A teacher-built tool for a
world that's changing fast

In 18 years within the education system — 16 teaching in state schools and 2 in the Ministry of Education — I have never been so deeply concerned about technology's (in particular AI's) systemic impact. As a parent to a young child, I am unsettled by the accelerating obsolescence of entry to mid-level roles. If AI erodes the traditional career ladder, the education system must pivot; we must ask how the next generation will reach senior-level expertise without the foundational experience and rewards of the "climb."

I believe high-quality EdTech should be a public good, not a corporate commodity. While I cannot solve these global shifts, I am invested in mitigating their impact. For years, despite having coding knowledge, I did not have the frontend design knowledge to develop anything substantial. It was only with the advent of vibe-coding that I found an opportunity to address the gap in tools provisioned for teaching. Maths3D was co-developed with a $20/month Claude.ai subscription: built to a launch-ready state with ~120 prompts in four weeks — weekends and late nights — on a 13-year-old home laptop. This efficiency raises a sincere question: why should teachers, schools, or the Ministry pay premiums for platforms when AI tools can facilitate high-utility, in-house development?

I am invested in making education systems slow such impacts. I teach an AI literacy course which includes students learning to vibe-code, providing them the agency to innovate solutions to their own professional problems. Anyone with a creative idea, problem-solving skills, and the perseverance to see it through now has the tools to bridge the widening equity gap. I seek to build and share AI-optimised tools — for schools and teachers that should not have to pay an arm and a leg for them — so that I may by whatever means enable my child and her generation to have a better chance of continuing to thrive in this brave new world.

Mathematics is one of those subjects where each strand requires a nuanced approach. Commercial tools often apply a standardised treatment to every strand and end up doing justice to none of them. The best mathematics teaching tools I have seen are still built by maths teachers, for maths teachers. Maths3D is built on the intersection of understanding the student in the classroom, the research into pedagogy, and the needs of a particular curriculum. 3D visualisation particularly develops learners' spatial understanding — a skill ignored by generic educational platforms.

I am currently focusing on building adaptive hints and feedback to support lower-achieving mathematics learners in practising geometrical problems. I seek to utilise thin-sliced progressions and faded scaffolding — pedagogical tools fundamental to building greater proficiency.

Digital technologies can address crucial goals such as closing equity gaps through inclusion. To increase relevance for Māori and Pasifika learners, such architecture and artifacts feature prominently in our Landmarks module, with plans to extend these. Many other learner needs — including opportunities for mathematical accessibility tools — have no commercial profitability, but the sector should not have to pay premiums for platforms that lack attention to pedagogical research. I hope to build these tools and platforms in the year to come.