Foundational Impact

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Welcome to Foundational Impact, a podcast series that focuses on education and artificial intelligence from a nonprofit perspective. Hosted by Daniel Emmerson, the Executive Director of Good Future Foundation, a non profit whose mission is to equip educators to confidently prepare all students, regardless of their background, to benefit from and succeed in an AI infused world. This podcast series sets out to explore the trials and tribulations of building a non profit from the ground up, while also investigating the changing world of technology in life, learning, and work.

  1. 1d ago

    Equity versus Productivity in the Age of AI Education

    Episode Overview In this episode from the Festival of Education at Wellington College 2026, host Daniel Emmerson speaks with Victoria Hedlund, founder of GenEd Labs. Victoria discusses bias in generative artificial intelligence, the importance of inclusion, and what meaningful human oversight should look like in education. She also explores how educators can challenge AI outputs, balance productivity with equity, and preserve the essential human element in teaching. Key Topics & Timestamps 00:00 Putting Output on Trial00:33 Introduction to Victoria Hedlund01:37 Researching Bias and Human Oversight03:11 Why Schools Must Focus on Bias05:56 Sparks, Lightbulbs, and Gender Stereotypes08:12 Frequency of Exposure: Teachers vs AI09:09 Visual Representation and Image Bias13:06 Questioning Assumptions and Model Iteration17:09 Equity Versus Productivity20:49 The Human in the Loop24:30 Embracing Messy Humanness in Education Key Takeaways & Highlights Putting AI on Trial: Teachers and students should treat AI outputs critically, challenging assumptions and testing validity rather than accepting generated content at face value. Deficit vs Strengths-Based Framing: Standard AI prompts often apply deficit-based language to neurodivergent or marginalised learners, requiring specific contextual framing from educators to deliver equitable outputs. Frequency of Exposure: While human teachers hold natural biases, students interact with AI models through hundreds of continuous iterations, amplifying potential harm if outputs remain unmitigated. Average vs Instantaneous Productivity: Relying on AI for quick administrative wins can sacrifice long-term accuracy, making upfront contextual alignment crucial for meaningful workload reduction. Preserving the Human Element: Complex emotional needs, non-verbal communication, and relational learning cannot be replicated by software, keeping human teachers central to classroom learning. Resources Mentioned GenEd Labs: Innovation lab focused on artificial intelligence research, inclusion, and educational tools. https://www.genedlabs.com/ Guest Contact Information Guest: Victoria Hedlund (Founder, GenEd Labs) Victoria is a thought leader, researcher and consultant focused on fair AI use in education. Known as the ‘AI Bias Girl,’ she creates practical awareness and mitigation strategies for educators and leaders, using her research of emergent AI bias in educational contexts. She is a major voice in AI pedagogical alignment and has contributed to the updated DfE and Chartered College Safe and Effective Use of Generative AI in Education Guidance, and to the British Computing Society's AI course ‘AI Confidence’. She is editor of AI Bias in Education and author of 100 Quick GenAI Prompts for Teachers and Educators. She sits on the advisory board for the Institute of AI Education, is a member of the Centre for Digital Information Literacy in Schools Expert Working Group, and is part of Oxford University's AIEOU network. She convenes the Teacher Education AI Network (TEANs).

    Equity versus Productivity in the Age of AI Education

  2. Trailer

    Foundational Impact | Official Trailer

    Foundational Impact is a Good Future Foundation podcast exploring how artificial intelligence is changing education. Through conversations with people whose work is shaping the direction education takes next, we examine the evidence, the challenges facing schools and the decisions being made across the sector. Hosted by Daniel Emmerson. Follow Foundational Impact on Spotify, Apple Podcasts or wherever you listen. Website: www.goodfuture.foundation

