Throughout their international collaboration, over the past eleven years, Dr Rogers and Professor Nichele together have disseminated the Pedagogical Variation Model (PVM, Roger 2013) among numerous professionals in educational environments across the world including those attending IATED Conferences, namely, EDULEARN (Palma Mallorca), iCERi (Seville) and INTED (Valencia). Numerous insights to the application of the PVM have created opportunities in its adoption for:
(i) Training in the Workplace
(ii) Professional Practice in Elite Sports
(iii) In-Service Teacher Training
(iv) Continuing Professional Development for Creative Arts Facilitators for Social Prescribing Workshops, among others.

How is this possible? Essentially the PVM (Rogers) is based fundamentally on the paradigm of “Pedagogical Leadership” where the infrastructure consists of:
(i) Transactional / Task-Giving and
(ii) Transformational / Empowerment.

From the learner point of view, the PVM recognizes the importance of student collaboration in knowledge construction not only in the virtual classroom but also within face-to-face classrooms. Situational teaching is fostered, therein, allowing educators to tailor their teaching strategies to suit different learner contexts. The PVM supports the idea that learners should actively construct their own knowledge through interaction and engagement with the content. This process is facilitated by tutors, who guide and support learners in their journey.

So how does the PVM engage in the age of Artificial Intelligence, AI? Firstly, by definition, AI refers to the simulation of human intelligence in machines that are programmed to think and learn like humans. These machines can perform tasks that typically require human intelligence, such as visual perception, speech recognition, decision-making, and language translation. Teaching with AI can significantly enhance the learning experience for both educators and students. In the age of AI, digital natives (Prensky,2011) in virtual classrooms can diligently embrace the rapidly evolving technological advances as they are typically familiar with computers, smartphones, the internet, and social media, often integrating these technologies seamlessly into their daily lives. However, digital immigrants, have opportunities via AI to discover ways and means to adopt digital technologies in their everyday life too. By way of understanding ‘Pedagogical Leadership’, tutors need to recognize that there will be those who readily embrace AI with personal responsibility and willingly share their expertise and experiences with an ethical stance. However, there will be those who will resist any engagement with AI, for fear of inaccurate interpretations that may arise in AI contexts. The importance of collaboration among learners involves creating opportunities for students to work together, share ideas, and build knowledge collectively. The PVM provides a framework for educators, introducing AI to learners that are sceptical about losing their own identity, becoming ‘slaves’ to so-called ‘machine-intelligence’. With the internet at their fingertips, digital natives can access vast amounts of information quickly. The role of educators shifts from being the primary source of knowledge to facilitators guiding students in critical thinking and information evaluation.

Keywords: Pedagogical Leadership, digital native, digital immigrant, artificial intelligence, transactional leadership, transformational leadership, virtual classroom, international collaboration, face-to-face classroom.