The Senior Fellowship process asks you to pause in a way few roles in higher education do. It invites you to look back across years of teaching, design and quiet collaboration, and to make meaning of it — to articulate influence, rather than simply describe activity.
I expected reflection. What I didn’t expect was how Generative AI would become part of that process — not as a writer, but as a kind of reflective instrument. Like holding a mirror at a different angle, it showed me my work through a more structured, less sentimental lens.
A different kind of reflection
I began my application the way most people do: surrounded by notes, projects and fragments of memory that felt too sprawling to hold together. AI became the scaffolding that helped me order them. It analysed what I had done, grouped ideas by theme and — without any sense of attachment — identified which examples most strongly aligned with the Professional Standards Framework.
It didn’t write a word for me. What it offered was distance. The examples I felt most emotionally connected to weren’t always the most representative of my influence. AI’s neutrality exposed that bias, and in doing so, helped me select stories that were truer to the intent of the framework — not just to my feelings about the work.
This wasn’t about outsourcing reflection, but sharpening it. The machine could trace patterns, but their interpretation — finding meaning, connecting people and practice — was still mine. This aligns with ideas in reflective practice literature that describe technology as a partner in cognition, not a replacement for it.
Writing with (not through) AI
Once my structure emerged, I returned to the writing itself. Every line was written by hand, but the act of having AI test my logic and sequence freed me to think more deeply about tone and intent. It gave me space to write more slowly — to consider how the pieces of my practice spoke to one another.
Far from depersonalising the process, the use of AI made it more intentional. I could see how the technology might hold potential in learning design too — not as a shortcut, but as a reflective companion. Similar approaches are now appearing in studies that explore AI-supported academic reflection and metacognition. That thought stayed with me: if using AI helped me to reflect more clearly, what might that mean for students?
Authentic assessment in a new light
The Senior Fellowship application is, in many ways, a form of authentic assessment — situated, personal, and reflective. It demands evidence of practice, professional judgement and the capacity to connect experience to theory. The value of the task lies not in excluding tools, but in how those tools are used to support interpretation.
In higher education, we sometimes fear that authenticity can be compromised by AI. But my experience suggests the opposite: authenticity is strengthened when learners use these tools transparently and critically. If we design for that — asking students to show how they used AI to organise, draft, or test their ideas, and to reflect on those choices — we encourage the kind of meta-cognition that no model can generate. Authentic assessment, then, becomes less about protecting against technology and more about designing with it — ensuring that personal insight, context, and ethical reasoning remain at the centre.
Mentorship, mirrors and meaning
This reflection unfolded within a community that made it possible. The UTS Educational Fellowship Program, led by Associate Professor Alisa Percy and Professor Jo McKenzie, was carefully scaffolded — from individual mentoring to writing groups and peer exchange. Alisa was my personal mentor and her input was generous and exacting. Her feedback grounded the writing process in human dialogue, reminding me that reflection is relational work.
Equally moving was the act of requesting testimonials. I hesitated to ask, conscious of the time it demanded of others. But their responses — thoughtful, sincere, sometimes unexpected — became the emotional core of the application. They reflected my practice back to me in a way no tool could.
Looking forward
Using AI to write my Senior Fellowship was, ultimately, an experiment in perspective. It helped me see that reflection — whether personal or pedagogical — is a collaborative act between the human and the technological. As educators, we can draw from this when designing assessment: treat AI as an analytical mirror, not an author; design for interpretation, not output; and remember that authenticity resides not in what’s produced, but in how meaning is made.