How to Give Feedback on 500 Million Sentences
With guest Peter Gault
We know how to teach people to improve their writing--but it takes a lot of work. In this episode of Future Fluent, Betsy Corcoran and Jeremy Roschelle talk with Peter Gault, the founder of nonprofit Quill, which gives students feedback on 500 million sentences a year. Quill's been using AI for years and is now sharing its "playbook" on how to build ethically -- and effectively -- with AI.
Peter Gault
Peter Gault is the Founder and Executive Director of Quill.org, a nonprofit organization dedicated to helping millions of low-income students become strong readers, writers, and critical thinkers.
Quill uses artificial intelligence to provide students with immediate feedback on their work, enabling them to revise their writing and quickly improve their skills. Quill has enabled ten million K-12 students in the United States to become stronger readers and writers by providing students with AI-powered feedback and coaching on more than two billion sentences.
Teachers are provided with free access to Quill’s research-based curriculum, and the open-source organization works with academic researchers across the country to design and build its technology and curriculum.
Peter leads product strategy, fundraising, and strategic partnerships. He started designing educational software tools and games in high school and studied philosophy and history at Bates College. Quill has been recognized by Fast Company’s Most Innovative Education Companies, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation’s Literacy Courseware Challenge, and Google.org’s AI for Social Impact Challenge.
These are hefty but important resources around and AI and writing.
Let’s start with the newest one: In our interview, Peter Gault describes a playbook that Quill.org has just created describing its approach to the ethical development of AI. You can check it out here.
We also discussed the National Reading Panel's 449-page report on what works and doesn't work in literacy. It’s a 25-year old classic and you can get it here. There are a ton of great ideas in this report about how to apply AI to advance student learning.
Journalist Peg Tyre, a long-time collaborator of Quill, wrote a powerful piece about how to teach writing, “The Writing Revolution,” for The Atlantic in 2012. Check it out here.
