CALABASAS, Calif. — Technology continues to grow at a rapid rate, and artificial intelligence is leading the charge.
AI is popping up in several major industries, including education. While students have access to software like ChatGPT, some teachers felt like there was room to grow to help educators. An AI-based program called Writable is aiming to provide teachers with a new way to approach education in the classroom.
“We’re using it for the benefits of students,” said Kristy Kimball, a teacher at Arthur E. Wright middle school in Calabasas. “It’s promoting creativity in different ways that we hadn’t had before.”
Kimball embraced new technology in the classroom and began using Writable five years ago. The AI-based software allows teachers to interact with students in real time through messaging, see what a student is working on while they’re completing their work, and even see if some of their assignments were plagiarized.
“For the authorship, there’s a red mark,” Kimball said. “And it says a big chunk of this was copy/pasted that lets me know if the narrative has been copy and pasted.”
On top of helping with her work inside the classroom, Writable provides Kimball with support in grading the work of her students. She has noticed how much more free time she has now that she’s been able to use the technology.
“A good part of my weekend spent grading papers and making plans,” Kimball said. “There wasn’t a weekend when I didn’t have work outside the classroom.”
Andrew Goldman is the executive vice president of HMH Labs, the incubation team for the adaptive learning company HMH that focuses on emerging technologies, like Writable. He says the AI-program not only benefits teachers, but it helps students become better writers by providing consistent, in-depth feedback.
“Revision is really the key to students growing,” Goldman said. “With AI, we have probably about 15 times the amount of feedback that students are getting.”
According to the Pew Research Center, 70% of high school teachers across the country are hesitant to use AI in the classroom. Kimball says educators should not be afraid of adopting the technology into their professional lives.
“Once you take that time, and delve into it, and not look at AI just as a way students are cheating, and see the benefits, you’ll see that it’s going to benefit teachers in the classroom.”