Educational Technology

4 posts

grammarly2 min readCurated summary

Superhuman Launches First-of-Its-Kind Agent-Specific Attribution With Grammarly Authorship Update

Superhuman is expanding Grammarly Authorship into its AI-native Docs workspace with agent-specific attribution and default-on tracking. The update records whether AI contributed to research, generation, or revision, while students retain control over whether reports are shared. The company argues that transparent authorship can help schools replace blanket AI bans and detection-based enforcement with more informed, responsible AI education. ## Agent-Specific Attribution - Authorship can now identify which Superhuman AI agents contributed to a document and how they were used. - It distinguishes among: - Research support - Content generation - Revision and feedback - This gives educators more context for evaluating the writing process rather than only the final submission. - Featured agents include: - **Reader Reactions:** Predicts audience responses and suggests improvements. - **Citation Finder:** Locates supporting or challenging sources and formats citations. - **Proofreader:** Improves clarity, flow, correctness, and stylistic consistency. - **Fact Checker:** Finds evidence that supports or disputes claims. ## Default-On Authorship in Docs - Authorship is now available by default in Superhuman Docs. - Students no longer need to manually activate tracking. - The system records human writing, AI-generated content, and AI-edited text as work progresses. - Students still control access: instructors cannot see a report unless the student chooses to share it. ## Supporting Academic Integrity - Authorship is intended to reduce reliance on potentially inaccurate AI-detection tools and false positives. - More than 5 million Authorship reports have been generated since its beta launch in October 2024. - Rowan-Cabarrus Community College reported a 96% reduction in academic integrity violations in one semester after adopting the tool. - The company says process visibility can help educators teach responsible AI use instead of focusing primarily on punishment or prohibition. ## Institutional Controls and Availability - Educational administrators can configure which AI agents are available to students and faculty. - Authorship is available in Docs at no additional cost and is also supported in: - Google Docs - Microsoft Word - Canvas - The feature is part of Superhuman’s broader effort to provide AI transparency wherever students write. Superhuman recommends using Authorship as a foundation for nuanced AI policies and process-based assessment. By showing how AI was used while preserving student choice over sharing, the tool aims to support both academic integrity and practical AI literacy.

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grammarlyOriginal article

Campus-Wide Writing Support Leads to Stronger Student Success at Phoenix College (opens in new tab)

Phoenix College implemented a campus-wide writing support initiative through Grammarly for Education to address academic barriers for its diverse student population, including multilingual learners and working adults. By integrating AI-assisted writing tools directly into existing student workflows and learning management systems, the college aimed to reduce the mechanical grading burden on faculty while improving student literacy. An independent study subsequently confirmed that this "always-on" support led to measurable gains in course completion, retention, and overall GPA across all learning modalities. ### Scaling Support Through Workflow Integration * The college provided campus-wide access to Grammarly for all students and faculty, ensuring the tool functioned in-line within word processors, browsers, and learning management systems. * By meeting students where they already write, the initiative eliminated the friction of learning new platforms or adopting complicated, separate workflows. * The rollout emphasized flexibility, allowing instructors to choose how to integrate the tool into their specific curriculum rather than mandating a uniform pedagogical approach. ### Quantifying Impact on Student Outcomes * An independent study by LXD Research compared 569 Grammarly users with 3,067 non-users in writing-intensive courses during the 2023–2024 academic year. * Data showed a significant lift in course completion across all environments: a 6.4 percent increase for online learners, 5.0 percent for hybrid learners, and 5.2 percent for in-person students. * Beyond completion, the research identified higher year-over-year retention rates and a direct correlation between consistent tool usage and higher student GPAs. ### Shifting Instructional Focus to Higher-Order Skills * Automating mechanical corrections allowed instructors to redirect their feedback toward deeper academic concerns such as content, structure, and discipline-specific thinking. * The tool supported a process-oriented approach to writing, encouraging students to engage in iterative drafting and revision before submitting final work. * Faculty reported significant time savings, enabling them to provide more tailored, meaningful critique to a larger volume of students. ### Strategic Implementation and Adoption * The college utilized a "lead with access" model, ensuring every enrolled student had the same level of support to maintain equity between traditional and non-traditional learners. * Adoption grew organically through peer-to-peer sharing and onboarding resources that demonstrated how to use writing reports for student reflection. * The institution monitored specific "momentum indicators"—such as GPA trends and usage patterns—to identify which student subgroups were benefiting most from the intervention. Phoenix College's experience demonstrates that when writing support is frictionless and embedded within existing digital environments, it creates a scalable model for student success. Institutions looking to replicate these results should prioritize instructor autonomy and focus on tools that complement, rather than disrupt, the established writing process.

googleOriginal article

Google Research at Google I/O 2025 (opens in new tab)

