Chris Betcher

 I had the opportunity to travel to Pakistan for a second time, this time to deliver the Keynote address at the Schools of Tomorrow conference in Islamabad, hosted by the Beaconhouse Schools group.  The conference had a big focus on the use of AI in education. As well as giving the Keynote, I also had the opportunity to sit down with Umar Farooq, the CEO of local Google partner Tech Valley and interview him about some of the great things that Tech Valley are making happen in Pakistan. Hope you enjoy the conversation. Please leave a comment below if there are specific things that resonate with you!

Over the past couple of weeks, I had the great privilege of visiting Pakistan, and working with over 120 teachers across Islamabad, Lahore and Karachi. Like a number of other countries across the Asia Pacific region, Pakistan is making changes to their education systems, with an increasing move to educational digitisation happening in the aftermath of the Covid pandemic. Schools that were thrown suddenly into using digital tools are now starting to rethink what this all means for education moving forward. Google is playing a significant role in this shift too, with Chromebooks and Workspace forming an important part of this new digital landscape, and working closely with Pakistan and other frontier markets across the region. After flying into Islamabad via an extended 21 hour stopover in Doha, Qatar, I arrived at the first training venue to meet almost 40 enthusiastic teachers from the Beaconhouse Schools system. I was really impressed not only with their existing knowledge of Workspa...