Connected Schools

Trust is becoming a clear enabler and barrier to educators, students, and institutions engaging with generative AI. Do we trust that the AI tools used in education will be pedagogically meaningful? Can teachers trust that students will benefit from their use? How do we trust that edtech designers and providers are driven by the interests of educators and students? In this session, we will explore a cross-sector collaboration between the Catholic Education Network of Australia and the University of Sydney driven by a shared belief that teachers should be drivers, not passengers, in the AI journey. We will discuss the ups and downs of working across sectors on a common AI platform that now reaches over 300 institutions and 150,000 students, and the lessons learnt around breaking barriers, bringing educators on board, and shared values.

In October 2024, CEnet launched cechat — a purpose-built AI platform for Catholic education. Seventeen months later, it is Australia's only national AI project that places students and staff side by side on the same platform, at scale. Embedded within 370 institutions, with 2500+ purpose-built agents, and 118,000+ conversations logged, the data set is rich and the lessons are real.

This session shares what worked, what surprised us, and what we'd do differently. It features a short walk through of the hard-won insights from designing, deploying, and governing AI across organisations spanning metropolitan, regional, and remote communities in Australia.Key lessons explored include: why curriculum alignment determines whether AI tools get used; why hierarchical governance (HQ → diocese → school → classroom) was non-negotiable for earning trust with parents and regulators; what happens when students actually use AI in a walled garden with real-time content flagging and escalation pathways; and why the platform that wins isn't always the most complex, it's the one educators trust enough to put in front of children.

This is not a product pitch. It's a frank account of building the only national AI platform where a Year 5 student practising narrative writing and a principal assessing excursion risk are on the same system, governed by the same framework, and supported by the same architecture.

• connection and collaboration is the foundation of the modern school
• security only works when it’s built into the network, not bolted on
• digital capability must be safe before it can scale
• your community is your greatest asset but your biggest threat 

ak and forgotten passwords drain IT, fuel security risks, and steal instructional time. Addressing passwords is just the start; securing student identities is an imperative for future-ready schools. Join this session to learn how to chart a realistic path to secure authentication.

You will learn how to:

•     Reclaim time: Deploy fast, typing-free access (SSO) so students spend less time logging in and more time learning.
•     Stop the IT ticket grind: Automate the identity and account lifecycle to free your IT help desk for strategic innovation.
•     Secure access for the classroom: Layer security for any age with deviceless multi-factor authentication (no mobile needed) and adaptable policies, without blocking classroom learning.