  3. Sep 29

    The Role of AI in Student Feedback with Daisy Christodoulou

    Episode Overview In this episode from the Festival of Education at Wellington College 2026, host Daniel Emmerson speaks with Daisy Christodoulou, Director of Education at No More Marking. Daisy discusses the role of artificial intelligence in educational assessment, emphasising the importance of actionable feedback over lengthy written notes, the mechanics of comparative judgment, and why handwritten work remains vital for learning. She also addresses the potential pitfalls of AI in schools and offers key guidance for school leaders navigating integration. Key Topics & Timestamps 00:00 Speed As Quality00:36 Meet Daisy Christodoulou01:57 Is Written Feedback Useful02:29 Thermostat Feedback Model03:32 Comparative Judgment Explained04:53 AI Judges And Benefits06:09 Avoiding The Doom Loop10:48 Student Trust And Emotions12:48 Fast Feedback Tradeoffs14:59 Handwriting Versus Typing17:14 Digitizing Handwritten Work17:57 Assessment Tradeoffs And Standards20:21 Advice For School Leaders21:56 Hopes For AI In Schools Key Takeaways & Highlights Thermostat vs. Thermometer: Assessment feedback shouldn't just measure performance; it needs to change performance by providing actionable steps such as personalised quizzes.Speed as Quality: A scrappy, immediate response can be significantly more effective for student improvement than a polished response delivered weeks late.The 90/10 Rule: Integrating AI into comparative judgment (90% AI, 10% human judging) ensures every paper is reviewed multiple times while maintaining human oversight.Cognitive Differences in Mediums: Research shows moving tests to screens can lower student outcomes compared to paper-based assessments, making handwriting recognition a vital bridge for digital reporting.Action on Shadow AI: Leaders who delay setting AI policies risk teachers resorting to unvetted, consumer-facing tools during high-workload periods. Resources Mentioned No More Marking: Comparative judgment platform for student assessment. https://www.nomoremarking.com/John Jerrim / PISA Research: Natural experiment study comparing student performance on paper vs. digital test formats. https://johnjerrim.com/papers/ Guest Contact Information Guest: Daisy Christodoulou (Director of Education, No More Marking)Daisy Christodoulou is the Director of Education at No More Marking, a provider of comparative judgement assessments. She works closely with schools in the UK, Australia and USA on developing new approaches to assessment, and on applications of artificial intelligence in the classroom.Before that, she was Head of Assessment at Ark Schools, a network of academy schools. She has taught English in two London comprehensives and has been part of UK government commissions on the future of teacher training and assessment. Daisy is the author of three books about education: Seven Myths about Education (2013), Making Good Progress? The future of Assessment for Learning (2017), and Teachers vs Tech (2020).

    The Role of AI in Student Feedback with Daisy Christodoulou

  4. Jul 21

    Stop buying tools before you’ve answered this

    Our guest in this episode is Dr Fiona Aubrey-Smith, an independent researcher who studies the relationship between pedagogy and digital tools, and the lived experience of students in the classroom. Fiona opens by explaining why identical classroom practices can produce completely different outcomes depending on the belief system behind them. Her example of two teachers greeting students at the classroom door in seemingly the same way, but for very different underlying reasons, shows how policies alone don't determine impact; the intent behind them does. The conversation moves into belonging and dignity, including research showing that struggling students typically ask for help only 1-3 times in a lesson regardless of how much support they need, while confident students almost never ask to be pushed further. Daniel and Fiona discuss the tension between protecting a student's dignity and the value of productive vulnerability. From there, Fiona lays out her framework for introducing technology into schools: start with the purpose of school, define the role of the learner, describe what the learning experience should feel like, define the role of the teacher, and only then decide which tools will help deliver it. Starting with the tool itself, before asking why, is a costly and common mistake. Two school case studies illustrate this in practice. At Haileybury, an embedded one-to-one, on-demand digital provision (available at the point of need rather than simply issued to every student) has freed teachers to rethink classroom layout entirely. At Connect Education Trust, a similar model has extended digital skills and connectivity into the home, empowering families to support learning without needing their own digital capability, coinciding with outstanding inspection outcomes. On generative AI, Fiona shares some thoughtful use cases she sees, such as chaining AI tools to help secondary students revise, and using AI image generation to help primary students with their descriptive writing. She wraps up with a challenge for school leaders. Rather than starting with policies or tools, ask what your school would leave behind if it closed tomorrow, since that gap is where the real human value lies. From there, let AI and digital tools take on the automation and acceleration, so teachers are freed up for the parts of the job only a human can do.