Google Research at I/O 2025 showcases the "research to reality" transition, highlighting how years of foundational breakthroughs are now being integrated into Gemini models and specialized products. By focusing on multimodal capabilities, pedagogy, and extreme model efficiency, Google aims to democratize access to advanced AI while ensuring it remains grounded and useful across global contexts. ## Specialized Healthcare Models: MedGemma and AMIE * **MedGemma:** This new open model, based on Gemma 3, is optimized for multimodal medical tasks such as radiology image analysis and clinical data summarization. It is available in 4B and 27B sizes, performing similarly to much larger models on the MedQA benchmark while remaining small enough for efficient local fine-tuning. * **AMIE (Articulate Medical Intelligence Explorer):** A research AI agent designed for diagnostic medical reasoning. Its latest multimodal version can now interpret and reason about visual medical information, such as skin lesions or medical imaging, to assist clinicians in diagnostic accuracy. ## Educational Optimization through LearnLM * **Gemini 2.5 Pro Integration:** The LearnLM family of models, developed with educational experts, is now integrated into Gemini 2.5 Pro. This fine-tuning enhances STEM reasoning, multimodal understanding, and pedagogical feedback. * **Interactive Learning Tools:** A new research-optimized quiz experience allows students to generate custom assessments from their own notes, providing specific feedback on right and wrong answers rather than just providing solutions. * **Global Assessment Pilots:** Through partnerships like the one with Kayma, Google is testing the automatic assessment of short and long-form content in regions like Ghana to scale quality educational tools. ## Multilingual Expansion and On-Device Gemma Models * **Gemma 3 and 3n:** Research breakthroughs have expanded Gemma 3’s support to over 140 languages. The introduction of **Gemma 3n** targets extreme efficiency, capable of running on devices with as little as 2GB of RAM while maintaining low latency and low energy consumption. * **ECLeKTic Benchmark:** To assist the developer community, Google introduced this novel benchmark specifically for evaluating how well large language models transfer knowledge across different languages. ## Model Efficiency and Factuality in Search * **Inference Techniques:** Google Research continues to set industry standards for model speed and accessibility through technical innovations like **speculative decoding** and **cascades**, which reduce the computational cost of generating high-quality responses. * **Grounded Outputs:** Significant focus remains on factual consistency, ensuring that the AI models powering features like AI Overviews in Search provide reliable and grounded information to users. As Google continues to shrink the gap between laboratory breakthroughs and consumer products, the emphasis remains on making high-performance AI accessible on low-cost hardware and across diverse linguistic landscapes. Developers and researchers can now leverage these specialized tools via platforms like HuggingFace and Vertex AI to build more targeted, efficient applications.

figma2 min readCurated summary

27 FigJam Activities to Spark Creativity in the Classroom | Figma Blog

FigJam’s collaborative canvas can make classroom participation more inclusive, creative, and engaging across subjects. The post presents 27 adaptable activities that use sticky notes, drawings, widgets, and shared templates to support community-building, discussion, problem-solving, creative breaks, and assessment. Its central conclusion is that familiar teaching activities become more interactive when students can contribute visually and collaboratively. ## Building Classroom Community - Icebreakers help students share interests, personalities, hobbies, dreams, and favorite subjects. - “Let me introduce myself” activities use sticky notes, stickers, and sketches. - Scavenger hunts prompt students to find classmates with shared experiences or interests. - A virtual “shoe rack” lets students express their individuality creatively. - FigJam tools such as drawing, voice recordings, and photobooths give students multiple ways to participate and connect. ## Making Language and History Come Alive - Shared canvases turn reading and historical analysis into group activities rather than isolated assignments. - Students can visualize character relationships, track plot developments, and discuss themes together. - Templates such as book chats support collaborative literary discussion. - History activities can encourage students to debate perspectives and investigate events collectively. ## Visualizing STEM Concepts - FigJam activities help students represent abstract scientific, mathematical, and technical ideas visually. - Collaborative diagrams, notes, and sketches can support group problem-solving. - The flexible canvas allows teachers to adapt activities for different subjects and grade levels. ## Taking Creative Brain Breaks - Short, playful FigJam exercises can reenergize students between lessons. - Drawing, visual prompts, and collaborative challenges provide a creative change of pace. - These breaks maintain engagement while still encouraging communication and imagination. ## Checking Understanding Together - Teachers can use shared templates to see how students are processing a lesson. - Students can contribute answers, questions, reflections, and visual explanations in one collaborative space. - Group responses make misconceptions easier to identify and create opportunities for peer discussion. Overall, the post recommends using FigJam as a flexible classroom workspace rather than limiting it to presentations. Its free education access and adaptable templates make it suitable for teachers who want more inclusive, participatory learning activities.

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