Beyond the blackboard: How AI is empowering teachers and students in the classroom
The morning sun streams through the windows of Presentation Secondary School in Clonmel in Co. Tipperary as students settle into their seats, books open and laptops ready. At the front of the classroom, Treasa O’Loughlin, a home economics teacher, prepares for the day ahead – not with stacks of paper, but with digital tools that connect her students to learning before they even walk through the door. Microsoft Teams, OneNote, and Microsoft 365 Copilot have become part of the rhythm of her lessons, helping students review homework, explore new topics, and get support, while freeing Treasa to focus on teaching and guiding them in real time.
Treasa O’Loughlin has embraced technology from the start of her career in teaching. The Co. Tipperary native has been obsessed since the dial-up days with finding ways to enhance the way she works.
“I’ve been teaching since 1998. I started in teacher training college in 1994 in Sion Hill in Blackrock and I always had a huge interest in technology. There was definitely the boom of the 90s that went on, and I felt I was in the heart of it. I was probably one of the first students on my course to decide I needed to streamline things. I started to design forms that could be distributed very easily to students and shared with my other classmates. Word has been there since the beginning of my working life,”
Technology as a supportive assistant
O’Loughlin started in Presentation Clonmel, and her choice of field has sat well with adjusting to the evolution of tools available to her. Also her passion for what she does meant that O’Loughlin’s appetite to find ways to use technology in her job would be voracious.
“I have always loved to innovate and see how technology can make my world more efficient and productive, to lift the load that so many people complain about. It makes me more productive and more available to my students. I have always seen technology as my assistant. That’s why I love AI and where we have come to now.”
That development initially came in spurts, but O’Loughlin has found in recent years that the sector has become more focused in how it uses technology to aid teachers.
“Initially it was about using technology to create handouts and documents that were unique to a teacher’s own needs, rather than using external templates. From the early 2000s onwards, our principal during that stage was interested in IT and we had more IT used at an administrative level. We got data projectors in around 2010,” she said.
“When things moved in the backend of the last decade, with the adoption of Microsoft products, everything changed. Everything became far more streamlined, and it became easier to use technology in the classroom and get it into the hands of students.”
The classroom as she knows it has changed substantially. While she is still guiding the students, the tools at their disposal have evolved even with the need for some supervision.
Embracing AI in the classroom
Her decision to embrace Microsoft Copilot was inspired by a trip to Microsoft Dream Space innovation and education hub in Dublin. O’Loughlin said that it reinvigorated her love for teaching young people.
Microsoft Dream Space provides immersive, research-based STEM and AI experiences for students and teachers to enhance their STEM skills and explore the world of AI. Among its many initiatives is the Dream Space Teacher Academy, designed to help primary and post-primary teachers begin their journey with AI in education.
“I attended the Microsoft Dream Space Teacher Academy with Corey Hughes and the team, and it genuinely opened my eyes to what AI could do in my classroom on a day-to-day basis. The Academy doesn’t just explain AI – it guides you step by step, showing practical ways to use it in the classroom. Every session was hands-on, and I left feeling confident to experiment and create resources that truly help my students,” she said.
“Since then, I’ve developed customer GPTs to support learning in real, tangible ways. One helps with junior cycle resources, letting me analyse past papers and marking schemes, while another—my Leaving Cert GPT—acts as an out-of-hours tutor for fifth- and sixth-year students. It’s trained on the curriculum, guidelines, past papers, and marking schemes, so when students are stuck, they can ask it specific questions and get helpful guidance. It’s like giving them a personal assistant that supports their learning while I focus on teaching.”
The chance to develop new AI skills and meet with experts from Microsoft Ireland and other educators that have worked with them had a deep impact on O’Loughlin.
“I’ve attended the Microsoft Dream Space hub in person twice, and each visit pushed me further my own AI journey. Being able to sit with experts, ask questions directly and see everything broken down so clearly made the whole journey feel real and achievable. When Sarah Gibbons, a deputy principal, worked with us on sharpening our prompts, it felt like a lightbulb moment – suddenly I wasn’t just experimenting with AI, I was mastering it. In our last session, we shared lessons and ideas in what felt like a teacher-led hackathon, turning concepts into practical classroom resources. It was empowering. It gave me confidence and a mindset change, to feel that I’m not on my own. I can use AI, other people are, and we can recognise it as a teaching partner or assistant rather than a replacement. If I don’t harness it, then my students will use it without guidance. Instead, I’m imparting some skills from what I learned.”