    Stop buying tools before you’ve answered this

  5. Jun 30

    Are Young People Forming Relationships with AI?

    What does AI mean for the way young people relate to each other and to technology itself? That's the focus of the conversation in this episode when Daniel speaks with Jonathan Baggaley, CEO of the PSHE Association and former head of the Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre. It begins, perhaps unexpectedly, with a Sun Ra poster. Jono uses it to make a point that runs through everything that follows. That is, many of the narratives about AI are being presented as inevitable, and educators have both the right and the responsibility to push back on that. PSHE has been on a long road to statutory recognition in England. Jono maps that journey from the near-miss of the 2010 election wash-up to the introduction of compulsory Relationships, Sex and Health Education in 2019. The results are becoming visible. Between 2022 and last year, the share of young people rating their RSE as good or very good roughly doubled. Yet the subject now faces a technology landscape that changes faster than any curriculum can follow, and it was never designed for that. Much of the conversation focuses on something schools have been slow to address, which is the emotional attachment to AI chatbots. Evidence from a Reddit study found that 60–70% of people who had developed an AI relationship hadn't gone looking for one. They'd simply been chatting. Jono explains this isn't surprising as humans are neurologically primed to anthropomorphise from infancy, attributing intention and agency to moving shapes before they can speak. Even Jono, who understands exactly what large language models are, has caught himself feeling the presence of something in a chatbot conversation. The question is how schools can build resilience to that instinct by giving young people the understanding they need to use them critically. Language, Jono argues, is part of the problem. The word "chatbot" suggests conversation, when what's actually happening is an engagement with a probabilistic automation system. Shifting that framing is one starting point. Another is cross-curricular. Computing can explain the move from rule-based to data-driven AI, citizenship can explore the environmental and geopolitical implications, and PSHE can build on its existing relationships curriculum to examine what young people are and aren't getting from these interactions. The episode sits with a harder question too. Consumer AI is designed for frictionless ease, age verification is often a checkbox, and young people will encounter these tools whether schools introduce them or not. But Jono is clear-eyed about what the evidence shows. When young people genuinely understand what they're dealing with and what they're trading away, they are willing to increase their own friction. None of this requires a new policy or a perfect tool. The conversation is the intervention, and any curriculum that starts with the human already has what it needs.

    Are Young People Forming Relationships with AI?

  6. Jun 9

    Education on the Front Line

    What does great education look like when the classroom is a refugee camp? When the teacher is under-resourced, under-supported, and still showing up? We are delighted to welcome Jane Mann, Managing Director of the Partnership for Education and Education Director for International Education at Cambridge University Press and Assessment. Jane leads work spanning 30 countries, including some of the world's most fragile and complex contexts, from refugee camps to conflict zones. And while no two contexts are ever quite the same, she is clear that the fundamentals of great education do not change. Wherever you are in the world, the foundations look the same: a coherent curriculum, meaningful assessment, well-supported teachers, strong leadership, and quality materials. In conversation with Daniel, Jane reflects on the role of technology and the importance of letting context lead. Where it is available and appropriate, technology can be transformative. But it carries real risks too: widening equity gaps and creating new vulnerabilities in settings where a device is a valuable and coveted object. On AI specifically, rather than rushing it into students’ hands, Cambridge's focus is on the adults in the room to empower teachers, streamline curriculum mapping, support lesson planning in under-resourced regions like sub-Saharan Africa, and help governments build policy frameworks. The HP Cambridge EdTech Policy Fellowship extends this work further to facilitate structured cross-national learning and conversations and drive systemic change. Tune in for a conversation that is as expansive in its thinking as it is grounded in the realities of education on the front line.

