(link to study)
An interesting study by the University of Akron dissects the effectiveness of virtual essay graders and whether they are better or worse than human graders. This study is very integral to English education because it impacts English teachers' jobs. My father used to jokingly say, someday robots will fulfill all needs and humans will be out of work. This may be part of the issue. If a robot can grade students' essays with the same or better results than a human educator, then the skill sets of that educator will be taken for granted. However, that isn't the only cog in the machine. Robo-Readers are praised because they are said to be more objective. The problem with this is that there haven't been nearly enough comprehensive studies over a long period of time that assess the practicality of this. In fact, the supporters and supposed scientists of these RRs may even doctor results. On page nine of the document, it states that several online graders defied state mandated terms when analyzing essays. Although it may save me time to use RRs like this, some level of subjectivity can be appropriate when reading through students' work. There's a strength of content and aspects of their personality that their essays appropriate and these must be appreciated. Like Microsoft Word, it's probably that these robots check for certain key terms and basic grammar continuity. Students may quickly figure this out and, as explained in my last entry, learn to beat and cheat their tests. Further studies must be done on these RRs before they become more heavily used, if they ever do.
This is a very interesting article, it is amazing what we can invent with technology today. Although the RR is a great stride for the technology world, as a future educator I am sad to see that this is what education is coming to. Like factory workers working on the assembly line, teachers could soon be phased out for cheaper, more efficient robots. I would like to think that people have more sense than to let robots teach our children, but then again who knows. Despite the accuracy of the reading robots, nothing compares to genuine human feedback.
ReplyDeleteI agree, Kaitlin, it's sad to think it can even be considered that a robot can teach better than humans or offer better feedback. I don't think there are many supporters of this yet, however, nor that we will be in danger of these robots for many years, because they've hardly been tested and may contain yet unforeseeable glitches.
DeleteVery interesting article. I think that maybe a teacher could alternate between the robo-readers and him or herself--and not tell the students which one will grade their essay.
ReplyDeleteI agree with the point you make about the human touch when it comes to essay reading; for instance, I always put a lot of emphasis on the style of my writing when I write an essay. Will robo-readers create stale, calculating robo-writers without voice?
Will robo-readers create stale, calculating robo-writers without voice?
DeleteThis is exactly what I fear. In my brother's high school, they have some web-graded essays as assignments and these hardly contain their writer's intrinsic flare. Rather, once you take it too many times, you're told what words it wants you to use and what errors there were. Anyone who wrote a follow up essay, even if the topic differed, would be able to mime it enough to pass.
Yeah, I believe that English is the study of human nature, philosophy, and how we humans decide to represent these things. While technology is useful to teachers of English in other ways, I think that they should be kept out of the English classroom, for the most part. I wrote a response blog post here: http://ellisonwilliams.blogspot.com/2012/05/sarin-had-this-great-blogpost-she.html
DeleteEllison, I'm so glad my post sparked an interest in you and I'm going to go read your follow up now. Thank you.
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