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Artificial Intelligence Policy in Secondary Schools
As artificial intelligence technologies like ChatGPT and Microsoft’s new Bing search engine enter our classrooms, it is important for schools to develop clear and robust policies and guidelines. Having clarity over the acceptable and responsible use of AI is as important for students as it is for teachers, and can provide parents and the wider…
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Teaching Writing in the Age of AI: Assessment and “Cheating”
This is the fourth post in a series on Teaching Writing in the Age of AI. The first post provided an overview of some of the changes we’re facing as the number of AI writing tools increases. Post two covered conversations about academic integrity, and the third post offered some practical advice on teaching students…
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Teaching Writing in the Age of AI: Asking Questions
This is the third post in a series exploring how teaching writing will change in the face of Artificial Intelligence large language models. The first two posts explored the kinds of writing that can and can’t be done with AI, and academic integrity. In my book Practical Reading Strategies, I covered six reading strategies that…
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A Brief History of Artificial Intelligence
Like any complex technology, Artificial Intelligence has its roots in a number of fields. From philosophy to computer science, mathematics to linguistics, tracing the history of AI and automation is a difficult business. The field was officially named in the 1950s, but ideas about automated machines have existed since long before then. This is a…
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Reading and Exploring Texts: Key Knowledge and Skills Deep Dive
This is a collection of the posts I wrote earlier in the year which explored all of the Key Knowledge and Skills for the new VCE English Unit 1 Area of Study 1: Reading and Exploring Texts. Bookmark this page and refer back to it as you work you way through this new area of…
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Using ChatGPT for Conferencing and Feedback
I’ve used conferencing for years as my main form of feedback and assessment. I stopped collecting piles of books, stopped writing margin notes that no-one ever read, and stopped correcting work like a human spell-checker. Aside from the hours of time saved by not “correcting” work, I also built stronger relationships with students as a…
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Teaching Writing in the Age of AI: Talking About Academic Integrity
This is the second post in a series about Teaching Writing in the Age of AI. In the first post, I wrote broadly about academic integrity and how to create assignments which can work with and in opposition to AI like ChatGPT. In this video post, I discuss how to talk about academic integrity with…
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Teaching Writing in the Age of AI
With Victoria the latest state to ban ChatGPT, teachers everywhere are grappling with the implications of the large language model and the impact it will have on the classroom. We know that banning and blocking technology is – at best – a temporary solution. Students will find ways around the blocks, and teachers will be…
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Practical Writing Strategies: Sneak Peak
This is an extract from the introduction to Practical Writing Strategies. PWS is written by myself and Benjamin White, and will be published by Amba Press later this year. Introduction What is writing? When Leon wrote Practical Reading Strategies, he started with a seemingly simple question: what is reading? The question came from a Community…
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Advanced Techniques for ChatGPT in education
In a previous post on Practical Strategies for ChatGPT, I explored some of the basics of prompting the AI language model. I also organised education tasks into six areas: In this post I’ll go deeper into prompt techniques, and I’m organising around five key skills that could be used to lift your prompts in any…