    Education on the Front Line

  7. May 19

    Philanthropy Filling the AI Education Gap

    The conversation between Elizabeth Moore and Daniel in this episode provides a window into how the Gates Foundation is navigating the evolving landscape of AI in K-12 education. As Deputy Director with the U.S. K-12 team, Elizabeth explains that the Gates Foundation operates at multiple levels to improve classroom instruction through research, quality standards, and strategic investments. This includes influencing frontier AI labs like OpenAI and Google, developing evaluation frameworks, and creating networks to disseminate evidence-based practices. They choose this approach hoping to help bridge gaps that neither government nor markets adequately address, particularly important as AI development outpaces traditional curriculum cycles. One concerning trend that Elizabeth observes when discussing AI adoption in schools is the well-meaning but counterproductive “no AI” policies that prevent students from developing critical skills for their futures. She, instead, advocates for thoughtful implementation guided by clear educational purposes and robust evaluation of outcomes. The conversation also highlights mathematics as an area with AI potential. Elizabeth describes how AI can support personalised learning by instantly diagnosing specific prerequisite skill gaps and delivering targeted instruction which is a process that traditionally required extensive teacher time and effort. Other suggestions for school leaders that are mentioned by Elizabeth in the episode include: Involve teachers in evaluating AI tools by encouraging them to test the systems' boundariesAlign on the specific educational problems AI should solve before implementationLook beyond data security to broader considerations of pedagogical qualityCreate transparent communication channels with parents about AI's purpose and impact Throughout the discussion, Elizabeth emphasises the need for healthy skepticism about AI-generated data, balanced with recognition of its potential to enhance parent engagement and address learning gaps when implemented with clear purpose and ongoing assessment. Tune in to discover how one of education's most powerful philanthropies is working behind the scenes to ensure AI serves teachers and students, not the other way around.

    Philanthropy Filling the AI Education Gap

  8. May 5

    When Your Students Trusts AI Over You

    Our guest for this episode is Calvin Eden, the founder of LoudSpeaker who works with students across the UK through high-energy and interactive workshops on topics like resilience, emotional intelligence, and healthy relationships. Calvin meets young people in his everyday work, and seeing AI tools become a growing part of students' social and emotional lives reinforces his belief in the urgent need for schools to strengthen young people's confidence, communication skills, and sense of belonging. One major theme in his conversation with Daniel is the importance of human connection. While AI can be a useful tool in different ways, young people need to practice communication, build relationships with others, and learn to speak about their own vulnerability and ask teachers and parents for help when needed. He warns that if AI becomes a substitute for human interaction, students may become less resilient and more isolated. Their conversation also explores the student voice. Daniel shares Good Future Foundation's belief that students should help shape responsible AI policies in schools. Calvin agrees and describes how his work supports schools to build student voice strategies, run student conferences, and create opportunities for young people to be heard. Calvin also encourages school leaders to create a culture where staff and students connect as people, not just through formal roles. He wraps up the conversation by inviting educators to share stories, talk honestly about challenges and failures, and celebrate what they are proud of with their students to build a school environment where young people feel seen, safe, and valued.

    When Your Students Trusts AI Over You
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Welcome to Foundational Impact, a podcast series that focuses on education and artificial intelligence from a nonprofit perspective. Hosted by Daniel Emmerson, the Executive Director of Good Future Foundation, a non profit whose mission is to equip educators to confidently prepare all students, regardless of their background, to benefit from and succeed in an AI infused world. This podcast series sets out to explore the trials and tribulations of building a non profit from the ground up, while also investigating the changing world of technology in life, learning, and work.

Information

  • Creator
    Good Future Foundation
  • Years Active
    2024 - 2026
  • Episodes
    42
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © Copyright 2026 Good Future Foundation
  • Show Website
    Foundational Impact