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Writing as ‘passing’ and the role of generative AI

21 March 2024, 4:00 pm–5:00 pm

Digital learning icons overlaid on a street junction. Credit: Tierney via Adobe Stock.

Join this event to hear Helen Beetham explore the implications of generative AI for how we value student writing and the need to re-negotiate the purposes of writing.

This event is free.

Event Information

Open to

All

Availability

Yes

Cost

Free

Organiser

Academic Writing Seminar Series

Watch the recording

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‘Generative AI’ or synthetic text models have shone a challenging light on assessment, particularly the assessment of student writing. This new technology arrives into an economy that already rewards ‘passing’ a set of instrumental norms, and in which students are anxious to ‘pass’ as credible in their production of text.

How do we value student writing at all, if generative AI can produce scholarly and professional text?

This seminar will ask, in particular, what it means now to ‘pass’ as a student writer, and how to re-negotiate the purposes of writing with students, without succumbing either to fantasy, or to fatalism, about the capabilities of generative AI.


This online event will be particularly useful for those interested in generative AI in higher education, critical literacies, writing development, academic writing support, EAP and the politics of pedagogy.


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About the Speakers

Helen Beetham

Helen is a researcher, writer and consultant in digital education.

She is currently writing a book on critical digital literacies and a substack that is mainly critical of AI in education.

Ayanna Prevatt-Goldstein (Chair)

Ayanna is Head of UCL Academic Communication Centre, co-host of the Academic Writing Seminar Series and has contributed to the development of guidance and resources around use of generative AI in higher education.