianca, founder of AI Edify, history teacher, and digital leader — to explore how education can rise above the hype of AI and technology to truly serve learners.

Together, they dive into: ✨ Why education must prioritise ethics, safeguarding, and humanity over efficiency when adopting AI. ✨ The dangers of letting commercial agendas drive how children experience technology — from grief bots to Snapchat AI. ✨ How schools can use AI responsibly to deepen learning, not just save time. ✨ What a truly balanced, future-ready education system should aim to develop: kindness, resilience, critical thinking, and agency. ✨ Why personalised learning risks being more about platforms than learners, and how to reclaim it.

Bianca shares her motivation for founding AI Edify, a teacher-led consultancy and toolkit provider designed to challenge assumptions, put pedagogy first, and keep the teacher at the heart of the classroom.

She also reflects as a parent on what she hopes education will look like when her young son enters secondary school, and her fears that little may change without more courageous leadership and investment.

💡 “AI should help us think deeper, not just work faster,” Bianca reminds us, calling for evidence-informed, sustainable, and truly learner-centred innovation.

📍 Find Bianca and her work at: www.aiedify.com or here on LinkedIn.