As classrooms across Australia navigate a new era of digital learning, the demand for meaningful and effective edtech has perhaps never been higher.
A 2024 survey by Atomi found that 74% of Australian teachers believe that technology enhances the learning experience,
From lesson planning to real-time student feedback, studies show that Australia’s teachers are increasingly turning to platforms that support flexible, creative, and efficient teaching.
Now, with visual collaboration becoming a cornerstone of 21st-century education, the tools once reserved for tech startups and corporates are making their way into schools—empowering both teachers and students to think, work, and innovate visually.
Lucid Software, dubbed “the world’s first work acceleration platform” enables teams to ideate, plan, design, build, and launch game-changing solutions from a shared “infinite canvas”.
The company was founded in 2010, to address a gap in cloud-based visual collaboration solutions and raised more than $103m across various funding rounds and in 2021 became a ‘unicorn’ – a privately held startup company valued at over $1bn.
Helping kids think outside the box
In April 2025, Lucid Software won the 2025 Google Workspace Partner of the Year Award for Technology – Innovation for its achievements in the Google Workspace ecosystem, helping mutual customers enhance collaboration, visualization, and workflow efficiency.
With more than 100 million individual users in 180 countries having Lucid Visual Collaboration Suite integrated within their Google Workspace, it’s perhaps unsurprising that K-12 education is an industry that has been leveraging the company’s innovations.
“Innovation is about seeing things differently – it requires people to look at their world in interesting, imaginative ways,” Dan Lawyer, Chief Product Officer at Lucid Software told The Educator.
“When educators foster a culture of innovation, students feel empowered to look past obvious solutions to real creativity.”
Lawyer said that for schools looking to get ahead, AI is “the perfect example of going outside the box.”
“It’s also the perfect way to build on the core skills that students and teachers are already using every day in the classroom. Lucid Software’s AI survey found that the top benefits of effectively using AI include improved productivity, automation of repetitive tasks, and enhanced decision-making,” he said.
“Teachers face complex challenges in the classroom, so unlocking greater efficiency with the AI tools at their disposal is already a great way to stay ahead of the curve.”
Fostering life-long learning
Lawyer said Lucid’s digital collaboration tools make learning more accessible and engaging for K-12 students and beyond, as they move into higher education and their first careers.
“Digital workspaces are an effective way to make learning more accessible for a diverse student body, and empower different learning and collaboration styles that technology can empower in ways the traditional classroom can’t,” he said.
“I’ve seen it time and time again where students struggled to grasp complex, dense explanations in textbooks – but when teachers began using Lucid to create easier-to-digest concept maps, a switch flipped.”
Lawyer said using visuals in learning has been proven to capture the attention of different learning styles, simplify complex information, and enhance memory retention.
“When students feel connected to the material, they feel motivated to learn,” he said. “Teachers know that collaboration between students is a cornerstone of learning.”
When digital tools are used to enable this, students feel like they are a part of the classroom environment, no matter where they are, Lawyer said.
“Visual tools like Lucidspark reduce the need for teachers to spend significant time with students outside of school hours because everyone has access to the same instruction, discussion channels, and context to support their work through collaborative digital tools,” he said.
“And beyond the classroom, giving students hands-on experience with these platforms better equips them for the modern workplace—where digital collaboration is not just common, but often expected.”
Turning AI potential into practical impact
Lawyer said that if school leaders are going to empower teachers to move beyond surface-level AI use and toward real classroom impact, they should focus on creating an environment that encourages thoughtful experimentation.
“This means giving teachers the space to try new tools, test ideas, and reflect on what works—without fear of failure—while also providing clear boundaries for responsible and ethical AI use,” he said.
“Setting expectations around transparency, data privacy, and appropriate use helps ensure that innovation is grounded in trust and aligned with school values.”
Once teachers are supported in this way, AI doesn’t need to feel intimidating or overly technical, Lawyer said.
“Even educators who don’t see themselves as ‘tech-savvy’ can become confident users when given real-world examples of how AI can simplify everyday tasks,” he said.
“Highlighting practical use cases—like drafting lesson plans, differentiating instruction, or providing timely feedback—helps bridge the gap between possibility and practice.”
Lawyer said schools can further strengthen adoption by enabling collaboration across teaching cohorts.
“Encouraging educators to share learnings, successes, and missteps creates a culture of continuous improvement,” he said.
“And when AI is used to reduce administrative overhead, teachers regain valuable time to do what matters most: build strong relationships with students and create inclusive, engaging learning environments where all learners can thrive.”
6 crucial non-technical AI skills that every student needs
Lawyer said the six crucial AI skills for students are those that they are already implementing in the classroom.
Lucid has identified these as:
- Critical thinking
- Problem solving
- Effective prompt creation
- Creativity
- Process visualisation
- Collaboration
“Firstly, AI can massively improve collaboration between teams, especially when viewed as a team member itself,” Lawyer said.
“Think of AI tools as the helpful person in a group project, who can provide administrative support to free up the rest of the team for more creative, human-led tasks.”
However, AI-generated outputs aren’t always perfect, Lawyer pointed out.
“Critical thinking is a crucial skill when utilising AI tools, and it’s important to evaluate whether outputs might carry biases from their training data, reflect errors, or oversimplify complex issues,” he said.
So, how to get the best outputs? Lawyer said this is where the next two skills, problem solving and effective prompt creation, come in.
“AI tools rely heavily on the information they are given, so articulating the problem and asking the right questions is the only way to get valuable outputs,” he said. “Students using AI tools need to first understand the context, identify the core issues, and set clear objectives for the AI.”
Finally, said Lawyer, creativity and process visualisation will remain critical for students.
“Creativity allows students to approach complex problems with flair and showcase their own unique viewpoints, making the learning process deeply personal and innovative. Plus, being able to visualise the process helps diverse student bodies break down problems and find solutions together.