Four Years After ChatGPT, Australian Educators Debate What Skills Still Matter in the AI Era
TobyWalsh · x · 2026-09-07
Less than four years after ChatGPT launched, AI is rewriting workplace rules faster than predicted, leaving educators asking how to prepare students for jobs that don't yet exist. At CanvasCon ANZ 2026 in Sydney, hundreds of educators and edtech leaders across Australia and New Zealand discussed institutional AI adoption, shifting student expectations, and lifelong learning.
Preliminary Instructure research released alongside the event shows most Australian educators rate lifelong learning support as a priority, but confidence in their institutions' ability to deliver it lags well behind.
UNSW.AI Chief Scientist Toby Walsh, speaking in a session on cognition, assessment, and future skills, argued the fundamentals remain: communication, critical thinking, math and digital skills, and grit still need to be taught the old-fashioned way.
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