Capacity to manage change with Learning Technologies and the rebirth of Draftback

In a recent meeting, I had a chance to reflect as there was a missed opportunity to help my classroom colleagues at the beginning of the pandemic dealing with authentic assessment.  This came about in a meeting discussing Artificial Intelligence (AI) and the originality of student composition. It was a very healthy conversation about ChatGPT, which can compose an essay based on a question.

As one of the challenges during the pandemic was invigilating remote assessment. Teachers deployed assessment strategies that promoted integrity in the assessment process to help ensure their students' work was genuine. The shift from in-person to remote learning was disruptive, and now with the emergence of more AI writing tools, teachers are feeling a disruption again, similar to what they experienced during the pandemic.

 A colleague asked for my thoughts about AI: 

One of the weaknesses with the current AI writing tools is they mostly focus on the product, not the process.  Colleagues were reminded that the design of assessment is critical. 

Accounting for the process illustrates an emphasis on the value of the students' thinking and how the ideas are expressed over time. So far from what I have seen, an essay produced by AI produces a very polished product, but it does not automate an outline, a draft, and the various revisions it takes to get to a final product.  

In addition to the design of assessment, a colleague brought up an awesome app that helps teachers visualize the writing process called Draftback. Draftback is an add-on app that plugs into Google Docs, where it takes snap shots of all of the changes in a document and plays it back in a video format.  Watching the writing process unfold this way shows how writing is organic and evolves over time.  One can easily get a sense on what was composed and what was copied and pasted in a document.  Does a paragraph appear out of nowhere?  It can! And you can easily tell it was pasted from an external source validating if the work is genuine or not.

My colleagues were awesome in the discussion. I admire how well they collaborate with one another and were able to problem solve. What was nagging me was I knew about Draftback and failed to remember it during the discussion. Although, I missed the opportunity to mention it myself, I am grateful a colleague did.  My second thought was: did I share this plug-in app before?  I wasn't sure at this point. If not, why?  I share things often as it is my responsibility to provide a technology lens. After the meeting, I went back to my office and looked at past presentations and resources... and there it was... a presentation and a list of apps with Draftback shared at the beginning of the Pandemic. 

Seeing that it was shared previously was a relief! Although, what was important to me as well was trying to understand how it was missed. Why did they seem to just learn about Draftback now? Two thoughts come to mind:

1. When it was introduced it wasn't important to them at that moment. It was at the beginning of the Pandemic, there were other priorities. A reminder to share again when they need it!
2. People can only absorb so much. At the beginning of the pandemic, there was so much uncertainty that one could only digest so much change. Create a strategy on when it should be introduced and be ready to revisit things more than once. 

Reflecting on this was a great learning experience.  And who knows? Maybe a teacher did remember and it filtered through to a colleague in the meeting because when asked, she indicated she learned it from another teacher.