Kelly Webb-Davies
@kelwebbdavies.bsky.social
Cymraestralian. Immigrant 🇦🇺🏴. Linguist and educator doing AI in edu at Oxford (she/her/hi/ei)
Awful what is happening at Deakin. Please sign: www.megaphone.org.au/petitions/do...
Do better, Deakin
Open letter from Deakin University staff On the restructure, the resignation, and the obligation to do better On 4 June, affected Deakin staff across two divisions of the University – Academic Portfo...
megaphone.org.au
I spoke VFWA at CRADLE recently. I went into the Why of the model - the fundamental views I’ve had about GenAI that are largely based on my linguistics background and influenced my views of writing, authorship, and accessibility. The recording can be accessed here: www.youtube.com/watch?v=6E9T...
CRADLE Seminar Series 2026 #5: Voice-First Written Assessment
YouTube video by CRADLEdeakin
youtube.com
I wrote about how VFWA addresses many of the issues @wonkhe.bsky.social has indentified from surveying students: open.substack.com/pub/kellyweb...
Wonkhe’s The Secret Life of Students and the case for Voice-First Written Assessment
VFWA as practical response to what students are telling us about AI and assessment
open.substack.com
Wonkhe@wonkhe.bsky.social · 7mo agoNEW on Wonkhe: New research from Wonkhe finds that assessment design – not AI policy – is what determines whether students use AI to learn or to produce. Jim Dickinson and Mack Marshall explain buff.ly/gk0G71P
✨ Voice-First Written Assessment (VFWA) now has a website ✨ If you're curious about the idea of Voice-First Written Assessment, you can now explore the model and the rationale behind it in more detail. kellywebbdavies.com/vfwa/
VFWA: Voice-First Written Assessment — Kelly Webb-Davies
VFWA: Voice-First Written Assessment — A two-stage model that separates thinking from writing to create fair, verifiable assessments in the age of generative AI.
kellywebbdavies.com
I finally debuted the passion project I’ve been working on: Voice-First Written Assessment. It’s a structural redesign of written assessment to increase security, accessibility, authenticity and as a result - validity. open.substack.com/pub/kellyweb...
VFWA: Voice-First Written Assessment
This post was created in true VFWA style. I practice what I preach.
open.substack.com
They tell students papers sound like AI — even when they're the students' own writing — so the company can scare them and sell them a product. This goes beyond the general problem that even good AI detectors aren't perfect and shouldn't be the sole reason to accuse someone of writing with AI.
Yesterday, I interviewed a tech guy who told me something too important for me to wait until the podcast comes out for you to hear it: Many free AI detectors have especially high false positive rates because they make money selling software that "humanizes" writing. 1/2
Really grateful to be part of this panel and to what I fully expect to be a fascinating discussion. Especially looking forward to hearing from the other panellists and how their views will challenge many of the assumptions we often take for granted in both AI and education.
Rhodes Trust@rhodeshouse.ox.ac.uk · 9mo agoJoin us as we discuss the topical issue of AI + its impact on education at all levels. Our panel will consider themes such as inbuilt bias by design, linguistic accessibility + the debatable inevitability of AI @cswash.bsky.social @kelwebbdavies.bsky.social Weds 4 Feb, 18:00 | Rhodes House, Oxford
Less than a week to go and I've heard we're up to 400 registrations now, so very much the more the merrier! Registration details: 📅 Thursday, 4 December 2025 🕗 8–10am Oxford (UTC/GMT +1) 🕓 4–6pm Perth (UTC/GMT +8) 💻 Venue: Online via Zoom 👉 Register here: www.eventbrite.com/e/oxforduwa-...
Oxford–UWA GenAI in Academia Series Launch Seminar
Join us for the launch of an exciting international collaboration between UWA's GenAI Think Tank and Oxford's AI Competency Centre.
eventbrite.com
Vaccines do not cause autism. Keep saying things that have been demonstrated by robust science and are the subject or organised disinformation. Don’t just ignore the attempts to brainwash. #academicsky
I thought of this analogy when preparing the talk I'm giving at the Cambridge GenAI in Education conference next week. So if you're there, you'll hear me give a version of it when I describe all the ways in which generative AI enables me as a writer with ADHD. open.substack.com/pub/kellyweb...
