Early Education in the Age of AI

🟣 There's an educator on almost every team like Deb. Twenty-six years in the sector, a decade in the same toddler room, and the first time AI use came up at a staff meeting, she crossed her arms and said, "Over my dead body." Six months later, her director told Jodie that Deb was the best thing that ever happened to their AI policy. This episode is about what happens when you stop trying to convi...

🟢 There's a good chance that somewhere in your service's policies right now, there's a sentence that sounds a bit like this: "Staff may use digital tools, including AI, where it supports their work." It sounds reasonable. But since the child safety reforms tightened the rules on digital technology and online environments, that one reasonable-sounding sentence might be exactly what catches your se...

Every year around this time, a few questions start appearing in educator Facebook groups and inboxes along the lines of… “What are you doing for NAIDOC week?”, and ‘“Is this tokenistic?” But now I’m noticing a new question doing the rounds…"Is it okay to use AI to help me plan for NAIDOC Week?" The honest answer is yes and no . And the blurred line between the two is what this episode is about. NA...

You opened your documentation app this week and there it was...a new sparkle icon, a "draft with AI" button that nobody asked you about. The AI didn't wait for your permission. It moved into your workflow. So what now? In this episode, Jodie Clarke looks at the almost quiet shift happening inside Storypark, Xplor, Kinderloop, OWNA and every documentation app our sector uses (AI features arriving o...

🟣🟢 So you've probably been using AI for a few months now, maybe longer. You've got a pile of AI-assisted observations sitting in your files. But there's a question you keep circling back to - is what I'm producing actually any good? Does it still pass as authentic and high quality? Here's the thing nobody's teaching educators yet - how to check effectively. Not just "remember to check the respon...

Most family engagement in early childhood education flows in one direction - and it's not the direction that helps your responsive planning and programs. We send things out constantly. Photos, newsletters, daily updates, portfolios, app notifications. And then we wonder why our documentation feels thin, why QA6 is one of the hardest quality areas to get right, and why our programming doesn't alway...

🟢 That child who has been in the sandpit for forty minutes isn’t “just playing.” They’re testing volume, comparing weight, exploring cause and effect, strengthening fine motor skills, practising social negotiation, and regulating their body - all before morning tea. But when a parent asks, “What did they learn today?” it can be hard to find the right words quickly. Most educators already understa...

🟢 Your learning environment is teaching children something right now. The question is whether you know what it's saying. If you set up your room at the start of the year and haven't made meaningful changes since, it might be telling children a story you didn't intend. In this episode, Jodie makes Loris Malaguzzi's concept of the "third teacher" genuinely practical… no theory, no philosophy, just...

🐰 If you've ever stood in your storeroom the week before Easter staring at a bag of cotton balls and a stack of pre-cut bunny templates thinking "there has to be something better than this", then this episode is going to change how you approach every cultural moment on your planning calendar from here on in. I’m introducing you to the Empowered Educator Three Layers Framework - a simple, rep...

🟢 What if you could hand your policy manual, your observation notes, and the Early Years Learning Framework to a research assistant who'd read every single word… and then just answer your questions? That's exactly what NotebookLM does. And it only knows what you give it. In this episode, Jodie introduces you to NotebookLM - a free AI tool from Google that works completely differently from ChatGPT...

🟢 Most early childhood teams are already using AI - without guidelines, training, support or policy. And the most experienced person on the team is often the one with the most to say about it. She had eighteen years of experience, three commendations from assessment and rating, and a reputation as the best documenter in the service. When her director mentioned AI, she said: "That's cheating."&nbs...

You set up the provocation. You observe something genuinely meaningful. You write your notes. And then the session ends… and those observations sit in your notebook, never quite making it into your program. Sound familiar? In this episode, I'm walking you through a two-step AI process that takes your observation notes from a single loose parts session and turns them into a web of responsive progra...

