In this episode of THE Journal Insider podcast, host and THEJournal.com editor Kristal Kuykendall welcomes two former teachers who have been working on AI writing tools at Turnitin, a plagiarism-detection software used by thousands of K–12 schools and institutions of higher education.

Turnitin is expected to launch a new AI writing detector and additional related features for educators in the next few weeks.

David Adamson, principal machine learning scientist at Turnitin, and Patti West-Smith, senior director of customer engagement, have been working on Turnitin’s AI writing detection feature and related new tools to help educators better understand ChatGPT — and to show teachers how to use AI to save themselves time and how to tweak assignments so that ChatGPT cannot earn a good grade on writing homework.

Adamson, who taught computer science and math at Digital Harbor High in Baltimore, and West-Smith, who worked in public schools for 19 years as a teacher, curriculum supervisor, and principal, both believe that ChatGPT has presented a growth opportunity — or perhaps more like a growth demand — for writing instruction, which they explained at length in the newest episode of THE Journal Insider podcast.

THE Journal Insider podcast explores current ed tech trends and issues impacting K–12 educators, IT professionals, instructional technologists, education leaders, and ed tech providers. Listen in as THE Journal Editor Kristal Kuykendall chats with ed tech experts, educators, and industry leaders about how they are 'meeting the moment' in the U.S. public education system. Find all podcast episodes as well as K–12 ed tech news updated daily at THEJournal.com.

Resource links:

• Academic Integrity in the Age of AI Writing — Turnitin’s guide for educators

• Texas Tech List of AI Writing and Research Tools

• Turnitin.com

• Video demo of Turnitin's AI writing detector at work

Music by LemonMusicStudio from Pixabay

Duration: 29 minutes

Cypher Learning, the company behind the NEO K–20 learning management system, was founded on the idea that the modern instructional model of public education is not, in fact, modern at all.

Former classroom teacher Todd Ryckman, now global director of customer success at Cypher Learning, felt the same way when he was in a traditional classroom; he eventually attended an education conference that sparked a new vision of what education could be, and he helped start a competency-based education academy in his district. How, he's a full-fledged proponent of the CBE model of instruction and helps schools all over the world revolutionize learning in ways large and small using Cypher Learning's platforms.

“The concept behind competency-based education is simple: learning is best measured by students demonstrating mastery of learning, rather than the number of hours spent in a classroom,” summarizes the Aurora Institute, a leading educator-led reform advocacy nonprofit and CBE proponent. “By redesigning the education system around actual student learning, we will prepare each student more effectively for a future in an increasingly global and competitive economy.”

In this episode of THE Journal Insider podcast, Ryckman joins THEJournal.com editor Kristal Kuykendall for a discussion about the CBE movement, what it looks like in school districts that have been implementing CBE over the past five years, and how Cypher Learning’s NEO LMS empowers educators and students, regardless of whether their school uses the traditional or “modern” instructional model or more of a CBE approach.

THE Journal Insider podcast explores current ed tech trends and issues impacting K–12 educators, IT professionals, instructional technologists, education leaders, and ed tech providers. Listen in as THEJournal.com Editor Kristal Kuykendall chats with ed tech experts, educators, and industry leaders about how they are 'meeting the moment' in the U.S. public education system. Find all podcast episodes as well as K–12 ed tech news updated daily at THEJournal.com.

Resource links:

• Cypher Learning
• Aurora Institute
• Kettle Moraine School District
• Kettle Moraine’s Personalized Learning Guide
• Digital Promise: An Analysis of Kettle Moraine’s CBE experiment
  
  

Music by LemonMusicStudio from Pixabay

Duration: 30 minutes