Losing My Marbles
The fragility of thought and the weight of words.
open.substack.com
New blog alert. With “what are we even doing” vibes intended. open.substack.com/pub/kellyweb...
Proof or it didn’t happen: Assess it like it’s research
The views expressed here are my own and do not represent those of the University of Oxford.
open.substack.com
Kane on best form here: “If you don't like this argument, there are plenty more there waiting to (metaphorically) punch you in the face.”
Kane Murdoch@ccguerilla.bsky.social · 12mo agoNew post: "Broad, sweeping statements." www.guerillawarfare.net/post/broad-s...
Excellent and comprehensive! I’m going to insist all educators read this.
Associate Professor Mark A. Bassett@drmarkbassett.bsky.social · 12mo agoOur new paper ‘Heads we win, tails you lose: AI detectors in education’ is soaring to 1,000 views in the first 48 hours. #ai #AIinEducation #EdTech #ArtificialIntelligence #HigherEd #TeachingAndLearning #AcademicIntegrity #AIethics #Assessment #aidetectors #aidetection doi.org/10.35542/osf...
Register to attend this joint Oxford-UWA seminar where both I and @celesterl.bsky.social will be speaking about GenAI in Academia. I'm so excited to be collaborating with my alma mater! Register here: www.eventbrite.com/e/oxforduwa-...
Just know that whenever you say AI or GenAI, the phonetician in me is always clocking whether you pronounce it [ejaɪ] or [eɪʔaɪ]. I don't care which you use. But I always notice.
For a while now I’ve discussed my complicated feelings about AI transparency and disclosure when asked in my workshops, but never fleshed it out in writing. So here is that – a counterargument to the idea that AI disclosure is always necessary. kellywebbdavies.substack.com/p/ai-disclos...
AI disclosure? Maybe it's nunya.
An argument against AI disclosure
kellywebbdavies.substack.com
I am too exhausted to care about other standards of perfection, like grades. Insecure in my personal life, I give up trying at school because I can’t bear being judged anymore. @GBGEdu @growbeyondgrades.org growbeyondgrades.org/blog/degradi...
The Degrading Scale — Grow Beyond Grades
In her essay, Sharlyn Barrett recalls how the pursuit of perfection—whether on a scale or on a report card—stripped joy from both learning and life, and how messages about perfection left her exhauste...
growbeyondgrades.org
An unpleasant scene in central Oxford. On the left, anti-immigrant shouts of 'send them back' and (I'm pretty sure) 'shoot the f**kers'. On the right, singing of 'stop the hate/ stop the fear' through a tannoy. Crowd on the right about double the size of that on the left.
Just looked at the cast for the upcoming Harry Potter audiobook - upsetting to see Hugh Laurie, Riz Ahmed, Matthew Macfadyen, and Michelle Gomez selling out the same damn week Rowling leads a bullying harassment campaign of a single M&S employee just doing her job because she MIGHT be trans.
Llongyfarchiadau i Peredur Glyn, enillydd Gwobr Goffa Daniel Owen yn Eisteddfod Genedlaethol Wrecsam 2025 🏴 The winner of the Daniel Owen Memorial Prize at the 2025 Eisteddfod is Peredur Glyn. Congratulations! 👏 #Steddfod2025
IMO, the existence of LLMs calls for more, not less engagement, and this engagement ideally comes in the form of increased community and collaboration among humans. One group professors can always collaborate with is students. I started doing this out of desperation so I could stay engaged...
You are a "citizen of nowhere", they said. A "queue-jumper", they said. Now I am a "squalid chapter", they say. A risk as I might make this an "island of strangers", they say. I am "pulling the country apart", they say.
a society where "bad immigrants" are demonised is a society where no immigrant can truly feel welcome, because aren't we all just one wrong turn or accident away from being unemployed? on disability benefits? unable to care for our children without state help? just no such thing as a safe immigrant
"oh but they don't mean you" - sure, yeah, because I have a job and I'm physically fit, yeah? what if I were to become one of those immigrants who has to be on the dole? what if I end up disabled for whatever reason? what if I end up having a ton of kids with another immigrant? what if? what if?