In This Episode… Can AI and Reggio Emilia actually coexist? In this episode, Jodie explores what Loris Malaguzzi's most important principles … the hundred languages of children, pedagogical listening, and documentation as making learning visible, actually mean for how we use AI in early childhood settings today. Whether you work in a Reggio-inspired service or not, this episode reframes everything...

In This Episode... Ever sat down to write an observation about a quiet child and found your page stays stubbornly blank? You're not alone — and it's not because you're not paying attention. In this episode, Jodie explores why our documentation systems consistently fail quiet learners, introduces the SILENT framework for observing learning you can't hear, and shares four specific AI prompt approach...

🟢 Documentation was supposed to make children's learning visible. Instead, it's become the thing that steals your evenings, your weekends, and your enthusiasm for the job. In this practical episode, Jodie challenges the documentation expectations that have built up over the years in the early education sector, reveals what the NQS actually requires, and shows you exactly how AI can help you write...

It's the beginning of a new year and perhaps you're already feeling behind on observations while trying to settle new children in. Before you try to overhaul your entire practice and rooms (again), Jodie introduces the "one small thing" approach that actually works. This episode walks you through practical, tested strategies for making documentation feel less impossible...starting with a 30-second...

🟢 What’s This Episode About? What If Your Documentation Could Come Alive? In this final episode of 2025, Jodie explores a question that's been forming all year: what if the documentation and planning cycle system itself…not just our efficiency within it, is what needs to change?  Jodie takes a step back from specific AI tool use cases and prompting to look at the bigger picture. We explore w...

The end-of-year gift-making rush is a source of huge stress for educators. We're pressured to create perfect, product-focused items, which often goes against our "process-over-product" approach. In this episode you’ll learn how to use AI to simplify end of year activity planning, create inclusive experiences, and (most importantly) write meaningful gift tags that communicate the real learning behi...

🟢🟣 This episode is for every educator who has felt the "Sunday afternoon panic" of trying to fill out a weekly program with a balance of play based activities and intentional teaching. I’m taking you beyond generic planning themes and Pinterest boards to explore how AI can become your "educational thinking partner". You'll learn how to use AI to better understand child-led inquiry , create meani...

In This Episode If you've ever felt let down by generic AI responses, this episode is for you. Jodie talks through the common frustration of using one-size-fits-all AI tools and explains a more effective way forward. You'll learn how to see AI not as a single tool, but as a team of specialised assistants. This practical guide will help you choose the right support for any task, turning AI from a s...

🟢 In This Episode... Discover how you can use a free AI tool to create beautifully illustrated, personalised storybooks in minutes.  This episode moves beyond the tech and focuses on meaningful, ethical co-creation with children. Learn how to use children's art and ideas as the foundation for meaningful stories that support social-emotional learning, document group projects, and ease transit...

🟢 Are your program plans in step with the land - or just with the wall calendar? In this episode of Early Education in the Age of AI , Jodie invites you to step outside, notice the signs of the season around you, and discover how to bring them into your planning in ways that are both engaging for children and respectful of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander seasonal knowledge. 🟣 Wha...

🟢 EP 29 - Feeling unsure about how the September 2025 NQF changes will impact your service - or how to adapt without adding more hours to your current workload? In this episode of Early Education in the Age of AI , I break down the latest National Quality Framework (NQF) updates in simple language , so you know exactly what’s changing and why. We’ll explore what these updates mean for early learn...

🟣 In This Episode ... Many educators feel that technology has no place in nature play, and for good reason. We want to protect the authentic, hands-on experiences that are central to early learning. However, this episode reframes the conversation, explaining how AI can be a useful ally for the educator behind the scenes. Find out how to use AI as a creative assistant and consultant to help develo...

🟢 In This Episode... This episode tackles the challenge of sensory overload in busy early learning environments. We move beyond simply "managing" noise and mess to strategically crafting calmer, more engaging "sensory sanctuaries." You'll learn how small environmental tweaks and a deeper understanding of children's individual sensory needs can reduce stress and support regulation, all with the cr...