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Meet EC English Curriculum Manager David Byrne—and learn what’s behind the development of our innovative new course, Writing with AI.
I was speaking at a conference earlier this year and I was given the graveyard shift, the last session on the last day. It’s always a tough shift as people are understandably conferenced out. Everyone’s far too tired to take notes, nobody wants to do a mingle activity or break any ice. They’ve got one eye on a nice refreshing post-conference beverage, and the other on their train home.
This particular talk was going to be even trickier than usual, however. Because this talk was about Artificial Intelligence and there had already been about twenty talks on AI before me. Those twenty talks had mostly focused on two areas:
- How AI can personalise assessment and practice for our learners.
- Interesting tips for teachers on using AI to create activities for students.
I began my talk with a general disclaimer: I will not be talking about either of these two areas. Not because they’re not worthwhile but because they exist already—in countless blogs, videos and more.
Using AI tools: Changing our approach from ‘why’ to ‘how’
Instead, I realised that we need to be speaking more about how our students will use AI tools—and what skills they need to learn in order to use these tools effectively. In essence, I wanted to know if AI tools could be used to improve student writing.
Over the past few months I’ve had more and more discussions with teachers, academic managers, and learning technologists on this topic. They are concerned that students are ‘cheating,’ by submitting texts that are clearly AI-generated as homework assignments or assessments. But what if this isn’t the actual crux of the issue? What if the issue is that assessment hasn’t caught up with the tools our students have at their disposal? What if how we teach and assess writing needs to change?
Writing with AI: A new kind of course for a new digital age
These questions led me to develop EC’s Writing with AI course, in which students learn to begin with an AI-generated text, as a tool for learning. They learn how to take this text and develop it into something that is undeniably their own work with their voice apparent throughout.
At the conference, I learnt that educators are very interested in AI and are ready to move past surface-level discussions—they just need a way forward. In my old maths lessons, my teacher told me I needed to be able to do sums in my head because I’d never have a calculator in my pocket. Well, he was wrong, I do. And I also have a tool that can create texts in seconds…maybe it’s time for our guidance to students to change.
Learn more about EC’s Writing with AI course