On the last weekend of February, I made the trip to Salford for DrupalCamp England 2026. It is only its second year, but already an event I have found myself looking forward to returning to. I came away with a notebook full of ideas, some genuine food for thought about the direction of AI, and […]

I’ve been using ELM at work and finding it really helps speed up anything I have to write.  ELM is ‘Edinburgh access to Language Models’ and it provides secure access to a number of different LLMs. It’s available to all staff and students at the University so if you haven’t …

Six months ago I joined the Web Development team at the University of Edinburgh. I know Drupal well, but I also know it’s like a huge bag of Lego bricks, its power lies in how those bricks have been assembled, and every codebase assembles them differently. Testament to those who came before me, EdWeb 2 […]

Back in November (yes, I know — this post is fashionably late), I attended Drupal Camp Scotland on 7th November 2025. It was a full day of interesting, insightful and genuinely useful talks. From the moment I arrived, greeted by friendly faces over morning coffee – there was a strong sense of community.  As my […]

It’s Safer Internet Day and the theme in 2026 is ‘Smart tech, safe choices – Exploring the safe and responsible use of AI’. Over the coming days, we will publish tips and info on how to recognise Artificial Intelligence (AI) online and use it responsibly. But first, let’s review the basics of keeping yourself safe […]

As AI-generated content becomes increasingly prevalent, questions of trust emerge, prompting a growing need for transparency about the creation of digital content. As part of an academic study, I designed and prototyped ways to display provenance data for synthetic content made by an AI searchbot on a University website. Working in UX, I’m always eager […]

The internet is a great place to keep in touch with others. Whether you exchange thoughts with strangers about your favourite season finale on social media, play and chat while at home during a global pandemic, or like in my case, get to talk to friends and family living in another country – technology enables our need to socialise.  However, the way we form connections online, and the tech we use to do so, also comes […]

As 2025 comes to an end (and yes, I can barely believe it’s nearly 2026) it’s worthwhile to reflect on the past year. It’s been a quite a whirlwind. Not only has news and politics been pretty shocking and horrible this year (again!!!) but news about finances in UK HE …

Continuing our UX research on AI features, we worked with the EdHelp team to design and run user tests to learn how students respond to their ELM-enhanced online enquiry service, AskEdHelp. This post documents our methods, findings and recommendations.  The inclusion of AI in online experiences is becoming the norm, and at the University, the […]

This is a blog post containing an appeal for pretty much every supplier who provides HE with IT services of some sort, teaching & learning, finance, email, communication tools, etc etc. That big long list of features we’ve requested and the bug fixes we are desperate for…..  we’d very much …