The following articles are from the Centre for Data Ethics and Innovation's February 2025 newsletter. The newsletter comes out quarterly, full of news, commentary, opinion, and education. Sign up by emailing dataethics@stats.govt.nz
How to stay relevant in an AI-enhanced world. Follow the learning!
Newlands Intermediate School in Wellington participated in an environment and sustainability focused hackathon organised by the AI forum last year … and they blew adults away. The people behind the success, Simon McAtamney - Deputy Principal and Marianne Malmstrom - Digital Technology teacher, have kindly accepted an invitation to share insights around their teaching philosophy with us.
Newlands Intermediate is determined to keep learning relevant in our ever-changing world. We do this by leaning into Māori wisdom, Kia whakatōmuri te haere whakamua: 'I walk backwards into the future with my eyes fixed on my past'.
The concept that drives student-driven learning is Ako Torowhānui (Holistic Learning). Everyone in the community, from the youngest child to the most revered elder, is recognised as both a teacher and a learner. Together, we unreservedly utilise our collective skills, knowledge and wisdom to achieve common goals. It's a powerful philosophy, but rarely practised in modern classrooms.
One of the ways we have found to do this is through running hackathons because they level the playing field. Adults are often blown away when observing young students participating in a hackathon because they consistently underestimate students’ capabilities to do the hard work and produce creative results for problems.
Expanding on this philosophy, we look for opportunities within the community to build relationships. During the AI for the Environment Hackathon, Newlands Intermediate students stepped up to wrestle with real-world problems alongside Jim Taylor, Emerging Technologies Architect at Theta Innovation Lab. Jim was a natural fit as the school had already collaborated on designing a platform to support students as creators. After six years and three iterations to keep up with ever-changing technologies, Mixiply.com was launched in 2024. The platform offers a variety of tools for project planning, collaboration and sharing– including AI assistance. By using real-world constructs, like hackathons and AI, Newlands Intermediate is able to create spaces for students to take responsibility for their own learning. Spaces for students to be curious, to be creative and connected to their own world.
Hear from the team in their own words and check out Mixiply.
A review by Florence Maron, Advisor at the Centre for Data Ethics and Innovation
During the CDEI service design phase, we were asked about what training opportunities existed in the data ethics space. Across training providers, we discovered several AI, Privacy and data ethics options. One of the CDEI’s own Florence recently completed the UC Online (University of Canterbury) data ethics course. Here is Florence’s review.
Balancing work and study can be challenging but, over three months, I immersed myself in a data ethics online course at the University of Canterbury. I found the course incredibly rewarding, deepening my practical understanding of data ethics. I gained philosophical insights into how to navigate complex ethical landscapes, how to analyse and critique the current data-driven innovation mania, and to support what is valuable and beneficial for humans – who are at the end of that data point.
The course explored key themes such as privacy, consent, bias, Māori data sovereignty, legislation around the world and the ethical dilemmas surrounding big data and commercial data, research, and communities. I particularly appreciated the focus on real-world international stories where we examined case studies that highlighted the challenges in ethical decision-making. This hands-on approach deepened my ability to critically evaluate our current data practices here in Aotearoa New Zealand.
One of the most valuable takeaways for me, was the importance of making ethical data choices that match who we are as a nation, our culture and history, and what we want to achieve in the future.
Let us know if there is training you’ve done that you think others would benefit from!
Interview with Rhona Orr, Senior Advisor – Ethics at the Ministry of Education
Could you please tell us more about your team at the Ministry of Education?
I am part of a small team that focuses on safeguarding data while ensuring that our projects respect culture and safety of people (including children) and bring meaningful value to their lives and to their communities.
Could you please tell us more about your role and the ethics process at the Ministry of Education?
I joined the Ministry in 2022 to simplify the ethics process and increase applications. We made forms more accessible, introduced light-touch guidance, and refined our approach using feedback. To help applicants determine whether they need an ethics review, we created a clear decision-making diagram (see below).
At the end of the review process, we introduced a feedback document which is shared with applicants, their manager, and leadership. This document outlines their ethical obligations and includes expert feedback from Professor Tim Dare, embedding ethics at multiple levels.
How do you raise awareness about ethics in practice?
Through relationships formed with applicants. We strengthened internal engagement by increasing visibility and discussions on ethics. We receive positive feedback, and our process fosters collaboration. We also work with Te Poumatua Raraunga (Māori Data Team) for relevant input.
How do you identify issues?
Our application forms require applicants to consider our priority voices (for example, Pacific people, Rainbow communities.) and project benefits, and ensure they align with Te Tiriti and Māori Data Sovereignty principles. This helps identify concerns early and refine best practices. All ethics application responses are recorded in the Ethics Register, which we plan to make accessible for staff to identify overburdening of schools or groups and share lessons learnt.
If you would like a copy of this process chart, send Rhona an email at Ethics@Education.govt.nz
By Brian Calhoun, Chief Executive at Be more Human
As the pace of technology advances globally, how does Aotearoa not just keep up but thrive? Just as keeping your mind active is key to a long life, our nation’s economic growth depends on a workforce that continually adapts and learns.
AI has come a long way since its inception in the 1950’s. In 2025 we are now seeing it as a capable augmentation to our lives, via LLMs such as ChatGPT or Claude. We can now use AI to help with homework, find a good recipe, or help us write software.
