Welcome to The AI Chronicles!
The AI Chronicles is your go-to guide for harnessing artificial intelligence to enhance instruction, streamline workflows, and empower educators.
This newsletter is designed to keep you informed and inspired on how AI is revolutionizing education.
What You Can Expect:
Actionable Tips – Learn how to use AI to save time, personalize learning, and make data-driven decisions.
Tool Spotlights – Discover the latest and greatest AI-powered platforms for the classroom and beyond.
Trends in AI – Stay ahead of the curve with insights into how AI is reshaping education.
Why This Newsletter Matters:
The rapid adoption of AI tools like ChatGPT, personalized learning platforms, and data analytics systems offers educators unprecedented opportunities to innovate—but also raises questions about best practices, ethics, and implementation. We’re here to guide you every step of the way, helping you balance the promise of AI with the priorities of education.
Featured in This Issue:
AI Plagiarism: How do I detect AI-generated plagiarism? What can I do to stop it?
Revision History: The Ultimate AI Detection Tool
AI Possibility: How can I leverage AI tools to streamline workflows, improve lesson planning and develop capacity as an educator?
Looking for an Advanced Prompt Formula?
Plagiarism: How Can I Tell If A Student Has Used AI in Their Work?
With the rise of AI tools capable of generating essays, solving problems, and even creating code, educators face new challenges in ensuring academic integrity. Detecting whether students have used AI tools to complete assignments requires a combination of technological awareness, teaching strategies, and careful evaluation.
Here are some practical steps for educators to identify AI-generated work:
Establish a Baseline for Student Work
One of the most effective ways to detect AI use is to understand each student's unique writing style and academic capabilities. These benchmarks make it easier to spot discrepancies in tone, structure, or complexity.
Create AI-Resistant Activities
Design activities that are more challenging for AI tools to complete effectively. For example, prompt students to draw on personal experiences, reflect on specific class discussions incorporate unique insights that cannot be easily found online. AI tools are less adept at responding to hyper-localized or personalized tasks.
Recognize Common Traits of AI-Generated Content
AI-generated text often displays certain characteristics that can raise red flags. Here are the big ones:
Generic phrasing
Overuse of certain phrases: “tapestry”, “delve”, “dive”, “In today’s [adjective] world”
Inaccurate/outdated information or sources
Absence of emotion/personality
Difficulty with specifics, nuance, and analysis
Educate Students About AI Ethics
Fostering an open dialogue about AI tools and their ethical implications is critical. Creating a culture of transparency and trust can reduce the temptation to misuse these tools.
Utilize Detection Tools
Platforms like GPTZero analyze submissions for patterns typical of AI writing. While these tools are not foolproof (and can give false positives), they provide a helpful first step in evaluating suspicious work.
Revision History: The Ultimate AI Detection Tool
Revision history tools, like the Revision History Chrome extension, enable educators to review the detailed progression of a document's creation. By accessing a step-by-step log of edits and changes, this tool provides valuable insights into how a document was composed, making it a powerful resource for monitoring and assessing potential AI use.
Revision History allows educators to see how a document develops over time, tracking every addition, deletion, and modification. Sudden insertion of large, polished sections of text with little subsequent editing may indicate that the content was generated using an AI tool rather than written organically.
Revision History provides information on Deletions, Large Copy/Pastes, Writing Sessions, and Active Writing Time for each Google Doc in which it is deployed. It can also generate a replay video of all keystrokes typed on a document, which enables educators to review the drafting process.
Incorporating revision history reviews into assessment protocols encourages students to work transparently. This approach promotes accountability and deters the misuse of AI tools.
Possibility: How Can I Leverage AI Tools In My Professional Practice?
Generative AI refers to a type of artificial intelligence that is capable of creating new content—such text, images, music, or even code—based on patterns and data it has learned from existing inputs.
Unlike traditional AI, which typically classifies or analyzes data, generative AI produces original output that mimic the data it was trained on.
Tools like ChatGPT can be used to enhance various aspects of your professional practice by automating tasks, generating creative ideas, and providing support for decision-making.
Here are some ways to leverage AI tools effectively in your work:
Content Creation
Whether you need to brainstorm ideas, generate outlines, or draft articles, AI can help accelerate the creative process. Tools like ChatGPT can also assist in summarizing complex documents, creating study guides, or answering specific questions, making them valuable for researcher educators, and writers.
Assist in Learning and Skill Development
Generative AI can act as a tutor or brainstorming partner, explaining complex topics, offering examples, or helping you practice skills like coding or language learning. By tailoring responses to your specific queries, these tools create a personalized learning experiences.
Facilitate Idea Generation and Problem-Solving
When tackling challenging projects, AI tools can provide fresh perspectives or alternative approaches. For instance, they can suggest creative solutions to problems, draft innovative marketing campaigns, or model strategies based on best practices in your field.
Any ChatGPT result is only as good as its search.
Try this prompt formula when crafting your searches:
Use this six-part formula to help craft advanced ChatGPT searches:
Persona
Task
Context
Exemplar
Format
Tone
Example:
You are an experienced leader with a background in fostering inclusive learning environments. Design a professional development workshop focused on implementing Universal Design for Learning (UDL) in the classroom. The workshop will be attended by K-12 educators who aim to create more accessible and equitable learning opportunities for all students, including those with diverse learning needs. Include sections on UDL principles, practical strategies for lesson planning, and technology tools that support UDL implementation. Provide a structured agenda, breaking the session into activities, discussions, and hands-on practice, along with key takeaways for each segment. Write in a collaborative and empowering tone to inspire educators to embrace inclusive teaching practices confidently.
Example:
You are an English instructor with expertise in engaging students through dynamic prompts. Generate five unique writing prompts for middle school English class to spark creativity and critical thinking. The class is learning about storytelling elements like character development and plot structure, and the goal is to inspire imaginative writing. Include prompts that challenge students to create original stories, such as “Imagine a world where everyone has a superpower, but you’ve just discovered yours is missing.” List five distinct prompts with a brief explanation of how each ties into storytelling skills. Write in an encouraging tone that excites students about writing.
George Goga is professor at SUNY Geneseo who chairs the English Department at Geneva High School. His research centers around the anthropology of the witch in early-modern Europe, and academically-induced adolescent aliteracy. Read more at georgegoga.com.