A Substack publication on technology, education, and artificial intelligence — written for practitioners who want substance, not noise. No motivational filler. No hot takes. Just honest thinking from someone who works in schools.
A walkthrough of the Notion-based system I built to ingest 25 years of career history — CVs, performance reviews, project summaries, and LinkedIn exports — and use it as a foundation for AI-generated, highly tailored job application materials. The workflow, the architecture, and the prompts.
Most schools are still treating AI as a policy problem rather than a capability opportunity. What the schools getting it right have in common, and what it actually takes to move from reactive to intentional.
When a school's relationship with its IT team is broken, the instinct is to replace the team. The evidence says the problem is almost always structural. What transformation actually looks like — and what it doesn't.
The pattern is painfully predictable: a glossy document, a launch, three months of momentum, then a drawer. What separates a strategy that gets used from one that doesn't — and what you need to build before you open the first slide.
I am a member of The Next Word — a specialist AI in education consultancy working with school communities, leadership teams, and boards across Australia. Founded by Matthew Esterman and Dr Nicholas Jackson, The Next Word bridges the gap between rapid AI advancement and the lived reality of schools. Our work spans AI advisory partnerships, keynotes and workshops, and strategic support for school leaders navigating AI adoption with purpose.
If your school needs more than a single engagement — sustained advisory support, community-wide capability building, or board-level AI strategy — The Next Word is worth a conversation.
Visit The Next Word