If we adopt a lifelong learning attitude, we can use the tools available to us at any point in our lives. This not only enriches us as individuals but gives us more opportunities for career growth or striking out on our own to start a business. This is how we grow as people, as an economy, and how we can stem the brain drain as well. Lifelong learning is essential for our future.
Be More Human Limited offers bespoke AI training for groups from students to senior executives. To find out more, visit https://bemorehuman.org or contact Brian at brian@bemorehuman.org.
Kiwi digital policy expert rubs shoulders with Washington DC peers and Silicon Valley entrepreneurs
Sarah Box, Principal Policy Advisor at the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment (MBIE), has returned from an enriching three-month research stint in the United States, funded by the prestigious New Zealand Harkness Fellowship.
Sarah’s journey included Washington, DC, Atlanta, and San Francisco, where she engaged with think tanks, academics, government officials, and tech giants like AWS and IBM. Sarah was able to tailor a rich program of meetings and presentations, including conferences on AI and robotics, discussions on the energy demands of artificial intelligence and even addressing MBA students at Georgetown University.
Her research focused on guiding AI governance for small nations like New Zealand. She gleaned insights into U.S. AI policy, finding no one is shy of giving their opinion and no topic is taboo. She was impressed by the synergy between academia, industry, and government, the rich tech ecosystem nurturing promising start-ups, and the country’s vast investments in technology infrastructure and innovation. A standout moment was meeting fellow Kiwi Dave Ferguson, co-founder of Nuro.ai, and riding in one of their autonomous vehicles.
Reflecting on the value of lifelong learning, Sarah emphasised how stepping out of the daily grind enabled her to think deeply, explore cultural history, and grow both personally and professionally. She also highlighted the freedom of self-directed and goal orientated research. Combining her extensive career experience - from the New Zealand Treasury to Australia’s Productivity Commission to France’s OECD - she unearthed insights for New Zealand’s digital future. Supported by MBIE, Sarah’s journey promises lasting benefits, as Aotearoa may now apply some relevant lessons from a world-leading nation to our AI policy ambitions.
By Nick Agar, Professor of Philosophy at Waikato University
AI is changing the way universities teach and students learn. When change happens for reasons beyond our control, we often obsess about what we are losing. But we should spend just as much time evaluating the opportunities change creates
Professors are understandably frustrated when students treat carefully crafted essay questions as prompts for AI. But AI is more than a cheating tech. It offers unprecedented opportunities for learning.
During a recent visit to Brazil, I met students enthusiastic about continuing their studies in Aotearoa. Many were also keen users of AI. Brazilian academics have unhappy memories of papers rejected by academic journals, not because of poor ideas, but because of poor English. For them, AI is a technology of empowerment. AI refines their English enabling them to be judged on the quality of their ideas.
To seize these opportunities, universities must rethink how we assess students. We can’t allow students to simply instruct an AI “write me a PhD thesis.” Instead, we must find innovative ways to reward those who know what they want to say and use tools like ChatGPT, Google Search and dictionaries to say it effectively. In this AI Age, Aotearoa could lead the way in creating these novel assessment methods. If our universities can pioneer this approach, imagine the competitive advantages we could gain in the global market for students.
By Simon MacCallum, Senior Lecturer at Victoria University
Students are often told to guess what the lecturer is thinking, because alignment with a predetermined rubric is typically rewarded over genuine learning. Standardised assessment criteria create a feedback loop: students reverse-engineer expectations, resulting in performative scholarship and confirmation that student who pay the most attention to the lecturer are the “best students”. This is particularly evident in written assignments, where matching assessor preconceptions supersedes developing novel insights.
An alternative approach, “assessment by consent,” proposes collaboratively establishing evaluation criteria between faculty and students. This fosters metacognitive awareness of learning objectives, encourages intellectual risk-taking, and disrupts existing knowledge structures. By acknowledging that true scholarship often challenges prevailing perspectives, this approach attempts to preserve academic rigor while embracing transformative learning.
The prevailing emphasis on risk mitigation through standardized rubrics inadvertently promotes conformity, stifling graduates’ capacity for innovation. There is an urgent need to realign assessment practices with higher education’s core aims: critical thinking, intellectual courage, and the capacity for transformative insight. This pattern of conformity extends beyond academia into government departments, where our graduates become analysts and craft advice to align with leadership preferences, rather than presenting inconvenient truths. Ultimately, it undermines decision-making quality, highlighting the broader consequences of assessment systems that discourage genuine inquiry. Reimagining assessment is key to restoring the integrity and ethics of education, particularly in the face of AI which is great at conforming.
CDEI supports the Data Ethics Advisory Group (DEAG) – a diverse group of experts who are here to support and guide government agencies as they work through new data initiatives. The group meets every six weeks and have provided advice on a range of topics from ethnicity and identity data, through to Māori data sovereignty and artificial intelligence. The expertise in the group is wide and practical, and members bring knowledge of international case studies and technical advances.
DEAG’s guidance has a strong focus on equity, inclusion, trust, fairness, human rights, privacy, autonomy, and the unique population that makes up Aotearoa New Zealand.
DEAG challenge us to:
We have themed and compiled the guidance DEAG has provided over the last two years, and this is now available on data.govt.nz. Please note that this is not comprehensive guidance for any use case, only the advice provided for the data initiatives brought to the group.
As a team, we are always gaining new insights from this group, and we think that you’re likely to find something here that will have you considering data ethics from a new perspective!
If you are thinking of using data in new and innovative ways, consider seeking guidance from the friendly experts on DEAG. You can email dataethicsadvisory@stats.govt.nz for more information.