Digital learning in the era of AI
The value of Microsoft Dream Space to educators in all four corners of Ireland has also been emphasised by James Lawless, the Minister for Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science, when he recently unveiled new research by Microsoft on ‘Digital Learning in the Era of AI’.
It revealed that while 87% of teachers are already using digital tools to improve productivity and optimise classroom time, and 72% support increased use of AI tools in the classroom, 83% of teachers say they are lacking formal training in AI.
“Microsoft’s latest research underscores the opportunity for AI and digital tools to enhance teaching and learning, as well as the need to support educators with the right training and support to use them effectively. This aligns with the broader direction of our education system, including the new primary curriculum’s emphasis on digital literacy and modern skills. Industry has a vital role to play in this, and I’m delighted to join Microsoft in announcing this expanded AI skills offering for teachers through the Microsoft Dream Space Teacher Academy.”
Those expanded offerings have appealed to O’Loughlin in particular, who stressed that her relatively low-tech background should ensure that no teacher should be wary of being overawed by what’s on offer.
“I’m a home economics teacher; I’m considered the most unlikely person to have an interest in STEM. My argument is that home economics is about efficiency and AI is efficiency that needs the oversight of a human. Since Microsoft launched Microsoft Teach, I’ve started to build an agent there as well. It’s safe to use within the Microsoft suite because it’s easy to upload the documents I work on with enterprise level protection,” she said.
“Over the past year I’ve started using AI as a genuine teaching and admin assistant. It helps me plan day-to-day lessons, adapt activities so every student can access them, and shape the timing of practical classes where we have dishes to complete. It also supports me in updating tasks so they’re relevant to a twenty-first-century classroom, and in creating starter activities and one-pagers that make learning clearer and more approachable for everyone.
“In our Home Economics department, we’ve used Copilot to review our units of learning, build in formative checkpoints and create templates for meetings. The impact has been really noticeable — I can produce clearer, more consistent resources much faster, give students better feedback, and think more deeply about my teaching because I’m shaping ideas with the AI and adapting them for my class. It has simplified how I work and made learning more accessible for all of my students. Most importantly, it allows me to be more present with my students rather than buried in paperwork.”
“There has been a huge shift in pedagogy. There’s still the requirement for traditional learning with baseline knowledge, but we can scaffold up more with AI. Who would have thought a year ago, before I went up to the Microsoft Dream Space hub that I would have been able to do that?”
Building skills and confidence for the future
Amanda Jolliffe, Microsoft Ireland’s Dream Space Lead, said that experiences like O’Loughlin’s are becoming the norm for teachers who recognise the benefits AI can bring to their classrooms.
“Every day we hear from teachers who want to bring AI and digital tools into their classrooms but don’t feel they have the training or support to do it confidently. That’s why the Dream Space Teacher Academy exists. It’s about meeting teachers where they are – giving them practical tools, building their confidence, and creating a community they can lean on.”
“Our team of qualified educators at Dream Space are passionate about helping primary and secondary school teachers explore new teaching models and use AI responsibly. When we empower teachers, we can help give every young person the opportunity to develop the digital and AI skills they need to thrive in the future.”
This focus on building teachers’ skills and confidence is being strengthened even further through Microsoft’s latest global education initiatives. Earlier this year, the company expanded its commitment to teaching and learning with the launch of Microsoft Elevate for Educators – a new programme connecting teachers with global communities, professional development and industry-recognised AI credentials. Microsoft has also introduced new AI-powered features in Microsoft 365 Education at no additional cost, helping teachers save time on planning, adapt lessons for different learning needs and support students with more personalised guidance.
These developments complement the work already happening in Dream Space and reinforce Microsoft’s drive to ensure every teacher feels equipped to use AI responsibly in their classrooms.
For O’Loughlin, Microsoft Dream Space offers a chance for teachers to overcome their fears and to recognise the benefits available to them.
As AI becomes embedded in classrooms across Ireland, teachers like Treasa show how embracing these tools can transform learning beyond the blackboard.