The Sky Is Not Falling: Turnitin Urges Educators to ‘Meet the Moment’ of ChatGPT

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