Fantastically helpful exploration and unpacking. I'm struck by the same thing I've seen in my own explorations and seeing other people experiment with the AI writing tutor/feedback apps that for them to be truly useful to the actual process you need to already have that metacognitive awareness of your own process and the ultimate goal of the piece you're writing. I'm trying to imagine how a student would make use of this in a way that would allow them to develop those things and I'm not really seeing it. Your last paragraph on how the technology needs to sand away the notion of writing as "a richly layered process of crafting symbols in recognizable-but-unique ways to build relationships with audiences..." has been the core of my worries about how ChatGPT is being viewed as a "tool" for teaching writing.
It was the same problem when I was a grad student trying to teach discrete rhetorical modes (informative, narrative, expository) and it was like my students were literally resetting to zero each time because aside from process elements like brainstorming, drafting, revision, editing, etc...I wasn't giving them anything to latch onto that allowed them to build their overall writing practices. It was just a series of discrete assignments that they dutifully completed, learning little. We know so much more about the kinds of experiences and feedback that help students learn to write now, that it would be a shame to go backwards to accommodate what the AI is capable of.
I was thinking of precisely my own failed attempts at teaching the modes early in my career as I was writing this. Even though I was a passably good writer back then, I didn't have an explicit, integrated theory of writing, let alone writing pedagogy, with which I could guide my students. These tools do have theories of writing, I think, but they aren't well integrated. The technological tail is wagging the writing dog, methinks.
Exactly right. It honestly took me almost a decade to start digging in to building that framework that brought coherence to my own approach. I eventually settled on what I call "the writer's practice" (skills, knowledge, attitudes, and habits of mind of writers), but even once I settled on that, the application of the framework to the actual teaching continues to evolve. I don't think the experimenting ever ends, or ever could end.
This is such an interesting and helpful review--I'm grateful to read It! I'm comparing the experience with my own experiences with MyEssayFeedback.ai, and I'm curious if you would like to see software with more flexibilty about the feedback prompt so that writing instructors could design our own.
I'd love to know your thoughts. It seems solid to me, including the LMS integration, and there is a growing library of public feedback prompts you can adapt. Eric Kean does a good job with user interface for students and teachers.
It's really strange to me that PackBack, Feedback Fruits and PowerNotes don't allow for teachers to customize feedback prompts yet. Here are some thoughts on MyEssayFeedback from a recent presentation: https://bit.ly/MEFTCC
Fantastically helpful exploration and unpacking. I'm struck by the same thing I've seen in my own explorations and seeing other people experiment with the AI writing tutor/feedback apps that for them to be truly useful to the actual process you need to already have that metacognitive awareness of your own process and the ultimate goal of the piece you're writing. I'm trying to imagine how a student would make use of this in a way that would allow them to develop those things and I'm not really seeing it. Your last paragraph on how the technology needs to sand away the notion of writing as "a richly layered process of crafting symbols in recognizable-but-unique ways to build relationships with audiences..." has been the core of my worries about how ChatGPT is being viewed as a "tool" for teaching writing.
It was the same problem when I was a grad student trying to teach discrete rhetorical modes (informative, narrative, expository) and it was like my students were literally resetting to zero each time because aside from process elements like brainstorming, drafting, revision, editing, etc...I wasn't giving them anything to latch onto that allowed them to build their overall writing practices. It was just a series of discrete assignments that they dutifully completed, learning little. We know so much more about the kinds of experiences and feedback that help students learn to write now, that it would be a shame to go backwards to accommodate what the AI is capable of.
I was thinking of precisely my own failed attempts at teaching the modes early in my career as I was writing this. Even though I was a passably good writer back then, I didn't have an explicit, integrated theory of writing, let alone writing pedagogy, with which I could guide my students. These tools do have theories of writing, I think, but they aren't well integrated. The technological tail is wagging the writing dog, methinks.
Exactly right. It honestly took me almost a decade to start digging in to building that framework that brought coherence to my own approach. I eventually settled on what I call "the writer's practice" (skills, knowledge, attitudes, and habits of mind of writers), but even once I settled on that, the application of the framework to the actual teaching continues to evolve. I don't think the experimenting ever ends, or ever could end.
This is such an interesting and helpful review--I'm grateful to read It! I'm comparing the experience with my own experiences with MyEssayFeedback.ai, and I'm curious if you would like to see software with more flexibilty about the feedback prompt so that writing instructors could design our own.
Anna: yes! I know we talked about it early on, but I've been thinking I should take a look at it now that it's further along.
I'd love to know your thoughts. It seems solid to me, including the LMS integration, and there is a growing library of public feedback prompts you can adapt. Eric Kean does a good job with user interface for students and teachers.
It's really strange to me that PackBack, Feedback Fruits and PowerNotes don't allow for teachers to customize feedback prompts yet. Here are some thoughts on MyEssayFeedback from a recent presentation: https://bit.ly/MEFTCC