Stress mounting quickly with due assignments — Check!
A literature review reading list 39 pages long — Check!
Rising expenses to cover book purchases — Check!
PhD officially started — Check!
Yes, as of August 2026, I’m a doctoral student. I’m studying via Griffith University and my doctoral thesis will be within educational pedagogy. Technically I’ll be a Doctor of Education … if I ever finish. I’ve made a positive start – I’ve handed in 2 assignments for the coursework that runs parallel to my main doctoral thesis. Fingers crossed on those! LOL My plan here (in this blog) is to try and be motivated enough to post regularly about my readings. It won’t get noticed, but it will keep me writing and re-stating it here will help me learn it all.
A quick “precis” to my thesis, which is still evolving and being sharpened to a point, is the use of AI (groans from the audience) in the classroom and how AI can potentially be a differentiation tool for teachers. I’m treading carefully here by ensuring that teachers don’t feel like they’re being put out of work or criticised. Teachers work their socks off for students. No denying that. But there’s a lot of evidence (citations coming soon) that differentiation doesn’t happen effectively in classrooms, which is mostly due to poorly targeted CPD, overworked teachers and underfunded schools … but I’m not touching that part, not even poking at it, for fear of provoking the pitchfork crowd. Instead, I’ll posit that AI can be a useful tool within the classroom to support teachers with bespoke differentiation tasks where AI can work with students one-on-one and focus on their specific, and often diverse, learning needs.
Phew! Now I’ll walk away and hope I don’t draw too much attention. But the thesis part is worth mentioning because I’ve pivoted from gaming, gamification and such (bye bye Triforce of Gamer Knowledge, hopefully I’ll return to you one day) to the more important evolution of AI and its role in education.
A few things worth noting – I might be making a few more regular jaunts to Australia to meet face to face with my supervisors and do some work on my thesis. Haven’t been home in about 11 years, so that’ll be a bit of a culture shock! And I’m going to have to get published as an academic before completing my thesis, and I’m going to have to defend my thesis. Blimey!
So this is just a signpost … um … post. The bell has rung, class has started and the path to Dr has been laid before me. Let’s see how it goes! 🙂